Minnesota's Climate Breakthrough
A Matter of Degrees
Dr. Leah Stokes, Dr. Katharine Wilkinson
4.8 • 533 Ratings
🗓️ 24 October 2024
⏱️ 34 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On this episode of A Matter of Degrees, we tell the story of how a powerful grassroots movement, ambitious lawmakers, and Governor Tim Walz turned Minnesota into a climate leader. Then, we talk about using the Minnesota blueprint to make change everywhere else.
It's election season, but the federal government isn't the only venue for climate action. States also play a huge role in our path to healing the planet. Beyond just cutting pollution within their borders, states implement our big federal climate laws, test new innovative policy ideas, and build momentum for nationwide progress. And the center of gravity for state-level climate action isn't California, or Washington, or Massachusetts. It's Minnesota. Over the past few years, Minnesota has done more on climate than perhaps any other state, anchored by a nation-leading clean electricity standard that requires 100% carbon-free power by 2040.
But these wins didn't happen overnight, and they didn't come easy. To tell Minnesota's success story, we spoke to Aimee Witteman, the Vice President of Investment and Network at Rewiring America, Chris Conry, the Managing Director of 100 Percent MN, and Rep. Jamie Long, the Majority Leader of the Minnesota State House of Representatives.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm not sure if you've heard this, Catherine, but I think there's an election coming up. |
| 0:05.5 | I did hear that, Leah, and it's a big one for the climate. |
| 0:09.9 | We need to make serious progress in the next four years to keep our hope of a better future |
| 0:14.4 | within reach. |
| 0:15.7 | But there's also a tendency to think that what happens at the federal level is all that |
| 0:19.6 | matters. |
| 0:20.6 | It makes sense why people might think that. |
| 0:22.9 | The presidential election dominates the news cycle. |
| 0:26.3 | And don't get me wrong, the president matters a lot. |
| 0:29.7 | But regardless of who runs the federal government, |
| 0:32.5 | there are other places where we can make a big difference, |
| 0:35.6 | places where we can cut pollution and build thriving, healthy communities. |
| 0:39.3 | We call them the states. |
| 0:42.3 | So today we're going to tell a story of state-level climate action, and we're going to zoom in on one state in particular. |
| 0:51.3 | Where are we headed on this road trip, Leah? Well, we're headed to a state |
| 0:56.2 | that has been leading the way on climate. In 2023, the state passed a clean electricity |
| 1:01.2 | standard that requires 100% of the power system to be carbon-free by 2040. It's one of the |
| 1:07.6 | strongest laws in the nation. Ooh, I do love a good clean electricity standard. |
| 1:12.1 | And since that law was passed, this state has also committed $2 billion to make that 2040 target possible. |
| 1:19.5 | They've boosted clean transportation, worked on clean buildings, environmental justice, and so much more. |
| 1:24.8 | And they've also revamped their state permitting process to make it easier |
| 1:28.6 | to build clean energy and connected to the grid. I'll give you a hint. Their governor has been in the |
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