Let’s Go Big on the Climate and Energy Budget
This is part of “Climate in All Budgets,” a new blog series by 100% Campaign Managing and Research Director, Dr. Kate Knuth
This week’s post in the 100% Campaign’s Climate in All Budgets series is about a part of the state budget in which we need to go big – the climate and energy budget.
Before diving in, I need to back up a little and explain how the state budget gets put together. Last week, I talked about the governor’s budget recommendations, which get put out all at once and which have a big influence on Minnesota’s budget conversation.
Now, we are at the point in the legislative session in which we are focused squarely on legislative work.
The budget process in the legislature works from the bottom up. Representatives and senators introduce bills – including ones that appropriate (legalese for spend) money. These bills have to make it through at least one legislative committee. From there, spending bills get bundled into omnibus spending bills, which are organized by committee (i.e. broad policy topic areas that generally align with one or more state agency budget).
One of the biggest committees for going big on climate investments is, not surprisingly, the climate and energy committee – both in the House and the Senate.
We know we need to go big on climate and energy investments, but let’s dig in on what that means.
The big three – efficiency, electrification, and clean energy
Getting climate pollution out of our energy systems, buildings, and transportations will take a combination of three big strategies – conserving energy and making things more efficient, electrifying as much as possible, and making sure that electricity is carbon-free.
A bold climate action budget would go big on each of these strategies. Here’s how.
Efficiency: Making buildings more efficient pays dividends in reducing pollution and in saving money, and we should invest state money to help. Home weatherization is one of the best investments here. Minnesota's Home Weatherization program is a long-standing and trusted state program that improves the homes of low-income families. Rep. Bierman's bill HF 2014 would expand it, helping families make the underlying repairs they need for their homes to be ready for weatherization, i.e. to make 'pre-weatherization' repairs.
Electrification: We burn a lot of fossil fuels to do stuff in our homes and other buildings: space heating, water heating, cooking, clothes drying. Turns out, we don’t have to do that. We can turn to electricity. And the legislature can make investments to help. One cool bill moving this year would help Minnesotans upgrade their electrical panels to make all this electrification possible. It starts with lower-income families, but will be available for everyone. Let’s invest in that!
Clean energy: The third big part of getting carbon pollution out is making sure all that electricity we use is clean and carbon-free. We made a big policy commitment to make sure electricity is carbon-free by 2040. And we can use our state budget to help. Two programs to help are solar on schools and solar on public buildings.
Leveraging investments
While our state budget is a great source of funding for climate action, the work we need to do will take a lot more than state investments. That’s why leveraging other climate investments is a smart way to use our state budget this year. There are two big ways a climate and energy budget can leverage other investments – a state competitiveness fund and a state financing authority.
A state competitiveness fund would create a pool of state money that Minnesota could use to leverage the historic investments being made by the federal government in clean energy and climate solutions. Many federal investments require matching funds, and by creating a fund to match federal investment, we can set our state up to gain even bigger climate benefits from federal investment.
A state financing authority - called the Minnesota Climate Innovation Finance Authority in state policy – would create a way to leverage a bunch of private investment in clean energy and climate solutions. Legislators should capitalize (i.e. put money in to start) a financing authority to unleash even more climate action.
Planning and Preparing for Change
A final place to go big on Minnesota’s climate and energy budget is planning and preparing for the changes that are coming – both those from a changing climate and the ones we need to make in order to take on climate change. Investing in planning means making sure local governments have the resources to plan for climate action themselves.
And it means more for the cities where power plants are retiring.
An equitable energy transition means making sure these communities get some help with the transition. That means both retraining and growing the workforce to do the work of clean energy, making sure we have the electricians, the laborers, the pipefitters, and more to build our clean energy future. The climate and energy committee should invest in these types of planning and preparation, too.
We’ve just made it through one of the biggest omnibus budget bills for passing a bold climate action budget this year. Stay tuned for next week when I dig in on transportation, the biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions in Minnesota.
