ST. PAUL – House Democrats on Thursday approved legislation Rep. Paul Anderson, R-Starbuck, said increases consumer energy prices, reduces power reliability and ultimately compromises safety.
The bill (H.F. 7) extends and increases Minnesota’s renewable energy standard to 55 percent by 2035 and requires electric utilities in the state to generate or acquire 100 percent carbon-free energy by 2040.
A report from the Center of the American Experiment estimates the Walz/Democrat plan to move to 100 percent carbon free electricity by 2040 will cost $313 billion, or nearly $3,900 per family per year. Anderson said the same study indicates the return on these massive consumer costs would be negligible at best, paying to potentially avert 0.00096 degrees Celsius of warming by 2100.
“The cost to consumers this bill would impose is alarming, especially since we already are paying more to heat our homes these days,” Anderson said. “This legislation moves the needle too far, too fast and I’m also concerned about the reliability of our power grid. The last couple of weeks we’ve seen cloudy conditions and not much wind, which illustrates how, this far up north, we can’t rely on intermittent supplies to meet our power needs.”
To Anderson’s point, the Midcontinent Independent Systems Operator currently has reported a 1,200-megawatt capacity shortfall, indicating Minnesota already doesn’t have enough reliable power-plant capacity online to meet expected peak electricity demand. He added that MISO warnings of capacity shortfalls for peak periods will become more commonplace if our state continues to rely more on intermittent, weather-dependent energy sources as House Democrats propose.
Anderson indicated all blackouts are bad, but winter blackouts in Minnesota could pose great dangers that House Democrats are not taking seriously. He said he’d rather see Minnesota focus on diversifying the state’s grid, tapping into new nuclear technology and carbon capture and storage as lower-cost alternatives for reducing carbon emissions.
“We, as a state, should keep our options open and have different energy sources at our disposal to meet our needs on any given day,” Anderson said. “Nuclear, coal, natural gas, wind and solar all play a role on our energy grid and their diversity helps provide much-needed stability. People are referring to this proposal as the ‘Blackout Bill’ because it would handcuff our ability to shift gears to meet rising energy demand.”
Republicans offered amendments intended to improve H.F. 7, including by allowing generation and transmission outfits to evaluate their own criteria on whether to modify or delay standard obligations. Anderson said this takes the decision-making away from the Public Utilities Commission and provides a more flexible, common-sense approach allowing for market-based solutions instead of government mandates.
House Democrats blocked that amendment and other Republican proposals before approving the bill and sending to the Senate for a vote.
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