Minnesota legislature achieves historic wins for climate and environment in 2023

Photo: Leading members of MCEA's legislative team at the MN State Capitol this session. From left to right: Chief Strategy Officer, Aaron Klemz; Legislative Director, Andrea Lovoll; Policy Advocate, Dr. Jen Fuller 

We did it! The 2023 Minnesota legislative session is over and it was one for the history books. Over the past 6 months, the Legislature accomplished more for our environment than it has in a generation. As our Legislative Director Andrea Lovoll puts it, “This was a once in a lifetime session.” 

With the climate crisis accelerating, growing threats to air and water, and the impacts of pollution continuing to fall hardest on communities of color and low-income earners, there was a lot of urgent work to do. There is plenty more ahead, too, but Minnesota passed groundbreaking legislation on key issues this session that will serve as examples across the nation of how to meet the environmental challenges of this moment. 

MCEA’s unmatched expertise and experience across environmental issues, legislative prowess, and deep legal bench played a pivotal role.

In no particular order, here are the top environmental wins we helped achieve together. Keep reading below to learn more about each win.

1. Landmark legislation banning toxic PFAS “forever chemicals” 
2. Environmental justice protections for overburdened communities 
3. Updated statewide climate pollution reduction targets aligned with leading science  
4. Unprecedented funding boost for climate and environment 
5. Protections for the largest produce farming operation in the metro-area 
6. Wins targeting fish kills and drainage projects 
7. Protections for dedicated funds for environmental and natural resources projects
8. 100 percent clean energy legislation 

Photo: MCEA's Legislative Director Andrea Lovoll speaks at a press conference announcing adoption of final language for the ban on PFAS, to be titled “Amara’s Law” in dedication of Amara Strande 

Landmark and nation-leading PFAS “forever chemical” ban  

Alongside Clean Water Action Minnesota, MCEA co-led the organizational effort to ban toxic PFAS in a wide-range of household products, as well as fire-fighting foam. The landmark legislation — called “Amara’s Law” — provides the most robust protections against these dangerous “forever chemicals” in the country, making the state responsible for their creation now a leader in preventing their spread. The law is named after Amara Strande, the courageous young Maplewood woman who testified about the dangers of PFAS while fighting a rare cancer she developed after exposure to PFAS. Amara died April 14th, 2023.

Photo: Frontline Community Protection Coalition community event on Cumulative Impacts legislation

Environmental justice protections for overburdened communities 

The Frontline Communities Protection Coalition championed the strongest legislation in the nation aimed at better protecting communities overburdened by air and water pollution. These are the neighborhoods, which are predominantly low-income and communities of color, that are home to our urban polluting factories, bisected by highways or other major thoroughfares, and often stripped of green space. MCEA helped write the groundbreaking new “cumulative impacts” law, which requires permit decisions for new or expanded sources of pollution in overburdened communities to consider existing pollution. Other initiatives MCEA pushed for in recent years were also included in the bill, such as dedicating 40% of large pollution settlements to affected communities, creating a network of air pollution monitors, and requiring public meetings for “non-expiring” air pollution permits. MCEA also provided legal assistance to the coalition and kept key legislators, community members, and the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency at the negotiating table until the job got done. 

Aligning Minnesota’s climate pollution targets

with the best available science

In 2007, the Next Generation Energy Act set bipartisan greenhouse gas reduction targets based on the best available science at that time. Sixteen years later, scientists tell us we need to move a lot faster than previously thought to reach net-zero emissions. Thanks to MCEA’s efforts over the last two years, the Legislature passed the Next Generation Climate Act this session, a law that finally updates Minnesota’s climate goals with the rest of the world and sets a 2050 date for Minnesota to achieve net-zero emissions.

Unprecedented funding boost for climate and environment 

2023 will go down in history as the year Minnesota made its single largest one-time investment in climate initiatives and environmental protections: $640 million! That funding will support initiatives like the Minnesota Climate Innovation Finance Authority, implementation of the PFAS “forever chemical” ban, the cumulative impact provisions, a zero-waste study, and many more valuable initiatives. Other legislation also includes $240 million to replace toxic lead water pipes as well as funding for the Northern Lights Express high-speed rail line between the Twin Cities and Duluth. Lastly, nearly $500 million in Legacy sales tax funded habitat restoration and clean water protection projects was approved, as well as over $70 million in lottery-funded environmental protection projects.

Photo: Farm equipment sits in front of a mural painted on an out-building at the HAFA Farm in Dakota County

Protecting the largest produce farming operation in the metro area

MCEA worked quietly alongside the Hmong American Farming Association (HAFA) to cement the future of the nation’s largest Hmong-owned and operated nonprofit farming collective by prohibiting the government from taking farmland purchased with state bonding money. A Dakota County proposal to build a new bridge and interchange could have cut the land base of the HAFA Farm by one-third. After our push for legislative action, the county dropped the plan and the Legislature passed a law prohibiting any government condemnation of the HAFA Farm. HAFA also secured $2 million in legislative funding to build a box culvert under Highway 52 as well as the ability to use $400,000 of appropriations leftover from a previous bonding bill to purchase more farmland. The culvert will make it easier and safer for farmers to access both sides of the Farm, which straddles the busy highway. Learn more about the HAFA Farm’s tremendous contributions to our local healthy food economy here.

Photo: MCEA’s Water Program Director Carly Griffith points at a portion of Garvin Brook, the site of a 2019 fish kill. Garvin Brook is located in Minnesota’s karst region, a part of the state particularly impacted by nitrate groundwater pollution

Protecting Minnesota’s water with enhanced transparency

and accountability 

MCEA worked hard on two bills this session that will improve transparency and accountability on decisions impacting Minnesota’s water. The first changes how state agencies prevent and respond to the rise of fish kills in Minnesota, especially in karst country in southeastern Minnesota. The second directs the statewide Drainage Work Group to address the shroud of secrecy that has long kept drainage projects out of the public eye, including a recommendation to create a website that would allow residents to see when new drainage projects are proposed that could impact their land and community. 
 

Protecting dedicated funds for environmental

and natural resources projects

MCEA’s work to protect the Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund, which directs revenue from the Minnesota Lottery to environmental and natural resources projects, resulted in language that protects the funding from “raids.” Raids take place when the Legislature strips money from the dedicated fund to cover other parts of the budget incongruent with constitutional intention. When Minnesotans vote on a ballot measure renewing the Lottery-paid fund next year, MCEA’s raid-protection language will be included. In 2017, MCEA filed a lawsuit to prevent a $167 million raid of the fund to pay for wastewater treatment bonds. The new protections in the constitution, MCEA’s lawsuit, as well as subsequent work on renewal will assure continued environmental investments well into the future. 

Photo: MCEA Climate Program Director Ellen Anderson speaks at a Jan. 26th MN House of Representatives press conference prior to the passage of the 100% clean energy standard

Giant leap forward on climate — 100 percent clean energy

Starting the session off with a bang was the passage of the 100 percent clean energy law, which mandates all Minnesota utilities to supply electricity generated by carbon-free resources by 2040. MCEA staff helped write the bill, negotiated with electric co-ops and investor-owned utilities, and played defense against sneaky attempts by industry to weaken the law’s climate protections. 

With one of the largest registered lobbying teams in environmental nonprofits in Minnesota, the role MCEA played in all of these wins cannot be overstated. But we didn’t work alone. None of these incredible accomplishments would have happened without the courageous and committed work and leadership of legislators, allied organizations, Minnesotans across the state who took action, and Amara Strande and her family. 

It really does take a village to pass strong and sound environmental laws. And it will take one again when it comes time to do the complicated work of implementing, and in some cases potentially defending, this new legislation. Thanks to decades of work with state agencies and in the courts, MCEA is one of the rare nonprofits in Minnesota positioned to shepherd these groundbreaking laws through the stages ahead. We're ready for the work to begin.