{"id":1011055,"date":"2023-03-02T11:45:00","date_gmt":"2023-03-02T11:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/grist.org\/?p=603798"},"modified":"2023-03-02T11:45:00","modified_gmt":"2023-03-02T11:45:00","slug":"why-north-dakota-is-preparing-to-sue-minnesota-over-clean-energy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2023\/03\/02\/why-north-dakota-is-preparing-to-sue-minnesota-over-clean-energy\/","title":{"rendered":"Why North Dakota is preparing to sue Minnesota over clean energy"},"content":{"rendered":"

In early February, lawmakers in Minnesota passed a law<\/a> requiring the state\u2019s power utilities to supply customers with 100 percent clean electricity by 2040 \u2014 one of the more ambitious clean energy standards in the United States. Democrats, who clinched control of the state legislature in last year\u2019s midterm elections, were euphoric. But not everyone in the region is enthused about Minnesota\u2019s clean energy future. The state may soon face a legal challenge from its next-door neighbor, North Dakota. <\/p>\n

Not long after Minnesota\u2019s governor signed the law, the North Dakota Industrial Commission, the three-member body that oversees North Dakota\u2019s utilities, agreed unanimously to consider a lawsuit challenging the new legislation. The law, North Dakota regulators said, infringes on North Dakota\u2019s rights under the Dormant Commerce Clause in the United States Constitution by stipulating what types of energy it can contribute to Minnesota\u2019s energy market. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis isn\u2019t about the environment. This is about state sovereignty,\u201d North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, the chair of the Industrial Commission, said<\/a>. Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, a longtime proponent of clean energy legislation, was quick to respond. \u201cI trust that this bill is solid,\u201d he told reporters<\/a>. \u201cI trust that it will stand up because it was written to do exactly that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The potential showdown illuminates an underappreciated obstacle to the energy transition: interstate beef. Feuds between neighboring states threaten to make the difficult task of getting regional power grids off fossil fuels even more complicated and expensive.<\/p>\n

North Dakota hasn\u2019t filed a lawsuit yet, but the Industrial Commission has requested $3 million from the state legislature for legal fees on top of $1 million the commission has already allocated to the effort from its \u201cLignite Research Program\u201d \u2014 an initiative funded by taxes on fossil fuel revenue that researches and develops new coal projects in the state. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s no mystery why North Dakota was so quick to go on the offensive. Most of the state\u2019s power comes from coal, and it sells some 50 percent of the electricity it generates to nearby states. Its biggest customer is Minnesota. Minnesota\u2019s new law stipulates that all electricity sold in the state come from renewable sources on a set timeline \u2014 80 percent carbon-free by 2030, 90 percent by 2035, and 100 percent by 2040. That means that North Dakota\u2019s coal-fired power will be squeezed out of Minnesota\u2019s electricity market. <\/p>\n

North Dakota regulators are confident they\u2019ll prevail in a legal dispute, but Burgum said the state is waiting to see whether Minnesota will amend its law before taking the disagreement to court. \u201cThis is something where if they make a small change we can avoid the certainty of a lawsuit that\u2019s probably going to have a certain outcome to it,\u201d the governor said in early February. The state successfully sued Minnesota over a 2007 law that sought to ban coal imports to the state from new sources. But outside legal experts aren\u2019t so sure the plaintiffs will be victorious this time. <\/p>\n

\u201cMinnesota is under no legal duty to prop up North Dakota power plants,\u201d Michael Gerrard, founder of Columbia University\u2019s Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, told Grist. The state would find itself in legal trouble if it discriminated between in-state and out-of-state power plants, he said. For example, if Minnesota\u2019s law accepted coal-fired power from plants inside its own borders but banned coal power from North Dakota, that would certainly violate federal interstate commerce law. But that\u2019s not what Minnesota has proposed. The state is requiring clean power across the board, from in-state and <\/em>outside sources. <\/p>\n

Gerrard pointed to a comparable 2015 case in Colorado. A fossil fuel industry group sued the state over a renewable energy standard it passed in 2004 \u2014 the very first clean energy standard passed by popular vote in the U.S. The group argued the standard overstepped Colorado\u2019s authority under the U.S. constitution, a similar argument to the one North Dakota is threatening to make. But a federal court upheld the standard<\/a>. The decision was written by Neil Gorsuch, who is now one of the more conservative judges on the U.S. Supreme Court. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have one of the conservative Supreme Court justices saying that a state clean energy standard is fine,\u201d Gerrard said. \u201cSo I think the outlook, if this case gets to the Supreme Court, would be favorable to Minnesota.\u201d <\/p>\n

That\u2019s significant, especially from a climate perspective. With Republicans in control of the U.S. House of Representatives, the chances of new climate legislation passing in this Congress are slim. Looking ahead, Gerrard said, the progress that does take place on combating climate change will likely happen at the state level. \u201cCertainly the moves by some of the blue states to do more on climate change are going to be some of the central elements of climate action for the next two years,\u201d he said. He expects red states and the fossil fuel industry to continue to sue to try to stop clean energy  mandates. \u201cIndustry will fight back,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

This story was originally published by Grist<\/a> with the headline Why North Dakota is preparing to sue Minnesota over clean energy<\/a> on Mar 2, 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Interstate feuds threaten to make the difficult task of getting regional power grids off fossil fuels even more complicated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":173,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1011055"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/173"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1011055"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1011055\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1011788,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1011055\/revisions\/1011788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1011055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1011055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1011055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}