We need to catch up with the negotiations, or lack there of, in the Environment & Natural Resources Conference Committee. The committee didn'r meet today, though it was hypothethically Alexandria Republican Senator Bill Ingebrigtsen's turn at the gavel.
The conference committee is scheduled to meet at 9:00 a.m. tomorrow, and the livestream can be viewed here on HTV 3.
According to the legislative calendar, there's a fourth House offer. Here's a screengrab:
The final point: House does not accept two-year moratorium on adopting vehicle emisson standards.
The two-year moratorium is Ingebrigtsen's offer the House can't refuse. How's that playing in Minnesota?
In the Timberjay Wednesday night, David Colburn reports in GOP turns to hardball over Clean Car rules:
A Republican state senator issued an ultimatum to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) last week: halt proposed new “clean car” emissions standards now or watch state parks close and millions of dollars for environmental initiatives disappear come July 1.
Speaking on May 4 to a virtual conference committee meeting of Senate and House legislators working on the omnibus environment budget, Sen. Bill Ingebrigtsen, R-Alexandria, took the hardline stance against new rules that would boost the number of zero-emissions electric vehicles in the state and improve air quality standards. The budget will not move forward, Ingebrigtsen said, unless the proposed rules come off the table and the Senate’s version of the budget is agreed to.
Rep. Rick Hansen, DFL-South St. Paul, delineated the scope of Ingebrigtsen’s demand.
“So, if there’s not a repeal of the authority for the Clean Car rulemaking coming out of this conference committee, then the budgets for BWSR (the Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources), the Minnesota Zoo, the LCCR (Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources), the Conservation Corps, the Science Museum, the Board of Water and Soil Resources the MPCA and the DNR (Department of Natural Resources) will not happen, unless we accede to the Senate position, is that correct, Sen. Ingebrigtsen?”
“Rep. Hansen, that is exactly correct,” Ingebrigtsen said.
Without an environment budget agreement there would be no new funding for those entities as of July 1. The biggest loser would be the DNR, which could lose $9.8 million in general fund dollars.
“If we do not have a budget for the fiscal year we don’t operate,” DNR Commissioner Sarah Strommen told the committee, noting that all state parks would have to close.
But the cuts in the Senate version of the budget would have far reaching impacts, slashing funds for programs as diverse as combating chronic wasting disease in deer to cleaning up chemicals in water supplies.
Two days later, Ingebrigtsen and Republicans backed away from demanding a total repeal of MPCA’s authority to issue clean car emissions rules, offering instead a proposal for a two-year delay that would push adoption of the rules to 2024, along with a lengthy list of items from the House version of the bill that they would agree to. However, Ingebrigtsen made it clear on Monday that if House conferees did not agree to the two-year moratorium the budget would not move ahead.
“There were three different offers that were made to the MPCA last year, all of which were turned down, and here we are again,” Ingebrigtsen said. “The whole thing is contingent on the California emission standards that the MCPA has put forward. We’ve already compromised on the California emission standards. We’ve already compromised from a full repeal to a two-year moratorium.”
Given that the federal government requires a two-year waiting period between the time new rules are approved and when they go into effect, the moratorium would push the effective date of the rules out to 2026.
Hansen flatly rejected the moratorium proposal. The House conference committee members offered a counterproposal on Tuesday, its third, that reinforced their opposition to a moratorium on implementing the rules. . . .
Read the rest at the Timberjay, but that's essentially where it's at.
In an editorial at the paper, there's this in Closing state parks?:
With the COVID-19 pandemic increasingly on the wane and with Minnesotans anxious to do some exploring out-of-doors this summer, Republican leaders in the state Senate have decided they want to shut down all the state parks beginning July 1.
It’s the kind of gun-to-the-head political brinksmanship that we’ve come to expect from the party that would rather blow up government than see it work on behalf of average people. It’s a mentality that gives the GOP an edge in so many political battles. Democrats want to see government play a role in making life better, which prevents them from issuing the kind of reckless political threats that have become such a go-to in the GOP’s political toolbox.
As background, Sen. Bill Ingebrigtsen, an Alexandria Republican, told a House-Senate conference committee on the state’s environmental funding omnibus bill last week that he won’t consider any funding for the Department of Natural Resources (which operates the state parks), the Minnesota Zoo, the Pollution Control Agency (MPCA), the Science Museum, or the Legislative-Citizens Commission on Minnesota Resources unless Gov. Tim Walz rescinds or delays a plan by the MPCA to adopt a Clean Car rule modeled on one first adopted by California. Fourteen other states have since adopted the rule, which requires auto manufacturers to gradually increase the number and variety of zero emission vehicles, such as all-electric cars, that they ship to Minnesota.
The new rule doesn’t require any Minnesotan to buy an electric vehicle, but it would give those who want one a greater choice. As it stands, most electric vehicles are only sold in those states that have already adopted the same rule. Gov. Walz supports the policy and, apparently, so do Minnesotans. When the MPCA sought public comment, they received more than 10,000 responses, almost all of which supported the plan. An administrative law judge ruled last week that the new rules are reasonable, necessary, and that the Walz administration has the authority to implement the plan, which is designed to achieve compliance with existing state law that requires the state to lower its carbon emissions.
While the state has made considerable strides in reducing carbon emissions from power plants, we’ve fallen well behind the emissions benchmarks in the transportation sector.
It’s worth remembering that it was Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty who signed the bill that enacted the state’s carbon reduction goals back in 2007. That was a lifetime ago in political terms, at a time when Republicans still believed in things like science. Pawlenty was no liberal, but at least he didn’t want to see the world experience the chaos of climate change.
You might think that the Republicans who control the state Senate would support a plan that provides greater consumer choice for Minnesotans. Yet, in today’s GOP, action on climate change is considered a bad thing, over which padlocking the state parks at the peak of summer is a worthwhile sacrifice.
That matters right here in the North Country, where some of the agencies that would be impacted by the GOP’s proposed shutdown employ hundreds of area residents. And the economic losses from the closure of the state parks would only add to the impact.
Such threats aren’t the actions of responsible or reasonable people. This isn’t how you reach sensible compromise. This is “my way or the highway,” the kind of approach used by radicals, who simply dismiss collateral damage as part of the cost of their revolution.In this case, of course, it’s a revolution without a manifesto. “Owning the libs” is the only recognizable governing philosophy of the GOP these days. If that means forcing Minnesotans to breathe dirtier air, to face greater risk from climate change, and to make do without their state parks this summer, it’s all a win, as long as someone (including liberals) is upset or inconvenienced by it.
Republicans like to complain that government never does anything to help average people. And, once again, they’re doing everything they can to prove it.
But it's not just Northern St. Louis County that's being critical. In Senator Ingebrigtsen's home town newspaper, there's this letter. In Sen. Bill Ingebrigtsen defunds Minnesota natural resources, Mike Anders writes:
Sen. Ingebrigtsen, R-Alexandria, is at it again, using his Environment and Natural Resources Finance Committee role to do anything except act as a steward of Minnesota’s natural resources. Now it seems, he’s ready to close down our state parks. Brilliant! I’m not sure how he squares this with his recent claim to avoid “…putting too much of a burden on Minnesotan families.” Looks like the gloves are off and he doesn’t care about us, as long as he gets his way.
It’s not surprising that Sen. Ingebrigtsen is resorting to such threats. He obviously hates the fact that Minnesota voters overwhelmingly approved a constitutional amendment establishing the Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund to support Minnesota’s natural resources. After all, it’s intended to keep these funds out of the hands of arrogant legislators! He’s gone full-bore after this constitutionally-approved channel to increase his influence over not just our desired intent for these funds, but also to register his dissent against other matters.
Now, he’s threatened to defund the DNR, the Board of Water and Soil Resources, the Minnesota Zoo, the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Natural Resources (that administers the Natural Resources Trust Fund), the Science Museum of Minnesota, and the MPCA – all because of his aversion to addressing the challenges of climate change.
If he continues to hold our natural resources hostage to his preferences rather than considering the good of our state, what next might he decide he’s against?
Those who wish for a return to legislative maturity and reasoned compromise see Sen. Ingebrigtsen’s actions for what they are – bold-faced bullying, a refusal to respect our constitution, and disregard for Minnesota voters in his quest for influence
We can't top that--even with clever tweets of opposition to the Senate's stance from environmental and clean energy advocates.
Related posts:
- Did Tomassoni really see 60 electric vehicles at a Hibbing auto dealership "the other day"?
- Session Daily: House OKs bill offering conditional release to inmates who give birth
- It's Bill Ingebrigtsen's agenda & he's sticking to it
- Free LCCMR: Hansen letter clarifies how constitutionally dedicated fund appropriations aren't tied to budget targets
- Lutefisk booya: new offer, new editorial, new morning of environment committee meeting
- OAH judge rules in favor of MN Clean Car Rules; @sen_inge quickly adjourns conference committee
- Enviro Conference Committee: in no-drama move, House releases offer hours before meeting
- In the spirit of compromise, Sen. Ingebrigtsen denies shutdown strategy, makes offer, takes Senate members, logs out and goes home
Photo: Will Big Stone Lake State Park, the Minnesota state park closest to Bluestem Prairie's World Headquarters in Summit, SD --and all the rest of Minnesota's state parks--close because of the Senate's hard ball?
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