Guest essay by Eric Worrall
Apparently it’s OK because legislators asked kids to draft the bill.
Minnesota Introduces Bold New Climate Change Bill Crafted By Teens
Brian Kahn
Apr 13, 2019, 4:00amEveryone always looks to California for climate action, but don’t sleep on the Midwest. On Thursday, Minnesota legislators introduced a sweeping new bill modelled after Alexandrio Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal.
…“This is our future, and we’re actually taking action on it,” Anna Grace Hottinger, a 16 year old sophomore who helped author the bill, told Earther.
…
The Minnesota Green New Deal bill represents a much more dramatic step. Introduced by state Representative Frank Hornstein and Senator Scott Dibble along with 17 co-sponsors, the legislation follows the outlines of the Green New Deal resolution introduced at the federal level earlier this year.
The bill requires the state to run on 100 per cent carbon-free energy by 2030 and puts a moratorium on fossil fuel permitting. It also requires commissioners of various state agencies to come up with plans for decarbonisation of different sectors, including transportation and agriculture, as well as divesting the state’s pension system from fossil fuels.
…The bill is ripe with language on how the state can help facilitate a just transition to a clean energy economy, from jobs training to identifying any economic impact the shift could have on electricity rates.
“The Minnesota Green New Deal not only represents a bold agenda toward climate change, but also represents a new style of politics, one that values people over profits,” Tiger Worku, a junior from Minneapolis, said at the press conference announcing the bill on Wednesday
…
Read more: https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2019/04/minnesota-introduces-bold-new-climate-change-bill-crafted-by-teens/
I’m not kidding when I say they want to ban home heating, at least for new residences. From the text of the bill;
Sec. 8.
[216B.2427] FOSSIL FUEL FACILITIES; CONSTRUCTION
MORATORIUM.A state agency is prohibited from issuing a permit to construct (1) a facility to transport, store, or process coal, crude oil or its derivative products, propane, or natural gas, or (2) a facility defined in section 216B.2421, subdivision 2, clause (9), pending issuance of the report required under section 11.
Read more: https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/text.php?number=HF2836&session=ls91&version=list&session_number=0&session_year=2019
Good luck getting the home solar heating work in the middle of a Minnesotan winter, especially really cold weather like the winter Minnesota just experienced.
But maybe they won’t need home heating. According to Judah Cohen, a climate researcher at Atmospheric and Environmental Research, a consulting firm in Massachusetts, “Our winters would be warmer if we weren’t getting these increased polar vortex disruptions.”
Perhaps Minnesotan legislators hope by putting the children in charge and trying really hard to recycle, properly demonstrating their green piety, the polar vortex disruptions will go away, and they will have their warmer winters. Or perhaps they will get back the colder winters they enjoy, rather than the unnatural polar vortex colder winters which cause so much disruption.
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Why was this article published 12 days late??
Ms. Hottinger won’t live to be 30—she’ll freeze to death.
Let her freeze to death and starve because no fossil fuel powered farm equipment is allowed.
In a related story of INSANITY … Nancy Pelosi has always wanted 16yo’s to VOTE.
The Amsh will do just fine!!
Turn in your cell phone, iPad, laptops, desktop, wi-fi, “smart” speaker, internet, and worship a God who demands … “plainness”. There you go! You’re almost Amish. Now, put on plain black pants and a white shirt, and subject yourself to the leadership of elders who will shun you for the least of transgressions (and there are many, many possible transgressions). Ah, the shallow romanticism of the “organic” Amish lifestyle
The Amish will not do just fine. No one does fine when socialists take over, except the socialist leaders. It will likely become illegal to be Amish. If the Amish have more food and warmth, the government will confiscate their ‘wealth’. All most suffer equally for the greater good.
Not unless they stock up on lots of guns and ammo to protect their supplies when the rest are starving.
They use wood stoves. This will also be banned.
Kenji, lots of stereotypes and misunderstandings about the Amish there. The fact is that the Amish do allow the use of some/most (depending on the Amish community) of those technology things, just not in the home. If you are an Amish business man, you likely do have access to and are allowed to use phones (including cell phones) and maybe even computers in your workplace for example. And while you might not drive a modern automobile (EV or ICE), you can ride in one without any problems (Amish often get a non-Amish to drive them to markets miles away to sell their goods).
The proscription is against owning unsanctioned technologies, not using them. An episode of Treehouse Masters had a trio of young Amish men availing themselves of this distinction to work with Nelson & Company’s modern carpentry tools.
The bad results will take longer than that to materialize.
Moratorium means no new plants, but existing ones can prosper until they break down (read Atlas Shrugged). And, foreign (state) imports still will be allowed (that’s interstate commerce), although they likely will go up in price.
But before Minnesota becomes almost unlivable, I expect that most locals will have moved elsewhere, infecting the politics of their new home states. In theory, I suppose, it’s possible that enough of these geniuses may make a connection with their stupid laws and the bad results, and the new majority will repeal them.
“crude oil or its derivative products”
…um, I severely doubt they understand what that means.
Plastics are ‘derivative byproducts’ of crude oil.
Almost all current economic commerce and technical production and development relies upon some form of plastic. Circuit boards, cell phones, the list is very long. Modern medicine depends on plastic packaging. I don’t know if they even suture with ‘silk’ any more. And, how do they plan to transport anything in the state after 2030?
This merely demonstrates the poor level of education foisted upon Minnesota future leaders.
Minnesota would revert to wilderness not unlike the border lakes between it and Ontario.
There are so many products that would not be available that show how uneducated the proponents of this bill are.
Good luck making wind generators and solar panels without oil or coal (for steel/aluminium (sic – I’m an Aussie)) plus having the oil & grease for gearboxes/bearings/etc.
No no, all those things you listed come from the store- not from oil , silly. Everything will be fine. Just listen to the children
It will be in vain, by that time India + China will add another billion or two more people. All CO2 reduction achieved by the eco-Minnesotans (pop. 5.5 mill) from today till then, will be replaced by the energy hungry Asian giants in a single day.
And sadder, they cannot reduce CO2 emissions at all without dying, and corpse decomposition releases CO2 among other gases.
Funny how the descendants of Scandinavian migrants behave exactly like their distant relatives back home. Must be a sociology Ph.D. dissertation there somewhere.
Climate stupidity? Check (plus).
Immigrants from the Muslim world? Check.
Welfare state? Check.
I’m sure there are others.
There’s no fixing stupid.
Here in Ireland the saying we have for it is “You’re never finished with a fool”
Minnesota used to be a fairly sensible place. Seems it has given itself over to the goofballs!
It must be caused by all that cold climate! Now that they’ve embraced their nemesis, can total annihilation be far behind? (My fear is that these frozen zombies will overrun clear-thinking states and our whole nation will succumb!)
Yes. There IS fixing stupid. Among other things, classical music raises IQ. A college biology professor advised students on how to raise their MCAT (Medical College Admission Test) scores: find out what story books your friends like to read, and read them.
Dr. Keith Scott-Mumby has produced dramatic improvements in mental functioning by abolishing the foods an individual is sensitive to.
There are others.
Hah! Took me a few minutes.
It is obvious that critical thinking was never a subject of any of these people’s education. “It would be getting warmer in winter if it wasn’t getting colder.” Now who would have thought that?
I wish them luck getting food to supermarkets without fossil fuels. That will be the first test of the success of this bill.
The statement is a testament to poor education. With proper English, one would say: “if it WEREN’T getting colder”.
There is far more lack of education presented than merely poor grammar. 🙂
I thought that Global Weirding was supposed to cause winters and nights to be warmer making snow a thing of the past, a truly rare event such that kids won’t even know what snow is.
I would correct that teen’s comment to say, “It would be getting warmer in Winter if it weren’t getting colder because of global warming caused by burning fossil fuels to keep warm in colder Winters. “
“It would be getting warmer in winter if it wasn’t getting colder.”
Is this teen related to Yogi Berra?
Love it!
Diesel engines in farm equipment and delivery trucks can be retrofit to use ammonia as a fuel.
Most ammonia is made from methane or coal today. This process is readily decarbonized by capturing and sequestering the already concentrated CO2. Or by switching to a fully electric ammonia production process. Most synthetic ammonia in the world used to be made from electricity.
There are safety considerations, but the agriculture community is familiar with the safe handling of ammonia.
Could you give us a cost/benefit anlysis on that approach? Also, what is the power supply and raw materials sufficient to manufacture the farm equipment, including the tires used on most farm equipment?
The problem with the making of ammonia from electricity is that the cost of separating the hydrogen from water has approximately four time the cost of the equivalent fossil fuel. Look at France for what happens if you jack up prices on working class people who are the least able to pay.
They won’t make it a mile without lubricants.
“Most ammonia is made from methane or coal today.”. Well, under the new rules, they can’t use anything derived from methane or coal. Bye bye ammonia as a solution.
Sure, if you don’t mind completing rebuilding your entire engine, exhaust and fuelling system. Also, your fuel handling and storage system on the farm. Every 2-3 years, that is.
You also should not mind losing the odd child, spouse, hired hand, neighbor or your own life.
We are talking about high quality, high % ammonia. This is NOT the same stuff found in a bottle under your sink.
There is no safe, reliable, and cost effective procedure to handle ammonia in the quantities needed every day on the farm.
None, whatsoever.
Been trying to tell them a long time. Anhydrous ammonia is some nasty stuff. Deadly .
Meanwhile, back in reality, Minnesota is not doing anything to assure that the Nuclear power plants, that provide 30% of their electricity and close to 95% of their CO2 FREE electricity remain in operation. The plan they are implementing will force those NPPs to shut down just like Obama’s CPP has forced at least 5 NPPs to shut down. Then everyone will be heating with wood.
Not only are these loonies conventional nuclear -ignorant, but they are information-free about advancedmolten salt nuclear technology. These kiddies are living in the past.
OH no you don’t , wood stoves will go too. Think of all those PM2.5 emissions.
Maybe Minnesota can be the US crash test dummy. like S.A. was for Australia.
I believe dung is the ideal heating fuel.
It should work well for the 500 Minnesotans who survive after this act comes into force.
Somebody might do something I suppose.
By spring time this plan would solve all Minnesota’s problems. No crime, no poverty, no illness. No traffic jams, no overcrowding in schools. No people.
Die Endlösung is the word I was expecting. The final fix.
Only one word is required as a response:
SOLYNDRA
Or Asshat
Someone needs to tell them that 2019 was the 31st anniversary of the first time we were told that we had 12 years to end fossil fuel consumption or we were all doomed.
When I was 16 years old I knew everything, too.
Thankfully, society and my parents were absolute Luddites and either ignored my brilliance or out-and-out put the kibosh on my bright ideas. Otherwise all of America’s lawns would be kept trimmed by sheep.
Was it Nader or some other well known fool who railed against lawns in the 1960’s? That land should have been used for growing food, since the world was facing imminent famine. They said that lawns were remnants of English imperialism. Let the grass grow naturally.
I was in Boston. Naturally, they tried that on Beacon hill, where people would sit on the grass and eat lunch. Virtue signaling even then. Not much has changed.
They started mowing the law again when rats and snakes starting showing up disturbing people eating lunch.
So, those idiots learned some reasons why the grass is cut short around the house. Thanks to progress, they did not have to relearn the lesson that you kept the grass short so you could see the Indians creeping up to your house. Boston was last barricaded against the Indians in King Phillip’s War, an event which is not known to them.
I don’t know about banning lawns, but letting home owners use that land for gardening (which many cities disallow) makes sense to me.
Many cities aren’t that keen on fertilzer/pesticide runoff in the storm drains/sewers.
hey the sheep ideas good, they weed , do edges and fertilise and then you benefit from a nice roast and some chops
whats NOT to like?
Well, it’s an idea a step or two above eliminating fossil fuels.
The fly in the ointment was that all those sheep attract wolves and then what have you got?
Has the bill passed the legislature and been signed by the governor?
Won’t happen. This is just green virtue signaling by the Minneapolis liberals. The rest of the state will have none of it. Frankly, it’s silly and insulting to think that 16 year-olds are wise enough to tell the rest of us how to live. They can’t even plan the next 10 years of their own lives. Utter rubbish. They are knackered if they think I’m going to listen to anything they say; I remember when my children were that age.
Yes Paul. It is well known that the human brain does not mature until around the early 20s. In many cases it doesn’t ever mature.
Thirty-five for brain.
Early 20s for teeth.
“If a man is not a socialist at age 20, he has no heart.
If he is still a socialist at age 40, he has no brain”
I have to admit, I was a socialist when I was a teenager, and it was my mid-thirties when I noticed that socialism just doesn’t work. Of course. the current example is Venezuela.
A 16 year-old can’t plan their next 16 minutes. I think they should be allowed to vote in national elections, don’t you? (sarcasm alert).
And what’s with Judah Cohen? What a perfectly incoherent statement.
I would kindly tell them that they have a lot to learn, and when they turn 32 and figure out what’s really been going on, that they remember it was the Republicans who were responsible, while Democrats were willing to put forth really bad policy in order to pander to them.
I remember when I was “that age” (16). I was no font of wisdom and most of my peers were worse at understanding the world than I was.
Not yet, but all of Minnesota’s State Democrats are eagerly waiting for their chance to vote ‘Present’.
<¿<
No
It has merely been introduced.
Officer Dibble just had to be involved.
TOP CAT!!!!!
So many questions:
Increased polar vortex disruptions? Climate researcher?
About those kids, how can those puppets even walk with the green industry’s hand so far up their posteriors?
We have a saying down here in the South. “Let the Yankee bastards freeze in the dark”.
Do you really want the south invaded by Yankee climate change refugees?
They are already doing it, mostly because of taxes, regulation and the zombie hordes their policies created.
I suppose that I would be a Yankee, without the MLB contract mind you, but just remember that 10 miles or more outside the big cities, we have plenty in common.
Some of us even have distilling moonshine in the roots of our family tree. Just sayin’…
Yes, we’ll I am one of the Yankee bastards that have to live here. This state is full of some of the dumbest people on the planet now. My plan is to suck as much money out of this hell hole as I can and move back to Texas in 5 years or so. These people here think they are the greatest people in the greatest place ever and they don’t even get out of this state for more than a few months of their total lives. They are literally afraid to piss with their pants on fire for fear of offending someone who might tell on them. It’s a state of fifth and sixth graders.
OMG,,,,Jeff,,,,its worse than I thought then the way you describe. Let me take back that blanket statement I made about everyone in Minnesota and exclude you. You deserve credit for knowing stupidity when you see it. Oh, and I hope your plans come true and can get down to Texas. Good luck to you!!!
Let them pass it!
That way we will have a great example of the aftermath of this suicidal belief in Green Energy. All it will cost us is one state in ruins to save most of the other states. Some states will not learn from this lesson (they have proven themselves to be oblivious to facts) and will march down similar paths.
What would happen, say if this ridiculous legislation were approved, is they would slowly pass loopholes and exceptions as they realize the agenda is impossible to achieve, until they have a mess of new laws and regulations that essentially do nothing in total but make for a bigger government with more red tape.
That’s the way the tax for “bums in seats” gets constantly ratcheted up with no mechanism for downsizing.
Big government is a self replicating and growing virus – it needs a cure.
this is what happens when you skip the fundamental step of problem-solving, which is to establish that the problem exists. In this case, to prove that Anthropogenic CO2 causes catastrophic global warming. It does not, cannot, and never did. Specifically, if Minnesota freezes solid in the winter of 2030, global temperatures will be reduced by an estimated 0.0006°. For myself, I’m not seeing the cost/benefit here.
Increased polar vortexes??
Not a problem!!
Just pass legislation prohibiting polar vortexes!!
Or maybe we should require polar vortexes to solve global warming??
Lets see… That means nuclear power plants, all electric homes, and electric cars for everybody. And you’re going to do all that in just 11 years. I don’t think so…
We can laugh at this stupidity all we want but the warning is plain and simple. The US educational system has been captured by 5th column radicals. The overthrow of Western capitalism and the formation of a one world government is their goal.
Fortunately (?) they have adopted a suicide policy. Let one state or country take extreme action against fossil fuel to save the climate (or for any reason), and the results will guarantee that no one else tries it. If it is tried in the US, the sponsors would be kicked out of office immediately.
If they had glommed onto simply income redistribution or government control of this or that, I would be concerned, but their insane beliefs on climate change will torpedo their entire agenda. There is not the smallest segment of society, government, or industry, that can survive the elimination of fossil fuels.
It has been said many times that the US Constitution is not a suicide pact. Red states will not be drawn into the ban of fossil fuels, and will rebel if necessary (how about fossil fuel ‘sanctuary states’?). Much of the oil, refineries, and pipelines are in red states, and the feds are not going to take control with a fight.
Schools were captured by Marxists a long, long time ago.
The amazing part is that non-Marxists are dumb enough that they still send their kids into the Marxist Indoctrination Camps. Otherwise the scam would have collapsed long ago.
Well, that should depopulate Minnesota.
The alarmists won’t be happy no matter how deadly their plans are.
Without fossil fuel heating and transportation, rescue parties will find it very hard to aid Minnesotans.
Perhaps Minnesotans should start raising sled dogs now and practicing with their axes.
Interesting timing with the recent massive snowstorm over much of the state. Temperatures the last week have been at least 20° F below average. No better today. This after setting many snow and cold records the past few months.
The good news is one of the state’s legislative bodies is controlled by Republicans which I doubt would ever approve this nonsense.
Minnesotans might like to read “Horse Power and Magic, Faber and Faber, 1979” by George Ewart Evans at which time the author was predicting the end of oil. The book is full of information on farming and transport using horses.
Actually, Minnesota could eliminate all fossil fuels, and use only hydroelectric, biomass, nuclear, and renewables. All they need do is shut down all industrial, commercial, and transportation activities….
And only have row boats and sailing ships.
I guess their motto could be, “Minnisota, Land of a Thousand Unuseable Lakes.”
Minnesota, Land of Thousands of fLakes.
And 10,000,000 Loons
Jesus H Christ on a popsicle stick…there are really dumb people on this planet 🙁
We now have a new low. The previous low was the Indiana Pi Bill.
This also reminds me of Trudeau Jr. making his cabinet 50% female “because it’s 2015”. Starry eyed idealism is a form of stupidity. Stupidity still carries the death penalty. In this case, it could be the death of Trudeau’s political career. link
My generation tried the hippy experiment and learned therefrom. Like the lessons of the Great Depression learned by my parents’ generation, that wisdom has been forgotten.
Unforetunetly it’s your generations hippies that are totally brainwashing this generations communist. Not sure your generation learned anything.
Most of us learned that the “hippy thing” was impractical.
The Marxist influence is colorably a deliberate invasion referred to as The Long March Through the Institutions. People of my generation, like Camille Paglia for instance, are dismayed at the way things have turned out. The postmodern crap is an import from France.
In defense of the hippies, the ones I knew personally anyway, they did actually try to implement their ideas for themselves and didn’t try to foist them on everyone else.
Way back when, I once lived in a “commune” of sorts. I recall how some thought the mouse in the kitchen was so cute. I was horrified and was soon joined by the rest of them when they realized that mice breed and multiply rapidly and in remarkable numbers. The mice quickly lost their “cuteness” and were eliminated. Nature has its own way of dealing with STUPID.
Yes, certainly hippydom is feasible, if given a modest trustfund (to get started, and cover emergencies like gollixed generators).
Plus hard work, and a climate rather warmer than Southern England’s, making winters off grid tough, but bearable.
Never tried it myself, and certainly not about to try!!
Auto
It is a topsy turvey world when those who live in a state where people’s lives are greatly dependent on fossil fuel and are least able to do without them and they vote in people who would see them freeze to death
“who would see them freeze to death” to avoid the climate getting warmer.
Even someone who believes in global warming should see the insanity of that. Minnesotans should be denouncing efforts to prevent a warming world.
Actually Tim you bring up a good point. If there were a giant solar flare or EMP strike who would survive? The Amish are first on my list followed by the preppers. Would the massive containment buildings of nuclear power stations shield the electronics? How would solar and wind power with their inverters compare with natural plants?
What a TV series that would make. Only the Amish and the preppers are left. It’s a fight to the end. Buggies vs. People who think buggies are a conspiracy perpetrated by the powers that be.
Hey, I say GO FOR IT!
The great fortune that we have had in the US is that by debating climate change issues, rather than rushing into them, (“debating” can be translated as: political stalemate) we get to watch everyone else face-plant in their efforts to lead the climate change parade. There would be nothing more instructive to the whole Green New Deal movement than to watch a state actually try to grapple with the realities of all of the pie-in-the-sky proposals. So, if we have to sacrifice one of the lower 48’s to make the point, so-be-it. Granted, we were all hoping it would be California, but hey … you take what you can get.