2026 legislative session debrief with Fresh Energy

Let’s talk about what happened at the Minnesota Legislature in 2026! Join Fresh Energy policy experts for a webinar we recorded the day after the legislative session ended to learn what we're celebrating, what was defended, what's next, and more.

Webinar guests:

• Justin Fay, chief program officer
• Brynn Kirsling, director, legislative and grassroots advocacy
• Molly McMullen, session associate 
• Anjali Bains, managing director, transportation 

Fresh Energy’s mission is to shape and drive bold policy solutions to achieve equitable carbon-neutral economies. Together we are working toward a vision of a just, prosperous, and resilient future powered by a shared commitment to a carbon-neutral economy. Learn about Fresh Energy's work and our bold "Vision 2030: Fresh Energy's Strategic Framework" at our website fresh-energy.org.


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Transcript

00:00:11 Justin Fay 

Hello, and welcome to Decarbonize, the Clean Energy Podcast from Fresh Energy. My name is Justin Fay, and I'm the Chief Program Officer at Fresh Energy. I'm joined on today's podcast by Margaret Cherney-Hendrick, Chief Executive Officer at Fresh Energy. 

00:00:26 Justin Fay 

and Brynn Kirsling, our Director of Legislative and Grassroots Advocacy. We're so pleased to welcome you to our 2026 Legislative Preview Podcast. How you all doing? 

00:00:36 Brynn Kirsling 

I'm doing great. Excited for the discussion today. 

00:00:39 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

It's going to be a fun one. 

00:00:42 Justin Fay 

If you're listening to the podcast, you're well aware, of course, that here in Minnesota, we are living through an impossibly difficult moment. In addition to mourning the senseless killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, 

00:00:54 Justin Fay 

We're heartbroken for all the Minnesota families ripped apart, terrorized and forced into hiding. The unlawful, racist and violent conduct by federal agencies is impacting everyone on Fresh Energy staff, our partners and the communities in which we live and work. I also want to recognize that, especially given that we're here doing a legislative podcast, that this is our first 

00:01:18 Justin Fay 

legislative podcast since the assassination of Melissa Hortman and Mark Hortman and the shooting of John and Yvette Hoffman last June. Melissa Hortman was an incredible leader, a champion for clean energy, and we miss her deeply. The Hortman and Hoffman families continue to be in our thoughts, and we know we'll be in the thoughts of folks at the legislature this winter and spring. Margaret, this is really a lot. 

00:01:45 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

Thanks, Justin. It is. It's a heavy time to be doing this work. And we know, like our community as a whole, Fresh Energy staff and partners, as you mentioned, are dealing with unprecedented challenges right now. But we also know that climate change isn't taking a break. Advancing our mission at Fresh Energy to achieve equitable carbon neutral economies is more important than ever. 

00:02:09 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

The Minnesota legislature is going to convene on February 17th, 2026, and fresh energy will be there, as we have been for more than 30 years, doing the work of advocating for bold clean energy policy solutions that meet the challenge of climate change. 

00:02:26 Justin Fay 

Yeah, that's that's just absolutely right. You know, as staff here, I know we're all just so incredibly proud to have the opportunity to do this work and grateful that we're able to do it together. And 

00:02:36 Justin Fay 

We're excited to tell all of you listening a little bit about what we have cooking for this legislative session. Now, I think we all understand that clean energy policy, important as it is, and while it will definitely still be on the agenda at the Capitol this year, might not grab the headlines that we otherwise wish it would, just simply given the reality of everything happening in our state. Before we dive into clean energy policy conversation, 

00:03:06 Justin Fay 

Brynn, can you maybe give us just a little bit of context for what the legislative landscape is going to look like this session? 

00:03:13 Brynn Kirsling 

Yeah, and just to underscore what you and Margaret have said here too, you know, it's a tough time, but we have to do both and we're kind of called to do both right now to defend these big issues, but also do what we do best and continue to work on climate progress here. So, you know, we're in the second half of the 

00:03:36 Brynn Kirsling 

biennium. So we know that it's going to be a shorter session and it'll feel a little bit more like a sprint. If we can, if this pace could get any faster than last year, it might. 

00:03:50 Justin Fay 

And although. 

00:03:52 Brynn Kirsling 

Even more condensed could pose different obstacles. But although it's faster, it's more condensed, our list of possibilities is also a little reduced since it's not a budget year. And the economic outlook is not empowering substantial spending. So what we're looking towards is more policy heavy items and being creative with the small buckets of money that are out there and navigating 

00:04:22 Brynn Kirsling 

new and different obstacles that come with the second half of the biennium. And as a reminder too, we still have a divided house after all of those special elections. It's still a 67 splits. 

00:04:36 Brynn Kirsling 

And so, that might mean that each co-chair from each party only gets the gavel maybe four times. So we're aiming to be very precise, do the relationship work and education ahead of hearings that ensure success before we even get into the room. So, I think I probably mentioned too, it's an election year. Legislators, folks, they make their messaging pivots. They're adjusting their priorities accordingly and we have to be 

00:05:06 Brynn Kirsling 

we have to be aware of that. So, I think notably right, Governor Walz is not seeking reelection. So perhaps the administration might be playing a different role here. I don't know what yet that'll look like. And, you know, I don't want to editorialize too much, but I think we'd encourage this administration to really solidify their legacy on climate and energy work in their final work as an administration. So 

00:05:34 Brynn Kirsling 

And oftentimes, we've seen that too, the administration plays a bigger role in some final negotiations at the end of session. I would anticipate that would be similar case this year of regardless of Governor Wall's retirement. 

00:05:48 Brynn Kirsling 

and speaking of end of session, I think this is often where Margaret steps in to speak to omnibus bills and representing Fresh Energy's highest priorities to legislative leadership and during those hearings. But we also tap in Margaret when there's a particularly impactful issue. 

00:06:06 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

Yeah, that's right. I like to think that I'm somewhat of a deployable asset for the team. 

00:06:12 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

And I think a really good example of that is I came in late last session to offer Fresh Energy's testimony on the defense of the 100% bill. And that really signals to our partners and to policymakers what issues we're prioritizing as an organization. I'm always in the background. 

00:06:32 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

that in strategy and working collaboratively with Bren and Justin and the team. But, you know, you'll see me when I'm deployed at the highest and best use of our time and to signal priorities up at the Capitol this year. 

00:06:46 Brynn Kirsling 

Yeah, if you see Margaret, it means that it's very serious. We're taking it very seriously. 

00:06:50 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

Very seriously. 

00:06:53 Justin Fay 

As opposed to the joking around that Bren and I do. Well, Margaret, you sort of said the magic words there a minute ago, which is 100%. 

00:07:02 Justin Fay 

So let's maybe let's pull on that thread just a little bit as we think about the priorities that we're going to have this year. Nothing is going to be higher than defense, right? We have had an awful lot of success in the last several years in Minnesota. We have some really, really strong at or near nation leading clean energy and climate policy already on the books. And, you know, first and foremost, among those list of accomplishments is Minnesota's 100% by 2040 carbon free 

00:07:32 Justin Fay 

electricity law that was under some threat last year. You had to come over to the Capitol and it was a little harder to get that, to sort of beat that back than we had hoped it would be. Can you both tell us a little bit just about kind of what the importance of that law and what we think the conversation might look like at the Capitol this year? 

00:07:53 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

Yeah, absolutely. And just for folks as a reminder, you know, we had kind of a banner year for getting a lot of really wonderful legislation passed in 2023, including the 100% bill in 2024. You know, the political landscape looked quite a bit different, and we had 

00:08:12 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

you know, are really important 100% by 2040 bill come under some scrutiny. We had some amendments made that would have diluted the impact if not, you know, sort of suggested that certain fuels and technologies were going to count as carbon free when, you know, we knew from a technical perspective that that just wasn't the case. 

00:08:36 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

We did a lot of work to make sure that we could defend this win. We anticipate that we're going to be doing a lot of that during this session as well. But essentially, this is a bill that is going to help to enable 

00:08:50 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

economy wide decarbonization. And that starts with the power sector here. So to have a commitment that all electricity serving Minnesota ratepayers will be carbon free by 2040 really allows us then to look to other sectors of the economy that are going to be decarbonizing using that clean electricity. 

00:09:10 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

as a tool for economy-wide decarbonization. So electrification of transportation, moving to heat pumps and buildings, you name it, it's going to have really important economy-wide impacts. And this is also just one of many policy wins that Fresh Energy and many of our partners have worked to achieve that have really been the reason we have seen a 50% reduction in power sector emissions 

00:09:38 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

Since 2005. And that is just a real testament to how advocacy on advancing clean energy in Minnesota can really achieve results. And again, fresh has been working on this. Fresh energy has been working on this for nearly 30 years. And so this is going to be a really important policy for us to continue to defend. 

00:09:58 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

What do you think, Bryn? 

00:09:59 Brynn Kirsling 

Yeah, well, I think just to underscore that, this framework puts Minnesota on this clear path and it includes the flexibility for regulators and utilities to address affordability and reliability as well. But also it gives predictability. And I think that further emphasizes our commitment to the core of this 

00:10:21 Brynn Kirsling 

the bill context being technology neutral. And we're committed to protecting that neutrality so that any technology must pass equal rigorous standards and that everybody's playing by the same rules. So, you know, we were there every time there was an attempt to circumvent this process and make predeterminations about any given technology. And I think, you know, we were very successful in that defense. You know, I think we were also successful in part because Fresh Energy supporters 

00:10:49 Brynn Kirsling 

We're reaching out to their legislators to the tune of hundreds of contacts and asking that our carbon free standard stays intact. And I think that's something really special about our action network and the ability to do that rapid response really quickly. And we have an incredible community around us as well. 

00:11:11 Justin Fay 

Absolutely. I don't think people are, you know, taking action are never more powerful than when they're 

00:11:17 Justin Fay 

sticking up for things that they love and things that they care about. And I think that's, this is one small example of that. We're seeing it in communities in real time in, much more visible ways right now. But certainly when we talk about work at the legislature and at the Capitol, you know, lawmakers really do actually care and they do actually listen when people show up at meetings, when they pick up the phone and call and really grateful for all of our all of our supporters that plug in. 

00:11:48 Justin Fay 

Maybe pivoting a little bit from thinking about defense to thinking about what are some things that we're going to actually lead on in a proactive solving problems sense in 2026. One piece of legislation that we're especially excited about is a bill focused on something called energy burden. This bill is 

00:12:14 Justin Fay 

the brainchild of Shubha Harris, who's Fresh Energy's Chief Equity Policy Officer and joined our team about a year ago. We're really, really grateful to be working with Shubha and bills like this are exactly what we were hoping we would be able to work on when she came aboard. Brenda, can you tell us a little bit about what the energy burden bill is and what people should know about it? 

00:12:41 Brynn Kirsling 

Yeah, it's a topic we're exploring and when we talk about energy burden, it's usually referring to, the percent of household income spent on your energy costs. So, and thinking about energy broadly, it's how we participate in modern life. So that makes affordable energy an essential need. 

00:13:03 Brynn Kirsling 

So as we're exploring what a cap would look like, it gives some certainty to not having out of control costs and making things unaffordable. So say it was something like 4%. So no more than 4% of household income would be spent on energy costs. So legislation that would help enable that cap would give the Public Utilities Commission authority to create a clear, predictable state 

00:13:33 Brynn Kirsling 

wide affordability benchmark. And for Minnesotans who have high energy burden, functionally we're seeking to reduce the likelihood that those households need to choose between energy and other essentials. And then from a broader perspective, it can also strengthen public support for clean energy policies by ensuring that costs and benefits are distributed more fairly. 

00:14:02 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

And I think this, you know, maybe a good time to point out that this type of work is really, I think, a hallmark of what we do best at Fresh Energy. It really embodies our commitment to advancing a clean energy economy that works for all Minnesotans. And really, I think, make sure that equity remains at the heart of 

00:14:26 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

all of the work that we do. And I think I just want to point out for folks who, you know, are not aware that fresh energy passed a five year strategic framework vision 2030 last year. And for the first time, we've really done a lot to not just focus on equity, which we've done. 

00:14:45 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

rigorously for the last couple of years, but we now have integrated equity into all that we do. What that means for us is not just working on energy affordability, but making sure that this broad economy-wide energy transition is not exacerbating existing inequities and not creating new inequities as we have seen historically happen across major transitions like this. How we power our lives, 

00:15:13 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

And how we use energy in our homes is so intimately tied to our opportunities to live a clean and healthy life, to be able to afford not only our energy, but all the other ancillary needs that we need to survive, right? And if we can't rely on heat, especially in the winter, that becomes a really dangerous thing. So we are really taking into account all of the facets 

00:15:39 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

of daily life that clean energy touches, and we're trying to account for those. And I think, you know, workforce and job transitions and inviting folks who have not participated in the clean energy economy historically, those are all really critical pieces for us as we think through what policies that we want to run at the legislature, but then who's coming to the table to help create those policies with us. And I just think this is a good time to kind of lift up on a process 

00:16:08 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

point of view, you know, how we do our work, not just, you know, where we do our work and the outcomes. 

00:16:14 Justin Fay 

And just like you, Margaret, I've had the opportunity to work at Fresh Energy for a minute now and have had the chance to sort of see our evolution on this area of our work. And really, truly it is, I think, great and motivating as a member of the staff to see us really leading in on questions like who pays and who benefits from 

00:16:36 Justin Fay 

the policies that we're standing forward. It sounds obvious, but you don't, it's so easy to overlook those sort of really fundamental questions. So 

00:16:50 Justin Fay 

I think maybe turning the page a little bit and thinking about another issue area. Folks that have been following fresh energy and doing climate work for a while will be aware that transportation is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions, both in Minnesota and nationally. And at Fresh Energy, we have a wonderful transportation team and a key focus for them this year is 

00:17:16 Justin Fay 

continuing to move forward work on sustainable aviation fuel, which is sometimes abbreviated as SAF and specifically a tax credit bill that was considered and debated at the legislature last year. While much of Fresh Energy's work involves advocating for electrifying our economy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, some specific applications, like aviation, present unique challenges to lowering emissions. 

00:17:47 Justin Fay 

SAF and sustainable aviation fuel has emerged as a new and innovative industry, one that has some pretty real economic development opportunity for the state of Minnesota and some interesting bipartisan cross-section of support from folks around the state. Bryn, what are you seeing and hearing in the world of SAF for 2026? 

00:18:14 Brynn Kirsling 

last session, there was a lot of work on it and some good groundwork set. Fresh Energy advocated for incentives that would reward lower carbon intensity scores. And like you said, that represents an enormous economic opportunity for Minnesota. And I have to name Anjali Baines, our managing director of transportation, has been participating in stakeholder discussions and helping steer this legislation to a consensus, but also being 

00:18:43 Brynn Kirsling 

the best version of this legislation it can be, and empowering the development of sustainable aviation fuel. I want to name that, like that would create momentum that transitions us away from the current fossil fuel monopolized status quo. That's where we're at right now. And I think this is a difficult area of work, but you know, the status quo is not going to get us to decarbonizing this sector of the economy. So, and like you said, it's one of the few things that has bipartisan support. 

00:19:13 Brynn Kirsling 

So absolutely capitalizing on that momentum and having a good time making new friends and meeting some new people that we haven't worked with before. So there's a wide variety of stakeholders here and it's heartening to see consensus being built in this area from a wide range of interests. 

00:19:37 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

And I think this is also just a key 

00:19:40 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

example of how fresh energy can bring a clean energy perspective to a really complicated and emerging market and and do a lot of good by bringing that perspective. And, you know, I think Minnesota right now is kind of a hot spot for staff production right now because we have sort of all the 

00:20:05 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

core ingredients that you might hope for to not only make fuels that could replace the fossil fuel driven jet fuel that we use today, but we also have all of the other core criteria to stand up the market. 

00:20:22 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

So not just the production side, the distribution side, the off takers. 

00:20:26 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

And that's why folks are really excited about Minnesota as a SAF hub. 

00:20:30 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

And there's a lot of opportunity for Minnesota to demonstrate how to grow this market sustainably and in a way that's going to help to draw down emissions which are significant from commercial aviation right now. 

00:20:44 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

This is one of the harder to abate sectors as both Justin and Bryn have mentioned. 

00:20:48 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

So we see a lot of opportunity here. 

00:20:51 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

Our real goal right now in engaging with this particular set of incentives is to make sure that 

00:20:59 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

tax credits and the eligibility for receiving those tax credits also go to fuels that are more clean energy oriented. 

00:21:07 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

So right now the bill is written to afford eligibility to fuels that are bio based. 

00:21:13 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

So primarily crop based right now. 

00:21:18 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

And we see candidly the most carbon reduction potential associated with fuels that are produced with electricity. 

00:21:28 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

And that is the power to jet pathway. 

00:21:31 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

And so we are working really hard to broaden the conversation to be able to invite in power to jet producers to benefit and demonstrate market viability in Minnesota alongside bio-based fuels. 

00:21:46 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

And we are also doing a lot of communications and advocacy work otherwise to make sure people understand the opportunities here. 

00:21:53 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

Because commercial aviation is not going to go away. 

00:21:56 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

It's not one of those behaviors that we can hope to transition entirely to a mode shift to trains and such. 

00:22:06 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

People are going to still fly and commercial jets are just too large to electrify and batteries aren't super viable. 

00:22:13 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

So there's going to have to be a fuel space solution. 

00:22:16 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

And so we've done a lot of technical work at Fresh Energy to really understand where we want to weigh in and really make sure that when we use the word sustainable to describe aviation fuel, that we are advocating for the highest and best use case to draw down emissions. 

00:22:31 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

And for us, that's power to jet. 

00:22:32 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

And that's why we're working so hard on this bill. 

00:22:36 Justin Fay 

Definitely, definitely. 

00:22:38 Justin Fay 

Well, moving beyond transportation, the building space is another area that has been 

00:22:45 Justin Fay 

pretty difficult to move forward with decarbonizing at the scale that we need to, but we have had some successes here in Minnesota in the last few years. 

00:22:57 Justin Fay 

One example of that is a geothermal planning grant program that Fresh Energy led the development of that passed in 2024 and has now been implemented and wildly successful. 

00:23:13 Justin Fay 

and also really timely. 

00:23:15 Justin Fay 

We see at the federal level that geothermal is another one of those areas that does have some bipartisan agreement and interest. 

00:23:24 Justin Fay 

Margaret, can you tell us a little bit about the importance of geothermal and the geothermal planning grant program that we hope to continue building here in Minnesota? 

00:23:34 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

Yeah, we are big geothermal fans here at Fresh Energy. 

00:23:38 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

I think as everyone is well aware, we have particularly cold winters in Minnesota. 

00:23:44 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

This winter has been no different. 

00:23:48 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

Yes. 

00:23:48 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

So, you know, when you think about trying to convert our. 

00:23:52 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

heating systems to technologies that don't rely on fossil fuels. 

00:23:58 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

We use a disproportionate amount of natural gas, much higher than the national average, really because that natural gas is driving our heating systems here in Minnesota. 

00:24:07 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

If you think about how to convert your technology over to electric, it is challenging because of this cold climate that we have. 

00:24:17 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

However, geothermal is one of those 

00:24:20 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

amazing technologies where because the temperature of the earth and its aquifers are pretty consistent, you don't have to worry about any sort of limitations with cold climate for this particular technology. 

00:24:36 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

And it works really well in a district setting where you can interconnect buildings like hospitals, like 

00:24:45 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

grocery stores that have a lot of waste heat, they can dump that waste heat into these interconnected systems. 

00:24:52 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

So then you have to rely even less on the heat of the earth and you can just use this waste heat to move around. 

00:24:57 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

So the economies of scale that you can get with these systems interconnecting commercial and residential buildings, it just drives down price. 

00:25:06 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

It's a super reliable way to move heat around and it's a business model that folks understand. 

00:25:12 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

We know how to own and operate pipe based solutions 

00:25:15 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

And so there is, you know, an elegant transition to be had in terms of the labor dynamics as well. 

00:25:21 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

So for all those reasons, we are super excited about geothermal. 

00:25:25 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

We have been just incredibly excited to see how quickly folks up at the Capitol across the aisle have been getting on the geothermal bandwagon too. 

00:25:39 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

And that I think is just, you know, exactly what we saw when we put out these geothermal planning grants. 

00:25:45 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

We got this passed in 2024. 

00:25:47 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

These are grants that help to offset planning, just that. 

00:25:50 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

That is the highest barrier to moving forward with projects like this is doing all the planning work, all the engineering work ahead of actually implementing a project. 

00:26:00 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

So we wanted to reduce that challenge, de-risk the investment, and hand out some of these grants to make those projects move more smoothly. 

00:26:09 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

And what we saw was that we had 

00:26:14 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

just far more applications, almost double the applications for the money that we had made available for these grants. 

00:26:22 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

And so, you know, this is a good piece of data for us here where we're going to go back and we're going to try to pass another round of planning grants to be able to continue to meet the demand for folks to be moving forward with systems like this. 

00:26:36 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

And I just want to point out, you know, it's all over the state that folks are interested. 

00:26:41 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

This is not just a metro thing. 

00:26:42 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

So 

00:26:43 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

You know, a couple of projects that folks are probably pretty familiar with by this point. 

00:26:48 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

Rice Creek Commons in Ramsey County, Mount Airy Home, City of St. 

00:26:53 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

Paul. 

00:26:55 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

A couple of really important, pretty well known projects that got planning grants. 

00:27:00 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

But then also City of Crookston. 

00:27:03 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

Woods neighborhood got a planning grant, which we were thrilled to see. 

00:27:06 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

We do a lot of work with our Empower Crookston network out there. 

00:27:09 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

So it was great to see them connect to these dollars. 

00:27:11 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

And then City of Sandstone. 

00:27:13 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

So the Sandstone School redevelopment got a planning grant as well. 

00:27:16 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

So we're just really, again, eager to get back to the capital to try to pass another round. 

00:27:23 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

So Brynn, what do you think about this momentum? 

00:27:25 Brynn Kirsling 

I mean, like you said, the wide support, I mean, there's federal support for this. 

00:27:32 Brynn Kirsling 

It's one of the few technologies that survived federal clean energy initiative cuts. 

00:27:38 Brynn Kirsling 

And we should run with that as far as we can. 

00:27:41 Brynn Kirsling 

State level support, local level support, bipartisan interest. 

00:27:46 Brynn Kirsling 

And as you mentioned, we can see the geographic diversity in demand for the projects. 

00:27:51 Brynn Kirsling 

And we should really capitalize on this moment where people are excited and want to keep exploring that. 

00:27:59 Brynn Kirsling 

So, and I should mention too, the last session, although we didn't get everything we wanted on it, we did get an improvement in the eligibility language. 

00:28:08 Brynn Kirsling 

So when there is more money, when not if, 

00:28:16 Brynn Kirsling 

Tribal governments will also be eligible applicants for these planning grants. 

00:28:20 Brynn Kirsling 

So I think that was a win in expanding who can access this. 

00:28:25 Brynn Kirsling 

So it'll be exciting to continue to advocate for more funding and demonstrate the demand. 

00:28:33 Brynn Kirsling 

Yeah, and I think just in general, thermal energy networks, we see a handful of opportunities this session. 

00:28:42 Brynn Kirsling 

We anticipate the TENS working group, that's Thermal Energy Network's working group, will inform some legislation that helps establish a process for approving more projects and help navigate the PUC process. 

00:29:02 Brynn Kirsling 

So I think that's another one that we're looking forward to advocating for. 

00:29:09 Justin Fay 

Awesome. 

00:29:09 Justin Fay 

Well, maybe just sort of sticking with the buildings theme for just another moment here. 

00:29:14 Justin Fay 

One of the other bills that was also introduced last year and that our buildings team colleagues are excited about taking another crack at in 2026 is a bill that focuses on HVAC upgrades for schools. 

00:29:29 Justin Fay 

Margaret, can you share with us a little bit like why HVAC for schools in general and 

00:29:37 Justin Fay 

how can it help Minnesota and our building sector decarbonize? 

00:29:43 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

Yeah, I might answer this in a little bit of a backwards fashion, just starting with like, why do we have to decarbonize buildings proper? 

00:29:51 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

And I think we started touching on this with our conversation with geothermal, but you know, it's just really important to note that buildings themselves are a top source of carbon pollution, both globally and in Minnesota. 

00:30:01 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

So in the US, they contribute 31% of our national 

00:30:07 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

greenhouse gas emissions. 

00:30:08 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

And in Minnesota, because we have these cold winters and we use so much natural gas, we see that emissions from both residential and commercial buildings are on the rise. 

00:30:18 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

And so this is a really a key area of work for fresh energy to be able to start the conversation and advance the conversation on how do we transition off of natural gas, off of propane, and onto cleaner solutions 

00:30:36 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

Of course, this is a really challenging topic because of heating reliability. 

00:30:42 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

Now that our summers are warmer, it's cooling reliability as well. 

00:30:46 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

It all ties to energy efficiency and how to get a little bit technical, how tight your building envelope is and how well insulated your windows and walls are. 

00:30:57 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

So it's all interconnected here, right? 

00:30:59 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

So we're thinking about the building standards, we're thinking about the technology we deploy to heat and cool our buildings. 

00:31:06 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

And what better way to start that conversation than within schools? 

00:31:11 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

And I say that because in Minnesota, we have a lot of work to do to bring our schools up to a better standard in terms of being energy efficient at large. 

00:31:23 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

But we have so many of our schools who are not being able to cool properly or sufficiently to heat properly or sufficiently. 

00:31:31 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

And so this is just, I think, 

00:31:36 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

It's hard to argue with spending money on making lives easier and better for teachers and kids and using technology like heat pumps through HVAC systems to be able to do that. 

00:31:49 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

And I like to say, I come from academia too. 

00:31:52 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

So if you can proof out a technology in a school, that's a learning opportunity for a bunch of kids too. 

00:31:58 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

I love the idea of having a living laboratory in schools. 

00:32:02 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

And you know who benefits from that too is all the parents who have kids go back home and say, Hey, you know what's going on at this school? 

00:32:08 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

So there are just so many angles why we think working on schools is a really good place to start here. 

00:32:18 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

And it's a campus system. 

00:32:19 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

It's easily replicatable. 

00:32:21 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

So if you can do it in one school, you can do it in other schools. 

00:32:23 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

So we're really excited to be able to advance this type of work and draw down emissions in the places where it matters most first. 

00:32:33 Brynn Kirsling 

And in terms of, a structure, maybe something that we can emulate is, the wildly successful Solar for Schools program in Minnesota. 

00:32:43 Brynn Kirsling 

this is, not exactly the same, but a similar mechanism in terms of how we pursue this legislatively and the familiarity with implementation for improving school infrastructure from an energy standpoint. 

00:32:56 Brynn Kirsling 

And, I think you said it 

00:32:59 Brynn Kirsling 

really well, like, people want to see the positive effects on student health and learning outcomes. 

00:33:06 Brynn Kirsling 

Having learning environments, a 90 degree classroom is not good. 

00:33:12 Brynn Kirsling 

It's not a good learning environment. 

00:33:14 Brynn Kirsling 

And this is something that we can tackle with bipartisan support. 

00:33:19 Brynn Kirsling 

There's a lot of interest and, you know, I think there's even more opportunities for work to be done here. 

00:33:29 Justin Fay 

So maybe transitioning to another sector, we've talked about transportation, we've talked about buildings. 

00:33:36 Justin Fay 

Heavy industry is another area of emerging interest for fresh energy, and it's a much more nascent conversation than what we're seeing in some of these other economic sectors. 

00:33:48 Justin Fay 

Margaret, can you tell our folks a little bit about what's happening on heavy industry at fresh energy? 

00:33:53 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

Yeah, absolutely. 

00:33:54 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

And for those of you taking notes, heavy industry is one of the five sectors that Fresh Energy's work is focused on. 

00:34:03 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

The others, as you may have gathered from our conversation, are electricity, transportation, buildings, and agriculture. 

00:34:10 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

And Brandon Isaacson is our brilliant managing director of industry who's spearheading this work. 

00:34:17 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

And when I say spearheading, I really mean it because I mentioned our strategic framework, Vision 2030, and heavy industry 

00:34:23 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

industry and agriculture are our newest program areas. 

00:34:26 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

And so we really are kind of out on the bleeding edge here of making sure that these sectors of the economy that are hardest to abate, which means that they are going to be the hardest to you know. 

00:34:40 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

reliably, durably draw down emissions from. 

00:34:45 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

We're leaning into that work. 

00:34:47 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

We're leaning into that challenge. 

00:34:49 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

They have not received as much attention as other sectors of the economy on the decarbonization front, and that is for good reason. 

00:34:55 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

It's because the electrification is not always going to be the easiest technology to deploy. 

00:35:01 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

We're going to have to have some fuel-based conversations. 

00:35:04 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

And because, you know, these are really culturally, economically just important sectors of the economy to Minnesota in particular. 

00:35:14 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

And so we want to make sure that we're thinking very carefully and thoughtfully about how to engage with the energy transition in these sectors. 

00:35:19 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

So I think, you know, just setting the stage here a little bit, you know. 

00:35:26 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

heavy industry. 

00:35:26 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

It's major driver of the economy in Minnesota, huge source of jobs across the state. 

00:35:31 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

It also, though, accounts for 15% of the state's greenhouse gas emissions. 

00:35:36 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

And the highest emitting facilities in Minnesota are tied to food processing, chemicals, pulp and paper, iron ore processing. 

00:35:47 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

And really these emissions are driven once again by the use of fossil fuels. 

00:35:51 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

So we now know that 

00:35:53 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

like 37 facilities in Minnesota account for 87% of CO2 produced by the state's manufacturing sector. 

00:36:02 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

So we know where the emissions are coming from. 

00:36:06 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

We know how to start those conversations, have those conversations about decarbonization. 

00:36:12 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

And that's really what we're leaning into. 

00:36:14 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

So where is it possible to apply electrification to decarbonize? 

00:36:20 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

as in the low and medium heat industry sectors, so food manufacturing as an example. 

00:36:26 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

And where are we going to have to get a little bit more creative about applying fuel-based solutions? 

00:36:31 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

So for example, we're pretty excited about using green hydrogen, for example, in some steel manufacturing. 

00:36:40 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

So we're leaning into this type of conversation. 

00:36:45 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

We're forming a lot of new important relationships 

00:36:49 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

And we're starting to, you know, really show up the legislature to advance the conversation across the aisle and with policymakers. 

00:36:59 Brynn Kirsling 

Yeah, and I think, you know, we're seeing a healthy appetite at the legislature on this topic. 

00:37:03 Brynn Kirsling 

There's bipartisan support across, I think, every bill that we've supported in this sector. 

00:37:09 Brynn Kirsling 

And that also makes them increasingly viable for passage in these tight margins, you know, that we're seeing over this biennium. 

00:37:19 Brynn Kirsling 

And I also think, being early in conversations gives us the greatest opportunity to steer us towards the best climate outcomes as this is an emerging topic and being at the forefront, much easier to see the outcomes, the best outcomes we can see when we're there early. 

00:37:41 Justin Fay 

For sure. 

00:37:41 Justin Fay 

Well, speaking of getting there early, there is one last emerging issue that we wanted to maybe just 

00:37:49 Justin Fay 

make folks aware of, and this has been getting a lot of buzz and a lot of steam lately, and that's an emerging technology called balcony solar. 

00:37:59 Justin Fay 

And there is a potential for some legislation on that topic this year. 

00:38:03 Justin Fay 

Bryn, can you tell us just very briefly a little bit about balcony solar? 

00:38:07 Brynn Kirsling 

There's a lot of exciting interest on that. 

00:38:10 Brynn Kirsling 

You know, balcony solar refers to plug-in solar technology. 

00:38:15 Brynn Kirsling 

And it's a technology that you see a lot across Europe, has growing interest and support in the United States. 

00:38:21 Brynn Kirsling 

Interesting enough, states like Utah have passed. 

00:38:25 Brynn Kirsling 

similar legislation as to what's being explored in Minnesota. 

00:38:28 Brynn Kirsling 

And that's that sort of permissive language for plug-in solar and removing those barriers for people to access this kind of technology. 

00:38:38 Brynn Kirsling 

It's kind of an on-ramp into participating in clean energy technology if you haven't had that interface 

00:38:47 Brynn Kirsling 

before. 

00:38:47 Brynn Kirsling 

So there's a lot of sort of grassroots excitement about it and it's a fun technology and would love to see more support for it. 

00:38:59 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

I think it's just a great example of capturing hearts and minds and being that entry point for folks on the clean energy side. 

00:39:07 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

If you see your neighbor with it, you're going to start a conversation, you're going to ask some questions and 

00:39:13 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

You know, it's really similar to what we see with rooftop solar, what we see with, you know, EVs. 

00:39:18 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

And so we're excited for all the reasons that it, you know, enables folks to participate, low entry point and also starts a conversation. 

00:39:28 Brynn Kirsling 

A gateway technology, right? 

00:39:30 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

Yeah, you got it. 

00:39:32 Justin Fay 

Absolutely. 

00:39:33 Justin Fay 

We're excited to be working with Representative Larry Kraft on that this year. 

00:39:39 Justin Fay 

And it's really, you know, as Bryn said, trying to remove some barriers to make those available to folks so we can unlock some of those benefits that Margaret was just talking about. 

00:39:50 Justin Fay 

Well, as always, we're doing a lot at Fresh Energy, even in a legislative session where there's maybe some challenges with regards to bandwidth for these issues. 

00:40:00 Justin Fay 

And, you know, being successful advocates for such a broad agenda requires 

00:40:06 Justin Fay 

a team of really talented folks plugging in together. 

00:40:10 Justin Fay 

So maybe as we sort of wrap up here and put a bow on our conversation today, Bryn, can you just sort of tell folks a little bit about the team that is going to be working at the Capitol this year? 

00:40:20 Justin Fay 

Who you got? 

00:40:22 Brynn Kirsling 

Yeah, absolutely. 

00:40:23 Brynn Kirsling 

Should I put on my announcer voice, the starting five for the Fresh Energy 

00:40:28 Brynn Kirsling 

Please do. 

00:40:29 Brynn Kirsling 

Please do. 

00:40:32 Brynn Kirsling 

Well, you know, I'm your day-to-day capital person, making sure that our policy experts are in the right place at the right time, you know, monitoring those committee hearings and sort of directing people to where they need to be. 

00:40:46 Brynn Kirsling 

You know, John Burns is our longtime contract lobbyist who's been on our team for how many years, Justin? 

00:40:53 Justin Fay 

Over a decade, and I believe he at this point 

00:40:57 Justin Fay 

predates all but one of our current staff, which is just incredible. 

00:41:02 Justin Fay 

That doesn't happen very often. 

00:41:05 Brynn Kirsling 

I mean, he brings so much knowledge about how to navigate the legislature. 

00:41:09 Brynn Kirsling 

He has incredible depths of relationships. 

00:41:12 Brynn Kirsling 

I mean, I've been with him in meetings in different cities around the state, and he always knows somebody. 

00:41:18 Brynn Kirsling 

So he's just so deeply connected and an incredible asset. 

00:41:21 Justin Fay 

And he'll he'll he'll come to your house and he'll put a fire out too if. 

00:41:25 Brynn Kirsling 

You have volunteer firefighter. 

00:41:27 Brynn Kirsling 

I mean he's truly like the team dad and he's just an all-around wonderful person to work with and has been such a great resource for you know our Capitol Pathways interns and you know other staff to really demystify the legislative process and being more present at the Capitol. 

00:41:46 Brynn Kirsling 

So a wonderful member of the team. 

00:41:50 Brynn Kirsling 

Ethan Culver is our senior associate of campaigns and coalitions, and he's the voice behind the advocacy and rapid response requests and opportunities that folks receive. 

00:42:02 Brynn Kirsling 

So he'll be leading efforts to amplify supporters of Fresh Energy to reach out to their legislators and meet those important decision points that steer outcomes to protect and further our clean energy policy goals. 

00:42:16 Brynn Kirsling 

I will say if you're not already signed up to receive those messages from Ethan, make sure you visit that website to sign up or better yet forward it to a friend because I bet if you're listening to this you're already signed up. 

00:42:27 Brynn Kirsling 

But I will say in a world of many, many spam text messages, I promise you, and I asked Ethan for permission to say that, say this, he will be on the other side of that line and he's always willing to chit chat and nerd out about any topic here. 

00:42:43 Brynn Kirsling 

So we use that, especially on text message, that two-way communication and allowing people more access to advocating and showing up really powerfully in these spaces. 

00:42:56 Brynn Kirsling 

I'll also mention, we have a couple session only folks who join us and this year our session associate is Molly McMullen and she joins Fresh Energy with experience advocating for environmental agriculture and energy policy at the Minnesota legislature and she's a recent 

00:43:17 Brynn Kirsling 

Humphrey School of Public Affairs graduate. 

00:43:19 Brynn Kirsling 

So we are very lucky to have her helping steer this team and keep us all on task and organized. 

00:43:27 Brynn Kirsling 

And then rounding out our team is Kai Hunt, who is our Capital Pathways intern this year and a student at Macalester University. 

00:43:36 Brynn Kirsling 

So we're looking forward to hosting Kai. 

00:43:38 Brynn Kirsling 

I think this is our 11th 

00:43:40 Brynn Kirsling 

year as a host organization at the Capital Pathways program and looking forward to continuing to build a strong bench of emerging leaders in this space. 

00:43:51 Brynn Kirsling 

And of course, this is the Capital team, but we have a depth of policy experts that we've mentioned through this conversation and communication support that tap in and help accomplish our goals. 

00:44:09 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

Do we have a near 100%, you know, testimony or, you know, writing letters of support for hearings rate across the program team? 

00:44:17 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

They really high like that. 

00:44:18 Justin Fay 

It's really high. 

00:44:19 Justin Fay 

I think we definitely will typically have more than 10 different staff testifying in a given session, which I think is just incredible breadth. 

00:44:28 Justin Fay 

And Bren, you and I talk about this all the time. 

00:44:31 Justin Fay 

Like it's the quality of the people that we get to work with. 

00:44:35 Justin Fay 

is like one of the most fun parts of the job. 

00:44:37 Justin Fay 

And we get to just sort of like walk around the Capitol with really, really smart people and sort of like look smart by proximity, which is really cool. 

00:44:47 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

You guys are pulling the puppet strings. 

00:44:49 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

You're making us look good. 

00:44:51 Margaret Cherne-Hendrick 

So it's a real team effort and I think it, you know, it's working well. 

00:44:55 Brynn Kirsling 

Yeah, and I hear it from legislators all the time. 

00:44:57 Brynn Kirsling 

You know, they look to us for our expertise and have a lot of trust in the information that we give them is 

00:45:06 Brynn Kirsling 

well researched and really eyes to the future and ambitious. 

00:45:11 Brynn Kirsling 

So, you know, we're very trusted in this space and looking forward to continuing that reputation. 

00:45:19 Justin Fay 

That reputation was not something we take for granted. 

00:45:21 Justin Fay 

It's been built over many years by a lot of different people, including a lot of you that are at home or in your car or wherever you are listening to this podcast today. 

00:45:31 Justin Fay 

We certainly covered a lot. 

00:45:33 Justin Fay 

in our conversation. 

00:45:35 Justin Fay 

Thank you to Bryn and Margaret for giving our listeners some insight into what's happening this legislative session on what it could look like for clean energy and climate in Minnesota. 

00:45:47 Justin Fay 

And I want to put a particular plug in here for Fresh Energy's Action Network. 

00:45:52 Justin Fay 

It's the best way to stay up to date on legislative and regulatory action when it's needed at the time that it's needed. 

00:46:00 Justin Fay 

We'll send you the occasional text alert. 

00:46:04 Justin Fay 

invites to events and beyond. 

00:46:06 Justin Fay 

And you might make a really cool new friend in Ethan Culver, as Bryn mentioned. 

00:46:11 Brynn Kirsling 

Yep, that's right. 

00:46:11 Brynn Kirsling 

You know, we're trying to make this like we're your glorified administrative assistant, like removing, doing the research, knowing when the time is right. 

00:46:20 Brynn Kirsling 

You know, everybody listening, you have your day jobs and the things that you need to be focusing on. 

00:46:25 Brynn Kirsling 

So let's take out all the work out of it and send you the most impactful and timely notices where your action 

00:46:34 Brynn Kirsling 

has the most positive impact. 

00:46:35 Brynn Kirsling 

So and like I said, feel free to chat with Ethan. 

00:46:38 Brynn Kirsling 

So and bonus points if you forward this to a friend or family member and grow this action network so we can continue to show up big in moments where we need to. 

00:46:50 Justin Fay 

Absolutely. 

00:46:52 Justin Fay 

Well, you can stay up to date on Fresh Energy's work at fresh-energy.org or follow us on social media. 

00:46:59 Justin Fay 

We're on Blue Sky. 

00:47:01 Justin Fay 

Thank you to everyone listening for subscribing to our podcast. 

00:47:05 Justin Fay 

You can support Fresh Energy's work by donating today, which you can do at our website. 

00:47:10 Justin Fay 

Thank you to the band Palm Psalms for providing our theme song that you just heard, DGAF off of their album, Otuhaka. 

00:47:18 Justin Fay 

Get the latest from the band at palmpsalms.com. 

00:47:22 Justin Fay 

Thank you for listening and have a great day.