With spring in the air and Earth Day around the corner, we can’t help but think about what this season will look like just decades from now. What can we do today to ensure that our children and grandchildren will be thriving in a healthy and safe climate?
With more and more people finding their voice on the future of our energy and environment, Fresh Energy is here to provide practical solutions and help you, and other concerned Minnesotans, get involved in making change. In this time of unprecedented concern, our team of economists, scientists, engineers, and analysts are focusing their efforts on real, tangible achievements here in our state.
Together, we’ve made great progress over the past two and half decades—largely due to your support and vision for a better future. In fact, with your support, Fresh Energy has helped Minnesota build a strong, vibrant clean energy economy, and today 25 percent of electricity generated in Minnesota is from renewable sources.
Now, we are working to power more of our transportation and home energy with clean electricity instead of high-carbon fossil fuels. With your help, we are charting a path to a modern, flexible grid that can power more of Minnesota’s economy with wind and solar. This year, we’re laser focused on several key arenas for progress.
- Crucial utility planning is underway, and Fresh Energy is providing policy leadership and expertise to move Minnesota away from coal and toward more energy efficiency, wind, solar, and energy storage.
- We’re expanding our efforts to replace gasoline-powered transportation with clean electric cars and buses.
- Our new Energy Access & Equity program is helping renters and low-income households better access energy efficiency and renewable energy opportunities.
As we work on this plan every day, we’re motivated and inspired by so many of you who are raising your hands and changing the world. People are exchanging their old gasoline cars for clean electric cars and installing solar and electric heat pumps in their homes and businesses. Minnesotans are switching to clean energy and encouraging their neighbors to do the same. And the young people in our state are inspiring us all by calling for an energy future that’s smarter and cleaner than the one we have today.
But we still face challenges to make this vision a reality.
- Federal attacks on clean energy mean we need to work even harder here in Minnesota to maintain momentum in the solar, wind, and electric car industries.
- Minnesota state legislators are attempting to weaken foundational energy laws, but Fresh Energy will continue to be there to lead the defense and tee up win-win policy improvements.
- The 2018 election could change the political landscape. Fresh Energy has already started providing data-driven, non-partisan candidate education to ensure that whoever leads our state next will have detailed knowledge and a strong commitment to a clean energy future.
The time is now—let’s work together to rise to this challenge and make choices that will make our air cleaner and climate healthier now and for generations to come.
We can’t do this without you. In fact, Fresh Energy works purely in the public interest and depends on individuals, foundations, and other donors for 100 percent of our funding. Make a gift to Fresh Energy today.
