Defender-in-Chief: How Minnesota’s governor can advance or attack our climate & democracy
This essay is part of a larger series about how our elected officials help us defend our futures by leading on equitable climate solutions and building multiracial democracy.
Minnesota’s governor is our state’s best-known elected leader. That’s no accident. The governor is the official head of the executive branch of government with a whole range of constitutional and statutory powers. But those are just part of the job. Beyond official duties, we look to the governor to make sense of what’s happening and where we’re going as a state. The public conversation-shaping part of the job is especially important in times of upheaval and change like the one we’re living through right now.
We expect our governor and, increasingly, our lieutenant governor, to respond to events in a way we don’t expect of our other constitutional officers. No one is waiting for the state auditor to say something about an incident of gun violence or for the Secretary of State to visit the site of a severe flood. But we notice, and the press covers, the words and actions of our governor and lieutenant governor. Their voices and leadership both proactively shape agendas and help us make sense of unfolding events, like Covid-19, police violence, and Supreme Court decisions.
So, what are the official and unofficial roles of the governor and lieutenant governor in defending our futures? How can they advance (or derail) our progress toward a multiracial democracy and equitable climate solutions? The answers are in three big categories – shaping public policy, implementing it, and leading during emergencies.
Before digging in on those three, we need to talk about the 2020 election. It’s a powerful example of how an obscure gubernatorial power – signing Minnesota’s Certificate of Ascertainment – can be used to build or break down our democracy. In our federal system, the Certificate of Ascertainment authorizes electors to represent each state in the Electoral College that elects our President. To make a Certificate of Ascertainment legal, the governor of each state must sign it, normally a routine act of administration.
Before January 6, 2021, I would have not thought to include the signing of the Certificate of Ascertainment in an overview of the governor’s role in democracy. (Full disclosure, I’d never heard of the Certificate of Ascertainment before then.) But the abuse of this power was, and remains, a real threat to American democracy. Our next governor will literally have the power to participate in, or help prevent, another January 6th-style coup attempt.
Fortunately, most of the time, our governor has less dramatic, but no less important roles to play in expanding our multiracial democracy and creating equitable climate solutions. Let’s dig in.
Shaping public policy for climate solutions
Our governor shapes Minnesota’s public policy conversations in powerful direct and indirect ways. In descending order of direct power, these powers include executive orders, state budget and legislative proposals, and agenda-setting.
Executive orders are orders by the governor that have the force of law. They are often, but not always, connected to emergencies like floods or fires. They can also be proactive, creating advisory bodies, directing state agencies, driving public conversation, or a mix of all three.
Governors across the country have been using executive orders to lead more ambitious climate action. In Minnesota, Governor Walz’s Executive Order 19-37, established the Climate Change Subcabinet and the Governor’s Advisory Council on Climate Change. Governor Dayton used Executive Order 17-12 to direct state agency’s to lead-by-example to reduce energy and water usage and lower GHG emissions. Governors in other states have done more. For example, Michigan’s Governor Whitmer signed Executive Order 2021-13 to drive the state to take on more leadership in the developing electric vehicle economy. In Wisconsin, Governor Evers created an Office of Environmental Justice in Executive Order 161.
While our governor can unilaterally use executive orders, this power is limited to a relatively small set of policies. Only our state legislature can create state statutes and appropriate state funds. Of course, our governor signs or vetoes bills that become laws, but the governor also shapes state policy much earlier in the process. For example, the public start of our state budget process kicks off with our governor putting out budget recommendations. Note, I say ‘public’ because there’s a whole bunch of behind-the-scenes work that happens to shape those recommendations.
Minnesota’s two-year budget is over $50 billion. This budget has tons of potential for equitable climate action: funding for local climate resilience grants, tax incentives for decarbonization, solar on schools, bus rapid transit lines. The list goes on. The governor’s budget recommendation powerfully shapes the contours of the budget debate. The more climate solutions our governor includes in their budget – and the harder they negotiate to keep these solutions – the more likely these solutions become our reality.
Beyond budget recommendations, our governor advocates for specific policies. Governor Walz, for example, has championed a 100% clean energy policy. This policy would help create the backbone of decarbonization – a clean electricity grid. Of course, it takes a senator, like Nick Frentz, and a representative, like Jamie Long, to introduce a bill and shepherd it through the process. But the governor’s support makes a real difference in a bill becoming law.
Finally, our governor shapes policy through agenda-setting – focusing public conversation on an entire issue area and the multiple strategies the state can use to make progress. For example, Governor Walz created the Climate Change Subcabinet, Governor’s Advisory Council on Climate Change, and six working groups. Together, this work engaged hundreds of people and developed the recently released Minnesota Climate Action Framework – with a vision of making Minnesota carbon neutral, resilient, and equitable.
Implementing Policy for Equitable Climate Solutions
As the leader of Minnesota’s executive branch, our governor plays a unique role in not only shaping public policy, but effectively implementing it.
Political appointments are a big part of policy implementation. The governor appoints the heads of each state agency along with dozens of state boards, commissions, and task forces. These appointees play key leadership roles in making sure our state government works. Important climate leaders include the commissioners of the Pollution Control Agency, Commerce, Transportation, Natural Resources, Agriculture, and Health.
An especially important body that the Governor appoints is the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (PUC). The PUC is a quasi-judicial body that regulates utilities like electricity and natural gas. The PUC determines factors that shape energy prices: how we site power plants, transmission lines, and pipelines and how we calculate the social cost of carbon.
So, what do our agencies actually do to implement climate policy? Here are three big ones that they (and therefore the governor) influence– rulemaking, environmental review and permitting, and, in the near term, implementation of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) and the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).
Rulemaking is the process the executive branch uses to implement certain laws. In some cases, the legislature directs agencies to develop rules. In other cases, agencies already have broad authority to develop rules, and the governor can direct agency leadership to use that authority. The Minnesota Clean Cars rule is a recent example of how the executive branch has acted on climate through rulemaking, and Governor Walz’s leadership drove this climate action.
Environmental review and permitting is the process construction projects – like office buildings, bridges, mines, and pipelines – have to go through to (1) understand and potentially improve environmental impacts, (2) decide whether the project follows state laws and should be permitted, and (3) engage citizens in this process. Some of the biggest climate fights in recent years have been around environmental review, including Line 3 and some big mines. We need to make sure our governor appoints executive branch leaders who use science and the law to protect Minnesota’s climate, human health, and the broader environment in these environmental review and permitting processes.
At the same time, over the next few years Minnesota is going to see more clean energy and climate investments than ever before because of the passage of the IIJA and IRA. These investments will require us to build some big new things, with public transit and electricity transmission (i.e. powerlines) being especially important. We’ll need agency leadership that makes sure environmental review and permitting is not holding back these climate solutions, too.
Powers during an emergency
Finally, our governor has unique powers when it comes to emergencies like floods, pandemics, and civil unrest. How a governor handles emergencies – both preparing for them and, even more, during them – matters for equitable climate solutions and our democracy.
On the front end of preparing for emergencies, Minnesota has something called the state’s Hazard Mitigation Plan. This huge tome covers all the potential emergencies we can think of and how to prepare and respond to them. Minnesota’s most recent version of this document includes actions for climate adaptation, that is, how we better prepare for more extreme weather.
At the same time, the emergencies themselves are a test of our governor’s leadership and how they protect people and our democracy. The value of protecting people during an emergency is obvious. Less obvious are the considerations our governor may have to make to uphold democracy during emergency times.
Our governor has enhanced powers during emergencies, including increased unilateral decision-making and the power to deploy the National Guard. Deploying military assets is a delicate decision anytime, and it is especially delicate when doing so domestically. The National Guard is a powerful part of our state government, one authorized to use force when ordered to do so. Making sure our National Guard is protecting civilians (i.e. people) and their civil rights is a critical responsibility for our governor.
Wrapping up
Whew, that was a long one. I’m so grateful for you coming along on this journey of how our governor defends our futures by protecting democracy and building equitable climate solutions.
Now, it’s our turn. We can defend our futures by voting, for governor and for all our constitutional officers. Learn more about Minnesota’s candidates for governor here.
