On Thursday, September 26, 2024 the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (PUC) will be making some key decisions about implementing Minnesota’s 100% clean energy standard – including what types of electricity will be considered “carbon free.”  

Join us in St. Paul at the PUC meeting on Thurs, Sept 26 at 1 pm to help fill the room and show your support for a true clean energy standard! 

Where: Minnesota Public Utilities Commission, 121 7^th Place E, St. Paul, MN 55101 (third floor)
When: Thursday, September 26, 1 pm until finished (likely by 4:30 pm or earlier)
RSVP: Let us know you’ll be there! 

This PUC meeting is open to the public, but we do not expect attendees to have a chance to speak or give testimony. Showing up conveys that this is an issue people care about and tells regulators the public is watching. Several advocacy or grassroots organizations including CURE, the Minnesota Environmental Justice Table, Sierra Club, Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy, Health Professionals for a Healthy Climate, Minnesota Interfaith Power & Light, and more are involved in the legal aspects of this regulatory process and may have a chance to address the Commission.  

We’ll take time for a short debrief after the meeting is done to help us all understand the decisions the commissioners make and the next steps that are likely to play out moving forward. 

This matters because some of the proposals on the table would include burning woody biomass (trees!), burning garbage, or using wasteful and counterproductive carbon capture systems, all of which result in climate-change-driving CO₂ pollution that the 100% standard seeks to avoid. We know carbon free should mean energy that’s actually carbon free. 

Let us know you’ll be there on the 26^th in St. Paul. 

The decisions and governance frameworks we put in place now for the energy transition will reverberate decades into the future. We need an energy system that is truly clean, healthy, and equitable, not full of “false solutions” that serve monopoly utilities and polluting industries at the expense of our communities. 

If you are not able to attend in person and want to tune into the meeting, the PUC’s sessions are available via livestream. This is a one-way stream, so attendees are not visible to the Commission. We believe it makes the strongest impression to attend in person if you are able.