The People’s Climate & Equity Plan for Minneapolis
In order to meet climate goals and ensure that the benefits of the clean energy transition fall equally to everyone, local governments need to step up.
As luck would have it, Minneapolis is in the process of updating its 10-year climate action plan. Teams of people from every ward across Minneapolis have been working with their council members and the mayor to advocate for the People’s Climate & Equity Plan for Minneapolis — a local effort headed up by a coalition of racial, environmental and economic justice organizations that would ensure that the clean energy revolution is accessible to all residents, regardless of income, race or zip code.
So, what is the People’s Climate & Equity Plan?
Building people power: Get Out the Vote block party draws hundreds ahead of 2022 election
“More often than not, our candidates come find us during election time and say ‘we need your vote, we’re really here to address your issues’ and then after election day we don’t see them anymore,” said Nancy Beaulieu, a northern Minnesota organizer for MN350. “So what we’re trying to do here is build people power.”
Overturning the 2040 Plan was a terrible error
At MN350, we are committed to building a more racially just, sustainable future for Minnesotans in the face of climate change. In Minneapolis, the 2040 Plan outlines one possible path to that future by undoing the strict zoning limitations put in place in the 1960s and 70s, which banned new multifamily housing in large swaths of the city.
But last month, in a suit brought under Minnesota’s bedrock environmental law — the Minnesota Environmental Rights Act (MERA) — a Hennepin County District Court judge ruled that the city of Minneapolis must stop enforcing the Minneapolis 2040 Plan.
Tee McClenty fights for climate justice for all as the new executive director of MN350.
Low-income communities of color are most likely to be harmed by pollution and climate change, says Tee McClenty, new executive director of the Minneapolis nonprofit. As a woman of color who’s passionate about racial and climate justice, she’s committed to making the fight to address climate change and for cleaner air and water more inclusive.
Electrifying Minnesota school bus fleet will pay big dividends
It’s time for Minnesota to electrify our school bus fleet. The biggest winners when we do it will be our school kids. Diesel fumes inside of buses and at bus stops are respiratory hazards for developing lungs. Ground level air pollution in high-density and high-traffic neighborhoods has been shown to disproportionately impact low income and marginalized communities. There is strong correlational data showing that exposure to air pollution leads to poorer grades and increased absenteeism. Especially in denser areas, cleaning up our buses and converting other diesel trucks to electric will have measurable health benefits. And, reducing the amount of pollution drivers are exposed to also helps create safer jobs.
Declaring a climate emergency means holding Big Oil accountable
In a coordinated campaign, St. Paul, Northfield, Grand Rapids and 13 other Minnesota cities stepped up last month to declare climate emergencies. They’re asking for state and federal funding to slow the effects of climate change. This effort, which is both symbolic and concrete, marks an important step toward more action on climate change. But the question remains, who will foot the bill?
As Walz administration continues to fail on Line 3, Line 3 continues bringing trauma to Indian Country
Native Nations and environmental groups opposed to the Enbridge Line 3 tar sands pipeline announced Wednesday they would appeal to the Minnesota Supreme Court to overturn the pipeline’s Certificate of Need and Route Permit.
One notable advocate that had sued to stop Line 3 dropped out this time: The Minnesota Department of Commerce. Commerce represented the public interest before the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (PUC). It has consistently argued that Enbridge failed to prove that future oil demand justified building the new and larger Line 3.
Down to the River
On Saturday I visited the site of two things.
One was a construction site – the Canadian company Enbridge is building a pipeline to carry tar-sands oil, a filthy energy-producing sludge, from it’s home in Alberta, through Minnesota and ending at Lake Superior, so that it can be shipped overseas. The construction (destruction) has leveled pristine wilderness, will cross through 200 bodies of water, and as soon as the weather warms there will be drilling under the Mississippi at two points in Minnesota to lay the pipe.
As Enbridge Races to Build Line 3 Pipeline, Resistance Ramps Up in the Courts and On the Ground
On January 2, 2021, during the first weekend of the New Year, dozens of water protectors gathered to demonstrate and pray along Great River Road near Palisade, Minnesota. They joined in song, protesting a controversial tar sands oil pipeline called Line 3, which is currently being constructed through northern Minnesota and traditional Anishinaabe lands. Ojibwe tribes have helped spearhead the opposition to this pipeline, alongside Indigenous and environmental groups.
22 protesters arrested at Enbridge pipeline construction site
Nearly two dozen protesters were arrested at an Enbridge Line 3 pipeline construction site in Aitkin County near the Mississippi River on Monday after they blocked equipment and refused orders to disperse, Sheriff Dan Guida said.
