This week marked the first policy deadline for policy bills. The Senate Energy and Environment Committee spent considerable time this week working through policy measures, including SF 1431 (Marty-D), the Senate Omnibus Energy Policy bill. The committee adopted a delete-everything amendment to insert the language of the omnibus bill, which included several significant policy measures including:
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Raising Minnesota’s Renewable Energy Standard (RES) to 40 percent renewable energy by 2030;
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Raising the energy conservation policy to 2 percent of annual retail sales of electricity and natural gas;
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Raising energy savings goal for electric utilities to 2 percent and natural gas utilities to 1.5 percent;
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Requires long-term emergency planning by the Minnesota Department of Commerce and provides emergency powers to the Governor in the event of an energy shortage;
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Provides emergency powers to the Commissioner of Commerce in the event of a shortage of motor gasoline, middle distillates, and propane; and
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Allows local units of government to act as the Public Utilities Commission for purposes of approving permits for large electric power generating plants solely within their jurisdiction that are solar energy generating systems up to 25,000 kilowatts.
Xcel Energy, Missouri River Energy, and the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce testified in opposition to several portions of the delete-everything amendment. Republicans on the committee also expressed opposition to many aspects of the bill.
There were a number of technical amendments adopted and there were a number of controversial amendments that were not adopted. The Republican members sought unsuccessfully to include large hydroelectric power as a qualifying resource for purposes of satisfying the RES, lift the ban on the nuclear moratorium, and require legislative approval of any state plan that would conform with the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan 111(d). The committee chair opposed each of these and they failed on a voice vote.
SF 1431 passed to General Orders on a voice vote following more than two hours of debate.
The House Job Growth and Energy Affordability Committee did not take any action on a policy omnibus bill this week. The expectation is that omnibus policy language will be made public at some point prior to the Easter/Passover break, which begins on March 28 and returning on April 7. The committee will then mark up an omnibus bill after the break. This is possible due to a nuance in House rules which affords any finance committee the ability to act on policy measures outside of the normal policy deadlines that would apply to policy-only committees.
