Last Friday, Center of the American Experiment submitted comments opposing Governor Walz's attempt to force Minnesota to comply with California's Low Emission Vehicle (LEV) and Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) car mandates. The comments, which span 27 pages, highlight several reasons why the California mandates are bad news for Minnesota....
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This article originally appeared in The Duluth News Tribune. In late September, Gov. Tim Walz announced he would circumvent the Legislature by using the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency’s bureaucratic rulemaking process to force Minnesota to comply with California’s regulations mandating the use of zero-emissions vehicles and low-emissions vehicles (“Minnesota to follow California auto standards,” Sept. 26). Proponents of these rules claim they will improve consumer options and the environment, but the truth is these mandates will raise vehicle costs for families and businesses with no measurable environmental benefit. Thankfully, the administration of President Donald Trump may preempt Gov. Walz’s attempt to let unelected...
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In late September, Governor Walz announced that he would seek to impose California's mandates for zero emission vehicles and low emission vehicles on Minnesota. Rather than passing this proposal through the normal legislative process, Governor Walz is trying to impose these rules on Minnesotans by instructing the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency to draft the mandates forcing our state to comply with regulations drafted by unelected bureaucrats on the California Air Resources Board. Why wouldn't Governor Walz want to go through the legislative process where legislators can weigh the pros and cons of the proposal and vote accordingly? Probably because these regulations...
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High electricity prices are deadly. That's the conclusion reached by a new paper produced by the National Bureau Of Economic Research (NBER), which investigated the relationship between electricity prices and mortality after the Japanese government's decision to shut down all of its nuclear power plants following the Fukushima meltdown in March of 2011. According to NBER, shutting these plants down came at enormous costs, both economic and human. The paper reads: "To meet electricity demands, the reduction in nuclear energy production was offset by increased importation of fossil fuels, which increased the price of electricity by as much as 38 percent in some...
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I've written about why Governor Walz's plan to impose California's fuel economy standards on Minnesota is not a good idea, namely because it will increase costs, reduce safety, and result in zero measurable environmental benefits. Thankfully, the Trump Administration is currently moving to end California's ability to effectively set fuel economy standards for the rest of the country. Alpha News does a good job of summarizing these points in the video below. Enjoy! I'm hoping to have a final confirmation in Xcel's massive electricity rate hike tomorrow. Stay tuned. https://youtu.be/_scZWW9HoPk ...
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Governor Walz recently announced that he wants hundreds of thousands of electric vehicles on Minnesota roads by 2030, but a world-wide shortage of nickel threatens to slam the brakes on EV's....
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You may not have known this, but the federal government has been subsidizing electric vehicles (EV's) to the tune of a $7,500 tax credit for every electric vehicle sold. In fact, the subsidy is a major reason why we're starting to see more Tesla's tooling around the Twin Cities, but there's a catch: the subsidy begins to disappear after a manufacturer has sold 200,000 units, and Tesla has hit this threshold, meaning the growth of Elon's EV's could slow moving forward. The phase out of the tax credits comes at a bad time for Tesla, after the EV automaker announced it would...
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On Wednesday, Governor Walz announced that he would be using the bureaucratic rule making process to impose California’s rules for low and zero emissions vehicles (LEV and ZEV) on to Minnesota car buyers. While the Governor has tried to frame this as a win for consumer choice, Minnesota families, and the environment, the facts suggest that the Governor's proposed regulations are solution in search of a problem. Three facts you need to know about this proposal are: This is not about expanding consumer choice. It will mandate the sale of smaller, lighter cars that are not as safe as bigger, heavier...
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Today I wanted to share this graphic I found on a pro-nuclear Facebook page that really hammers home the point: we simply require far too much energy for wind, solar, and battery storage to ever be a viable, reliable source of electricity. If the folks who claim that climate change is an "existential crisis" were actually serious about reducing carbon dioxide emissions they would legalize new nuclear power and allow the electricity generated by hydropower that we already buy from Canada to count toward our "carbon free" goals. Instead, the DFL-lead house said these two proposals were non-starters. There is simply no...
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According to the Star Tribune, eighteen liberal Democratic lawmakers from the Metro area are calling for Governor Tim Walz to suspend all state permits for PolyMet's proposed copper-nickel mine in northern Minnesota. The legislators claim the suspension is needed to make sure that "the permits were not rigged." It's interesting to note that not a single DFL lawmaker from the Iron Range, where the mine would actually be located, signed on to the letter. This makes sense, because no project in Minnesota history has been studied more extensively than the PolyMet project, which has been under regulatory review for more than...
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