Can we produce clean biofuels on working farmland in a sustainable manner? RIM-Clean Energy shows real potential for making just such a scenario possible. A simple way to describe this program is that it would support farmers who grow native perennials such as prairie grass for bioenergy. But there’s much more below the surface. Such a program could serve as the seed for a “multiple benefits” agricultural system: besides cheap feed for livestock, these native perennials can protect soil and water while producing wildlife habitat and sequestering carbon. And by the way, they could be the basis for a cellulosic biofuels revolution here in Minnesota. RIM-Clean Energy was authorized by the Minnesota Legislature last session, but now comes the hard part: priming the financial pump. Funding for RIM-Clean Energy is already starting to make its way through the 2008 Legislature. Let’s hope lawmakers see what an economic, agronomic and environmental payoff such an initiative could provide decades down the line.

by J. Drake Hamilton, science policy director, Fresh Energy

What do you get when a conservative Republican governor creates an industry-heavy, 56-person task force to develop a plan to aggressively reduce Minnesota’s global warming emissions? (more…)

This week’s update from lobbyist John Tuma:

“In the political world of checks and balances, where the three equal branches of government share power and keep each other in line, the veto override is the equivalent of a body check. If it connects, it can really sting.”
- David Maeda
Session Weekly
April 28, 2000

(more…)

May corn futures on the Chicago Board of Trade closed at $5.35 per bushel today. There’s nothing wrong with rural America that high corn prices won’t fix, right? I read that price quote soon after finishing an LSP Ear to the Ground podcast on a rural economic development model that has little to do with betting the farm (and the land) on one or two raw commodities. Give it a listen (episode 47) before you call up your broker and buy corn futures on the CBOT. (more…)

This week’s update from lobbyist John Tuma:

“I wonder whether people are really grasping how wonderful Minnesota is.”

–Former Governor Elmer L. Anderson, March 19, 2001

The 91-year-old former Governor of the State of Minnesota, Elmer L. Anderson, was invited back to the Senate chamber where he served in the 1950s to present a rare speech to a packed Senate chamber. He expressed concern that Minnesota was losing its place as a national leader. The former Republican governor challenged the Legislature to make smart investments and not just make short-term tax rebates. Anderson as the governor and community leader demonstrated the need to cast a long vision to maintain Minnesota as a wonderful place to live. This is proven in his staunch support of human rights and the creation of the Voyageurs National Park. (more…)

One of the nation’s largest producers of factory hogs has been getting some nice publicity recently. It seems Christensen Farms provided funding for a new animal and plant science curriculum being used by Minnesota’s high school agriculture teachers. I wonder if the curriculum contains a unit on how to externalize the environmental costs of factory farming? It should, since Christensen Farms has a doctorate in that field. (more…)

This week’s update from lobbyist John Tuma:

“Glorious News!! Minnesota a State!!! 100 guns fired at Winona: General Rejoicing.”

Headlines in the Winona Times May 15, 1858*

This year Minnesotans will celebrate our great state’s 150th anniversary of being admitted to the United States. Therefore, I hope to be able to give a little bit of a Minnesota history twist to each of the MEP Capitol Updates. The old Winona Times headline above of “Glorious News” is a fitting title for the first update of the 2008 Legislative Session. Week One does bring the environment and conservation community some “glorious news” with the passage of the Great Outdoors and Heritage Amendment (GOHA). (more…)

By Elena Velkov, media relations coordinator, Fresh Energy

On Ash Wednesday—February 6—individuals all over the world asked themselves what they would give up for Lent. Lent is meant to commemorate the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ through, among other things, 40 days of self-denial. Many give up meat, chocolate, or alcohol in the name of spirituality.

Two senior Church of England Bishops have suggested churchgoers make a less conventional sacrifice for Lent: Give up carbon. According to Telegraph.co.uk, the bishops encouraged believers to pass up on plastic bags, avoid using the dishwasher, insulate their hot water tanks, check the house for drafts, replace a regular light bulb with a CFL, and generally participate in a “Carbon Fast.” (more…)

By Heidi Alford, Sierra Club Intern

As each year brings an increase in global temperatures, more days when air quality is deemed unsafe, and new cases of asthma and cancer caused by toxic chemicals and fine-particle soot in the air, Americans have been forced to rethink existing policies regarding pollution control and greenhouse gas emissions. Although the popularity of energy efficient cars has been growing, motor vehicles – especially pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles (SUVs) – are still the nation’s second biggest source of carbon dioxide emissions.

When it passed legislation instating auto emission standards stricter than the ones the federal government has in place, California set an example that should lead to a cleaner, healthier America. These standards require car manufacturers to lower carbon dioxide emissions and other pollutants from passenger vehicle tailpipes, air conditioners, and other auto-related sources; they will reduce global warming gases significantly more than the 2007 federal energy law. However, in December of 2007 the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) denied the waiver request California needs to enforce their new standards – and as a result, EPA is currently being sued by numerous states determined to overturn the decision.

Last month Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson declared her support for California by joining the 16 other states filing suit, intending to ensure Minnesota’s ability to adopt the standards in the future. This session a bill has been introduced to the Minnesota State Legislature to accept California’s lower emission levels; it will be discussed in a hearing by the House Environment and Natural Resources Committee on February 14.

Along with the eleven other member organizations of Clean Energy Minnesota, a coalition devoted to establishing cleaner energy alternatives and limiting global warming emissions, the North Star Chapter of the Sierra Club hopes to see Minnesota join the other states – representing over 40% of America’s car-buying consumers – which have already passed legislation to match California’s standards. “Minnesotans deserve clean air, a healthy climate — and more miles to the dollar,” insists Christopher Childs, Co-chair of the chapter’s Clean Air and Renewable Energy Committee. “A Clean Cars bill, based on the one California and a dozen other states have already put in place, will help get us all of the above. It will cut back on all kinds of auto pollution, all the way from the tailpipe to the air conditioner — including carbon dioxide and other global warming gases — while it makes our cars cheaper to drive.

“The world has a limited amount of oil, and along with cutting pollution, we need to be using every gallon wisely,” Childs adds. “When California passed its bill in 2002, it gave us all a way to address both problems in one strong legislative package. And the Clean Cars initiative will help keep Minnesota a leader on both fronts.”

How much attention will lawmakers give family farming, rural communities, local food systems and the rural environment during the upcoming session of the Minnesota Legislature? The Land Stewardship Project’s State Policy Committee—a group of farmers, conservationists, educators and Main Street business owners—is betting such issues will be front and center. The committee recently drafted a platform that makes it clear just how much the Legislature could do to foster sustainability throughout rural Minnesota. Renewing Family Farms and Rural Minnesota: State Policies that Make a Commitment to Minnesota’s Family Farms, Rural Communities and Environmental Stewardship provides detailed proposals on how we can create a bright future for the land and its people. We’ve broken it down into five categories:

1. Supporting the Next Generation of Farmers
2. Stewardship of the Land
3. Local Democracy & Accountability
4. Community Based Local Food Systems
5. Community Based Renewable Energy

To read the entire platform, click here. After you read the platform, if you like what you see, come on over to the Third Annual Family Farm Breakfast at the Capitol on Tuesday, Feb. 19. This will be a great opportunity to eat delicious, locally produced food. Even more importantly, it will provide citizens a chance to get together with lawmakers over coffee and eggs and chew the fat over how to create a more viable rural Minnesota. What better way to put some proactive purpose behind the paper Renewing Family Farms and Rural Minnesota is written on?