With the ousting of Minnesota Commerce Commissioner Steve Kelley on Sept. 11, the state’s Republican-controlled Senate has now fired two members of Gov. Tim Walz’s cabinet in less than a month. Outgoing Department of Labor and Industry Commissioner Nancy Leppink failed confirmation in August. Both public servants lost their positions by a narrow, two-vote margin.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison on Wednesday sued ExxonMobil Corp., Koch Industries and the American Petroleum Institute, saying they have long deceived consumers over the effects of climate change.
MINNEAPOLIS — Seven years ago, this city leapt to the front of the urban climate movement when it adopted an action plan for global warming. Hailed by environmentalists, the plan — one of the first passed by a major U.S. city — included reforms on issues ranging from energy efficiency to waste management. But activists say the effort launched without a critical component: the input of Minneapolis’ minority and low-income communities.
This week, with the country convulsed by protests over the killing of a black man named George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis, we decided we’d talk to leading black climate activists about the connections between racism and climate change.
Since 2015, East Harriet resident Emily Moore has urged state leaders to divest fossil fuel-related holdings from public employee retirement funds. Recently, that’s meant working to get unions and the State Board of Investment, which manages the funds, to coalesce around the idea.
Increasing the fuel efficiency of our vehicles and reducing overall transportation emissions would provide many environmental, societal, and financial benefits. That’s why Gov. Tim Walz’s proposed clean-cars standards make so much sense for Minnesota (“Minnesota to follow California auto standards,” Sept. 26).
When 1,000 students lay on the floor of the Capitol rotunda on Sept. 20 in St. Paul, staging a “die-in” as part of a global strike against government inaction on climate change, the gesture expressed something more than alarm. Making room for each other and using friends or parents as pillows, the activists said that you can face anything if you’re not alone.
Environmental nonprofits say local issues inspired an increase in donations.
Senate Minority Leader Tom Bakk said Tuesday that his fellow DFLers in the Legislature would try to crack the Republican blockade on much of Gov. Tim Walz’s climate change agenda next year by forming a united front in a “Clean Energy and Climate Caucus.”
We may have just seen the first skirmish in a war between Big Oil and clean energy in Minnesota. And clean energy won.
Members of a local environmentalist group on Monday, Oct. 28, criticized Xcel Energy's proposed electric power generation plan for the next 15 years, saying the company is not going far enough in its pledge to cut carbon emissions.
