For Minnesota, Climate Obsession Is Just Another Fiscal Disaster

By Daniel Turner

It’s not hyperbole to say that Minnesota is a fiscal disaster.

And that is not just my opinion. Nearly 100 mayors in the state signed a letter to their Governor Tim Walz questioning his policies under which an $18 billion budget surplus became a $3 billion deficit during a three-day period.

In the private sector, a decline this precipitous would get any CEO fired or indicted. Textbooks should be written about such economic ineptitude, but instead of accountability or serious cost cutting to restore sound budgetary footing, Walz’ fellow Democrats chose a cowardly path: corporate extortion.

Of course, they do not call it such an ugly name. “Climate change superfund” sounds much more palatable. 

Here’s how it works. Bill SF-4866 enables the Minnestoa legislature to steal from individual energy companies they do not like turning them into scapegoats for bad weather. The left despises the fossil fuel industry anyway. “Big Oil” is a favorite pejorative, and this piece of legislation accomplishes many things at once: it targets big oil by making them the forever boogeyman, it steals their profits and most of all, it helps close that pesky budget shortfall.

The fact that liberals’ policies have put the state in financial peril be damned.

This bill represents everything that the modern American left has become: sanctimonious and fiscally reckless, and if anyone questions the policy, fall back on the air cover of “the planet” and “fighting climate change”.

The superfund law stems from a Columbia University proposal targeting fossil fuel companies under the guise of fighting climate change. The outline almost gushes: hundreds of billions of dollars for state-level climate adaptation. With such a revenue stream, there is little need for fiscal responsibility. Tedious details like legislative hearings and budget appropriations are circumvented if “big oil” is forced to write endless checks. 

A potential $9 billion dollars’ worth of Somali daycare fraud?  Big deal… we’re getting hundreds of billions in new revenue. Let the fraud investigate itself. Big oil is making it rain. 

“Big oil” won’t pay. The consumer will. Look at the current elevated prices of oil due to the Iran engagement. Is “big oil” swallowing the losses caused by international supply chain disruption?  No. Drivers are paying more as prices tick upward. Corporations do not pay taxes and fines, superfund penalties, or nonsense lawsuit payouts. They just charge more for their product like every other company on the planet.

Other fiscally troubled states have introduced superfund legislation, too. New York ($34 billion budget deficit for FY 2026 with $233 billion in debt) and Vermont ($33 million budget deficit for FY 2026 with $800 million in debt). It is inevitable that other blue states in the red like New Jersey, Illinois, and California do the same. The superfund is free money with the right amount of virtue signaling, even if the costs fall on the people.

Champions of superfund bills do what every politician does to hide bad ideas: invoke the children. At the press conference introducing the bill, a prop child was placed directly behind the podium. One can feel the pushback through the legislators’ remarks: this is not about greed! This is not about robbing companies we dislike (or who do not contribute to our campaign)! This is not about revenue streams to balance our insane spending habits! No!  This is about the children. Look! Here’s one now. 

Always use the children. Minnesotans know this already. How did Somali migrants steal billions of tax dollars through fraudulent shell companies? Children.  Who votes against daycare centers? Who votes against superfunds?

To avoid getting caught stealing, hide behind the children. The villain in the movie Titanic stole a seat on the life raft like a true liberal: he hid behind a child. Minnesota legislators are following his lead, and as they and Gov. Walz steer into a fiscal iceberg, they found a child to introduce the superfund.

The state may be sinking, and while the powers that be can always jump ship, the people of Minnesota are locked below deck. It will not end well. 

Daniel Turner is the founder and executive director of Power The Future, a national nonprofit organization that advocates for American energy jobs. He also runs a sheep and cattle farm in rural Virginia. Contact him at daniel@powerthefuture.com and follow him on Twitter @DanielTurnerPTF

This article was originally published by RealClearEnergy and made available via RealClearWire.