Posted on 01/27/2023 8:28:10 PM PST by SeekAndFind
The Minnesota House passed legislation after seven hours of debate late Thursday night that would require the state’s electricity grid to be 100% carbon-free in 17 years.
This is an unrealistic timeline that could endanger the lives of Minnesotans if it fails while causing their electricity bills to skyrocket, Republicans argued throughout the night.
They unsuccessfully offered several amendments to the bill, including lifting the state’s moratorium on new nuclear power plants, allowing for the use of carbon sequestration technologies, and delaying the standard to consider its impact on child and slave labor in the green energy supply chain.
Rep. Kaela Berg says it is “offensive” to her “black and brown colleagues” to discuss the use of child and slave labor in the green energy industry. pic.twitter.com/x1wZK6twuV
— Alpha News (@AlphaNewsMN) January 27, 2023
“Frankly, what this bill will be doing today is making Minnesota reliant on nations around the globe that have no labor standards and no environmental standards. Minnesota in this bill will build a clean grid economy on the backs of child slaves in China and poor environmental regulations in Indonesia and the Congo,” Rep. Spencer Igo, R-Wabana Township, said at a press conference ahead of the debate.
He said the resources to build a clean energy future are right in Minnesota’s backyard, yet the federal government has now banned mining on 250,000 acres of the Iron Range.
“The third-largest deposits of copper, nickel and cobalt that exist in the known world are only 250 miles north of this Capitol. Instead of investing in those resources … we have decided to export it around the world where carbon emissions will be 20, 25, or 30 times higher than if we were to do it here in Minnesota,” he continued.
They also expressed concern with the fact that the bill was only heard in one committee before moving to the floor.
Republicans have nicknamed the legislation the “blackout bill,” arguing that using wind and solar alone is unreliable.
“We want to make sure that in Minnesota we are never in a situation where we are having rolling blackouts because here in Minnesota that creates unsafe and dangerous environments,” said Rep. Anne Neu Brindley, R-North Branch, who noted that it took 29 years to reach roughly 20% carbon-free energy in Minnesota.
“In the next 17 years, we have to get to 100%, and we’re not going to do it with nuclear. We’re not really going to do it with hydro. We’re not going to do it with natural gas, we’re not going to do it with clean coal, we’re not going to do it with carbon capture,” she said. “We’re going to do this with wind and solar.”
House Majority Leader Jamie Long, DFL-Minneapolis, lead author of the bill, said addressing climate change is a top concern of Minnesota voters.
“Minnesotans are demanding we take action on climate change,” he said during a press conference. “In my lifetime, the average January low temperature in Minnesota has warmed by nine degrees. These changes are having real impacts, they’re having impacts on our way of life.”
“We also know that it’s having more serious impacts like the severe rain events that we are seeing with increasing frequency on our farms and in our communities and infrastructure,” he said.
Long claimed his bill provides flexibility for utilities and is “technology neutral,” though Republicans disagreed with that claim.
The bill passed in a vote of 70-60 and will now head to the Minnesota Senate.
Iffy electric heat when the temperatures hit 10 below zero in northern Minnesota will equate to premeditated murder.
Since getting rid of the carbon would leave a void in the atmosphere...can anyone tell me which gas will fill it?
That would be odd since 2023+17=2040.
So I guess its a nuclear future for Minnesota.
Yes i know, /sarc
Minnesota will have a real problem with meeting this goal as power from neighboring states may not be carbon free. No amount of windmills or solar panels within Minnesota will produce enough electricity to reliably power the state. So what will happen when the wind isn’t blowing or the sun isn’t shining and the lights go off? Electricity might be available from neighboring states to meet the need, but will Minnesota officials reject that electricity because it isn’t carbon free and leave the state in the dark?
CO2 is only 0.04% of the atmosphere so nobody would miss it.
Except plants which would all die off when it reached 150 ppm.
I wish Texas would commit to 100% carbon involved.
lol... good grief ;)
A problem for more than the people of Minnesota.
There are two major interconnected electrical grids in the USA - the Western Interconnection and the Eastern Interconnection
Minnesota is part of the Eastern Interconnection.
For Minnesota to abandon reliable all-weather generation technology for pie-in-the-sky “green” technology not only inconveniences
and endangers residents of Minnesota, it will affect all the other states in the Eastern Interconnection as well.
This is what they voted for.
In the coming winters folks will start dying and they’ll blame it all on Pres Trump
Wind? Forget it. This ain’t Texas.p> These clowns need to run the numbers instead of wishing.
They expect a breakthrough in polar panels.
GO FOR IT!
You stupid minnesotan dumfuqs.
I hear it gets COLD up there in the winter.
Freeze in the dark morons.
PS - for the genius who said the mean January temp excursion was +9 deg F (assumptively), how does a world mean temp excursion of 1.5 deg F translate to that?
Guess I missed “local amplification” in Thermodynamics...
MN will be reaping the whirlwind of their insanity soon enough.
All life hangs from that wispy 0.04% thread. CO2 is the star player in the carbon cycle. Without it, being alive would not be a thing.
"Making government policy is just like shopping!" - deep thoughts from Minnesota, America's reservoir of natural blondes.
Yep.
MARXIST Minnesota is being destroyed by the old Red/Socialist,/Democrat alliance, the DFLP. Still in control after all these years.
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