By supporting clean energy development in Minnesota, Walz lays the groundwork for climate impact if Harris wins

When Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz took the stage in May to welcome a clean-energy conference in Minneapolis, he was quick to point out that his state now gets just over half of its energy from renewable sources. In the next sentence, Walz said Minnesota will never reach 100 percent — a goal he helped set — without changing what he called “antiquated” permitting rules.

“We’re doing things that are too burdensome, that don’t fit where we are, that increase costs and make it harder for us to get to where we need to be,” Walz told the industry group American Clean Power.

A few weeks later, he signed a bill to speed things up. Developers no longer have to show that a clean-energy project — meaning solar and wind, storage and transmission — is needed as part of Minnesota’s energy system. And they no longer have to explore alternative locations and transmission-line routes — a requirement that effectively doubled the number of potential project opponents.

Walz’s efforts to address a major obstacle to a nationwide clean energy transition are gaining new attention since he was tapped as Kamala Harris’ running mate. His experience passing such laws in Minnesota could make him a leader on climate issues if Harris wins in November.

“If Gov. Walz becomes our vice president, I hope she can help bring some of that thinking to the federal level,” said Amelia Vohs, climate program director at the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy, a group that helped develop the permit reform. “That would have an incredible impact on climate progress for the country.”

What Minnesota has done won’t be easily replicated at the federal level because of a closely divided Congress. But experts say most renewable projects are developed on private land, making them subject to state or local zoning laws or both, and other states could follow Minnesota’s lead. Offshore wind is a notable exception, with federal agencies regulating development in federal waters.

New York, California, Illinois and Michigan have already implemented their own changes to permitting processes in the past few years to speed clean energy deployment, with approaches varying depending on whether state or local governments retain control of the siting process.

“The speed of the energy transition matters, it matters a lot,” said Matthew Eisenson, a senior research fellow at the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, who tracks legal obstacles to renewable energy and develops strategies to overcome them.

“The faster we can reduce emissions, the faster we can stabilize the climate and avoid the worst effects of climate change. So at a macro level, speed matters. At a micro level, speed matters. Projects can die on the stump if they take too long.”

Most wind and solar projects take four to six years from the time they are announced to begin operations, with about two-thirds of that time spent on permitting, according to research from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. About 20% of projects take more than six years.

Berkeley Lab surveyed developers of large wind and solar projects across the country last year about their experiences with permitting. Developers said local ordinances or zoning and community opposition were the primary causes of significant delays and cancellations. Research scientist Robi Nilson said the two factors are often related — community opposition lengthened the permitting process in some cases, and in others, the process was already long because of previous opposition to other projects.

Developers said about a third of their wind and solar site applications submitted in the past five years were canceled, while about half experienced delays of six months or more. Survey respondents came from companies that collectively accounted for about half of the wind and solar projects developed nationwide between 2016 and 2023.

“Any bill that allows for clean energy infrastructure and connections is really critical to achieving all of our climate goals,” said Ben Pendergrass, vice president of government relations at Citizens Climate Lobby, a nonpartisan, nonprofit climate advocacy organization.

Before the new law, Minnesota’s permitting process was a half-century long, slow-paced one that was only getting slower. The time it takes to approve a solar project has increased from about 10 months in 2015 to 18 months as of 2019, according to a report by North Star Policy Action, a research group that advocates for climate change, among other causes.

House Majority Leader Jamie Long, a Minneapolis Democrat, worked with Walz on a 2023 bill that established the state’s 100% clean energy goal. Once the bill passed, they turned their attention to permitting. Walz’s appointees to the state Public Utilities Commission have convened broad working groups to put something together for this year’s legislative session, Long said.

The change in the law did not occur without opposition.

Lawmakers had to address concerns from environmental groups that worried that speed would hurt environmental review and wanted to make sure there was enough time for public input into the permitting process. They also wanted to make sure the bill would advance only wind, solar and transmission projects — not nuclear, biomass, hydrogen from fossil fuels or waste incineration. Democrats, who control the Minnesota Legislature, pushed the bill through over the objections of Republicans who wanted it to include fossil fuel and nuclear projects.

The final bill drew support from utilities, renewable developers, labor, environmental advocates and energy policy nonprofits, whose recommendations to speed up the process became the heart of the bill. Walz and his team remained engaged throughout to see the final bill through to the finish line, said Long, the bill’s author in the House.

Walz signed legislation into law for a wind farm in the southern Minnesota district he represented in Congress before becoming governor.

“The legislation did a really tough job of balancing creating efficiencies and not letting other projects that we didn’t intend to facilitate get sucked into it,” said Vohs of the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy. “It maintained the integrity of the process and didn’t throw away too much in the name of efficiency.”

Virginia-based Apex Clean Energy said it took nearly two years to get permits for each of two large wind and solar projects it developed in Cottonwood County in southwestern Minnesota. Chris Kunkle, senior director of government affairs at Apex, said he expects the new law will cut permitting times by about half, which he called “fantastic.”

Xcel Energy, the state’s largest utility, said it expects to save several months on a permit for a single transmission line or large electric plant. Given the number of companies pursuing projects to provide customers with carbon-free electricity, the total savings could be measured in decades.

Doug Loon, president and CEO of the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce, said there is a clear belief that the system is not working. He said the chamber believes the state should now apply reforms to the entire industry, not just one segment.

Long said he hopes other states will follow Minnesota’s lead.

“I think if a state like ours, which is not particularly deep blue or coastal, can come together and find a way to get businesses, workers and the environment behind a package, that sends a strong signal that it can be done,” he said.

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