We’re watching legislation in three broad categories: energy, land management, and water and air. The energy bills follow immediately. To jump to the others, simply click on the links below. If you want to return to the top of the page, click on your browser’s ‘back’ button.
Land Management
Water and Air
Energy
SF2144 Solar for Schools. A bill for the Department of Commerce to establish the “Solar for Schools” program to promote the use of solar energy on school buildings; with new Statutes and public utility requirements. The purpose of the program is to provide grants to stimulate the installation of solar energy systems on or adjacent to school buildings by reducing the cost, and to enable schools to use the solar energy system as a teaching tool that can be integrated into the school’s curriculum.
A Solar for Schools program account is to be established in the special revenue fund. Money received from the general fund must be transferred to the commissioner of commerce and credited to the account.
SF4119 Solar Energy Production Incentive Program extension.
A bill extending the solar energy production incentive program and establishing an energy storage incentive program, appropriating money; amending existing statutes plus a new statute. Utilities are to operate a program to provide solar energy production incentives for solar energy systems of no more than a total aggregate nameplate capacity of 40 kilowatts alternating current per premise. Owners of a solar energy system installed before June 1, 2018, are eligible to receive a production incentive.
SF4102 Solar photovoltaic array installation costs contingency fund establishment.
A bill establishing a contingency fund to pay certain costs associated with installation of a solar photovoltaic array. It amends and adds to existing Statute.
An amount from the renewable development account not to exceed
$3,000,000 must be withheld to serve as a contingency fund to facilitate the installation of a certain solar photovoltaic array within the city of St. Paul.
The commissioner may distribute money from the contingency fund to the owner of the solar array if it has started design or construction, or is constructed and put in service, prior to a corrective action deter-mination made by the Pollution Control Agency. The owner of the solar array may use money to pay for:
(1) storage and transportation costs incurred for equipment removed;
(2) any costs incurred should reinstallation necessitate redesign or new equipment;
(3) lost revenue or any damages incurred under the power purchase agreement from not selling energy during the solar array’s removal and reinstallation; and
(4) replacement energy costs during the disruption period.
SF3661 Carbon Capture and Sequestration
A bill establishing state policy supporting the deployment of carbon capture and sequestration technologies as a method of reducing greenhouse gas emissions in order to achieve the state greenhouse gas emission-reduction goals; proposing Statutes.
SF3655 A bill modifying energy provisions in state-owned buildings; All new building and major building renovation projects must use renewable energy sources to the extent required to meet the sustainable building 2030 performance standards. Geothermal
energy efficiency sources may also be considered. amending and repealing Statutes.
Land Management
SF3711 A one-time appropriation of $20,000,000 from the general fund in fiscal year 2023 for the Forever Green Agriculture Initiative at the University of Minnesota, available until June 30, 2028. By incorporating perennial and winter-annual crops into existing agricultural practices, it will protect the state’s natural resources while increasing the efficiency, profitability, and productivity of Minnesota farmers. Of this amount, up to $5,000,000 is for equipment and physical infrastructure to support breeding and agronomic activities necessary to develop perennial and winter-annual crops.
SF1594 Treated Seed Policy Changes. A bill amending existing statutes to make policy changes related to treated seed and requiring treated seed enrollment to stop unreasonable adverse effects on the environment. “Treated seed” means seed that has an agricultural pesticide directly applied to the seed before planting and classified by the United States Environmental Protection Agency as a “treated article or substance” under Code of Federal Regulations. The intention is to mitigate any unreasonable risk to humans or the environment, taking into account the economic, social, and environmental costs and benefits of the use of any pesticide or treated seed.
SF1113 A bill establishing goals for and creating financial incentives for soil-healthy farming. Building soil health and thereby preventing or minimize erosion and runoff will increase farm income, retain and clean water, increase vegetation on the landscape, sequester carbon, and foster healthier rural residents and pollinators and other wildlife. To accomplish this: (1) at least 50 percent of Minnesota farmers are to implement cover crops, perennial crops, no-till, or managed rotational grazing by 2030;
(2) 100 percent of Minnesota farmers implement cover crops, perennial crops, no-till, or managed rotational grazing by 2035; and
(3) 100 percent of the state’s tillable and grazeable acres employ cover crops, perennial crops, no-till, or managed rotational grazing by 2040.
It also adds a subdivision to existing Statute to require collection and classification of data for soil healthy farming involving The Board of Water and Soil Resources, the University of Minnesota, and Soil and Water Conservation Districts.
SF956. A bill authorizing the sale and issuance of state bonds for urban reforestation. The commissioner of management and budget shall appropriate up to $16,000,000 from the bond proceeds fund to the commissioner of natural resources to give grants to cities, counties, townships, and park and recreation boards in cities of the first class. Planting of shade trees, and replacing of trees lost to forest pests, disease, or storm on public land will provide environmental benefits. A more diverse community forest better able to withstand disease and forest pests. The commissioner must give priority to grant requests to remove and replace trees with active infestations of emerald ash borer and any tree planted with money under this subdivision must be a climate-adapted species to Minnesota.
SF4310 A bill appropriating money to increase funding for farm-to-school grants; and authorizing reimbursement of childcare providers who purchase from local farmers; amending existing statute.
SF2272 Lawns to Legumes. A bill appropriating $1,000,000 each in both fiscal years 2022 & 2023 from the general fund to the Board of Water and Soil Resources for the Lawns to Legumes grant program. It provides onetime grants or payments for demonstration projects planting residential lawns with native vegetation and pollinator-friendly forbs and legumes to protect a diversity of pollinators. Grants or payments will cover up to 75 percent of the costs of the project, except that in areas identified by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service as areas where there is a high potential for rusty patched bumble bees to be present for which grants may be awarded for up to 90 percent of the costs of the project.
Water and Air
SF 839 Requiring the commissioner of the Pollution control agency to adopt rules on whole effluent toxicity (WET) with a statewide consistency requirement for evaluating and applying whole effluent toxicity (WET) as water-quality-based effluent limitations and permit conditions for discharges occurring outside the Lake Superior basin;
SF1630 State greenhouse gas reduction goals modification to include terrestrial sequestration; governmental actions consistency with greenhouse gas reduction goals requirement
Reducing State GHG emissions compared with the level of emissions in 2005:
(1) 15 percent by 2015;
(2) 30 percent by 2025;
(3) 45 percent by 2030; and
(4) to net zero by 2050.
“Terrestrial sequestration” means the amount of annual statewide greenhouse gas emissions that is removed from the atmosphere by plants and micoorganisms located in Minnesota, excluding on active croplands, and stored in vegetation, biomass, and soils so as to prevent emissions from reaching the atmosphere, as estimated by the commissioner of the Pollution Control Agency.
SF 4422 Inventory and establish plans to replace water pipes A bill requiring community water systems to inventory service lines and establish plans to replace lead service lines by 2032. The presence of lead in drinking water represents a threat to the public health, especially to the health and development of children in Minnesota; that pipes containing lead that connect water mains to homes and other buildings are a primary source of lead in drinking water. A full and complete inventory of all lead service lines in the state does not exist. It will require notices to customers, consumers, and owners; requiring reports; authorizing rulemaking; appropriating money; proposing coding for new law in existing Statutes.
SF3326 Products containing PFAS disclosure requirement A bill requiring notice of products containing PFAS. It requires rulemaking & proposing a new statute where a manufacturer of a product for sale in the state that contains intentionally added PFAS to a product must submit to a written notice the commissioner of the Pollution Control Agency. “Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances” or “PFAS” means substances that
include any member of the class of fluorinated organic chemicals containing at least one
fully fluorinated carbon atom.
SF 3669 PFAS prohibition in juvenile products (forever chemicals}
A bill prohibiting PFAS in products designed for use by infants and children under 12 years of age; proposing a new Statute. Examples of these products include but are not limited to a baby or toddler foam pillow; bassinet; bedside sleeper; booster seat; changing pad; child restraint system for use in motor vehicles and aircraft; co-sleeper; crib mattress; highchair; highchair pad; infant bouncer; infant carrier; infant seat; infant sleep positioner; infant swing; infant travel bed; infant walker; nap cot; nursing pad; nursing pillow; play mat; playpen; play yard; polyurethane foam mat, pad, or pillow; portable foam nap mat; portable infant sleeper; portable hook-on chair; soft-sided portable crib; stroller; and toddler mattress; and
SF2809 Statewide Drinking Water Safety Action Plan
A bill appropriating money from the general fund to the commissioner of health in fiscal year 2023 to develop a statewide drinking water safety action plan to protect and improve the state’s drinking water through research, implementation, and outreach.
It will establish or expand a multiagency sentinel well network to detect changes in
water quality in the most vulnerable shallow aquifers that provide drinking water to private
wells This will be done in consultation with the Board of Regents of the University of Minnesota and the commissioners of agriculture, natural resources, and the Pollution Control Agency. It will provide resources for well owners to identify hazards associated with aquifers and
wells of particular designs and ages. This requires a report, (plan) to be submitted to the chairs and ranking minority members of the house of representatives and senate committees and divisions with jurisdiction over health, agriculture and environment, and natural resources.