Friends,
The MN House and Senate Energy Committees have released their Omnibus bills for the 2022 legislative session. While there are several good components in these bills, they will not produce the transformative type of change that is needed.
The good news is that things can still be added to these omnibus bills! That's where you come in: your legislators need to hear from you that substantial action on climate concerns is needed.
Who are my legislators & what is their contact information?
Find your legislators and their contact information here:
What should I say?
1) Introduce Yourself:
Name; Where You Live and/or Where You Go to Church (Make sure the legislators you contact correlate with the place you mention. Maybe your church is in a different district than where you live
I'm Lutheran / I'm an advocate with Lutheran Advocacy-MN
2) Main Message
Ask your legislators to convey the following to their Energy Committee colleagues & leaders...
Please thank your counterparts on the Energy Committees for the provisions in the House & Senate Energy Omnibus bills geared toward making small steps toward the transition to a Clean Energy Economy
[The bill includes funding for solar on schools, weatherization incentives, pre-weatherization grants for people with low-incomes, electric buses, electric vehicle charging, matches put aside for upcoming federal infrastructure grant opportunities probably focused on electric grid modification, & a few more things]
Please convey to those colleagues and your leaders that while this bill is a good step it is not the transformative type of change that is needed. More emphasis needs to be put on the transitions to wind, solar, and energy storage, and on dramatically reducing climate harming carbon & methane emissions (among others that impact health).
3) Other Possible Talking Points (Pick & Choose 2-3, say why you care)
The reports recently from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (representing 169 countries) suggest that much more change must occur much more rapidly to prevent increasingly dire impacts (there already are severe impacts, but it will just get worse).
Wind & Solar are both cleaner and much less expensive than other energy.
The cost of solar has dropped more than 85% in less than a decade.
If we remain on the path we're on, global temperatures will rise significantly
As atmospheric temperatures rise, we are hit with more extremes in terms of drought, storms, etc.
Think of your own concerns - What are those?
AND/OR Find something from the reports or the many articles that have come out recently including
OR check your local paper!
As always, thank you for your action with your legislators!
Tammy & Rachel