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.

Follow that up with a cadre of banks that are also saying they will shift away from environmentally risky investments. Wells Fargo, a minor player in the mining, drilling, and digging world, said it will make its involvement with mountaintop removal companies “limited” and “declining.” Dutch bank Rabobank has even instituted a nine-point checklist for conditions for would-be oil and gas borrowers that includes commitments to improve environmental performance and protect water quality. Credit Suisse, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase, and Bank of America are also increasing scrutiny of companies that perform mountaintop removal. Of course, some of these lenders have also supported companies involved with tar sands mining, but that’s another story.

Of course, the bottom line behind these decisions is the bottom line.  Environmental clean-up is messy. Mitigating air and water pollution is expensive. Appearing anti-green is bad PR. Some say that companies could even be exposed to liability from investors if they fail to act on climate change-related losses to harvests, inventories, vehicles, buildings, and even lives. After all, companies can’t say they didn’t know global warming was coming.

Regardless of the reasoning, the more C-level business people who speak out about the need for climate policy that protects investors and profits from global warming, the better.

After all, where are the insurance companies? Where are the folks who stand to lose billions, even trillions, to environmental disasters that are becoming more frequent? Where are the risk managers who can only guess at the statistical factors where a one percent change in global temperature means an exponential amount of damage to holdings? Where are the car companies? Where are the folks who could actually stand up to the oil industry and demand standards that would create new markets for more efficient vehicles? Products that would renew trust in American ingenuity. And jobs that would endear them again to proud Americans.

If climate solutions are also your business solutions, your voice must be heard.  Links below:

http://www.startribune.com/business/101349314.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUUsZ

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/31/business/energy-environment/31coal.html?src=tptw

“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

This quaint and almost hidden plaque honoring Clara Ueland is affixed to the northwest corner of the Rotunda amongst the many memorials to the Civil War.  It is one of only two memorials recognizing a woman within the State Capitol.  Mrs. Ueland is one of the persistent heroes of the Minnesota Women’s Suffrage Movement in the early 1900s.  

Clara Hampson arrived in Minnesota in 1867 with her widowed mother and older brother from Ohio in search of a new future on the Western frontier.  Despite her poverty Clara was a very determined and successful student.  Like many learned women of her time, she became a teacher.  She raised eight children in a devoted marriage to a Norwegian immigrant, Andreas Ueland, who through hard work and dedication became a probate judge in Minneapolis.

Clara joined the long struggle for women’s suffrage in Minnesota in the early 1900s and was quickly recognized as a leader within that movement.  She demonstrated great poise and grace as the movement persisted through several failures at the State Legislature.  She became a self taught lobbyist who learned how to work in the rough-and-tumble world inside the Capitol Rotunda where she is now recognized by the plaque.  The Women’s Suffrage Movement was finally victorious in our state when Minnesota ratified the 19th amendment to the United States Constitution on September 8, 1919.

At the time of this great victory, Clara Ueland was the president of the Minnesota Women’s Suffrage Association.  She recognized that the battle was not complete and led the effort to transform her association into a new organization to encourage women to engage in their newly won civic responsibilities.  That organization was named the Minnesota League of Women Voters and Clara Ueland was elected its first president.  She continued to work tirelessly for women’s issues until her tragic death when she was accidentally hit by a truck crossing the street on her way home from a full day of lobbying at the State Capitol in 1927.  In the spirit set by Clara Ueland, the present day “League” has been an active and valuable member of the Minnesota Environmental Partnership working on issues of environmental health and protection of our valuable outdoor resources for future generations. 

In part thanks to the vision cast by Clara Ueland, Minnesota has been blessed with some hardworking and persistent women politicians who have been and continue to be champions of preserving our Great Outdoors for future generations.  Two of those individuals deserving recognition as conservation champions for their work today at the Capitol are Rep. Julie Bunn and Sen. Kathy Saltzman.  Both women represent districts that cover a substantial portion of Washington County.  One of Minnesota’s original counties, Washington County is the home of some of the most beautiful bluff country in America along the St. Croix and Mississippi Rivers.  Their tireless work to protect this historically beautiful area and to safeguard the health and clean water of their constituents should be appreciated by Minnesotans.

The battle to protect their communities began a few years back when the organization Friends of Washington County discovered that Xcel Energy’s power plant on the shores of the St. Croix River needed to landfill their coal ash after passage of Minnesota’s nation leading mercury reduction legislation.  Prior to this legislation requiring toxic materials to be removed from the smokestacks, the resulting ash from burning coal was not toxic and could be used in concrete and other industrial purposes. With the requirement to pull these toxins out of the exhaust, the new coal ash became a toxic material needing to be landfilled.  Unfortunately, the landfill site that Xcel chose was on the bluffs of the St. Croix River in an area unstable for groundwater protection known as Karst terrain.

The characteristics of Karst terrains are typically limestone bluff country where the water inflows from the surface soil can quickly infiltrate underground aquifers.  Therefore, placing a toxic waste dump on top of this formation is only leaving a ticking time bomb for future generations to deal with once the landfill system deteriorates.  Xcel Energy would argue that they were forced to landfill this toxic material because of our environmental regulations.  Of course this somewhat begs the question, would you rather have them spewing toxic chemicals across our landscape or putting it into a landfill for future generations to deal with as a groundwater problem?  How about putting a landfill in a place where the soil types are far safer for long-term storage of toxic materials.  That is exactly what Rep. Bunn and Sen. Saltzman wisely recognized and began their work not only to protect their community, but to create legislation to improve our landfills on a statewide basis.

After the Xcel Energy landfill situation came to light, Friends of Washington County and several local municipalities dependent on healthy groundwater went to Rep. Bunn and Sen. Saltzman for help.  It would have been easy for these politicians to dodge the political bullet and not take on the powerful corporate interest; but these two dedicated women were not about to let the health of their community be put at risk.  In 2008 they required the Pollution Control Agency (PCA) to develop new groundwater protection rules relating to landfills statewide.  They placed a moratorium on the construction of new landfills until those rules were completed.  When the PCA dragged their feet and developed draft rules in a way that the Friends of the Washington County felt would not protect groundwater resources from contamination from aging landfills, Bunn and Saltzman did not relent. They returned to the Legislature to pass legislation requiring the PCA to develop rules by a specific deadline and requiring that Karst terrain areas be permanently exempt from landfill siting.

The civic engagement put forth by Bunn and Saltzman in their persistent and dedicated fight for the health of their community exemplifies what Clara Ueland envisioned when helping establish the “League” nearly 90 years ago by encouraging women to engage in their newly won civic responsibilities.  Those of us in the conservation community are indebted to these two conservation champions for their tireless work to protect our natural resources for our children and our grandchildren.  They are without a doubt present-day conservation champions; Clara Ueland would have been proud.

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.

“I owe them a lot – well, everything actually,” Bruce said, “for putting faith and trust into someone like me without a degree.”

That was nearly three years ago. Bruce, now 24, is a lead technician for Outland and makes sure his crews are safe, on-task and efficient while working on wind turbines.  A lot of the time, he’s on the road for weeks with the same field technicians, working 12- to 14-hour days. He finds that the teamwork-skills he learned on the football field prepared him for working on wind farm crews.

“From day one, Outland has been like a large family – easily my extended family,” he said. (Bruce, who identifies himself as a Native American, is “appropriately and affectionately” known by his co-workers  as “Brown Bear,” he said.)

Read the rest of Wyatt Bruce’s story

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.”

If this has happened in the waterways of our neighbors to the east, one can’t help but wonder whether something similar has happened right here in Minnesota. Well, the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) has addressed this very thought. It released a report, “Assault on America: A Decade of Petroleum Company Disaster, Pollution, and Profit,” that cites all of the spills, fires and deaths from the oil and gas industry. The report includes a state-by-state breakdown. It found Texas, Louisiana, and California have had the most incidents.

But Minnesota did, in fact, have four incidents of its own, in the last 10 years. They include the following:

-July 2002 – Enbridge pipeline rupture near Cohasset
-March 2004 – Flint Hills Resources refinery fire in Rosemount
-November 2007 – Enbridge pipeline blast near Clearbrook, two people killed
-April 2010 – Enbridge pipeline leak on the Leech Lake Indian Reservation

It’s pretty unsettling. So how can we turn this around? Referring back to a past blog post by Michael Noble, we need increased fuel efficiency in cars, better transit and urban planning, electric vehicles and charging stations, and renewable energy transmission. To quote NWF, “You never hear of a wind farm disaster or a solar farm catastrophe.”

“…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. 

Washburn was a leader among the many like him who came from New England to find their fortune at the headwaters of the Mississippi.  They were focused, hard-working idealists with a dream to make America a dominant economic force in the world.  William had the added trait of being a hard-driving promoter, earning the nickname of “Young Rapid” by his family because he was constantly on the move with new ideas.

William was the youngest son of the exceptional Israel and Martha Washburn family from Livermore, Maine.  Israel Sr. was a poor hard-scrabble farmer and Justice of the Peace from the backwoods in Maine where his sons learned to be industrious and politically active.  They were staunch abolitionists who played a key role in the formation of the Republican Party in the 1850s.  One of the boys, Elihu Washburn, moved to Illinois where he became a congressman and good friends with Abraham Lincoln.  Elihu played a critical role in Lincoln’s selection as Republican presidential candidate at the Chicago Republican convention in 1860.  Elihu was also a leading voice in suggesting Ulysses S. Grant to President Lincoln as commander of the Union Army, and later served as Grant’s campaign manager for the presidency.  Israel Jr. became governor of Maine.  His brother, C.C. Washburn, became governor of Wisconsin and one of the leading industrialists of the upper Midwest.

As the youngest of the Washburn boys, William received the college education none of his older brothers enjoyed, in part supported by his successful brothers.  William also benefited from exceptional access to the places of political and economic power in the growing northern economy, also as a result of his brother’s success.  Out of a desire to seek his own fame, he moved to the west bank of St. Anthony Falls to assist his brother C.C. Washburn in the management of his newly acquired waterpower rights for the infant state of Minnesota in 1857.  The constant promoter and builder William soon tired of the day-to-day management of his brother’s Washburn-Crosby Milling Co., which one day under more steady management became the milling giant General Mills.  He would later help launch another milling venture with the Pillsbury family that would see great success.  By the 1880s, these industrious New England entrepreneurs developed a milling process for northern wheat, creating more superior baking flour to any known up until that time. 

William soon realized that the Minneapolis milling companies were held hostage by the railroads from the East.  Recognizing the wealth to be made from this “gold-medal” flour, William convinced the mill owners to go head-to-head with the railroad companies and develop their own rail line which would later became known as the “Soo” line.  Unlike other railroad schemes of the period, this effort was financed privately with the sole purpose of moving their “gold-medal” flour to the East coast and European markets. 

William’s older brother Israel Jr. had suggested to the Minneapolis mill owners that a far cheaper and quicker route for their flour to market would be through northern Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, making a connection with the Canadian Pacific at Sault Ste. Marie.  The Soo line obtained its name from the phonetic pronunciation of Sault.  The flour would move on to Montréal where it could branch out to several ports on the East Coast, the closest of which was in Israel Jr.’s state of Maine at Portland.  A quick look at the map of North America confirms this route is more direct and had the added benefit of avoiding the Chicago railroad conglomerates that were bleeding Minneapolis of its wealth. 

Using Canadian and British financing, William was a driving force in pushing the Soo line to completion and served as its first president during construction.  Not satisfied, the fearless William went head-to-head with James J. Hill, Minnesota’s dominating rail magnate, by also opening rail lines to the wheat fields west of Minneapolis.  Because of William’s drive and vision, the city of Minneapolis became the greatest milling city in the world as opposed to just a simple thoroughfare for the wheat on its way to Eastern markets.  Using the strength of his success William eventually became a U.S. Senator from Minnesota, the highest office held by any of the Washburn brothers.

Certainly Washburn and his kind had many negative impacts on our region, but no one can dispute that they had a vision for building a great city, which they accomplished.  The nickname of Mill City for Minneapolis is no mistake.  Sometimes environmentalists overlook the need for these hard-driving business promoters to actually make positive change. 

The future of our new green economy needs hard-driving and smart business people like Washburn who not only have a vision for local and clean energy, but have the ability to make it happen.  Like the Minneapolis millers back in 1800s who recognized the importance of what their local power source could do for our community, Minneapolis is fortunate to have several visionary businesses today that recognize the value of clean renewable energy, including Mortenson Construction.

In 1994, wind energy was the wild dream of a bunch of long-haired hippies.  They had a vision of a clean renewable energy source as an alternative to nuclear power.  It was then that Minnesota passed its first renewable energy goal, stemming from the Prairie Island nuclear waste storage dispute.  The following year Mortenson grasped the significance of this clean energy vision and headed into the uncharted territory of renewable energy construction.  They brought a level of business professionalism and quality second to none.  Since then Mortenson has become the leading constructor of wind power projects in North America, capturing more than 25% of the market.  They have constructed over 10,000 MW of power across the United States and Canada, an achievement that would have impressed even the hard-driving William Washburn.

Mortensen is one of many companies who see an opportunity to grow jobs and keep our wealth at work right here in our community through clean renewable energy.  Appropriately, Mortensen’s headquarters are in the city built by the Washburns, where Mortenson has more than 200 employees in the Minnesota-based Renewable Energy Group.  They have also engaged in the biofuels, solar and hydro markets, as well as building numerous U.S. Green Building Council LEED-certified structures.  The one structure Minnesotans can recognize the easiest is the most environmentally friendly Major League Baseball park in the nation – the Minnesota Twins’ Target Field.  A field, by the way, that is not too far from the milling district created by the Washburn brothers and their fellow New England entrepreneurs.

To learn more about the new entrepreneurs building a better community for us through clean renewable energy, go to the “Real Jobs/Real People, Building the clean energy economy” web site.  See how the vision of having clean and independent energy sources is making a difference in our economy and creating jobs locally – a vision Minnesotans created by passing some of the nation’s leading renewable energy and conservation standards over the last decade. 

*Thanks to Kerck Kelsey for the history on William D. Washburn in Prairie Lightning published by Pogo Press, Lakeville, Minnesota, 2010, and also to my wife Wendy for finding the book hidden away in a bookstore in Duluth, Minnesota.

Now, we need YOUR help to spread our message about clean energy jobs. One simple way to help is to host a link on your organization’s website to MEP’s 2010 Clean Energy website. The 2010 Clean Energy website includes personal stories from Minnesotans working in the clean energy economy, links to recent news stories and other resources for clean energy supporters.

MEP has created a button (right) that you can use to link to the 2010 Clean Energy site.  To add the button to your website, have your webmaster insert the following code into the desired location on your page:

<a href=”http://mn.2010cleanenergy.org/” target=”_blank”><img src=”http://mepartnership.org/images/CleanEnergy-whitebg.gif” alt=”2010 Clean Energy: Real People Real Jobs” width=”209″ height=”62″ border=”0″ /></a>

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.

We want to make sure all candidates understand Minnesotans’ support for these initiatives -– and how we’ll all benefit from investments in clean energy. Besides the meetings Ryan and other staff are conducting with candidates’ campaigns (which he will discuss in an upcoming post), we’ve created a website – MN.2010CleanEnergy.org – that features stories from real Minnesotans who work in clean energy jobs.

We are talking with workers in various professions from across the state, showing candidates (and the public!) that clean energy jobs are already benefiting residents and Minnesota’s economy. Several of these clean energy companies are in the midst of expanding, which proves there is a growing need for more clean energy policies in Minnesota.

When we use these real examples of Minnesota workers who you and I can relate to, it makes “clean energy” more than an environmental crusade: Clean energy companies can provide good jobs for our family and friends, while also moving Minnesota toward a more sustainable future. It’s sensible business.

We’re still in the process of gathering more stories, especially those about minorities and/or people located outside the Twin Cities. If you know of a good person to feature, send us a message. All suggestions welcome! We will keep posting about this project as election day draws closer.

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.

A key outreach tool is our program website, 2010CleanEnergy.org. It provides the resources necessary for political campaigns, large and small, to become informed on the pressing energy issues facing Minnesota and the nation. The site features stories from Minnesotans employed by companies that are already a part of our clean energy future. Read more about producing these stories and why they’re vital to this project.
 
In addition to these stories there is also relevant polling data from fall 2009 and spring 2010, resources for people looking for clean energy jobs, news stories covering a variety of energy topics, links to other organizations doing similar work, and much more.
 
We will keep providing updates as this project continues.

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.

The ways Minnesotans in general can help are not directly related to the spill — but by helping monitor and protect the health of loons, we can help indirectly.

Minnesota DNR needs volunteers to survey specific lakes in Aitkin, Crow Wing, Itasca, Kandiyohi, and Lake counties for this year’s annual loon survey (July 2th-12th).  Contact the DNR Regional Nongame Wildlife staff.

Using lead-free sinkers can also help reduce loon mortality.  The DNR has information here.

- 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. 

Now that the 2010 session has ended I’ll follow my past tradition of using the last edition of my session musings to recognize those in the Legislature who championed the environmental cause in the tradition of Sigurd Olson.  I’m probably violating some sort of copyright or writers’ etiquette, but I have affectionately called these recognitions my “Sig” awards in honor of the great Northwoods traveler.

First, a disclaimer: these are my personal suggestions alone.  They are only my impressions as an old, overweight voyager who has traveled the wilds of both the Northwoods and the legislative halls.  I recognize there are many who could be honorable mentions.  This year’s Legislature has many individuals who have fought passionately for the protection of our Great Outdoors and would be too numerous to include.  My thoughts below are by no means intended to be an endorsement of any candidates, but only my humble impressions.  So here is my call for the three “Sig” awards for 2010, but feel free to add your thoughts below.

The Retiree Who Will Be Most Missed.  There is no question that the most missed retiree will be Sen. Dennis Frederickson (R-New Ulm).  After 30 years at the Capitol he certainly deserves retirement, but there is no doubt that his patient, persistent and gracious leadership will be missed in the Senate.  He was one of the strongest advocates for our lakes, rivers and our Great Outdoors.  Even though he was in the minority all the years he served in the Legislature, he was a leader on most of the important committees that crafted our major environmental protections and outdoor legislation.  All those who served with him on those committees will tell you he played a critical role in crafting legislation that actually works.  It would take me another article to identify all the legislation Senator Frederickson was so critical in guiding through the process, not the least of which are the LCCMR and the Clean Water, Land and Legacy Constitutional Amendment. 

As a conservationist and as a legislator, the best word to describe Dennis Frederickson is “stewardship.”  He has passed on to his children and grandchildren a Minnesota with more wild places to roam and cleaner lakes and rivers.

When I found the above quote from Sigurd Olson, I could imagine those words coming from Dennis, telling his grandchildren about the hike they were about to take.  One can get a glimpse of the stewardship ethic that beat in the heart of Sen. Frederickson by just reading his quote in his local paper, the New Ulm Journal, when talking of his retirement “. . . it is time to spend more time with my wife, Marj; fishing, hunting, canoeing the Minnesota River; and enjoying grandchildren’s concerts, gymnastics, basketball and soccer games. I want to visit our beautiful state parks and trails and enjoy the outdoors.” 

The Rookies of the Year.  The winners of the “Sig” rookies of the year certainly did not play the game at the Capitol like rookies.  In their first terms, Sen. Tony Lourey (DFL-Kerrick) and Rep. Mike Obermueller (DFL-Eagan) played the legislative game like seasoned veterans in guiding to passage one of MEP’s top priorities, the Complete Streets initiative.  The proposal will provide for more comprehensive street planning that will help reduce air pollution and create more transportation choices.  Despite having bipartisan support, it was clear that the more radical conservative elements of the Republican Party were out to sabotage the proposal and pushing for a gubernatorial veto.  This was disappointing and surprising given the fact that it was meant to empower local control and to lower the cost of street projects, which seems like something any true conservative would support.  Unfortunately, politics creates strange alliances and oppositions.

Given this opposition from some conservatives, Lourey and Obermueller quickly and carefully identified other bills they could amend their legislation to that would guarantee a gubernatorial signature.  Even though they were prepared to move in several different directions if needed, they were able to find a safe vehicle in the Omnibus Transportation Policy Bill (SF2540).  That bill was eventually signed by the Governor.  Good legislators learn early that getting their proposals passed doesn’t always mean passing their original bill.  You need the humility and the innovativeness to find a safe “vehicle bill” to guide your provisions past the opposition.  Lourey and Obermueller did this with the precision of veteran legislators.

The funny thing is, in the end their original bill number (SF2461/HF2801) actually passed the full Legislature.  It did not have the Complete Streets language in it, but was itself used as a vehicle on the last day of session.  It’s not uncommon that legislators will throw several bills at the Governor with different mixes of proposals, hoping he will sign one of their bills.  Veteran Transportation Chair Sen. Steve Murphy (DFL-Red Wing) grabbed SF2461 during the last days of session to send several provisions changing funding amounts on particular projects to the Governor.  Therefore, Lourey and Obermueller actually did pass the Complete Streets “bill”; it just didn’t have the complete street language in it.  Yes, I know it’s strange and confusing, but the bottom line is we have two champions in Lourey and Obermueller who were able to get things done for sensible transportation policy.

The Best Defensive Players.  Entering the 2010 session we knew it was going to be a year where we needed excellent defense.  The State was facing a record budget deficit that could threaten environment and conservation programs.  The business community made it clear it was a priority to challenge our progressive energy policy and regulations protecting our environment.  Therefore, we needed some defensive champions.  There were many legislators who played key roles in defending our Great Outdoors, but there are two who stood out to me: Senators Yvonne Prettner-Solon (DFL-Duluth) and John Doll (DFL-Burnsville). 

Last year the environment community was caught off guard by a successful amendment on the Senate floor to repeal the moratorium on the construction of new nuclear reactors.  The moratorium was adopted in 1994 as part of the resolution over the “temporary” storage of nuclear waste in casks outside the Prairie Island plant near Red Wing.  The wise decision by the 1994 Legislature was that a moratorium made sense until permanent storage was found by the federal government for our nuclear waste.  The ‘94 Legislature understood it was a total lack of stewardship to create more of this dangerous waste for future generations to clean up until we resolved the problems of disposing of the waste produced by our State’s two existing nuclear reactors.  Unfortunately, pro-nuclear forces have been pushing hard to repeal these types of moratoriums across the nation.

Prettner-Solon and Doll came out and flawlessly executed an exceptional defensive strategy in the Senate.  Despite the fact that there were votes to overturn the moratorium, they wisely turned the debate back on the central issues of what to do with the dangerous waste and the high cost to ratepayers to construct a nuclear reactor.  Prettner-Solon, as chair of the Senate Committee on Energy, Utilities, Technology and Communications Committee, gave a committee hearing to a bill to repeal the moratorium and worked closely with Doll to have him offer an amendment placing conditions that required permanent storage of nuclear waste and ratepayer protections before a nuclear reactor could be constructed.  It so confused the pro-nuclear forces that they eventually withdrew the bill from consideration in the Committee.  When the pro-nuclear forces offered amendments to repeal the moratorium on the floor, just the threat of the Doll conditions amendment caused them to back off of their efforts.

Therefore, Prettner-Solon and Doll earned my Sig award for 2010.  Sorry everyone, there are no trophies or plaques.  You get plenty of those silly things from others to hang on your walls over the years.  Someday those plaques will end up in a box in your garage (at least that’s where mine are) to be thrown away by relatives after you die.  More important is that thanks to your efforts, we are passing on something more valuable to our descendents: “vistas of wilderness” and a Minnesota that they will be proud to live in and hike through.