Minnesota Rural Electric Association
2014 Legislative Bulletin
Thursday, April 22, 2014
We are now officially headed into the homestretch of the 2014 Legislative Session. Most of the major
issues have been decided. Conference committees continue to work on differences in the Budget
Appropriation bill (HF3172) and the second Supplemental Tax Bill (HF3167), which is focused primarily
on property tax relief.
Final negotiations are also underway over the Bonding Bill, the big work of the session. Prior to the
Easter/Passover break, it appeared the legislature might finish its work and adjourn before the final May
19 deadline. However, negotiations on the Bonding Bill actually went backwards over the break and the
governor and legislators are now battling over the final borrowing limit.
With legislative deadlines having passed, there aren’t any legislative “fires” we need to put out. The
energy and cooperative-related bills that are still alive are either ones we support or can live with. Right
now, most of the bills have been rolled into an Omnibus Energy Bill (HF2834-Hortman), which was
debated on the House floor today and passed 85-48.
Omnibus Energy Bill
As we’ve mentioned before, the final bill was non-controversial, with provisions we can either support
or live with. An amendment added today included additional comfort language for Dairyland and Basin
on the Greenhouse Gas Impact reporting in the IRP provision. The final bill included the following
proposals:
 The original provisions in HF2834, a technical bill which cleaned up several outdated statutes
 Clarification of the medically necessary equipment statute (HF3110 - Hortman)
o In addition to expanding the types of medical personnel that can sign a medicallynecessary equipment waiver, the provision also puts a time-limit on the waivers and
requires customers that are in arrears to enter into repayment agreements
 Changes in the low income programs for the IOUs (HF2466 - Selcer)
 The addition of project cost to the DG Interconnection reports (HF2844 - Morgan)
 The Electric Vehicle Charging rate bill with co-ops and municipal utilities exempt (HF2884 Garofalo)
 On-bill financing and long-range Greenhouse Gas Emissions planning (HF2375 - Hortman)
 Elimination of a Certificate of Need for wind and solar generation where the energy is going to
be sold outside the state (HF2666 - Garofalo)
 A technical fix to allow a large solar array development already in the works to move ahead
(HF2924- Garofalo)
 Solar energy production tax established for large projects (HF2918 - Morgan)
 A technical fix for transmission siting, based on a since-cancelled Xcel project (HF2704 Anderson, S.)
 A bill asking the Legislative Energy Commission to study ways to switch propane users to other
types of energy (HF2866 - Erickson, R.)
State FEMA Reimbursement
As expected, the House passed HF2701, the State Disaster Response Bill, on Friday, April 11, and it is
now parked in the Senate Finance Committee. While the bill does not provide direct disaster relief
funding for electric cooperatives as part of the state’s 25 percent FEMA match, it does restore our
access to funding through the Department of Employment and Economic Development’s Minnesota
Investment Fund. That fund has also been targeted with a $15 million appropriation in the Senate
Supplemental Budget bill. Electric cooperatives will have to work with their local county emergency
offices to apply for relief funds after FEMA-declared disasters.
We would have preferred direct access to the state’s 25 percent FEMA match, but opposition by the
Dayton Administration derailed that effort.
CIP software assessment
At the behest of electric cooperatives, a group of utility stakeholders met with Senate Energy Policy
Committee Chair John Marty, Sen. Scott Dibble and staff from the Division of Energy Resources (DER) to
discuss our concerns with HF2967/SF2615. This bill would allow the DER to assess the state’s utilities an
additional $530,000 annually for maintenance and development of the CIP reporting software.
Specifically, we were concerned with the size of the ongoing assessment and the lack of transparency
over what the money was being used for and the benefits, if any, of continued development of the
software. Because of the meeting, a three-year sunset was added to the legislation and the assessment
was slashed by $130,000. The DER was also asked to broaden the participation in the working group
charged with assessing the effectiveness of the software. The bill was wrapped into the Senate
Supplemental Appropriation Bill.
Grassroots Day at the Capitol – Wednesday, April 30
We hope you or a few employees and directors from your co-op it to our annual Grassroots Day at the
Capitol on Wednesday, April 30. The day will begin with a briefing at 9 am in Room 300S of the State
Office Building, followed by meetings with legislators throughout the day. (Each electric cooperative is
responsible for scheduling meetings with their legislators.)
Although there aren’t any urgent legislative fires that need putting out, Grassroots Day is a great
opportunity to strengthen relationships with local legislators and educate them about the important
role we play in communities across the state. We will also be coordinating a message with the municipal
utilities about the importance of maintaining local control over community-based utilities like electric
cooperatives and municipals.
We hope your cooperative can send a few employees and directors to the event.
Regulatory News
Last Friday, a U.S. District Court judge ruled in favor of the State of North Dakota and its utility partners
in their suit against the State of Minnesota and struck down provisions the 2007 Next Generation Energy
Act, which prohibited the importation of new sources of fossil-fueled based electricity without
additional carbon offsets.
U.S. District Judge Susan Richard Nelson said the law hampered the ability of North Dakota based
utilities such Basin and Minnkota to find buyers for power from existing coal-fired generating plants or
to plan for new ones.
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Minnesota Rural Electric Association
Under Nelson’s order, Minnesota cannot enforce state restrictions on electricity imports from new
power plants that increase greenhouse gases.
“This statute overreaches,” wrote Nelson in her ruling. She called the law a “classic example of
extraterritorial regulation” and concluded that if every state had such laws “the current marketplace for
electricity would come to a grinding halt.”
The ruling will have an impact on the regulatory and legislative front in the coming years, though it is
tough right now to determine exactly what those impacts will be. Whatever the case, we need to make
sure that we as electric cooperatives get ahead of the debate and frame the issue in the interest of our
members. We also need to be talking with our members about the value we provide to the communities
we serve and continue to engage our grassroots.
The House has tentatively planned to hear a bill introduced earlier in the session that would have
attempted to pre-empt the ruling Monday, April 28 sometime in the morning.
Legislative Teleconference
After a one-week hiatus, we will again be holding our weekly Legislative Teleconferences on Friday at
11:30 a.m. During the calls, we provide participants with a briefing of what has been happening at the
Capitol, including updates on our legislative priorities, and coordinate any needed grassroots efforts. We
are also hoping to get feedback from members about any local issues that could have an impact in St.
Paul.
To participate, call 877-810-9415. The access code is 6422870.
As always, if you have any specific questions on legislation or policy or an issue in your area, please feel
free to contact the MREA Government Affairs staff:
Joel Johnson
MREA Director of Government Affairs
(Office) 763-424-7237
(Cell) 763-639-1746
joel@mrea.org
Andrew “A.J.” Duerr
MREA lobbyist
(Cell) 651-434-0418
andrewduerr@hotmail.com
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Minnesota Rural Electric Association