The new legislative session begins February 12th. The Clean Energy team is hoping to build on last year’s successes, but it will take a solid effort from the Sierra Club lobbyists and the active participation of Sierra Club volunteers.
The bills the team will be supporting include:
- A clean-heat standard. The legislature passed a bill last year focusing on carbon-free electricity and now it is time for a similar standard limiting fossil gas (“natural gas”) emissions.
- Utility accountability, so that power companies, which have been granted monopolies, cannot use revenues from customers’ bill payments for lobbying or membership in fossil-fuel associations.
- Automatic solar permitting, focusing on low-income people.
- Creating a financing tool to help people cover expenses related to heat pumps.
The Clean Energy Team needs volunteers in four areas:
- Testifying at committee hearings.
- Writing letters to the editor.
- Phone banking.
- Attending lobby days, such as the main environmental lobby day at the capitol March 12.
If you can do any of these or support other activities, please contact Patty O’Keefe.
The team is planning a virtual lobbying training, tentatively scheduled for February: the exact date has yet to be determined. Contact Patty for the date and to sign up. There will also be a bi-monthly trainings for phone-banking and texting, the first scheduled for February 15th.
The Clean Energy Team is very interested in getting members from greater Minnesota. Now that the meetings are held via Zoom, anyone can easily participate. We urge interested people to RSVP and get the Zoom link for the next meeting, which will be held February 20th at 6:15.