At Capitol, a new interest in global warming

"MN Legislature"

01/31/2007

Minnesotans air climate-change concerns at rare House-Senate gathering


BY DENNIS LIEN
Pioneer Press


Climate change appears to be finding solid footing at the Minnesota State Capitol.

On Monday, another global-warming bill was introduced in the Legislature. On Tuesday, a half-dozen experts and religious leaders outlined their concerns about a warming planet to an unusual House-Senate committee gathering in the House chambers. Other legislative proposals are on the way.

Just last year, lawmakers had little appetite for such a serious debate.

"I think there is a growing number of people and groups who are coming together to form the right environment for this issue to be heard at the legislative level,'' said House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher, DFL-Minneapolis.

Late Tuesday afternoon, legislators from eight Senate and House committees listened for two hours to some of the most persistent state voices addressing global warming: ecologists David Tilman, Lee Frelich and Lucinda Johnson; Archbishop Harry Flynn of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis; Bishop Craig Johnson of the Minneapolis Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America; and renowned Arctic explorer Will Steger.

They warned that the Earth's atmosphere is heating at an alarming rate, and action is needed quickly to stabilize or reduce heat-trapping greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane.

Increasingly, human activities that burn fossil fuels are being blamed for the problem.

"The longer we wait, the greater the problem becomes,'' said Tilman, a University of Minnesota ecologist who cited "a smorgasbord of possible solutions'' such as improved energy efficiencies, more renewable fuels such as switch-grass-based ethanol and higher fuel-mileage standards.

Frelich, another university ecologist, pointed to a host of invasive insects, diseases and other problems that are reinforced by global warming and threaten to overwhelm Minnesota's northern forests.

Citing the "moral and human dimensions'' of a warming planet, Flynn said people must respond to the Earth as stewards, not consumers.

"We have done a lot more tilling than stewarding,'' he said.

Steger, who has traveled by dogsled to both poles and spent the past year speaking to hundreds of groups about global warming, focused on his Arctic experiences.

Already, Steger said, Arctic ice is disappearing, ice shelves are collapsing, polar bears are dying and a vast region of permafrost is beginning to melt, releasing into the atmosphere carbon dioxide and methane that have been stored in the ground for thousands of years.

What Tuesday's warnings mean for legislation this year is far from certain.

A bill introduced Monday sets targets for greenhouse-gas emission reductions in Minnesota, aiming for an 80 percent reduction from 2005 levels by 2050. Rep. Maria Ruud, DFL-Minnetonka, is the chief sponsor.

Sen. Ellen Anderson, DFL-St. Paul, introduced a similar bill earlier this session and said she's more optimistic than ever that something could pass this year.

"I think there is strong momentum to move forward on CO2 reduction,'' Anderson said.

As recently as three years ago, Anderson said, she introduced a bill that would have created only a plan for climate protection. The House version never got a hearing.

"Times have really changed,'' she said.

In recent years, Rep. Jean Wagenius, DFL-Minneapolis, said she detected little to no interest in global warming among Republicans who once controlled the House.

"About the only hearing I can remember is one where folks came in and said global warming was not real,'' Wagenius said.

Last year, Sen. John Marty, DFL-Roseville, sponsored a bill that would have required the state to copy California's vehicle-emission standards, which are tougher than federal requirements. It died quickly, but Marty said he hopes for a better reception this year.

Rep. Melissa Hortman, DFL-Brooklyn Park, meanwhile, said she plans to introduce legislation requiring greenhouse gases from transportation sources to be cut 30 percent by 2030.

Not everyone liked what they heard Tuesday.

Sen. Michael Jungbauer, R-East Bethel, said different global-warming perspectives should have been provided.

"The hosts of this conference have already made up their minds about the cause of global climate change, and they don't want to hear other evidence or information,'' he said. "This is not an open or honest study into the causes of climate change. Rather, it is the DFL majority coming up with a conclusion and having this joint conference to prove their conclusion.''

Other Republicans liked at least some of what they heard.

Rep. Dennis Ozment, R-Rosemount, was enthusiastic about several of Tilman's energy-based solutions.

"We all know there's a problem,'' Ozment said. "If we can all try to improve Minnesota's economy, while improving the environment, let's do it.''

Steger said there's plenty of support for such action.

"We have to act on this,'' Steger said. "The populace is demanding it.''

Almost everyone, Republicans and Democrats alike, stood and applauded when he finished.

THE OTHER VIEW

Global-warming skeptics in the scientific community are becoming harder to find. But some scientists still urge caution. The American Association of State Climatologists, for example, emphasizes that:

• Climate prediction is extremely difficult, with many uncertainties.

• Human activities affect climate but also affect other conditions, such as land use, that complicate anyone's ability to predict climate change.

• Policy responses should be flexible and make sense for a wide range of climatic conditions.