By Rick Fuentes, senior media relations specialist, Fresh Energy

Last week, Minneapolis-based Xcel Energy CEO Dick Kelly asked Congress to raise his taxes – specifically, his carbon taxes. In a statement that may sound the Paul Revere-like alarm for climate and energy policy, Kelly thinks the U.S. Senate chickened out of a climate bill. They backed off and “started calling it ‘cap and tax,’” Kelly told the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Kelly is head of a multistate utility that has increasingly moved away from coal power and spent millions to retrofit some of its plants to cleaner-burning natural gas.  Kelly is joined in his attitude by Duke Energy CEO Jim Rogers. Rogers has also stated that the “growing consensus in the electric utility industry” is to “act now.” Rogers points to private capital that’s waiting for a predictable regulatory landscape to set the stage for investment into clean energy. (more…)

John Tuma’s Capitol Update – Summer Edition, August 26, 2010

“May her memory save us from all pettiness, all unworthy ambition, all narrowness of vision, all mean and sordid aims… so may there be none in us, as she fought ever, without malice and without hatred, so may we fight.”

- The plaque in the Capitol Rotunda memorializing Mrs. Andreas Ueland, 1860-1927

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We’ve posted a new story to our Clean Energy Jobs website! This is the latest addition to our ongoing project that features Minnesotans whose jobs contribute to the Clean Energy Economy.

Wyatt Bruce – Outland Renewable Energy

When Wyatt Bruce helped his college football team win a championship title as a defensive end during his freshman year, a career in wind energy was not on his mind. But after seriously injuring his left knee, he took six months off to recover before changing schools and pursuing a new concentration that led to an opportunity that changed his life: He interviewed for a job with Outland Renewable Energy, a firm focused on wind farm development, ownership and maintenance in rural communities. (more…)

By Elena Velkov, media relations coordinator, Fresh Energy

Just as BP capped its oil well, and the public began to breathe a sigh of relief, another oil spill occurred last week. Calgary energy company Enbridge is responsible for a leaked pipeline that has spilled more than one million gallons of crude oil into Michigan’s Kalamazoo River, according to new estimates by the Environmental Protection Agency. The pipeline normally carries about 8 million gallons of crude oil daily from Indiana to Ontario. Enbridge says it has contained the spill and is making progress with clean-up efforts, but Governor Jennifer Granholm calls the efforts “wholly inadequate.” (more…)

John Tuma’s Capitol Update – Summer Edition, July 30, 2010

“…sharks and speculators, men who have amassed fortunes not in legitimate businesses but by systematic robbery of the people.”

- William D. Washburn, Minneapolis Tribune, October 28, 1873*

William D. Washburn was referring to railroads that controlled access of Minneapolis flour milling interests to markets in the East and Europe and the wheat fields stretching across Minnesota and the Dakotas.  There is little to remind us of the significant role William D. Washburn played in the development of Minnesota.  There is Washburn High School in Minneapolis and an off the beaten path residential street in north Minneapolis, but they could have been named after his wealthy older brother C.C. Washburn.  Nonetheless, the battle William led against the railroad conglomerates in the late 1800s helped shape Minnesota and create one of our nation’s great cities – Minneapolis. 

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MEP’s Candidate Education Project is off to a terrific start. Since late May, MEP has been briefing candidates for public office on the importance of investing in Minnesota’s clean energy economy to create jobs here at home and make us truly energy independent. (more…)

By Kara Cook, Minnesota Environmental Partnership Communications Intern

Minnesota Environmental Partnership is currently in phase two of our Nonpartisan Candidate Outreach program, which Ryan introduced here. Our polling data from 2009 and 2010 shows that Minnesotans strongly support expanding solar and wind power, building more public transit, moving Minnesota toward clean energy through other initiatives.

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By Ryan Kennedy, Minnesota Environmental Partnership Candidate Outreach Intern

The Nonpartisan Candidate Outreach program currently underway here at the Minnesota Environmental Partnership is working to put energy issues at the front of the debate during this election cycle. By ensuring that candidates are aware of the broad public support for renewable energy expansion, we hope to foster a more informed discussion on Minnesota’s clean energy future at the gubernatorial, congressional, and state legislative levels.

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If you feel helpless to deal with the threat the Gulf oil spill poses to the common loon, Minnesota’s state bird, you’re not alone.  You’re also not alone if you wonder what you can do about it — besides driving less, and generally using less petroleum.

Minnesota DNR is taking one step.  Working with the feds, DNR will put transmitters on three Minnesota loons next month, part of a larger study that is taking place also in Wisconsin.  This will allow researchers to follow the migratory movements of Midwest loons. The preliminary results will show up next spring — and the loons too, we hope. (more…)

“This afternoon we will take the Skyline Trail, the trail that more than any other gives us a feeling of distance and space.  Vistas of wilderness will be ours, frozen swamps and lakes and winding trails through the woods.  Along that trail towards sunset the light effects are more striking than anywhere else, for here the whole country lies before us.”

- Sigurd Olson, The Singing Wilderness, 1956

Sigurd Olson is a giant in Minnesota’s conservation history as one of the leading voices during the mid-1900s for the preservation of wild places like our beloved Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and Voyageurs National Park.  He was also a literary acclaimed writer, penning his classic, The Singing Wilderness, in 1956, a must-read for any environmental activist.  So respected was Olson that his likeness is one of only a few busts displayed within our State Capitol.  It seems almost providential that Olson’s bust stands guard to Capitol Committee Room 107 where most of the Senate environment and conservation issues are addressed. 

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