Minnesota ‘red-tape experiment’ streamlines permitting process to achieve carbon-free grid

Wind and solar are among the cheapest energy sources available today, but even when clean-energy projects are ready to go, a cumbersome permit process is slowing down their implementation.

Allison Prang wrote a New York Times article about a Minnesota experiment to cut the red tape that is impeding the state’s ability to achieve its clean-energy goals. She spoke to MPR chief meteorologist Paul Huttner about her reporting.  

The transcript below has been lightly edited for clarity and length.

Minnesota has a goal of carbon-free on the electric grid by 2040. How does this new law help speed up that process?

When I talked to Governor Walz, he said it was fair to say that without doing some reform for the state’s permitting process, it would be tough for Minnesota to hit that goal.

I talked to one lawyer who works with companies that are working on projects, getting them approved in the state. He said it’s taken some as long as 13 months, and people are hoping that the permanent reform law could shave off the typical timeline by several months. If it does what they want, it could make it much quicker for projects to come online.

Is this just in Minnesota, or is this a national problem, too?

Permitting reform is a very unsexy and yet super crucial topic that the whole country is grappling with. In Washington, members of Congress have tried to tackle the issue, because it does have bipartisan support. But it’s not just a national issue; there are things states can do to tackle the problem.

Like Minnesota, other states have also passed laws trying to make the process easier at home, and sometimes localities are involved. It really depends on where an energy developer is working — what state, what area in the state? That's why it's so complicated. It really, really is situational.

What should we be watching for with getting these projects to the grid going forward?

The really big thing that’s happening in the backdrop of all of this is that not only are we seeing the country electrify more broadly — and states and localities have these climate goals — but we’re also going to see an increase in power demand like we haven’t seen in decades. So that’s happening at the same time, and part of that is because we’re seeing more data centers come online. We just need more power as a country. 

A lot of people are watching if the new Congress will be able to get a permitting reform bill over the finish line, what that would look like, and asking would that make permanent renewables easier?

It’s going to be really interesting to see if the country can tackle this problem and make it easier, so that we can kind of meet this really crazy moment of this expected increase in demand.

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