Press Release: Public Utilities Commission weakens MN’s landmark climate law in Thursday vote

Public Utilities Commission weakens MN’s landmark climate law in Thursday vote 

DATE: 09/26/2024   CONTACT: Sarah Horner, MCEA, shorner@mncenter.org, 612-868-3024

St. Paul, MN – The Public Utilities Commission weakened Minnesota’s premiere climate law Thursday by voting to open the door to dirty technologies that are clearly excluded from the statute to nonetheless count toward meeting the state’s 100 percent Carbon Free Energy commitment. 

Specifically, commissioners decided biomass and trash incineration - both of which emit large amounts of carbon dioxide as well as other harmful pollutants - could qualify as carbon free energy technologies under the law despite the legislation’s unambiguous language limiting carbon-free status to technologies with no carbon emissions. 

The vote was a pivotal point in the Commission’s process for establishing criteria to meet the 100 Percent Carbon Free law passed in 2023 as it makes its way toward implementation. The Commission ordered additional proceedings to determine the precise methodologies for granting full or partial carbon-free status to biomass and trash, but Thursday’s vote opening the door to these fuels is not consistent with the law, regardless of the outcome of those proceedings. 

Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy (MCEA) and Sierra Club, as well as many other groups and hundreds of Minnesotans, were among those who wrote comments to the PUC urging them to resist industry-backed efforts to undermine the law by allowing false climate solutions to qualify as carbon free.

In addition to emitting large amounts of carbon dioxide - both biomass and trash incineration actually release more CO2 per megawatt-hour of electricity produced than burning coal - the technologies also have major environmental justice implications. 

“The Commission’s decision distorts Minnesota’s landmark carbon-free law by allowing greater reliance on our most carbon-intensive sources of electricity,” said Barbara Freese, attorney with MCEA. 

The 100 percent law requires utilities to provide enough carbon-free electricity to meet 100% of their Minnesota sales by 2040, and defines “carbon-free” technologies as those that generate electricity “without emitting carbon dioxide.” 

The forest products industry as well as the electric utilities pushed PUC commissioners to ignore the science as well as the law and deem biomass as a qualifying “carbon free” technology. 

 The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and the Department of Commerce went even further, advocating in their comments that trash incineration should also be considered fully or partially carbon-free.

In addition to significant climate impacts, these technologies also have environmental justice harms. Trash burning and biomass burning emit dangerous air pollutants linked to early deaths from heart and lung disease, and six of the seven municipal trash incinerators in Minnesota are located in or near environmental justice communities whose populations bear a disproportionate burden from health-harming air pollution.

MCEA is studying the full implications of the Commission’s order and considering next steps.

Questions or interview requests about today’s decision can be directed to Sarah Horner. 

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