Senate Energy Omnibus (SF 2393)

Minnesota's Senate Energy, Utilities, Environment and Climate Committee passed a budget and policy omnibus bill on April 9, 2025 with several policy rollbacks that favor industry – like big tech data centers or utilities – over programs and policies that help regular Minnesotans by protecting the environment or helping them save money while they move to clean energy.

The Good:

• Minnesota’s Nuclear Moratorium remains in place - there is no language in the current bill that would lift the nuclear moratorium. This might still happen with an amendment and/or closed door negotiations during conference committee.

The Bad:

• Giving large data centers exceptions to Minnesota environmental laws – without any guardrails to ensure they are sited in industrial locations, protect water resources, or use renewable energy.

• Sunsetting Minnesota’s community solar garden program in 2028.

• Weakening net-metering laws to reduce the financial benefit for those who live outside of Investor Owned Utilities (like Xcel) are able to realize from any extra electricity they produce and put back into the grid.

• Explicitly stating that B100 (biodiesel) qualifies as carbon free even though it emits almost as much carbon when it is burned as petroleum diesel.

• Including the burning of “Woody Biomass” as clean energy.

• Allowing any size hydro project, regardless of when it was built, to qualify as an “eligible energy technology” – a move which further diminishes previously negotiated assurances designed to protect against new hydro projects that are detrimental to rivers, land and ecosystems.

• Eliminating the Renewable Development Account (RDA) – an account that receives funds from Xcel Energy based on the number of casks of nuclear waste it stores at Prairie Island. Since 1994, the account (initially called the Renewable Development Fund) has invested millions in renewable energy projects like Solar on Schools, the Prairie Island Net Zero Project, and solar at Blaine’s National Sports Center.