A clean transportation standard is a technology-neutral, performance-based policy that reduces the use of high-carbon transportation fuels while providing incentives to deploy lower-carbon alternatives such as electricity, hydrogen, and biofuels. We developed this 101 blog to help inform decision makers considering a Midwestern clean transportation standard as well as others that would like to know more about the initiative. Continue reading »
Across the US, states, cities, corporations, and utilities are placing an increased focus on electrification of energy loads as a primary pathway to decarbonization and setting ambitious renewable energy and carbon-free energy targets. This transition will require a major expansion of renewable energy capacity. To help communities prepare for such large-scale development, GPI developed model solar ordinances for five Midwestern states in 2021. In 2024, we have revamped the Illinois model solar ordinance to align with the state’s new Climate and Equitable Jobs Act (CEJA).
Prospects for large-scale deployment of carbon capture technologies in the next decade improved at the end of 2020 due to actions at the federal level. First, the omnibus spending package included both a two-year extension of the 45Q tax credit and massive increases in federal support for research, demonstration, and development of the suite of carbon capture management tools: capture, removal, transport, utilization, and storage. Second, the Internal Revenue Service finalized long-awaited regulations for 45Q that will provide certainty to investors and project developers. These actions boost momentum going into 2021 to grow support for priorities needed to build projects at the speed and scale required for meeting midcentury climate goals.
Planners can now explore a database of climate ordinances in the United States using a new web-based tool developed by the Great Plains Institute (GPI). GPI has been working with two divisions of the American Planning Association—the American Planning Association Sustainable Communities Division and the American Planning Association Environment, Natural Resources and Energy Division—to identify and help develop tools for planners working on climate change in their local communities. Continue reading »
As Minnesota cities work to make progress on energy and climate goals, their efforts may run into a state-level barrier to higher building energy code standards. Seven cities in Minnesota are working together to engage other city leaders across the state to address this barrier by seeking higher energy building standards at the state level for commercial and large multifamily buildings. The Great Plains Institute is leading city engagement in support of this effort as part of a public-private partnership.
It is hard to find words to capture 2020 and yet the year’s tragic features are now seared into our national psyche: images of the US Capitol under siege, the pandemic‘s staggering human and economic toll, long-standing racial disparities and injustices that can no longer be ignored, and a fractured political system and populace, all stressing the foundations of our democratic system of government.
On November 23, 2020, the Bioeconomy Coalition of Minnesota (BCM) and Natural Resources Research Institute (NRRI) co-hosted a biochar roundtable to discuss opportunities and limitations of commercializing biochar in Minnesota. The roundtable included a series of expert presentations and a group discussion facilitated by Brendan Jordan, vice president of Transportation and Fuels at the Great Plains Institute, which facilitates the Coalition. Continue reading »
Gathering input from a wide-ranging group of stakeholders, the Great Plains Institute (GPI) has been working to develop and implement clean fuels policies (CFPs) in Midwestern states. A CFP is a technology-neutral, performance-based policy that reduces the use of high-carbon transportation fuels while providing incentives to deploy lower-carbon alternatives such as electricity, hydrogen, and biofuels. GPI has been hosting a webinar series, with each webinar focused on a different low-carbon fuel, as part of our work to educate more stakeholders about the benefits of a CFP.
The year 2020 was challenging—we worked hard to stay apart, embraced wearing masks everywhere we went, and rediscovered the outdoors. It was a year of immense pain, and we said goodbye to deeply loved friends and family. Restaurants, movie theaters, and other businesses endured trying economic times, or closed altogether, amidst a pandemic that shut down life as we once knew it. As we reflect on the past year, we’re also recognizing where progress was still able to occur, particularly on transportation electrification in Minnesota, which can deliver economic and environmental benefits for the state.
Congress passed an expansive bipartisan energy package in a year-end omnibus spending bill that will drive emissions reductions, increase jobs, support economic competitiveness, and result in the development and deployment of technologies essential to meeting 2050 climate goals. Passage of the Energy Act of 2020—the first major energy package in over a decade—signals broad support for building a net-zero carbon economy, which requires an all-hands-on-deck approach over the next decade.
