I’m just a little sick of this whole “jobs versus the environment” thing. First thing, the goal of good public policy should be to have both good jobs and a clean environment, not one or the other. Second thing, what about all those jobs that are actually FOR the environment?

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From Patience Caso, MEP campaign director, and Eric Bergstrom, legislative and campaign outreach

Welcome to the 2012 legislative session! You care about Minnesota’s Great Outdoors and you believe in making and safeguarding investments for future generations. Your voice is critical to protecting and defending our environmental policy foundation — your elected officials need to hear from you.

This year, we’re counting on you to join the members of the Minnesota Environmental Partnership and advocate for: (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…)

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…)

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…)

Written by Ben Hellerstein, Sierra Club Legislative Intern

Concerned park-goers gather at the Rally for our State Parks hosted by the Sierra Club and environmental partner groups

We’re well into the second week of the Minnesota state government shutdown. Closing down many of the functions of state government for a few weeks might seem like a great way to save money, especially since budget negotiators still need to close a several-billion-dollar gap between state spending and revenues for the next biennium. In reality, the shutdown will cost the state tens of millions of dollars in additional expenses and lost revenues, like the $52 million a month that the laid-off tax auditors in the Department of Revenue would ordinarily bring in. (more…)

2011 Regular Session Ends in a Draw

Disturbing Trend for Special Exemptions Threatens Minnesota’s Great Outdoors

While we wait for a Special Session to resolve Minnesota’s budget crisis, it is time to take stock of what happened and what didn’t happen to Protect Minnesota’s Great Outdoors in the 2011 Regular Session.

Heading into the regular session, we knew we would have to play defense.  However, none of us fathomed how much of our energy would be expended to stop bad bills that threaten Minnesota’s lakes, rivers and streams, natural areas, wildlife habitat and Clean Energy Future. (more…)

June 3, 2011

How is your summer going so far? Warm enough for you?

How would you like to spend part—if not all—of your summer at the State Capitol trying to balance the budget! (more…)

May 27, 2011

“It ain’t over till it’s over,” said New York Yankee great Yogi Berra.

That’s the way a lot of lobbyists, advocates, agency staff, and legislators felt when the 2011 legislative session came to an end at midnight on May 23. Five months of action and drama, but still no budget and deficit resolve. “Extra innings,” Yogi would say! (more…)

May 20, 2011

What are you doing this weekend?

I will be spending some quality time at the State Capitol as we continue to work with the 201 legislators on legislation of major importance to Minnesotans and to our environment and conservation traditions and values. (more…)