By Rep. Paul Anderson
After seeing a proposal for 100-percent renewable energy production from the federal level of government, Gov. Tim Walz last week released his own plan to make Minnesota totally reliant on carbon-free electricity in the next 30 years. What has many local folks skeptical of that idea is data from our recent polar vortex showing wind production actually stopping during the coldest days, and many solar panels around the state covered, or nearly so, with snow. Not the best way to assure residents that renewable electricity can be relied on to provide dependable electric power.
What’s also concerning about this plan is that it doesn’t make clear what the role of nuclear power would be. Certainly there needs to be baseload generation, as we’ve all heard about the scenario when the wind isn’t blowing and the sun isn’t shining. If we are eventually going away from coal production and natural gas peaking plants, I’d feel a lot better is there was still a reliable way to produce power when the aforementioned conditions persist, like at night or when it’s a calm day.
Legislation to move us in the direction of carbon-free electric generation will be heard this week in the Senate.
Also of interest this week is the scheduled release Wednesday of the Legislative Auditor report on alleged abuse in the CCAP program. CCAP is the state-subsidized child care program that has been in the news for possible misuse of state dollars. Investigations have been ongoing, but little has been released so far in terms of evidence or potential fraud. It’s rumored that large sums of money, upwards of $100 million, may have been diverted from the program.
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A series of bills dealing with Chronic Wasting Disease was heard last week in the Environment Policy Committee. CWD is a fatal disease that affects deer and elk. There is no live-animal test for it, so the only testing currently done is on dead animals. Deer hunters are concerned about the spread of CWD and the Minnesota Deer Hunters Association has come up with a series of changes they support in how the state handles the disease.
At issue is the 400 Cervidae farms in Minnesota that raise deer or elk in captivity. These farms are currently regulated by the Board of Animal Health. The deer hunters group would like to change that and have the DNR take over enforcement responsibilities. They also support the mandatory elimination of all animals on any deer farm when one animal on the farm tests positive for CWD. There are also more strict fencing requirements they support on deer farms, including double fencing that’s 10 feet high.
Deer farmers who testified at the hearing said the fencing requirement would put them out of business as the cost is prohibitive. They were also concerned about a possible moratorium on new deer farms and the banning of captive deer and fluids from being transported in and out of state.
This is a serious problem that so far has largely been confined to the southeast part of the state, although a case was recently reported in central Minnesota. There needs to be a test developed that can determine if live animals have the disease. Legislation has been introduced that would provide funding to the University of Minnesota to develop such a test. There was also discussion of breeding animals that were resistant to the disease, and that such work could be done more easily on deer farms.
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