All caucuses are at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 7. Find your precinct caucus on the Secretary of State’s website.

Precinct Caucuses Launch the Election Season
Major parties are required by law to hold precinct caucuses on “caucus night,” as set by the Secretary of State. Each party determines its own procedures.

Everyone who lives within a voting precinct and is a qualified voter (or will be by the next election) can participate in one party’s precinct caucus in any one year. (Precinct = local voting district)

First layer of democratic elections
The precinct caucus is the first step on the road to the final selection of candidates and platforms.  The next step is either a county or legislative district convention, followed by a congressional district convention, a state convention and finally, in presidential election years, the national convention.  At each level, issues and candidates are discussed and voted on by the delegates selected from the prior level.

Why should I attend my caucus?
Caucuses give you and your neighbors in the precinct an opportunity to discuss issues that are important to you – a chance to say how you would like to see a problem addressed.   It is also your opportunity to influence the candidate selection within your party.

You can introduce resolutions on issues you support; this is the beginning of building a party’s platform.  The caucus is also the beginning of the formal process of selecting candidates to represent your party in the general election in November.

You may take an active role by becoming a delegate to the next level of meetings and perhaps join a committee to plan the next meeting. You may choose to go only to observe the process.

How do I decide which party caucus to attend?
Find out the positions of the parties on issues that are important to you and decide if you are in general agreement with one of the parties.  When you sign in at a caucus, you will be stating that you do support the basic tenets of that party, have done so in the past or plan to in the next election.  This is not a lifetime commitment, nor even an absolute requirement to vote for only one party at the general election. You may also go to either party caucus as a non-voting observer.

When and where are the caucuses held?
In even years, caucuses for the major parties (as defined by state law) take place at 7:00 p.m. on the date established in every voting precinct of the state. Usually, they are held in early February. This year Precinct Caucuses are on Feb. 7th!

Here are some resolutions regarding environmental issues that you can download and share at your caucus:

• Prohibit toxic chemicals in children’s products
• Maintain community and township rights
• Keep Minnesota on the path to clean energy
• Increase renewable energy and energy conservation
• Protect the Legacy Amendment
• Preserve existing state budget laws in the state Constitution
• ‘Prove it first’ resolution on sulfide mining
• Protect Minnesota’s water from sulfide mining pollution
  • Fact sheet on sulfide mining
  • Sample script to introduce your resolution

If you’re planning to propose a resolution:

1. Give a brief introduction to the issue, why it is important, and generally what is says. Pass out resolution and factsheet (if you have one).
2. Read your resolution in full to fellow precinct members.
3. Answer questions to the best of your ability during discussion period (if needed).
4. Vote to pass the resolutions for which you agree.

Bonus tip — go early to pass out copies of your resolutions and answer questions before the caucus begins!

Learn more about how caucuses work and what to expect

Register online

Join us on Wednesday, Feb. 8, to network with state policy makers and volunteers and staff of MEP’s member organizations, discuss our legislative priorities, and hear from our state legislative and agency leaders about their views on current environmental issues.

The reception begins at 6 p.m. at the Summit Brewery’s Ratskeller Community Room. Enjoy an appetizer buffet and Summit beer and root beer. Bring your staff, spouse and friends – all are welcome! A brief program featuring guest speakers Rep. Denny McNamara, Sen. David Senjem, Rep. Kate Knuth and DNR Commissioner Tom Landwehr will begin at 7 p.m.

Tickets are $25. Register and pay online. Please contact Patience Caso at the MEP office, 651-290-0154, with questions.

But thanks to your help, we had a minor victory late last week!  A bill was heard to weaken township and community rights by limiting local citizen input in large scale developments in their community.  We were on alert. You contacted your legislators, community leaders testified, and legislators came to their senses.  The bill was set aside.

But urgent action is still needed!  There are over fifty bills that are on our watch list and some are moving quickly.  The policies that have been introduced do not support Minnesotans’ desire to protect our lakes, rivers and streams, our drinking water, our air quality and our Great Outdoors heritage.

Instead of maintaining the laws that protect our water and our health, the legislature wants to weaken or roll back these protections! Our elected leaders must not move our state backwards on policies that protect our water, invest in clean energy and protect our health.

Act now: Your input matters to your elected officials.

MPCA files report on permitting efficiency

House File 1, passed in 2011, required MPCA to set a goal of issuing permits within 150 days. MPCA received over 2500 permit applications in the nine-month period between March 4, 2011 (when House File 1 took effect) and December 31. In that time, the agency processed 99% of priority permits within 150 days. These priority permits required construction or significant modification of the facility in question – the types of action that can create jobs. The facilities receiving these 1,632 permits will help grow Minnesota’s economy without delay by MPCA.

Among all permit applications, including the more routine renewals, the agency took longer than 150 days with only 10% of permit applications. For most permits that took longer, there was a good reason: the agency was waiting for info from permittees, there was a significant public engagement process, federal or state policies changed, or the government was shut down. Read the permitting efficiency report here.

Anderson’s credible work at the PUC supported jobs here in Minnesota. The University of Massachusetts’ Political Economy Research Institute found that $1 million invested in solar energy creates 14 jobs, while that same investment in fossil fuels creates only five jobs. Clean energy investments today mean solid jobs, and saving money and energy for our children and grandchildren.

Our elected leaders need to move beyond partisan politics and realize that Minnesota voters’ clear support of clean, renewable energy is not extreme – it’s mainstream.

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:

- Clean Energy & Good Jobs: Solar Works for Minnesota
Invest in clean energy to support our schools, help our local economy and create good jobs

- Safeguard Investments for Minnesota’s Future
Defend water, air, and land protections and the Clean Water, Land and Legacy funding

Act now to let Governor Dayton and your state legislators know that these investments are vital to Minnesota’s future. Not sure who your legislators are? That’s OK! When you fill out this form on Protect.MN, MEP’s campaign website, your message will automatically go to the right legislator.

Your input can make a difference! Deadline to take action is Feb. 7.

photo by Sakarri on Flickr

Tomorrow, the Minnesota House Environment, Energy, and Natural Resources Policy and Finance Committee will hold a hearing regarding HF 1856. This bill concerns the hunting and trapping of wolves in Minnesota, an issue that the Sierra Club North Star Chapter has been closely and carefully monitoring.

Now that the species has recently been delisted, the state of Minnesota must ensure that the stability of the wolf population does not fall victim to other interests. An initiation of a hunting season immediately following the wolf’s removal from threatened status raises serious concerns. Initially, a 5 year waiting period was called for, after delisting, before a hunting season would be opened. This waiting period was eliminated by legislation passed last year.

It is thanks, in part, to Sierra Club North Star Chapter’s work to protect the wolf under the Endangered Species Act for the past three decades that the Great Lakes Wolf population, which includes Minnesota, has made steps toward recovery. This should be celebrated.

However, we believe that Minnesota’s native wildlife is a public trust and we have an obligation to conserve species for the benefit of all our citizens. Since all of our wildlife species are public resources, including the wolf, the State of Minnesota should not introduce a hunting season on the wolf without a full public notification, involvement and review process.

In addition, we wish to highlight the following specific areas of concern:

- We must enact such laws as will best preserve the wolf, a public trust, and secure its beneficial use in the future to the people of the state. We do not support an open season that overlaps with deer hunting.

- We believe there must be an adequate monitoring plan in place that includes not only “take” numbers but other impacts to wolves and wolf habitat that may cause a decline in population. At minimum, the DNR must have adequate resources to conduct sound scientific monitoring to ensure the continued viability of the wolf.

- We have long had concerns for certain types of trapping of wildlife species and urge extreme care when implementing trapping regulations for the wolf. Lethal trapping of non-targeted species and pets is, and continues to be, a problem in Minnesota.

The wolf, once imperiled, has made an amazing recovery. This marvelous creature is an icon of our state and beloved by Minnesotans. We should move into the future of wolf management through a careful and well-considered process. Such a process should include full transparency and involvement of the public. Without such a commitment, decades of work to recover the species could easily be lost.

Interested in weighing in on this or other issues affecting Minnesota’s environment during the 2012 session?  Click here to find out who your state representatives are.

Crossposted at Sierra Club North Star Chapter blog

(For an easy-to-understand summary of the landmark Clean Water Act and how it affects Minnesota, see Minnesota’s impaired waters 101, written by Friends of the Mississippi River, an MEP member organization.)

Unfortunately, many leaders in Minnesota proved unfriendly to our water during the past legislative session.*

These policies were signed into law:

• Protections for water quality standards in wild rice waters were weakened
• Requirements for feedlots were weakened
• A special exemption for Lutsen Ski Resort to extract water from the Poplar River, a designated trout stream already undergoing a clean-up plan, further endangering the trout and the health of the river

There is some good news, though. Thanks to the great work of our members and our supporters in the public, a few bad water policies proposed by the Legislature were defeated:

• Repealing the Mississippi River Corridor Critical Area designation rules
• Imposing a two-year freeze on creating or updating any and all water regulations

But we fear the upcoming 2012 legislative session will bring similar — or even worse — attacks on our state’s water.

We Minnesotans know that protecting our water is not a Republican or Democratic issue — it’s a Minnesota value. We must join together to continue reminding our elected leaders of this, and urge them to do what’s right for Minnesota and our children and grandchildren.

In the spirit of the Clean Water Act, please show your support for our coalition’s work and Minnesota’s lakes, rivers, and streams by making a donation to the Minnesota Environmental Partnership, today or on Give to the Max Day (Nov. 16, 2011).

Together, let’s make sure that the Minnesota we love will be enjoyed by generations to come!

(*For more about what happened at the Capitol regarding the environment, see our 2011 Session in Review.)

State Budget

Defending traditional sources of funding for our Great Outdoors was a significant part of MEP’s work at the Capitol this year. Though the legislature proposed a drastic 22 percent cut to environmental programs and services in their initial Omnibus Environmental Finance Bill, this legislation was vetoed by Governor Dayton. Later, in the compromise bill put together by the Governor and the Legislature during special session, overall state general fund expenditures increased significantly, but environmental funding was still cut by 14 percent. The Pollution Control Agency alone – whose workers ensure that Minnesota’s air, water and land are safe – has a 40 percent cut to its state support in this compromise bill.

This disproportionate, 14 percent cut severely impairs our state’s ability to protect and restore our lakes, rivers, streams, habitat, parks and more. These significant cuts go against Minnesota voters’ clear wishes to do more, not less, to protect our state’s water and Great Outdoors.

A proposed hunting and fishing license fee increase would have provided additional funds to the game and fish fund, and a proposed increase in the boat license registration surcharge would have provided additional revenue for the Aquatic Invasive Species program. The final budget failed to include any fee increases. These increases were supported by MEP and other stakeholders and the Governor’s administration.

Legacy Amendment

The Legislature passed the Legacy Amendment Appropriations Bill during special session and it was signed by Governor Dayton. The bill largely followed the recommendations from the Lessard-Sams Outdoor Heritage Council and the Clean Water Council.

Policy Defense

There were many bad policies proposed by the Legislature that MEP advocated against, both through lobbying and through public outreach. We are pleased that several of these policies were ultimately defeated:

• Logging our state parks
• Repealing the Mississippi River Corridor Critical Area designation rules
• Imposing a two-year freeze on creating or updating any and all water regulations
• Repealing Minnesota’s 17-year-old moratorium on building new nuclear power plants
• Unraveling restrictions on pollution from newly constructed coal-fired power plants, a critical part of the 2007 Next Generation Energy Act

Unfortunately, there were policies signed into law that are bad for our state’s Great Outdoors. Although the environment and conservation community was able to limit the severity of these harmful policies, the provisions that became law will take some of the Great out of our Great Outdoors:

• Protections for water quality standards in wild rice waters were weakened*
• Requirements for feedlots were weakened*
• The streamlining of environmental review and permitting process that provides an exemption to the Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board (IRRRB), allows the proposer to conduct its own environmental review, and makes it harder for citizens to access the courts
• A special exemption for the Spiritwood coal plant in North Dakota, which is now allowed to import coal-fired electricity into Minnesota, without having to reduce excess pollution
• A special exemption for Lutsen Ski Resort to extract water from the Poplar River, a designated trout stream already undergoing a clean-up plan, further endangering the trout and the health of the river

(*Both these policies set the dangerous precedent of implementing only the minimum environmental protections required under federal law. These policy riders were included in the compromise budget bill passed during special session.)

Solar Campaign

One of MEP’s collaborative priorities for 2011 was the Solar Works for Minnesota campaign, which is pursuing a 10 percent solar energy standard by 2030 for Minnesota. The solar campaign’s first year focused on building partnerships among advocacy groups, businesses and labor, and it has successfully built their coalition to more than 125 member organizations.

The campaign also worked at the Capitol, laying the groundwork to pass legislation by introducing the Minnesota Solar Energy Act in the state House and Senate. The Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development Commissioner Mark Phillips has agreed to put together a multi-agency task force to study the economic benefits of 10% solar energy for our state. The coalition is also working with the Division of Energy Resources to study various aspects of increasing solar energy in Minnesota. The campaign continues to work with Governor Dayton’s administration to develop additional policy strategies that support the Minnesota Solar Energy Act.

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. Though the budgets are improved, we are still faced with a 14 percent cut for programs that protect our water and our Great Outdoors. The Pollution Control Agency alone – whose workers ensure that Minnesota’s air, water and land are safe – is cut by 40 percent in this compromise bill.

These significant cuts go against Minnesota voters’ clear wishes to do more, not less, to protect our state’s water and Great Outdoors. Just two and a half years ago, Minnesotans voted to raise their taxes by passing the Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment, and proved they’re willing to spend more to protect what they value about our state. The compromise budget is not consistent with this directive from Minnesota voters.

Now is not the time to continue imposing cuts on Minnesota’s water and our Great Outdoors. State legislators must stop relying on one-time budget band-aids and instead must implement long-term solutions that will ensure Minnesota’s Great Outdoors are protected for our children and grandchildren.

Extraneous policy:

We are disappointed that the environmental budget bill goes beyond addressing the budget by including policy provisions. Two examples of potentially damaging policies in the environment budget bill are weakened permit requirements for feedlots and required rulemaking for water quality standards for wild rice. An omnibus finance bill during special session is not the place to insert harmful, extraneous policies.