Minneapolis 100 Percent Renewable Target: More Expensive Virtue Signalling

Minneapolis seems determined to rush toward 100 percent renewable energy by 2023, but perhaps it’s time for the City to pump the brakes on environmental virtue signalling and consider whether it has bigger problems that should be addressed first.

I’ve noted before that Minneapolis’ renewable energy target is essentially virtue signalling with a $720,000 price tag, but the graph below confirms it. As you can see, the vast majority of “renewable energy” powering the City would be obtained by purchasing 59,200 renewable energy credits. These credits are just a piece of paper sold to represent one megawatt hour of electricity sold.

Purchasing 59,200 REC’s will cost the City an additional $473,600.00, all to purchase a theoretical credit from some distant renewable energy generator that will have zero measurable environmental benefit to Minneapolis residents. (The cost between my earlier estimate of $720,000 vs 473,600 is because I assumed the City would only purchase REC’s to meet the standard).

Furthermore, according to an article in the Energy News Network, Brian Millberg, the city’s energy manager, created the 100 percent renewable plan. Xcel’s green tariff Renewable*Connect program costs an extra 10 percent. The City claims savings from community solar garden subscriptions covers the premium, but color me very skeptical of these rosy projections.

Minneapolis squanders hundreds of thousands of dollars on environmental virtue signalling and then wonders why they have problems with rising housing costs (the extra costs get passed along to property owners, who increase their rents) and problems with graffiti, burglaries, and violent crime.

Minneapolis needs to get its priorities in order, and spending $473,600 on renewable energy credits should be at the bottom of the list.