After over 14 hours of debate on the floor of the Minnesota House of Representatives, HF2208 also known as the Omnibus Jobs and Energy bill, passed on a vote of 74-59. The roll call shows that it was primarily a party line vote as all but one DFL member (Rep. Lislegard) voted in favor and every Republican cast a vote against the bill.
The bill, which totals 320 pages, contains the work of a few different committees that covered the jurisdictions of energy, jobs and housing. The omnibus includes mandates for the increased use of energy made from wind, solar, biomass and hydroelectric through a provision for a 100% carbon free energy mandate by 2050, which is very harmful to North Dakota’s lignite industry.
Around 50% of the electricity that our lignite mines and power plants produce is sent through transmission lines to provide power to over one million homes and businesses in Minnesota. If enacted, the mandate would greatly damage North Dakota’s economy and end the exportation of our homegrown electricity to our neighbor to the east.
HF2208 was taken up on the Senate floor yesterday for lengthy debate. The Senate successfully approved a delete all amendment into the bill, which removed all of the House language and inserted the Senate omnibus language in its place. This means that the full Senate did not vote on the House provisions. After almost six hours of debate, the Senate passed the bill on a vote of 40-26 with all of the Republican majority and five DFL Senators voting in favor. The five DFL members were Senator Erik Simonson (SD7, Duluth), Senator Dan Sparks (SD27, Austin), Senator David Tomassoni (SD6, Chisolm), Senator John Hoffman (SD36, Champlin) and Senator Kent Eken (SD4, Twin Valley). This version of the bill will be sent back to the House today where they will most certainly vote to not concur with the Senate amendments in order to set up a conference committee which will begin in the near future. The end of the Minnesota Legislative Session is rapidly approaching with a constitutional deadline of Monday, May 20, 2019.