"As the Green New Deal made national headlines, young climate activists in Minnesota wrote their own bill to create a sweeping new climate and economic framework for their state."
"Kids in Minnesota have a plan. By 2030, they want to see every megawatt of power generated in their state come from renewable sources. They want better public transportation, both in metro areas like the Twin Cities and across the state. They want to develop a Green Bank to finance these projects. They want agricultural players to shift to regenerative practices and drive down emissions. They want to block the development of all new fossil fuel infrastructure–particularly the Line 3 pipeline that would slice across the northern part of the state–and build out sustainable resources instead. And they want indigenous communities and people of color to benefit from–and participate–in these shifts.
If this sounds a lot like the national Green New Deal, that’s the point: On April 10, a coalition of youth activists in Minnesota, with the backing of Representative Frank Hornstein and State Senator Scott Dibble, introduced the Minnesota Green New Deal, the first statewide bill of its kind to emerge after Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez presented the national resolution to Congress.
Just as the youth-led climate strikes on March 15 of this year organized quickly and in response to a pressing need for climate action–articulated particularly well by young people, who will be disproportionately affected by climate shifts in their lifetime–the MN Green New Deal materialized out of a sense of urgency. The main group behind the bill, after all, is called Minnesota Can’t Wait, which nods to the fact that even if national progress on climate action is stalling, youth in the state recognize and are pushing for immediate change, says Gabe Kaplan, one of the organizers with MN Can’t Wait."
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