Minnesota
Overviews
The House and Senate energy committees held introductory hearings this week.
On Tuesday, the Senate Energy and Utilities Finance and Policy committee heard from the investor-owned utilities, Great River Energy, the city of Rochester and Southern Minnesota Municipal Power Agency. Each utility spoke about the evolving power supply portfolio.
Greg Padden, resource planning and markets director, Great River Energy, testified on behalf of the cooperative. Padden described the evolution of Great River Energy’s power supply – noting that all of our decisions were made by our board of directors and because they make economic sense for our members. He stressed the importance of Great River Energy’s peaking plants for reliability. Padden also provided an overview of Great River Energy’s energy storage pilot project.
All of the utility representatives stressed that utilities, as an industry, have met the state’s emissions reduction goal. Utilities are the only sector that can make that claim. All indicated they have moved toward emissions reductions without a mandate and in ways that made sense for their service territories.
On Thursday, the committee heard from several of Minnesota’s largest businesses regarding their sustainability actions. Companies like Aveda, Ecolab, 3M and General Mills provided the committee with examples of what they are doing to support a more sustainable and low-carbon economy. The Iron Mining Association (IMA) testified about iron mining contributions to the renewable energy economy. However, the IMA called for energy policy that keeps costs low in order for the mining industry to be competitive worldwide. Finally, Gerard Reid, co-founder, Alexa Capital, provided his thoughts about trends in the energy industry.
The House Climate and Energy Finance and Policy committee started the week hearing about the impacts of climate change. The committee heard from Mark Seeley, professor, University of Minnesota who described information points about the climate in Minnesota for the year 2020. Environmental advocates also testified as to their concerns that the state was not acting quickly enough on the issue of climate change.
On Thursday, the House committee heard from advocates about what solutions they are implementing for their organizations. The committee heard the same presentation from 3M and Ecolab on sustainability. Labor organizations also testified that union members are learning different skills in order to adapt to a changing workload.
Great River Energy was the only utility invited to testify at the House hearing. Jon Brekke, vice president and chief power supply officer, Great River Energy, highlighted the decision to shut down, or sell, Coal Creek Station by the end of 2022 and the plans for new wind energy resources. Brekke also touched on the energy storage pilot project with Form Energy. Brekke stressed to the committee that reliability and affordability remains the top priority for Great River Energy and its member-owner cooperatives.
North Dakota
As the deadlines for bill introductions are nearing, nearly 600 bills have been introduced. Most committees began bill hearings this week. Monday, Jan. 18 is the bill introduction deadline for the House of Representatives and Monday, Jan. 25 is the deadline for the Senate.
Wind Facilities Bill
The House Energy & Natural Resources committee heard testimony on the siting of repowered wind facilities bill, HB 1095. The Public Service Commission (PSC) brought the bill forward to make clarifications to the existing law around the siting of repowered wind energy conversion facilities and the implementation of light-mitigation technology on wind turbines. The Commission’s amendments provide that an older facility being repowered that was not previously sited must obtain a site certificate and would also require a repowered wind farm to be subject to the laws regarding light-mitigation technology. Current law also doesn’t provide the PSC the ability to waive the light-mitigation requirements for either the new or older sited facilities. The light-mitigation technology currently approved by the Federal Aviation Administration is not feasible in all locations due to proximity to military infrastructure. The amendments in HB 1095 provide that the PSC may grant a waiver or extension of light-mitigation technology requirements based upon technical or economic feasibility considerations.
Zac Smith, communications and government relations director, North Dakota Association of Rural Electric Cooperatives and Carlee McLeod, president, Utility Shareholders of North Dakota, both testified in support of the clarifications the bill provides. The bill passed out of committee with a 10-4 vote.
Great River Energy has several position statements available to inform stakeholders on key issues. Find them here.