Daily Digest: A request to meet
Good morning, and just look, we've made it to Wednesday already. Here's the Digest.
1. Gov. Mark Dayton wants to meet with Republican legislative leaders in an attempt to avoid a court battle over his recent defunding of the House and Senate. Dayton was in Mankato and Rochester Tuesday to defend his line-item veto of legislative funding over the next two years, as well as to publicly call for a meeting to resolve several issues he has with the budget bills passed by the Republican-controlled Legislature. GOP leaders have hired a lawyer to prepare a lawsuit against the governor, claiming his veto was unconstitutional. Dayton disagrees, saying the state constitution gives him the authority to line-item veto any spending. Republican leaders say they're willing to meet with the governor but that they won't renegotiate bills he's signed. (Mankato Free Press)
2. They say the only sure things are death and taxes, but don't forget fees. If you own a car that runs exclusively on electricity you'll pay a new one in Minnesota starting in January. The $75 fee is projected to bring in about $40,000 the first two years but revenue estimates more than double in the two years after that. Plug-in hybrids that still require some level of gasoline to run wouldn’t be subject to the fee. House Transportation Finance Chairman Paul Torkelson, R-Hanska, said it’s about fairness in who contributes to road maintenance. “The impact on the budget of those surcharges on electric vehicles is very small at this point,” Torkelson said. “There just aren’t that many on the road. But we felt it was appropriate to kind of establish a baseline that we expect them to do their share, to pay their share for maintaining our system.” (MPR News)
3. A provision in the jobs and energy budget bill signed by the governor last week allows Xcel Energy to use clean energy development funds to negotiate a shutdown of three renewable energy plants in greater Minnesota. Xcel is under contract to buy electricity from the plants and argues they need to be shut down because they are too expensive and ratepayers should not have to to bear the costs of pricey power when much cheaper alternatives are available. Environmentalists object to how the money would be used. Loggers, who first heard of the plan late in the legislative session, are outraged that it could devastate many of their businesses. (Star Tribune)
4. Dozens of supporters and opponents of a plan to replace a deteriorating 60-year old line that carries crude oil across northern Minnesota turned out Tuesday for the first public meetings on the proposal. Enbridge Energy's Line 3 is one of five pipelines that carry about 2.5 million barrels of oil a day from Alberta, Canada, across Minnesota, to the company's hub in Superior, Wis. But it's getting old. To keep it safe, the company has had to reduce the amount of oil it pumps through it. And lately it's had to increase the amount of maintenance it does on the pipe. A new pipeline would cost $2 billion in Minnesota alone, and would create about 1,500 construction jobs. It also would allow Enbridge to nearly double the line's capacity from 390,000 barrels a day to 760,000. But the proposal has sparked intense opposition from environmental and tribal groups. (MPR News)
5. The U.S. Department of Justice filed a motion this week asking a federal judge to dismiss the lawsuit by Twin Metals that seeks renewal of federal mining leases that had been withdrawn by the Obama administration. The move is a blow for copper mining supporters who had hoped the Trump administration would drop opposition to the lawsuit and re-issue the permits to allow the mine to advance. Twin Metals needs the permits to continue exploring and planning for a large underground mine southeast of Ely, along the edge of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. (Duluth News Tribune)
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