DFLEC January Legislative Forum Followup
Powering and Building Data Centers; Nukes coming back?; Details on our next legislative forum; and more!
DFL Legislative Committee Update
Many thanks to our guest speakers and to all who joined us for our January 21st Forum with Representative Patty Acomb, JT Hanes (MCEA), and Dr. Carrie Jennings (Freshwater).
Representative Acomb’s Concerns
Representative Acomb explained why the DFL House Representatives need to boycott the proceedings until they have agreement from the Republican caucus to seat the duly elected Brad Tabke and honor the power sharing agreement that they had previously agreed to. Now the MN Supreme Court has ruled that it is indeed as Secretary of State Steve Simon stated, 68 votes are needed for a quorum to conduct business in the Minnesota House. We hope an agreement between the Republican and DFL caucuses can be reached soon.
Rep. Acomb is concerned about the large amount of energy that recently proposed data centers will require. She expressed concern about the sham, one-sided hearings regarding nuclear power.
Here are the slides from the forum.
Republican Positions on Nuclear and Hydro are Bad
A meeting of the Senate Energy, Utilities, Environment, and Climate Committee will be held Monday at 12:30 pm, discussing repealing the ban on nuclear energy development in Minnesota, and other matters. Watch the meeting, write to the committee chairs, and if your Senator is on the committee, write to that person. Information about the meeting is HERE. Committee membership information HERE.
Please contact your Senator or House Representative and ask them to oppose legislation that would lift the nuclear moratorium, develop the use of small modular nuclear reactors, or expand use of hydroelectricity. These policies are found in the following bills: Senate File 350, 426, and Senate File Senate File 468, and House File 9. Since these policies are distributed across several bills and the House and Senate provisions do not match, be sure to mention the policies, and not just the bill numbers, when contacting your elected officials.
Water Water Not Really Everywhere
We also heard from the Freshwater’s Research and Policy Director, Dr. Carrie Jennings, on data centers which could tremendously impact our groundwater supply.
Her presentation was rich in important detail and a very understandable deep dive on how groundwater systems work in our state. See her Slides on Siting Data Centers with Groundwater in Mind.
Ignorance is not bliss
JT Haines, Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy Director for NE Minnesota talked about the fact that misconceptions and falsehoods about sulfide mining in Minnesota hamper the development of good policy, and make it more difficult to lobby legislators. He outlined a plan to educate elected officials about copper-nickel sulfide mining with a well designed color primer. We got a preview of this document, and it is impressive.
Upcoming Events
Our next (third) legislative forum will be on Sunday, Feb. 9, 6:30 pm, with Tina Clark. Tina is a community and organizational consultant and trainer with Transition Network. She will present “Stories of Transition for a Clean Energy Future, a remarkable and impactful documentary about the the highly advanced energy transition in Denmark.
You wanted messaging training, we got messaging training
Sign up for The science of messaging, an advance messaging training program, with Connections Lab. If you are a member of our committee and can not afford the cost, let us know and we’ll see if we can help with a scholarship.
A Successful Friends Day at the Capitol
Chris Knopf addressed the crowd at the rally in the rotunda at the capitol, “you are building a movement.”
Join the Legislative Committee!
If you are not on our Select DFLEC Legislative Action Committee and would like to be, sign up here!
Don't miss our next legislative forum with guest Speaker Tina Clark, Feb. 9 at 6:30 pm.
Register here: https://zoom.us/meeting/register/naxcCT0BQ8iENV_1k0RCig