“I think the agitation that I made on the matter contributed much to the discontinuance by the government of the pernicious practice”
-General Christopher C. Andrews, 1902

Of my favorite of the many Civil War portraits that adorn the Capitol is the one just above the receptionist desk in the Governor’s Office portraying the Minnesota Third Infantry marching into Little Rock, Arkansas.The painting shows an exhausted drummer boy peaceably staggering up the road into Little Rock with the remainder of the victorious Minnesotans stretched out in the background coming up from the Arkansas River.  Riding tall in the saddle in the lead of this majestic yet exhausted column is the commander of the Minnesota Third, Christopher C. Andrews.

During the Civil War, Andrews distinguished himself as commander of the Minnesota Third.  In one of the most successful campaigns in the western theater, Andrews’ Third successfully marched on the Arkansas capitol of Little Rock.  Along with several other units under General Frederick Steele, they undertook a 100-mile march in the sweltering southern heat of August.  Despite being plagued by debilitating sickness, the Minnesota Third participated in one of the most renowned outmaneuverings of the Confederate Army to capture Little Rock against a well-entrenched opposition with only minor casualties.  Andrews and the Minnesota Third remained on as the occupying force of Little Rock, where Andrews gained renown as a fair and benevolent commander later to be mustered out as a major general.

After the war, Andrews served with distinction as a diplomat for the United States to such countries as Norway, Sweden and Brazil.  When he returned to Minnesota in the 1880s, General Andrews became one of the leading, if not prophetic, voices for reform in our forestry practices.  He preached against clear cutting and advocated for sound conservation practices he observed in Scandinavian countries.  In the wake of the 1894 great Hinckley forest fire, he pushed for a scientifically driven state forestry post.  The State Legislature, under the pressure of this great tragedy, needed to act but was still controlled by the lumber industry.  Instead of a state forestry post as advocated by Andrews, they created the post of Chief Fire Warden.  Not to be outmaneuvered, the wily General outflanked the State Legislature and successfully pushed for his appointment to the position.  Starting at age 65, he transformed this position over the next 27 years into a dominating force for forest conservation and sustainable management. 

As quoted above, it was his persistent agitation that led to the discontinuance of very destructive forest practices by the government and made Minnesota a leader in forest land management.  He never stopped pressing the concept of forestry protection until his death in 1922 at the age of 92.  He truly gave vision to sustainable forests for Minnesota. The State honored him by naming a state forest after him just outside of Willow River.

The big issue at the Capitol this week was not forest sustainability, but the future of nuclear energy in our state.  General Andrews, as a great leader for safe and sustainable forests, would have been proud of the actions by the Senate Committee on Energy, Utilities, Technology and Communications in setting a course for a safe and sustainable energy policy for the state of Minnesota.  The General would have been particularly proud of the leadership shown by Senator John Doll (DFL-Burnsville) and Chairwoman Yvonne Prettner-Solon (DFL-Duluth).  Just like the General’s clear and decisive actions in Little Rock, they refused to be outmaneuvered by the pro-nuclear forces in their pursuit of good energy policy in Minnesota.

Our recent battle over expanding nuclear power began last year with a surprise amendment that was offered to an energy bill on the Senate floor to repeal the moratorium on the construction of new nuclear reactors in Minnesota.  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.

The nuclear issue had remained dormant for several years until recently.  There is a national effort to bring back nuclear reactors as a source of energy generation despite the fact that we still have not resolved the question of nuclear waste storage.  One of the focuses of this new “Nuclear Renaissance,” as it has become known, is to go to states that have moratoriums on the construction of new reactors and seek repeal of these moratoriums.  Last year’s floor amendment in the Senate came as a surprise to the environmental community, but fortunately the House wisely rejected this preemptive strike by the pro-nuclear forces last year.

Unfortunately, they have come back again this year with a vengeance. They argue the moratorium takes a possible viable option off the table and does not allow us to discuss the matter.  The chair of the Senate Committee on Energy, Utilities, Technology and Communications, Senator Prettner-Solon, promised to have those discussions and a vote of the moratorium repeal bill in her committee to hopefully avoid another surprise amendment on the floor.  It is through the normal committee process that the Legislature has their full and complete discussion on an issue.

The promised hearings on the nuclear moratorium occurred this week.  There was an information hearing held on Tuesday and on Thursday, as promised, the committee gave full consideration to HF355 authored by Senator Amy Koch (R-Buffalo) in preparation for a vote.  It was quite evident that the pro-nuclear forces were overconfident because a majority of the committee had voted last year for the repeal of the moratorium on the Senate floor.  After excellent presentations by our team members of Steve Morse, executive director for MEP, and Lisa Ledwidge with the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research (IEER), the committee realized a straight repeal was an unwise state policy that would leave our ratepayers exposed to excessive costs and our state with no permanent waste storage solution.

It was Senator Doll who put together an amendment allowing for the repeal to go through but with clear restrictions placed on future nuclear facilities in the state.  The major focus was to ensure safe operation, require the permanent storage of waste generated, and protect ratepayers from past practices of the nuclear industry that shifted costs of construction to consumers long before a reactor produces any power.  When Senator Doll’s amendment was overwhelmingly adopted by the committee on a 9-6 vote, the bill’s author essentially withdrew her bill from consideration.  Apparently the pro-nuclear forces really didn’t want a discussion when the subject was nuclear safety, permanent storage or ratepayer protections.

This is a major victory for the environmental community, but the battle is not over.  Even though the bill was withdrawn from consideration, there is a possibility that the pro-nuclear forces will again try to avoid the full discussion of the committee process and have the moratorium repeal amended to another bill on the floor.  Fortunately, the overwhelming passage of the Doll amendment sets a clear Senate committee position.  Therefore, if the pro-nuclear forces try to amend their provision onto a bill in the future, they will likely see an amendment to their amendment that looks very similar to the one overwhelmingly approved in the committee this week.

The senators who supported the Doll amendment in committee were: Ellen Anderson (DFL-St. Paul), Jim Carlson (DFL-Eagan), Kevin Dahle (DFL-Northfield), Scott Dibble (DFL-Minneapolis), John Doll, Rick Olseen (DFL-Harris), Chair Prettner-Solon, Sandy Rummel (DFL-White Bear Lake), and Kathy Sheran (DFL-Mankato).  Those opposing the amendment in committee were Michael Jungbauer (R-East Bethel), Koch, Julie Rosen (R-Fairmont), Dave Senjem (R-Rochester), Dan Sparks (DFL-Austin) and Ray Vandeveer (R-Forest Lake).  I think they will have a hard time explaining to their constituents why they are okay with long-term nuclear storage at temporary sites in Minnesota and the fact that they think ratepayers, rather than utility investors, should take the risk for the construction of nuclear plants.

Other states have gone down this unwise road of nuclear expansion and have regretted adopting a pro-nuclear policy.  We are very fortunate to have senators who, like General Andrews, were willing to agitate on the matter of waste storage and ratepayer protection so that Minnesota did not adopt this same “pernicious practice.”

There is plenty of activity occurring at the Capitol on other issues of concern to the environmental community, including the budget and mining.  Stay tuned next week as we cover some of those issues as they develop at the Capitol.

“There is Governor Ames himself.” 

These were the words whispered in a low husky voice from one of four horse riders wearing long white cattle dusters as they rode across the bridge into Northfield, Minnesota, on what would become a fateful day in September of 1876.  Unfortunately for the would-be bank robbers, the words were overheard by Adelbert Ames as he walked past the riders on well-bred horses as he was leaving town from a meeting at the First National Bank. 

Ames had recently returned from the south to help manage the family mill in Northfield.   While in the South, he served as governor of Mississippi during Reconstruction.  Only a year earlier he was run out of Mississippi by the flames of racial prejudice and hatred for Northern carpetbaggers like Ames.  It was the beginning of an ugly era of Southern politics which was dominated by the KKK and their like.

When Ames heard these words whispered between the riders, he immediately knew something dreadful was in the wind that crisp fall day.  He said to the companions walking with him, “those men are from the south and are here for no good purpose, no one here calls me governor.”  When the riders had sufficiently passed Ames he turned to quickly head back into town; he soon heard cries explode from downtown that the bank was being robbed.  The Civil War veteran Ames sprang into action, helping lead the townspeople in their successful effort to repel the raiders.

Cole Younger later reported while a prisoner in Stillwater that one of the reasons they chose the bank in Northfield was their belief that there were ill-gotten gains from carpetbaggers like Ames who helped in the Reconstruction in the South.  Ames was astonished that the Southern anger at the Reconstruction would visit him so far north from his days in Mississippi.  Some 134 years later, those Minnesota environmental and conservation leaders who have worked hard to establish funding for environment and conservation purposes are a little worried there could be raids on their resources this legislative session.

Their concerns were not alleviated when Governor Pawlenty released his budget this Monday.  It is important to note that the Governor did not disproportionately cut the overall budgets in the major agencies responsible for protecting our lakes, rivers and wild places.  Therefore, it is probably not fair to compare it to the great Northfield bank raid by the James and Younger Gang.  Nonetheless, there are concerns of coming problems in light of the Governor’s treatment of several of our special environmental funds.

The Governor and Legislature face a daunting task this session, needing to close a $1.2 billion gap between our present revenue collections and the anticipated expenditures for the rest of this legislative biennium.  We are almost halfway through the budget that was established last legislative session with no reserves, minimal possible budget shifts and no real promise for increased revenue in the near future.  Therefore, the only place this no new tax governor has to go is deep budget cuts in state programs.  One budget balancing gimmick left is to take dedicated funding sources and redirect them to the general fund to be cut to cover the deficit.  Unfortunately, there are several of those opportunities in our major agencies like the PCA and DNR.

The Governor strove to have 3% cuts in operation budgets with 6% cuts in grant programs across all state agencies except for public safety, education and veteran services.  It appears that our agencies received cuts which are proportional to other agencies, but this was accomplished by shifting several dollars from areas such as the Environment Fund and the Game and Fish Fund.  These funds were created using revenue from permit fees and license fees and these fees were meant to be specifically dedicated to activities directly related to the items for which they were levied.  For example, fishing license fees should go towards fishing programs and improved fishing habitat, not to balance the state’s budget.  It would be hard to justify running through the streets screaming that the bank is being robbed like the citizens of Northfield back in 1876 given the fact that we have been treated proportionately when you look at the overall budgets of our agencies.  In the past, that has not been true as our main agencies had suffered disproportionate cuts.

Nonetheless, there are a couple of small things that make many in the conservation community concerned about deeper raids in the future.  The Governor proposed a $2 million appropriation from the new constitutional Clean Water Legacy Fund to sewer infiltration in the metropolitan area.  Though this is an important clean water activity, it is not supported by any regional plan and is an item that has been supported by other funds in the past.  Also, a couple of positions supported in the past by the general fund were “cut” by the DNR, but then reconstituted with creative accounting by simply designating their new funding source out of dedicated accounts. These efforts look like a clandestine way to backfill in general fund budget cuts with the constitutional Legacy Funds and our other designated accounts.  This clearly is not keeping faith with the voters’ intention to have new ongoing investments protecting our great outdoors.

Fortunately the Legislature will get to weigh in on the budget and hopefully they will react as successfully as the Northfield townsfolk did in turning back any raid.  The MEP team will continue to assess the concerns with the budget and communicate those to the policymakers.  What is obvious is the dynamic has changed since the voters sent a clear message in the last election.  In the past, when we’ve faced similar daunting budget deficits, we have experienced deeply disproportional cuts in our agencies.  I guess it’s true, elections do matter.

Other MEP priorities are also starting to see action.  We will be keeping our eyes on the final bonding bill due to come out early next week.  Hopefully we will see passage of the Complete Streets legislation out of the House committee next week.  In two weeks expect a hearing in the Senate for an immediate repeal of the state’s moratorium on nuclear power plants which is opposed by the state’s environmental groups.  Also promised – a hearing soon on financial assurance for sulfide mining in the Senate.  The legislative session is picking up momentum.

The conference begins on Monday, February 15 at Southwest State University in Marshall with a local food and wine reception with music, short films and clips about community-based food systems.  On Tuesday the conference will be broadcast at a number of college campuses in the 7th congressional district, including the University of Minnesota-Crookston, the University of Minnesota-Morris, Bemidji State University and Minnesota State Community and Technical College in Fergus Falls and will feature a keynote speech by U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack who will be attending in Marshall.

More here.

We all hear daily speculations about the state of the economy. Some pundits believe we are on the cusp of seeing a turn around in the housing market while others are very skeptical of any success in the near future.  People talk about the jobs lost, the homes lost, the disillusionment nation-wide.  A few young people put a positive spin on things by saying that houses are finally affordable again for those who have just graduated college.  However, I have heard no one on the radio or TV talk about the other big positive of the Great Recession: the Great Respite it has given the environment.

* Replace regular Christmas tree lights with LEDs;
* Safely get rid of old light strings;
* Make your own gift boxes from used boxes.

There are a million ideas — what are yours?