Give to the Max Countdown: 8 days to go!

We Minnesotans sure love to fish: Dropping a line in our favorite lake, river or stream is part of our way of life.

But a whopping 40% of our state’s lakes and rivers are seriously polluted – contaminating the fish, making them harmful to our health.

So let’s do something about it. (more…)

Back in 2008, 1.6 million Minnesotans voted to pass the Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment. When polled after the 2008 vote, the majority of voters said that cleaning up and protecting Minnesota’s lakes, rivers and streams was the No. 1 reason they voted YES to pass the amendment. The next highest reason was to support ALL the components of the Amendment – water, outdoor habitat, parks and trails, and arts and culture. (Learn more about the Amendment here.)

Overall, the Legacy Amendment was established to ensure there would be long-term funding for these causes, and that the Legacy funds would not replace traditional (though recently fading) government funding for the arts and the outdoors.

Now, some Republican legislators want to divert Legacy money, specifically the arts and cultural heritage money, to help fund a new Vikings Stadium. There are nonprofits and community organizations across the state that rely on Legacy funding. The notion that Legacy money would be taken from these organizations and given to the for-profit business owners of the Vikings is shameful – and is definitely not what voters had in mind when they passed the Legacy Amendment. (more…)

Steve Morse joined radio host Nancy Nelson Tuesday, Nov. 1, on AM950 to discuss the idea (supported by some Republican leaders) that it’s OK to use Legacy Amendment funds to pay for a new Vikings stadium.

In part one, Steve and Nancy delve into the background of the proposal:

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(more…)

[Check out this previous post to hear Steve discuss these issues on AM950 Radio.]

Minnesotans expect our leaders to do more to clean up and restore our lakes, rivers and streams – Minnesota voters passed the Legacy Amendment in 2008 to do just that! But is that money being used effectively?

Our state has a long way to go in cleaning up our water, and preventing future pollution.

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency reports that about 40% of Minnesota’s lakes and streams that they’ve tested are categorized as polluted. That means these waters don’t meet basic health standards for swimming or fishing – and definitely not drinking. What’s even more disturbing is that most of our lakes and rivers have yet to be tested! There is clearly more work that needs to be done to test these lakes to figure out where important clean-up work is most needed. (more…)

Steve Morse joined radio host Nancy Nelson Tuesday, Oct. 4, on AM950 to discuss Legacy Amendment funds for cleaning up our water, and how water pollution is tied to agriculture.

Listen to their conversation by clicking play below.

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(more…)

From Congresswoman Betty McCollum

On September 23, House Republicans passed a destructive bill called the TRAIN Act (H.R. 2401).  This legislation institutes needless bureaucratic delays and stall tactics to permanently weaken EPA’s ability to uphold the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act. The bill also orders EPA to indefinitely delay its rules to address cross-state air pollution and mercury emissions from power plants.  (more…)

So what happened this past legislative session? Here’s our brief overview:

State Budget

Defending traditional sources of funding for our Great Outdoors was a significant part of MEP’s work at the Capitol this year. (more…)

Written by Sierra Club intern Ben Hellerstein

Photo by CERTs

Across the state, Minnesotans are building a clean energy economy from the ground up. Our Clean Energy Tour on July 13 took us to the small town of Spicer, located about 90 miles west of Minneapolis, where local residents and institutions are working to break their dependence on imported sources of energy, reduce their carbon footprint, and save money on their utility bills. (more…)

The new compromise environment budget bill is an improvement over the budget-gutting bill originally put forth by the legislature and later vetoed by the governor, but even in this improved bill, our concerns remain:

Disproportionate cuts:

Although we are grateful that overall state general fund spending has increased for our Great Outdoors compared to the legislature’s proposals, funding to protect our lakes, rivers, streams, habitat and parks is still severely cut. (more…)

While Minnesota’s leaders struggle to reach a budget solution, we must continue to let our legislators and the governor know that the budget must be fair and balanced — and protect the things Minnesotans value, including our Great Outdoors.

Earlier in the 2011 regular session, our legislators supported many provisions that threatened Minnesota’s land, air and water. Specifically, the environmental budget bill passed by the legislature made dramatic cuts to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and the Department of Natural Resources that would have undercut our state support for our outdoors and health, including: (more…)