ENVIRONMENT | Protecting our natural resources
12 February 2008
Minnesota Steps Up Development of Renewable Energy Technologies
State initiative links growth in renewable sector with rural development
Washington -- The northern Midwestern state of Minnesota is stepping up efforts to develop and promote renewable energies, including wind and biofuels.
An expanded renewable energy sector can benefit rural communities by creating jobs where local economies historically have depended on agriculture, officials say.
Minnesota is the nation’s third-largest producer of wind power. Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty in January proposed to the state’s legislature the establishment of a new Office of Energy Security within the state’s Department of Commerce. The office would promote clean energy research and development that would benefit homeowners, small business owners and farmers in both rural and urban communities.
He also wants to create a "Clean Energy Technology Collaboration" to bring together scientists to draft a plan for achieving the state’s goal of deriving 25 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2025.
“Minnesotans want to play a greater role in the ownership and production of the energy they use in their farms and small businesses,” Pawlenty said in a January press release. “This effort will promote energy independence by providing local jobs and strengthening our economy.”
Pawlenty, who chairs the National Governors Association, will speak about the state’s efforts to develop renewable energy sources at the Washington International Renewable Energy Conference in March. In January, he met with Governor Jim Doyle of neighboring Wisconsin to discuss ways the Midwest region could advance the development of renewable energy sources and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
In doing so, more local jobs would be created, Doyle said in a January press release.
In the rural south-central Minnesota town of Madelia, researchers have found enough available agricultural land and community support to develop a biomass energy plant supported by crops grown locally.
The Minneapolis-based Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy “hopes the Madelia model for integrating sustainability and renewable energy into rural development will serve as an example for other small towns,” according to a statement on the group’s Web site.
DEVELOPMENTS IN WASHINGTON
Two of Minnesota’s congressional representatives, Democrats Tim Walz and Collin Peterson, are asking Congress to consider their proposal to provide new tax incentives to make it easier for Americans to invest in wind energy projects. Peterson chairs the House of Representatives Agriculture Committee.
The House of Representatives already has proposed spending $847 million for renewable energy research and development in fiscal year 2008, some $617 million above the 2007 enacted level and twice as much as the Bush administration’s request, according to news reports.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is providing small grants to communities to support programs that will strengthen rural small businesses, including those involved in the renewable energy sector.
"Renewable energy is the greatest new opportunity for wealth creation in rural America … both on and off the farm," Thomas Dorr, under secretary of agriculture for rural development, said at a meeting in Washington sponsored by a farm publication in December 2007.
"We are now beginning to see unfold at an accelerating rate [what] will be a new industrial infrastructure in rural areas with enormous potential for the rural economy and the nation," he said.
Dorr said wind production in the United States has quadrupled since 2000, ethanol production has tripled since 2000 and America leads the world in turning waste into clean energy. In addition, private investment in renewable energy technologies is "surging," he said.
Massachusetts is another state that has stepped up the development of its clean energy sector. The clean energy sector in the state has surpassed the textile industry in the number of people it employs, according to the online Renewable Energy newsletter.
More information about Pawlenty’s proposals is available on his office’s Web site.
