Minnesota Eyes Permitting Reform for Clean Energy Amid Gridlock in Congress

Minnesota lawmakers are holding a listening to right now to debate a proposed invoice that may enact a collection of modifications to the best way the state permits wind and photo voltaic farms, in addition to the transmission strains wanted to ship the electrical energy they produce.

Final 12 months, Minnesota handed a sweeping package deal of local weather legal guidelines, together with one which requires the state to generate 100% of its electrical energy from carbon-free sources by 2040. “We’re going to want fairly a bit extra renewable power in our system to attain 100%,” mentioned Minnesota Home Majority Chief Jamie Lengthy, a Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) celebration member who authored the allowing invoice. “So we’d like transmission and we’d like it quick.”

The Minnesota Power Infrastructure Allowing Act, which was launched final week, would scale back procedural necessities, consolidate environmental overview authority for power initiatives to a single state company, restrict sure contested case hearings and exempt all wind and photo voltaic initiatives and a few transmission strains from certificates of want permits. The invoice’s supporters say it might shave off as a lot as 9 months from a course of that may usually take greater than 5 years—and with out scuttling the general public enter course of, a high concern for environmental justice advocates.

The proposal is the newest legislative effort to streamline the regulatory approval course of for clear power initiatives—what’s extra generally known as allowing reform. It’s additionally an instance of why state motion may very well be key to advancing allowing reform this 12 months, power consultants say, as Congress stays gridlocked on the problem.

At the very least 10 federal allowing reform payments are unlikely to realize any traction on Capitol Hill forward of the presidential election in November. Whereas progressives want to velocity up approvals of renewable power infrastructure, Republicans—and a few conservative Democrats—have refused to cooperate until fossil gas initiatives are given equal, if not higher, remedy.

That standstill, nevertheless, hasn’t stopped at the very least six states from enacting their very own variations of allowing reform in recent times, mentioned Matthew Eisenson, a senior researcher for Columbia Legislation Faculty’s Sabin Heart for Local weather Change Legislation. 

New York, California, Florida, Illinois and Michigan have all enacted allowing reforms that make it harder for native governments to dam wind or photo voltaic initiatives, Eisenson mentioned, and Minnesota handed a legislation final 12 months that exempts sure giant wind and photo voltaic initiatives from certificates of want permits. These permits require builders to indicate regulators that there’s a public want for his or her proposed initiatives and are sometimes central to the arguments of authorized challenges in opposition to them.

Massachusetts, Nevada and Wisconsin even have laws that prohibits native governments from putting “unreasonable restrictions” on photo voltaic growth, Eisenson added, however these legal guidelines have been in place since 2009 or earlier.

“I feel state stage motion has an infinite position to play in renewable power siting and the flexibility of states to attain their local weather change targets,” he mentioned. “There may be a lot wind and photo voltaic within the queue proper now in these states, and these initiatives deliver main financial advantages to the communities and there’s a lot of want to assist them get constructed.” 

Infrastructure initiatives can take a notoriously very long time to get approval, with designing and financing alone taking upwards of two years, and federal and state opinions including one other six even earlier than building begins, one power skilled informed the Senate Finances Committee in July. Even after an power undertaking is full, it may possibly take a number of extra years to attach that undertaking to the facility grid, in accordance with a 2022 examine by the Lawrence Berkeley Nationwide Laboratory, or LBNL. 

Consequently, 1000’s of photo voltaic and wind power techniques have been ready for years simply to be hooked as much as the grid, in accordance with a separate LBNL report launched final 12 months. That report discovered that the variety of interconnection requests from power initiatives grew by 40 % between 2021 and 2022, with 95 % of these consisting of renewables. It additionally discovered that native opposition, not federal overview, was the commonest cause for clear power undertaking delays and cancellations throughout that point interval, inflicting a 3rd of the cancellations and as much as 65 % of the delays.

State-level allowing reform may very well be particularly impactful within the Midwest, the place a large growth of transmission strains—costing tens of billions of {dollars}—is already being deliberate, mentioned Samantha Gross, director of the power safety and local weather initiative on the Brookings Establishment, a nonprofit public coverage assume tank. “Numerous the jurisdiction for this lies within the states, so tackling this on the state stage … can really do fairly a bit of excellent with out federal laws.”

Transmission strains are among the many most troublesome initiatives to obtain speedy approval, Gross mentioned, as a result of they have an inclination to cross a number of states and jurisdictions, every of which have their very own set of necessities the developer would want to meet. The truth is, Gross mentioned, she already is aware of of 1 transmission line presently beneath growth within the Midwest that may instantly profit from state stage reforms. 

The undertaking—a prolonged transmission line referred to as the Grain Belt Specific, which might ship electrical energy produced at wind and photo voltaic farms in Kansas 800 miles to Missouri and Illinois—has been delayed for greater than a decade by the regulatory course of and authorized challenges.

“If these contiguous states had some allowing reform, you possibly can in all probability get that undertaking completed,” Gross mentioned. 

The invoice now earlier than the Minnesota Legislature would seemingly velocity up the development of transmission strains, in accordance with a report put collectively by the Minnesota Public Utilities Fee, after which the invoice was modeled.

Not everyone seems to be behind the thought of allowing reform. Considered one of its largest critics has been environmental justice organizations. The teams fear that rushing up environmental opinions would make the general public enter course of tougher for deprived communities, which have traditionally borne the brunt of the nation’s industrial air pollution.

However Lengthy mentioned the modifications in his proposal are largely aimed toward decreasing procedural steps, similar to requiring an software undergo two separate state companies or requiring state commissioners to undergo the prolonged voting course of simply to resolve if an software is full. “Whereas we’re making an attempt to take away pointless steps, generally duplicative steps, we’re actually not making an attempt to take away public enter or stakeholder involvement,” he mentioned.

Minnesota PUC Commissioner Will Seuffert echoed that sentiment, saying that the company heard from greater than 30 stakeholders when crafting its report, figuring out areas of settlement on potential modifications that wouldn’t impede public enter. “Actually what we’re making an attempt to do is create administrative effectivity however keep the core tenants of how we serve the general public,” he mentioned.

Finally, Lengthy believes his invoice will move this 12 months, largely due to Minnesota’s legally mandated clear power goal and the huge injection of federal funding from the Inflation Discount Act for renewable power initiatives. “We now have a brief session this 12 months. We’ll be completed by mid-Might,” he mentioned. “So I feel you’ll be able to count on the invoice to maneuver shortly within the subsequent two months.”