4 big wins from 2024

By Sarah Horner, MCEA Communications Director

The power of collective action was palpable this past year. 

With your support, and working alongside community members, tribal partners, and allies, we accomplished so much in our ongoing efforts to protect our environment and the health of Minnesotans. 

As we close the books on our 50th anniversary and start preparing for the tremendous work ahead – especially after Trump takes office - let’s take a moment to celebrate some of what we accomplished together in 2025. 

SULFIDE MINING 

PolyMet forced to re-evaluate

After twenty years of MCEA and our allies exposing the inadequacies of its sulfide mining proposal in court and elsewhere, PolyMet has finally acknowledged that its original proposal may indeed be flawed, and announced plans to conduct internal studies to examine how to potentially make it “better.” We know the company should actually abandon it altogether, but one step at a time. 

Then in November, DNR announced it was suspending its decision in the PolyMet permit-to-mine case, stating it would be wasteful to continue spending the state’s limited time and resources on a proposal that may soon be rendered “moot.” With the upcoming change in the federal administration, state level action by MCEA and our partners to oppose PolyMet’s dangerous sulfide-mining proposal will be as crucial as ever.

ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE

Toxic foundry closes in East Phillips 

After decades of emitting harmful air pollution into the East Phillips community in violation of the federal Clean Air Act, Smith Foundry finally closed its doors in August after reaching a settlement with the Environmental Protection Agency. Now an entire community long overburdened by pollution can finally breathe a little easier. It also means that educators at the daycare across the street from the Foundry don't have to fear what’s in the air when the kids go outside to play. Community members have been organizing toward this end for years. MCEA was honored to work alongside them to help achieve this long-overdue victory. 

CLEAN WATER

State launches response to drinking water crisis in SE Minn. 

Thanks to the petition MCEA and allies filed for federal intervention in southeastern Minnesota’s drinking water crisis, the state is finally taking steps to address the industrial agricultural practices driving it. The Legislature allocated millions to cover public health and conservation measures requested by state agencies. Already, the state is reaching out to vulnerable well owners and is revising water pollution permits for industrial feedlots, one of the key drivers of the dangerously high nitrate-pollution in the water. MCEA is participating in the process and urging strong, common-sense revisions to the permit. This crisis has been decades in the making and won’t be resolved with one updated permit, but thanks to our urging, the state took important steps in the right direction this past year. 

CLIMATE 

Proposed gas plant stalled, again 

This fall, the two utilities seeking to build a gas plant in the Duluth-Superior area withdrew the project’s air pollution permit, meaning construction cannot begin. It’s another win stacked on top of the others we’ve piled up over the last eight years as MCEA and our partners have used creative legal strategies and on-the-ground organizing to keep the proposed Nemadji Trail Energy Center (NTEC) at bay. Not only is the plant unnecessary to meet local electricity demands, but it’s dangerous and reckless to invest in more fossil-fuel infrastructure in the middle of the worsening climate crisis. MCEA will continue to do everything we can to ensure the 625 MW gas plant never gets built. 

LOOKING AHEAD

Next year brings a new federal administration hostile to environmental protections and climate action, a split House presiding over Minnesota’s upcoming legislative session, and a host of other environmental challenges and opportunities. Our team has strategies in place to continue to use the law and science to protect Minnesota from dangerous sulfide-mining proposals, push our electric and gas infrastructure closer to a carbon-free system, advocate alongside communities for clean air and water, and ensure the state’s momentum to tackle PFAS and industrial agricultural pollution in our surface and groundwater stay on course. See you all next year.