Legislation

Defending Minnesota’s Environmental Policy Foundation

Minnesotans cherish our natural resources and take pride in our outdoor heritage. Over the years, Minnesota Environmental Partnership (MEP) and our member organizations have fought for laws that strengthen our ability to protect our land, water and air. These laws provide the bedrock of Minnesota’s environmental policy. As MEP moves forward with our priority issues, we will continue our work of defending existing laws from being weakened or repealed. These include:

Clean Energy – Implementing sound energy policies that increase our use of renewable energy sources, provide incentives to utilities to promote energy efficiency, and achieve our goal of reducing Minnesota’s global warming pollution 80 percent by 2050. This includes maintaining the prohibition on the construction of new coal-burning power plants. Click here to learn more about existing energy laws at risk of being weakened or repealed.

Minnesota Environmental Policy Act – Maintaining environmental review standards that provide important guidelines for protecting our environment and natural resources. Minnesotans expect state officials to ensure the protection of our Great Outdoors.

Information and status of the House bill: House File Number 3079
Information and status of the Senate bill: Senate File Number 2761

Clean Water – Defending clean water laws and regulations so that we can pass a Clean Water Legacy on to future generations. Minnesota must protect and restore our treasured lakes, rivers and streams, not lower the pollution standards so that contaminated water is reclassified by the state as clean.

Community and Township Rights – Protecting the core democratic principle of community and township rights that allow local communities to enact planning and zoning ordinances that are stronger than state regulations. This ensures that proposed developments benefit the area and do not come at the expense of neighbors and the local environment.

Public Land Protection – Safeguarding millions of acres of public lands from uses and practices that cause damage and degradation.  Jeopardizing our land threatens our treasured outdoor way of life and the segments of our economy that depend on its protection.

Click here to download a PDF fact sheet on Defending Minnesota’s Environmental Policy Foundation.

For more information on this issue, contact
Patience Caso of MEP at 651.290.0154 or patiencecaso@MEPartnership.org

John Tuma of MEP at 651.290.0154 or johntuma@MEPartnership.org

To read more about all of MEP’s priority issues for the 2010 legislative session, click here to download a PDF of the 2010 MEP Legislative Priorities Briefing Packet.