Last week, the bipartisan and bicameral Future Fuels Act was introduced in the Minnesota State Legislature, authored by Minnesota House of Representatives Assistant Majority Leader Todd Lippert (DFL) and Senate Energy and Utilities Finance and Policy Committee Chairman David Senjem (R). The House bill had its first hearing in the Climate and Energy Finance and Policy Committee, marking the first time a clean fuels policy received a legislative hearing in the Midwest.
The Future Fuels Act is a clean fuels policy, or low carbon fuel standard, tailored to the needs and goals of Minnesota. It sets a target to reduce transportation greenhouse gas emissions by 20% by 2035, boost the state’s economy, and provide a host of co-benefits.
GPI Vice President Brendan Jordan and Energy Planner & Analyst Jessi Wyatt joined numerous stakeholders to testify in support of the bill, including Minnesota Department of Transportation Assistant Commissioner Tim Sexton, Low Carbon Fuels Coalition Executive Director Graham Noyes, Minnesota Bio-Fuels Association Executive Director Tim Rudnicki, Steele Lorenz with the Farmers Business Network, Josh Fisher with the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, Jeremy Martin with the Union of Concerned Scientist, Emily Wimberger with the Rhodium Group, and Nels Paulson with Conservation Minnesota.
The testimony demonstrated a broad spectrum of support for the legislation, covering multiple perspectives and highlighting its many benefits:
- Jordan and Sexton underscored how the Future Fuels Act can help meet Minnesota’s greenhouse gas reduction goal under the 2007 Next Generation Energy Act as well as petroleum replacement goals.
- Noyes, Wimberger, and Martin highlighted the importance of a technology-neutral, science-based portfolio approach to reducing carbon in the transportation sector, which currently emits the most greenhouse gases out of all sectors in Minnesota.
- Rudnicki, Paulson, and others stressed that the Future Fuels Act will incentivize the production of cleaner fuels in the state, improving air quality and public health especially in communities that continue to be disproportionately impacted by transportation emissions.
- Testifiers, including Fisher and Martin, highlighted that the Future Fuels Act is only one tool in the toolbelt to decarbonize transportation emissions, but it is an important one that will create incentives for electric vehicles, biofuels, and other clean fuel technologies.
- Lorenz and Rudnicki stressed the importance of the Future Fuels Act in offering farmers voluntary incentives to green biofuel supply chains.
- Wyatt highlighted the economic benefits that the Future Fuels Act can bring to Minnesota based on modeling performed by ICF for the Midwestern Clean Fuels Policy Initiative (which is facilitated by GPI).
This first hearing was one stop along several that will need to take place before successful passage into law. Supporters are eagerly awaiting a subsequent hearing, still to be scheduled, in the Senate for the companion bill (Senate File 2027).
The Future Fuels Act is supported by the newly formed Minnesota Future Fuels Coalition (full announcement below), which is staffed by GPI.
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Minnesota Future Fuels Coalition Announcement
The undersigned organizations commend state agency and stakeholder efforts in recommending a clean fuels policy in Minnesota. We thank Governor Walz for establishing the Governor’s Council on Biofuels and strongly support the Council’s recommendation (finding number 10, recommendation number 4) to move forward with a clean fuels policy in Minnesota. We also applaud the Minnesota Department of Transportation for establishing the Sustainable Transportation Advisory Council, which also included a clean fuels policy and implementation guidelines in its set of approved recommendations to the Department. A clean fuels policy will help assure that Minnesota remains in a leadership position with respect to clean fuels innovation, building on past successes.
Minnesota is behind schedule in achieving the transportation greenhouse gas reduction and clean fuel adoption goals established through the bipartisan Next Generation Energy Act of 2007. We believe that a clean fuels policy, such as the proposed Future Fuels Act, can help get Minnesota back on track.
We believe that the Future Fuels Act, designed based on recommendations in the Midwestern Clean Fuels Policy Initiative’s white paper A Clean Fuels Policy for the Midwest, can have many benefits for Minnesota, including:
- Benefits for consumers through market access for clean fuels that are often lower cost or a better value than conventional fuels but currently face barriers to entry in the marketplace.
- Large net-positive and equitable economic impacts for the state through increased investment in a broad portfolio of cleaner fuels, including ethanol, biomethane, biodiesel, other biofuels, electricity, and charging infrastructure.
- Equitable access to clean transportation for all Minnesota communities.
- Increased investment in cleaner fuels for all types of vehicles and a more innovative and prosperous clean fuels sector spurring consumer demand for cleaner products.
- A technology- and fuel-neutral, performance-based approach that rewards the cleanest fuels without having government pick winners and losers and expands the fuels market.
- Reductions in air pollution and increased health benefits, particularly in areas that have been disproportionately impacted by transportation pollution.
- Economic incentives and market demand to maximize the resource value of organic waste (including manure, biosolids, and food waste), reducing the climate impacts of organic waste, and supporting counties’ efforts to achieve state-mandated recycling goals.
- Increased energy independence by relying less on imported resources and more on state resources.
- Reduced greenhouse gas emissions in the two largest emitting sectors of transportation and electricity as well as in the agricultural sector.
- A potential to support voluntary farmer-led efforts to invest in and adopt agricultural conservation practices that benefit soil health and water quality and reduce farm-level greenhouse gas emissions.
We stand ready to support Governor Walz, the Governor’s Council on Biofuels, the Sustainable Transportation Advisory Council, state agencies, and the legislature in the adoption and design of a clean fuels policy.
Alliance for Automotive Innovation
American Coalition for Ethanol
Amp Americas
Audi of America
Biomass Solution
Center for Energy and Environment
ChargePoint
Christianson, PLLP
Conservation Minnesota
Farmers Business Network
Fresh Energy
General Motors
Low Carbon Fuels Coalition
Minnesota Bio-Fuels Association
Partnership on Waste and Energy
Plug In America
Rivian
Sustainable Farming Corporation
Tesla
The Coalition for Renewable Natural Gas
The Nature Conservancy
The Renewable Fuels Association
Union of Concerned Scientists
Universal Renewable Products, LLC
Xcel Energy
