7 Ways Our Legislature Can Protect Our Environment This Session
By Sarah Horner, MCEA Communications Director
MCEA and our allies are advocating for several bills this session that would enhance environmental and public protections. Now is the time to speak up and tell your legislators you want to see them become law.
Learn more about the bills and how you can take action to support them below.
1. Pause hyper-scale data center development to give MN time to develop appropriate guardrails
Currently, data center proposals are moving faster than policy is being developed. Hyper-scale data centers are new to Minnesota, and our state lacks adequate protections for our communities and natural resources. This bill would enact a two-year pause to allow the state time to study the potential cumulative impacts of multiple data center proposals and develop the comprehensive regulation needed to guide it.
2. Make big polluters pay for the cost of climate damage
Minnesotans know that our climate is changing, and they have the bills to prove it. Extreme weather like wildfires, floods, hail, and windstorms is getting worse, and state budgets increasingly include investments to cover infrastructure repairs, disaster recovery, and related health costs. Taxpayers are unfairly bearing these costs, not the fossil fuel companies responsible for causing them. This bill would shift more of the burden back where it belongs by requiring companies responsible for over 1 billion metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions to pay into a state fund for climate costs.
Take Action and tell your legislators to make polluters pay for climate damages, not people.
3. Stop corporations from hiding water consumption behind city water permits
It’s increasingly common to see large industrial water users, such as data centers and water bottling plants, apply to be added to municipal water permits rather than obtaining their own permit. This shields their water use from public scrutiny and hampers our state agencies' ability to protect our water resources during water shortages. This bill would require large-volume industries to get their own water permits, creating more transparency around large water users and helping state agencies make better decisions about how our resources are used..
4. Support the inherent rights of Minnesota’s state grain – wild rice
MCEA is proud to be a member of the Rise and Repair Alliance, a group of local and statewide organizations focused on advancing Indigenous rights and climate justice through the Minnesota Legislature. This session, the alliance is supporting a bill that would recognize in state policy the inherent right of uncultivated wild rice – Minnesota’s state grain – to exist and thrive in our state. “The bill calls the people of Minnesota into a reciprocal relationship with wild rice and is a step towards a world where our responsibilities to each other and to the earth are prioritized,” said Evan Mulholland, MCEA’s Healthy Communities Director.
Learn more about the bill in this MPR article.
5. Ban NDAs that keep Minnesotans in the dark about data centers
NDAs have been widely used by elected officials and private companies seeking to develop hyper-scale data centers in Minnesota. They’ve kept residents across the state in the dark about what was being proposed in their communities, preventing meaningful public engagement on developments that could have significant impacts on Minnesotans' lives and our state’s natural resources. This bill would ban municipalities, such as cities, from signing NDAs, because residents have a right to know what’s being proposed in their neighborhoods.
Join MCEA and tell your legislators to support transparency and ban NDAs.
6. Require continuous monitoring of toxic chemicals at the trash incinerator in Hennepin County
Trash incineration releases hazardous pollutants, including dioxins, heavy metals like mercury and lead, and particulate matter, all of which can harm public health. This bill would reduce the amount of waste burned at the Hennepin Energy Recovery Center (HERC) by 25 percent and require continuous emission monitoring at the trash incinerator to better track toxic pollutant emissions, including PFAS. The bill would also mandate that the state and Hennepin County create a portal for members of the public to access continuous emission data.
Learn more about the bill here.
7. Protect aquatic life and public health from PFAS
PFAS have long been recognized as dangerous to our health through fish consumption, contaminated drinking water, and recreational exposure. For years, the MPCA has collected data on PFAS pollution in our lakes and rivers. This bill would require the state to turn that data into enforceable statewide water quality standards to protect aquatic life and public health from PFAS. The protections are particularly important for communities that rely on fishing as a major food source or cultural resource.