Update – June 11, 2025: Minnesota’s special legislative session officially wrapped up on the morning of June 10, 2025. The legislature worked quickly starting at 10 a.m. Monday, June 9 to pass 15 bills to fully fund the state government during a one-day special session. Along with the required state agency funding bills, the legislature also passed a data center regulatory bill and two capital investment bills. Among the outcomes on our policy priorities:
- The Legislature did not adopt any rollbacks to Minnesota’s bedrock 100 percent by 2040 law;
- Stakeholder-negotiated language on Sustainable Aviation Fuel did not pass, but remains ripe for action in 2026;
- A data center policy package, including consumer, grid reliability, and environmental protections became law, as well as a partial extension of existing tax exemptions for data centers (an existing exemption on sales tax for electricity consumption at data centers was repealed);
- Unnecessary cuts to transit funding were passed as part of the budget agreement, along with increased annual fees on electric vehicle owners. The Legislature also established a working group to explore long-term approaches to EV tax and fee issues.
The context of this legislative session made policy gains extremely hard to find a path to passage and we at Fresh Energy focused on the long game; protecting progress and navigating emerging issues while setting up for future policy wins. Fresh Energy staff worked diligently throughout 2025 to provide legislator education, secure stakeholder consensus in new policy areas, and keep the public engaged to protect policy that will bring us to a clean energy future.
The 2026 Legislative Session convenes Feb 17, 2026, and we are ready.
Through every winter and into spring, Fresh Energy works hard at the State Capitol where we advocate for the Minnesota Legislature to pass strong laws and frameworks that equitably and rapidly build our clean energy future. While 2023 delivered the most impactful climate session in state history with the landmark 100% clean electricity law, and 2024 built on that momentum with strategic policies and investments, the 2025 session has presented a different set of challenges and opportunities.
As of this writing, the Legislature will need to enter a special session to complete its work for 2025, including adoption of a new state budget. Here’s what we know as of Friday, May 23.
The 2025 session political landscape was unique
This year’s legislative session has been unlike any in recent memory. With a legislature split between 100 Republicans and 101 Democrats, the margins couldn’t have been tighter. These narrow margins were further complicated by two special elections to fill vacant seats, including one from the passing of Senator Kari Dziedzic, as well as questions around an incoming legislator’s residency qualifications.
Ultimately, the power dynamics of the 2025 session changed week by week, and sometimes day by day. Tight margins magnified rifts and negotiations, which ultimately ensured Fresh Energy’s work in advocating for energy and climate policy was very interesting and made our strategic partnerships and rapid coordination essential as turn-around times shortened from days to hours near legislative deadlines.
This all unfolded amid unprecedented federal turmoil and political polarization, especially in regard to climate and clean energy policy. Because clean energy and climate progress is under attack at the federal level, it’s more important than ever that states like Minnesota keep up this critical work. It’s also worth noting that more than 70% of Americans support climate legislation.
Fresh Energy is one of dozens of climate and clean energy organizations working hard to build a better future for Minnesotans at the state legislature. Together, we emerged from the legislative session (so far) with important clean energy successes and defense work.
Key energy policies and emerging issues in Minnesota’s 2025 session
Despite a challenging political landscape, Fresh Energy and our partners have helped shape policy around emerging technologies and industries while also securing several key defensive victories.
Data centers and AI certainly didn’t fly under the radar this year, which are facilities owned by tech giants like Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Amazon. As these facilities spring up around the country, they present both economic development opportunities and policy trade-offs.
While the technology is evolving, Fresh Energy’s role in the energy system is unchanging: we ensure that our energy systems and the clean energy transition are not harmed and are instead potentially enhanced by new technologies, including data centers, which could use a large amount of electricity. We approach innovative technologies with a long-term perspective, planning for how it will impact Minnesota’s energy transition in 10, 20, and 50 years.
Minnesota has an advantage in addressing this emerging issue, as other states have dealt with data center proliferation for years, providing examples for Minnesota to learn from as we create policies that align with our clean energy goals.
Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) was another important topic at the Legislature this year. While much of Fresh Energy’s work involves advocating for electrifying our economy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, some applications — like aviation — present unique challenges to lowering emissions. SAF has emerged as a new, innovative industry in Minnesota with interest from the Governor’s office down to state and local governments.
In 2024, Fresh Energy collaborated to develop Guiding Principles for engaging with SAF alongside partners Friends of the Mississippi River and The Nature Conservancy to ensure that SAF policy centers public interest while guarding against greenwashing and unsustainable trade-offs. This spring, Fresh Energy advocated for incentives that reward lower carbon intensity scores, which represents an enormous economic opportunity for Minnesota.
The geothermal planning grants program that we passed during last year’s session has proven incredibly popular. This program, which provides funding for local municipalities to add clean geothermal technology to heat and cool buildings more efficiently, had more than twice as many funds requested than were available. This success demonstrates the momentum behind clean energy solutions, particularly geothermal technology.
Our advocacy this spring aimed to help secure additional funding to meet this demand, and the program is now included in both the House and Senate omnibus bills — a significant achievement given the divided legislature. Its future will now be negotiated during conference committee, when the House and Senate versions of the bill are combined into one final bill.
The enthusiasm for geothermal extends beyond municipal buildings to exciting projects like Como Zoo’s initiative to transition their big cat enclosure to geothermal energy, potentially leading to the first geothermal energy zoo in the nation.
Defending our climate progress
A significant portion of our work this 2025 session has focused on defending previous clean energy victories from rollback or carveout attempts. We’re pleased that these policies — which are currently building a cleaner future in Minnesota — will continue to progress our state to a clean, decarbonized future.
Our landmark 100% clean electricity law faced multiple rollback attempts this 2025 session. Fresh Energy and our partners stood firm in defending Minnesota’s most important climate law, which ensures our electricity system is 100% carbon-free by 2040 and can power our other electrifying sectors with clean power.
Through extensive advocacy — including nearly 700 emails from supporters in our Action Network — we successfully advocated for the removal of two problematic provisions from the Senate omnibus bill that would have threatened the law’s technology-neutral language.
Transportation policy defense also emerged as a major part of our work this spring. Electric vehicle fees became a contentious issue at the legislature, and Fresh Energy quickly activated our strategic partnerships and Action Network with the goal of minimizing harm and promoting equity in policy changes. Our team provided extensive testimony on this topic, accounting for approximately one-third of all our testimony this session. We also defended successful programs like e-bike rebates from repeal attempts while working to make them more equitable and accessible for all Minnesotans.
Fresh Energy was deeply plugged into this legislative session and in total our team testified 12 times in person and filed 39 letters of written testimony across a myriad of issues. We remain committed to ensuring Minnesota rapidly builds an equitable, carbon-free future — and our record this 2025 session really drives our dedication home.
What’s next?
As of this writing, the regular legislative session has concluded, but many key issues remain unresolved. Negotiations are continuing on omnibus bills that will require a special session to pass, which must be completed by June 30 to avoid a partial government shutdown.
While juggling continuing work on the current legislative session, the Fresh Energy team is already looking ahead to the 2026 session — the second of the legislative biennium and traditional bonding year, when the legislature will negotiate a capital investment bill. At Fresh Energy, we believe much of a bonding bill can and should be related to climate and are planning accordingly.
We’ve already laid the groundwork for two key initiatives.
We’re promoting a Minnesota Heat Standard to decarbonize our buildings, the fastest-growing source of emissions in the state, much like our 100% clean electricity law is decarbonizing our energy system.
We’re also continuing our collaboration with White Earth Tribal & Community College to build a new Trades Building to train skilled tradespeople to train electricians, solar installers, HVAC technicians, and energy auditors to build the clean energy systems in northern Minnesota that our energy transition requires.
Fresh Energy will continue to update this blog post as more legislation passes during the special session. You can help ensure that Minnesota passes strong climate legislation by joining our Action Network. With narrow margins in the Minnesota State Legislature, every single call and message that legislators receive has a magnified, outsize impact, which means your voice is more important than ever before.
While the unique politics at the Capitol differ from year to year, Fresh Energy remains steadfast in advocating for just and equitable energy policies that will rapidly decarbonize Minnesota, creating a better way of life for all Minnesotans.
Audio more your thing? Stream the latest episode of “Decarbonize: The Clean Energy Podcast” to hear from Fresh Energy’s Justin Fay, Brynn Kirsling, and Jackson Sweeney give a full legislative session debrief.
