Lieutenant Governor Tina Smith in Albert Lea today announced an effort for Minnesota to get 50 percent of its energy from renewables by 2030 — noting the state is well on the way to meeting the current standard of 25 percent by 2025. Smith acknowledges it will be a battle with Republicans controlling the legislature but says, “We’re gonna go about building consensus by talking about the economic opportunities that this presents for Minnesota.”
Smith says the clean energy industry over the last 10 years created 15 thousand jobs and a billion dollars in economic activity. She says this next step will create an estimated 15-hundred jobs per year. “I think that is a strong economic argument that is gonna be really persuasive to legislators all over the state,” she says. Republicans have not yet commented.