Minnesota Sets 100% by 2040 Carbon-Free Electricity Mandate

By Christian Roselund

On 7 February 2023, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz signed a bill to mandate that the state’s electric utilities procure 100% of their electricity from carbon-free sources by 2040. This is one of the most ambitious timelines for electricity sector decarbonization in the United States, and House File 7
(HF 7) additionally sets ambitious targets for 2030 and 2035.

HF 7 passed the Minnesota Senate 34-33 on 2 February 2023 on party lines, with all Democrats voting in favor and all Republicans voting against the bill. A week earlier on 27 January 2023, HF 7 passed the Minnesota House of Representatives 70-60, again on partisan lines. During the debate on the bill Minnesota House Minority Leader Lisa Demuth (R) claimed that the move to zero-carbon electricity will make power “unreliable, unsafe, and even dangerous.”

Minnesota joins ten other states that have committed to move to 100% zero-carbon electricity: California, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Virginia, and Washington. Most of these states are in the Northeast or West Coast; Illinois is the only other state in the Midwest region to set a mandate for full electricity sector decarbonization.

HF 7 contains two main mechanisms. One sets more aggressive targets for the state’s renewable electricity mandate, and the second institutes the new carbon-free mandate. Currently Minnesota requires that utilities procure 25% of their electricity from renewable energy sources by 2025, a target that Minnesota exceeded in 2017. HF 7 extends that mandate to require that utilities source 55% of electricity from renewables in 2035.

For the carbon-free mandate, HF 7 requires that in 2030, investor-owned utilities source 60% of their electricity from zero-carbon sources, and that publicly owned utilities source 80% from zero-carbon sources. The required portion of zero-carbon sources moves to 90% by 2035, regardless of ownership. This 90% by 2035 target is the third or fourth-strongest such mandate in the nation, with only Rhode Island (100% by 2033) and Washington D.C. (100% by 2032) setting more ambitious mandates for the 2032-2035 timeframe. Vermont has a roughly equivalent mandate of 75% renewable energy by 2032.

Minnesota’s largest electric utility, Xcel Energy, has sent a statement to multiple publications declaring that it supports the bill. In 2018 Xcel committed to moving to 100% carbon-free electricity by 2050, as one of the first commitments to fully decarbonize issued by a U.S. utility. “We’re actually excited about being pushed to go faster,” stated Chris Clark, Xcel’s president in Minnesota, North and South Dakota.

North Dakota Governor Doug Burgam has threatened to sue Minnesota over concerns that North Dakota electricity generators might not be able to export electricity from coal- and gas-fired power plants to Minnesota. Minnesota Governor Walz has dismissed the threat of this suit.

Source: HF 7 (Minnesota Legislature)

News coverage: Walz signs carbon-free energy bill, prompting threat of lawsuit (MNPR)

Analysis: Minnesota’s carbon-free electricity bill: 8 questions, answered (MNPR)