How are Minnesotas energy laws different from other states?
When Minnesota passed the Next Generation Energy Act and Renewable Energy Standard in 2007, it surged ahead of most of the rest of the nation in establishing aggressive greenhouse gas reductions and a planning timeline for implementation of a regional cap-and-trade system. The greenhouse gas emissions reductions agreed to by six states (including Minnesota) and the Canadian Province of Manitoba under the Midwestern Greenhouse Gas Reduction Accord is the most aggressive regional climate change policy in the nation. Only the state of Florida’s policy is slightly more ambitious. The other two regional climate change policy initiatives in the nation – the Western Climate Change Initiative and the regional greenhouse gas initiative (RGGI) including ten Northeastern states – are taking more gradual steps than the 60 to 80 percent below 2005 greenhouse gas emissions levels that the Midwestern states have set as goals by 2050.
