Last week, Minneapolis-based Xcel Energy CEO Dick Kelly asked Congress to raise his taxes - specifically, his carbon taxes. In a statement that may sound the Paul Revere-like alarm for climate and energy policy, Kelly thinks the U.S. Senate chickened out of a climate bill. They backed off and "started calling it ‘cap and tax,'" Kelly told the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Kelly is head of a multistate utility that has increasingly moved away from coal power and spent millions to retrofit some of its plants to cleaner-burning natural gas.  Kelly is joined in his attitude by Duke Energy CEO Jim Rogers. Rogers has also stated that the "growing consensus in the electric utility industry" is to "act now." Rogers points to private capital that's waiting for a predictable regulatory landscape to set the stage for investment into clean energy.

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Thirty years working on energy policy and I had never thought much about fluid hydraulics. But today I had lunch with Professor Kim Stelson,  Director of the Center for Compact and Efficient Fluid Power, and his colleague Michael Gust, Industrial Liaison Director. It turns out that the Center has been headquartered at the University of Minnesota for the past four years, and it may be the University's best kept secret.

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Borrowing from the world of Silicon Valley, automobile manufacturers have begun to adopt new business models that are moving away from the stale behemoths of the twentieth century. General Motors and Toyota have invested a combined $55 million in electric vehicle startups over the past few months. Through its venture capital subsidiary, General Motors is investing in BRIGHT Automotive of Indiana to accelerate the production of the Idea, a plug-in hybrid commercial van meant to compete with the all-electric Ford Transit Connect. Toyota holds a 3.2 percent stake in Tesla Motors, the maker of high-end electric vehicles run by PayPal founder Elon Musk. Tesla will provide the electric powertrain and battery pack to be used in an electric version of the RAV4 SUV.

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Yesterday, while the DOW lost over 250 points, PayPal founder Elon Musk's electric vehicle startup Tesla Motors raised $226 million in its initial public offering. Though Tesla has only sold about 1,000 of its electric vehicles and has not had a quarterly profit yet, investors are confident in the startup. Tesla, which began trading at $17 a share, leaped nearly 41 percent to close at $23.89. Hilary Kramer, president and chief investment officer of A&G Capital Research, is calling Tesla a "game changer."

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Mass-produced electric vehicles, such as the Nissan Leaf, are set to hit the market by the end of the year. In order to ensure that Minnesota can become a leader in electric vehicles, we need to implement statewide policies that will turn Minnesota into an electric vehicle-friendly state. One model that has been adopted by France, Hawaii, and the city of Vancouver is to require that new office buildings, multi-family dwellings, or large parking lots be built with the electrical wiring needed to accommodate the charging of these new vehicles.

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Bill Gates, Microsoft Chairman and co-founder, intends on presenting a plan to Congress and the White House on how to change the way Americans consume energy. Gates recently appeared on ABC News to talk about his vision of a clean energy future and why government leadership is so important. He also participated with other business executives in the American Energy Innovation Council's report, "A Business Plan for America's Energy Future."

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Over 6,000 companies are calling on Congress to enact meaningful and effective energy and climate legislation. The American Businesses for Clean Energy (ABCE) and We Can Lead, an organization of Business Leaders in Support of Strong Energy and Climate Policy, took out an ad in POLITICO magazine to highlight their strong support. The ad states that "when our leaders in Washington drag their feet, America falls behind."

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A new study released by the nonpartisan Peterson Institute for International Economics projected that the American Power Act would generate an average of 203,000 new jobs annually above business-as-usual between 2011 and 2020.

The Peterson Institute study looked at possible impacts of the proposed legislation to the economy, employment, energy security, and the environment. Besides reducing U.S. GHG emissions by 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020, the study projects that if passed, the bill would reduce U.S. imported oil purchases by $51-$93 billion annually.

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National discount retailer Target Corporation, headquartered in Minneapolis, and Richfield, MN-based Best Buy Corporation recently joined Business for Innovative Energy and Climate Policy (BICEP), a coalition of major American businesses pushing hard for the U.S. to enact comprehensive energy independence and climate legislation.

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Last Friday, 22 U.S. Senators sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, urging the Senate to pass bipartisan and comprehensive clean energy legislation this year. The letter highlights the business and national security case for comprehensive climate legislation. "Our lack of a comprehensive clean energy policy hurts job creation and increases regulatory uncertainty throughout the economy," the senators wrote. "Businesses are waiting on clean signals from Congress before investing billions in energy, transportation, manufacturing, buildings and other sectors. America's competitiveness and export strength are also at stake."

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