It took Gov. Tim Walz (D) of Minnesota all of a month after being sworn into a second term to sign a sweeping clean energy bill that put in place one of the Midwest’s most progressive climate policies. The law, which requires utilities to supply 100 percent carbon-free energy by 2040, is just one in a litany of clean energy bills he’s signed while in office. After 12 years in Congress representing a rural, Republican-leaning district in southern Minnesota, Walz came to the governor’s mansion with a history of pitching skeptical voters on climate action. Still, the carbon-free energy standard was made possible by Democrats flipping the state Senate in November 2022 and giving the party a political trifecta for the first time in nearly a decade. The vote to pass the measure was along straight party lines and fiercely opposed by Republicans. Critics outside the state included Walz’s GOP neighbor, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, who has emerged as a top energy adviser to former President Donald Trump and continues to threaten to sue Minnesota over its energy policies. Before the November 2022 midterm election (one that similarly empowered Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) to get a carbon-free electricity law passed), Walz had to champion climate reforms on his own, via executive order. It was something he did in 2021 when the state adopted California’s clean cars rule. The tailpipe rules were adopted partly in response to then-President Trump’s effort to revoke California's right under federal law to establish tougher tailpipe emissions standards. The Minnesota standards survived a legal challenge from the Minnesota Auto Dealers Association. Blazing a trail
Between the electricity standard and the clean car rules, Walz blazed a trail for more progressive energy policies in the Midwest. Similar to Illinois and Michigan, Minnesota has a mix of rural and urban voters. The states’ economies are broadly tethered to agriculture and manufacturing. During the veepstakes, Walz emerged as the favorite of activists who liked that he signed a zero-carbon electricity bill, one of the strongest in the country — and for passing it with a one-vote majority in the Legislature, Timothy Cama and Adam Aton write. When Walz signed the clean electricity bill, he did it at the St. Paul Labor Center flanked by union members, climate activists and even a utility executive, Chris Clark of Xcel Energy. “I have to tell you, when I hear people say, ‘You’re moving too fast’ — we can’t move too fast when it comes to addressing climate change,” Walz said at that 2023 event. “This idea of waiting is a luxury we do not have, and Minnesotans do not have.” Pro-fossil fuel groups, Republicans and the guy on the other ticket — Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance, a senator from Ohio — wasted no time labeling Walz as the most liberal vice presidential candidate ever. Walz may have Midwest congeniality but, as Vance tells it, Walz is really just a “San Francisco-style liberal.”
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