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Health & Fitness

Our Energy Future: Making Smart Choices for Minneapolis and Its Residents

There has been much discussion lately in Minneapolis about energy and how we as a community can move toward a more sustainable future through conservation, energy efficiency, renewable energy, and a potential change in control of the energy system.

A group called Minneapolis Energy Options (MEO) has been working on a grassroots campaign to raise awareness of these issues with community members, City  officials, and energy producers. I want to commend MEO for pushing these issues into the forefront and advocating for energy consumers. As a candidate with Sierra Club endorsement, these issues are incredibly important to me.

I believe as a City we have these energy goals: 1) fair electric rates 2) safe and reliable power and 3) increase renewable power. I believe that the City should work toward these goals through good faith negotiations with the current energy providers, Xcel and CenterPoint Energy. Tough negotiations like this  are what we elect the City Council to do and my 25+ years of private sector contract negotiation experience would be an asset to the city. When the franchise agreements are up for renewal, I do not believe that a threat by the City to municipalize its energy infrastructure will be an effective bargaining tool. Importantly, the Xcel franchise agreement has nothing to do with the percentage of power Minneapolitans want to get from renewable energy sources. There is a separate state-regulated process where we can and should apply pressure to move quickly toward our renewable energy goals.

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As I have been talking with Ward 13 residents during this campaign, people I speak to have a variety of concerns about this, but the number one question is: “How will we afford to buy the electric company?” There are huge capital costs associated with buying power lines and other infrastructure, as well as  creating the employee workforce for operations and maintenance.

As a member of the Minneapolis Capital Long Range Improvement Committee, I find the likely capital investment to be staggering in size and problematic. The  recent Moody’s downgrade of the City’s credit rating was in part due to the City’s outstanding pension debt; taking on another massive capital endeavor will make it more expensive for the City to provide today’s services like street maintenance, snow plowing, and garbage collection – let alone improve these systems.

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Ward 13 residents, as well as residents throughout the City, deserve to have predictable, reasonable property taxes. A City takeover of the energy system will increase our tax burden. For people on fixed incomes, drastic tax increases make it difficult for them to stay in their homes. It will make it harder for first-time homebuyers to purchase homes; it will make it harder for neighborhoods to be open to residents of all income-levels.

The bottom line: I do not support a ballot question authorizing the City of Minneapolis to municipalize its energy infrastructure. A tremendous amount of planning, preparation, and information-gathering must go into such a vast undertaking, none of which has yet occurred. Between the lack of planning and the tremendous costs involved, I believe that municipalizing our energy infrastructure would be unwise.

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