Did you know that the University of Minnesota has the last remaining coal burning plant in Minneapolis? Prospective college students are teaming up with the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal campaign to do something about it.

Give to the Max Day

Special Opportunity!

As someone who supports reducing our global warming pollution and educating and empowering a new generation of climate leaders, we know you’ll want to mark your calendar for this special day where your donations are eligible for a $1,000 match! Help us create a clean energy future by making a gift on Nov 16 or any day.

Letter from the Executive Director

Will Steger's Trans-Antarctica Expedition 20th Anniversary

We have some very important milestones in Will’s history and ours to celebrate! Will was the featured speaker at Hamline University’s Center for Global Environmental Education 20th anniversary on November 4th, which he helped to establish in 1990.

In early December, Will Steger's Trans-Antarctica Expedition, the historic seven month, 3,741-mile International Trans-Antarctica Expedition in 1989–90 is celebrating its 20th Anniversary in Minnesota!

We’ll be sharing updates about these events and ways you can be involved in the coming weeks!

Just as we are excited about these celebrations, it is important that we also take a step back and understand the recent political shift and what it means for our work.

We’ve spent the past two weeks interpreting the midterm elections and what the results mean for our state, regional and national efforts to advance climate and clean energy policies. The scoop:

Nationally: Despite the national shift towards more conservatives in Congress, this did not stop California from defeating Proposition 23 and saving its landmark climate legislation, one of the first policies to price carbon and promote clean energy in the U.S. The legislation supports more than 12,000 clean tech companies, over 500,000 clean tech employees, and encourages $10 billion in private clean tech investment. It has been a huge success and an example of how climate policy can encourage economic growth. The top three election issues seemed to be the economy, healthcare, and the size of the government. While the party in power usually loses seats in the midterms, these losses were pretty significant (60-70 in the House, 6-8 in the Senate). Among Democrats in close races,who voted for Waxman-Markey (the climate bill that passed in the House), 61% lost the election (Source: E&E). Interestingly though, among Democrats in close races, 79 % of those who voted against Waxman-Markey lost – faring even worse. Also interesting is that 7 of the 8 Republicans who voted for Waxman-Markey were re-elected. So it looks like being a Democrat, rather than supporting climate policy, was the real fatal flaw in this election.

Midwest: Most of the newly elected Midwest Governors should be reasonably pragmatic and open-minded when it comes to clean energy, environmental protection, conservation and high-speed rail.  However, the results do not bode well for support of federal climate change actions or for early movement on the Midwest Governors' Association's climate initiative.

Minnesota: While Democrats lost control of the state legislature and the governor’s race is still in recount mode, we do have an opportunity to shape Minnesota’s role in growing a clean energy economy and continuing to follow California’s lead.

If all the news has got you down, we really loved this piece by The Onion.

Sincerely,

Nicole Rom, Executive Director