On April 17, the clean energy community and climate advocates will hold a press conference to urge Minnesota lawmakers to remove sweeping rollbacks to renewable energy progress included in the current Senate Energy Omnibus Bill. Speakers will spotlight threats to solar energy, net metering and environmental protections, and will call out corporate carve-outs — like those benefiting Amazon data centers — that jeopardize Minnesota’s carbon-free goals.
The proposed Energy Omnibus Bill aims to roll back long-standing landmark policies and progress Minnesota made in 2023 toward a carbon-free energy future. The bill includes provisions that would:
- Undermine the 100% carbon-free by 2040 law by misclassifying polluting energy sources like B100 biodiesel and woody biomass as “carbon-free”
- Repeal Minnesota’s Community Solar Garden program, the state’s most successful and equitable clean energy tool
- Weaken net metering in rural and small-town Minnesota, undercutting fair compensation for solar producers that has been in place since 1983 and threatening clean energy jobs
- Eliminate the Renewable Development Account, a vital source of funding for clean energy innovation including the Solar*Rewards program which has helped low-income homeowners go solar
- Exempt large data centers like Amazon from key environmental reviews, including backup diesel generator oversight
- Remove size restrictions on hydro projects, thereby ignoring agreements with Indigenous communities that aimed to protect land, rivers and ecosystems
Advocates will urge lawmakers to reject the harmful provisions that roll back the state’s climate and clean energy progress. Speakers include environmental leaders, solar customers, rural energy advocates, and others pushing back against the rollback of Minnesota’s clean energy progress. The rally will be held at 11 a.m. CT in the State Capitol Press Room B971.
News item from Solar United Neighbors
