Fresh Energy’s goal is an energy system that sustains our economies, human health, and the environment. Through advocacy, research, and collaboration, we deliver laws to make clean energy more available, fight global warming, and provide less polluting, more efficient transportation options. Through it all, we focus on using energy more wisely—doing more work with less energy.

Our efforts focus in four program areas:

Energy Efficiency

Getting more from the same amount of effort—it’s something everyone can agree is a win-win situation. Yet the way we currently use energy—in our buildings, our manufacturing facilities, our generation, our lighting and appliances, and our transportation—could be far more efficient. Efficiently using our energy—using less energy while getting more from it by being smarter about the way we use it—would create jobs, save consumers and businesses money, and reduce energy consumption, cutting demands on our electric system and making us more energy independent. Energy efficiency is the cheapest and most abundant fuel source we have and should always be the starting point in moving towards a clean energy future.

That’s why Fresh Energy works tirelessly to promote and implement greater energy efficiency. Fresh Energy pursues greater energy efficiency through smart new legislation, improvements to current laws, better regulations, savvy financial strategies, market-friendly policies, and working with utility partners and service providers to increase energy efficiency implementation.

Learn more about energy efficiency: Energy Codes |  Resources on Buildings

Program staff: Kate Ellis, J. Drake Hamilton, Alison Lindburg, Linda Taylor

Clean Energy

It seems harmless enough—flick a switch and you’ve instantly got light and power. But the production of electricity causes more pollution than any other industry on the planet. It’s responsible for smog, acid rain, mercury poisoning in our lakes and rivers, and global warming. That’s why Fresh Energy aggressively promotes the use of clean, renewable electricity sources like wind, sun, and plant matter. They’re not only better for people and the environment, they’re also a better financial investment because the fuel is free and carries no threat of cleanup costs.

Here in the Midwest we’re uniquely situated to take advantage of these opportunities and become a global leader in clean energy. Fresh Energy pursues these innovations through smart new legislation, improvements to current laws, better regulations, savvy financial strategies, and market-friendly policies.

Program Staff: Kate Ellis, Linda Taylor, Erin Stojan Ruccolo

Transportation and Land Use

As Americans and Midwesterners, we love our automobiles. But that dependence carries a big price tag for the economy, our public health, and the environment.

Every day, Americans use 20 million barrels of oil to fuel their gasoline consumption. As the easy-to-reach supplies dwindle, rising fuel prices are emptying our wallets and compromising global security. Pollution from cars and trucks fills our skies and damages our lungs; automobile use drives the urban sprawl that is consuming our Midwestern landscape at an alarming rate; and our cars create part of the pollution that leads to global warming. We need a 21st century transportation system that meets the needs of our growing state while supporting the transition to a clean energy economy.

Fresh Energy pursues innovative transportation policies that will help to speed the transition. Current work includes Complete Streets implementation to make roads safer for everyone, Twin Cities regional transportation and land-use planning, transit funding, and support for electric vehicles.

Learn more about Complete Streets at the Minnesota Complete Streets Coalition.
Learn more about electric vehicles at Drive Electric Minnesota.

Program staff: Ross Abbey, Ethan Fawley

Global Warming Solutions

The Earth is warming, and human activity is the primary cause. Climate disruptions put our food and water supply at risk, endanger human health, jeopardize our national security, and damage our economy. Some climate change impacts—such as record heat waves and dew points, melting glaciers, damaging flooding and droughts, and ocean acidification—are already becoming increasingly common.

So far, our national leaders have failed to act quickly to reduce carbon pollution. Fresh Energy is aggressively promoting tough state and national laws and standards that lead to deep, permanent reductions in pollution from power plants, vehicles, buildings, and industry. We support policies and leaders that will ensure we avoid the worst impacts of global warming while creating a modern energy system that will make Minnesota and the Midwest leaders in the clean energy economy.

Learn more about global warming: science | Minnesota policy | resources | FAQ | protect clean air

Program staff: J. Drake Hamilton, Alison Lindburg