Into the weeds on rural wind, solar fees

For several years, rural Minnesota families and businesses have been dealing with uncertainty surrounding their solar and wind investments. Now, after years of discussion, the Public Utilities Commission is set to make a decision on fees charged by electric cooperatives by the end of 2017.

Bad for energy, but could’ve been worse: 2017 Legislative Session recap

As of now, the Jobs and Energy Bill is on its way to the governor’s desk to be signed into law. A few bad energy policies made it through, but many more were prevented. Find out what happened.

Missed opportunity for clean energy as gas plant bill moves forward

Left to right: Clean energy advocates Kevin Reuther of Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy, J. Drake Hamilton of Fresh Energy, Jessica Tritsch of Sierra Club, and Leigh Currie of Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy on a tour of Sherco.

Today, Governor Dayton signed a bill into law that allows Xcel Energy to build a natural gas plant in Becker, Minnesota. Though Fresh Energy believes that the bill is a missed opportunity to pursue even greater investments in local clean energy sources like wind, solar, and energy efficiency, we are hopeful that Xcel will bring plans for the proposed plant to the Public Utilities Commission for careful review.