In boosting clean energy in Minnesota, Walz lays foundation for climate influence if Harris wins

When Minnesota Governor Tim Walz When Walz took the stage to welcome a conference of clean-energy advocates in Minneapolis in May, he was quick to note that his state now gets just over half of its energy from renewable sources. In the next breath, Walz said Minnesota would never get to 100 percent — a goal he helped set — without changing what he called “antiquated” permitting laws.

“There are things we do that are too burdensome, that don’t fit where we are today, that add cost and that make it harder to get to where we need to be,” Walz told the trade group American Clean Power.

A few weeks later, he signed legislation to speed things up. Developers no longer have to demonstrate that a clean energy project — that is, solar and wind, storage and transmission projects — is needed as part of Minnesota’s energy system. And they no longer have to study alternative sites and transmission line routes — a requirement that would have effectively doubled the potential opponents to a project.

Walz’s efforts to solve a major obstacle to the clean energy transition nationwide have gained renewed attention since he was appointed Kamala Harris’ running mate. His experience pushing similar laws in Minnesota could position him as a leader on climate issues if Harris wins in November.

“If Gov. Walz becomes our VP, I hope he can help bring some of this thinking to the federal level,” said Amelia Vohs, climate program director at the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy, a group that was involved in helping produce the permitting reforms. “It would make an incredible difference in the country’s progress on climate.”

What Minnesota did won’t easily be replicated at the federal level because of a closely divided Congress. But experts say most renewable projects are developed on private land, making them subject to state or local siting authority or both, and other states could follow Minnesota’s lead. Offshore wind is a notable exception, with federal agencies regulating development in federal waters.

New York, California, Illinois and Michigan have all implemented their own permitting changes in recent years to accelerate clean energy adoption, taking different approaches depending on whether the state or local government retains control over the siting process.

“The speed of the energy transition matters, it matters a lot,” said Matthew Eisenson, a senior fellow at the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law which identifies legal obstacles to renewable energy supplies and develops strategies to overcome them.

“The faster we can reduce emissions, the faster we can stabilize the climate and prevent the worst effects of climate change. So at the macro level, speed is important. At the micro level, speed is important. Projects can fizzle out if they take too long.”

Most wind and solar projects take four to six years from the time they’re announced to go live, with about two-thirds of that time spent on permitting, according to research from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. About 20% of projects take longer than six years.

Berkeley Lab asked developers of large-scale wind and solar projects across the country last year about their experiences with permits. Developers said local ordinances or zoning and community opposition were the main causes of significant delays and cancellations. Researcher Robi Nilson said the two are often linked: community opposition in some cases made the permitting process longer, and in other cases the process was already long because of previous opposition to other projects.

Developers said about a third of their wind and solar site applications filed in the past five years were canceled, while about half experienced delays of six months or more. Survey respondents came from companies that collectively produced about half of the wind and solar power developed nationwide from 2016 to 2023.

“Any bill that makes it easier to build clean energy infrastructure and interconnections is vital to all of our climate goals,” said Ben Pendergrass, vice president of government affairs at Citizens Climate Lobby, an independent, nonprofit climate advocacy organization.

Before the new law, permitting in Minnesota was handled through a process that was already half a century old and had been getting slower. The time it took to get a solar project approved grew from about 10 months in 2015 to 18 months as of 2019, according to a report from North Star Policy Action, a research group that supports action on climate change, among other issues.

House Majority Leader Jamie Long, a Minneapolis Democrat, had worked with Walz on the 2023 bill that established the state’s 100 percent clean energy goal. Once that passed, they turned their attention to permitting. Walz’s appointments to the state’s Public Utility Commission created broad working groups with the goal of putting something in place for this year’s legislative session, Long said.

Changing the law did not come without opposition.

Lawmakers had to deal with concerns from environmental groups that worried that speed would hurt environmental review and wanted to ensure there was enough time for public participation in the permitting process. Those groups also wanted to make sure the bill would only expedite wind, solar and transmission projects — not nuclear, biomass, fossil fuel-generated hydrogen or waste incineration. Democrats, who control the Minnesota Legislature, pushed the bill through despite objections from Republicans who wanted it to include fossil fuel projects and nuclear.

The final bill drew support from utilities, renewable energy developers, labor unions, environmentalists and energy policy nonprofits, whose recommendations to speed up the process became the centerpiece of the bill. Walz and his team remained involved in helping to bring the final bill to fruition, said Long, the bill’s author in the House of Representatives.

Walz signed it at a wind farm in the southern Minnesota district he represented in Congress before becoming governor.

“The legislation did something very difficult in terms of striking a balance between creating efficiencies and preventing other projects that we didn’t intend to do from being brought in more easily,” said Vohs of the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy. “It preserved the integrity of the process and didn’t throw too much away in the name of efficiency.”

Virginia-based Apex Clean Energy said it took nearly two years to obtain permits for each of the two large wind and solar projects it was developing in Cottonwood County in southwestern Minnesota. Chris Kunkle, Apex’s senior director of government affairs, said he expected the new law to cut permitting time about in half, which he called “fantastic.”

Xcel Energy, the state’s largest utility, said it expects to save several months over permitting a single transmission line or large power facility. Given the number of companies pursuing projects to deliver carbon-free electricity to customers, the cumulative time savings will amount to decades.

Doug Loon, president and CEO of the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce, said there was a clear recognition that the system was broken. He said the chamber believes the state now needs to apply the reforms to the entire industry, not just one segment.

Long said he hoped other states would follow Minnesota’s lead.

“I think if a state like ours, which is not particularly deep blue or coastal, can come together and find a way to get business, unions and the environment to support a package, that sends a strong message that it can be done,” he said.

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