On Monday February 24^th 2014, the Health, Environment and Community Engagement Committee (HE&CE) in the Minneapolis City Council will hear a presentation of the long-awaited Energy Pathways Study. The City Council approved this study to consider alternative pathways to the status quo energy system in preparation for renegotiating the franchise agreements with Xcel and Centerpoint that expire at the end of this year.

Here are the four different energy pathways examined, ranked by increasing city responsibility and control:

1: Enhanced (broader set of goals) Franchise agreements

2: A City-Utility Partnership

3: Community Choice Aggregation (Minneapolis contracting directly for energy supply)

4: Independently owned and operated Municipal Utility

For the immediate term, the Energy Pathways Study recommends a dual strategy that combines pathways #1 and #2 yet still considers pathways #3 and #4 on a longer-term scale.

Public power means local control

Xcel Energy contends that there is "simply no advantage to forming a utility in the way that Boulder is attempting." This unsupported statement gives me pause and compels me to set the record straight.

We are moving Minneapolis energy forward and now we are growing the movement. As we're growing the movement and building a new organization to house this work we want your input in this process.

In 2013 we won A Lot - check it out! 

Together, our movement of thousands of Minneapolitans has secured great wins and is moving Minneapolis energy forward. 

Working together we are moving Minneapolis forward! Donate $10 now to keep the campaign winning! 

Building off of our 2013 successes, we're gearing up for three major efforts going into 2014:

As we're broadening our work with community groups statewide, we're clarifying our relationships with our fiscal sponsor and moving towards establishing a new organization to house this work named "Community Power". We will still be using the project name "Minneapolis Energy Options" for our local efforts in Minneapolis - this broader organizational identity will enable us to start working with and supporting communities across the state undertaking similar efforts. 

We Need Your Input Now! 
As we're growing the movement and building a new organization to house this work we want your input in this process.

1. Please share with us your thoughts on the new organization name "Community Power".

2. Please also share any other name suggestions you have for our overall work (including statewide) for the Steering Committee to consider as we move forward.

Thank you for your support in creating a better energy future for all.

MINNEAPOLIS – September 13, 2013 – The Minneapolis Energy Options campaign welcomes the recent commitments by the Minneapolis City Council to clearly define and plan our city’s energy future with a forward-thinking energy vision. The people of Minneapolis want a cleaner, more affordable, more reliable and more local energy future, and defining this vision is a first step toward that future.  

Adopted at the Minneapolis City Council meeting on September 9^th, the Vision Statement leads, “In 2040, Minneapolis’s energy system will provide reliable, affordable, local and clean energy services for Minneapolis homes, businesses, and institutions; sustaining the city’s economy and environment and contributing to a more socially just community.”  The Energy Vision then lays out clear goals for all aspects of our energy systems: energy supply, distribution, end use and the social and economic impacts of energy.  The City is now – for the first time – clear about its energy goals.

It’s a good start.  But as Mayor Rybak stated in his August 8, 2013 letter to Xcel Energy “Much more work is left to do.”

We can no longer afford the outdated and polluting technology of the corporate power companies. We can no longer afford rate increases.  We can no longer afford to keep sending most of our energy dollar out of our community. We can do better.

“This is a step forward, but we must hold the utilities to the commitments they have made,” remarked Dylan Kesti. “We must work collaboratively to build bridges to a more sustainable and equitable Minneapolis.”

The City Council’s energy vision provides the guidance for the Energy Pathways study to come, that will outline the city’s best options for achieving its energy vision. But the city must also get greater flexibility from the legislature to pursue its energy vision, and make every effort to finalize its franchise negotiations by the end of June, 2014, to keep the most possible leverage for holding the utilities accountable. 

“We’re proud of the progress we’ve made by working with citizens, businesses, and the city to craft a vision of a better energy future,” said Kesti, “now we have to make that vision a reality.”

By: John Farrell and originally published on Sept. 3, 2013 (http://www.ilsr.org/organizing-giving-city-minneapolis-energy-future/)

For decades the energy future of Minneapolis was in the hands of others: meaningful change around cleaner energy was left to the state, affordability and reliability overseen by a virtually impenetrable public utility commission, and local energy generation largely a dream.

Until a local, grassroots campaign suggested that the city turn a mundane contract renewal into a catalyst to take control of its energy future.

Every two decades, the city of Minneapolis (like many cities served by private utilities) has renewed utility franchise contracts that govern the use of city property to deliver electricity and gas to the cities homes and businesses. These contracts are largely administrative, have been negotiated in obscurity, and have done little more than ratify the status quo. But with both utility franchise contracts coming due in 2014, a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens (a ratification of the sentiment attributed to Margaret Mead) has made energy a big deal in Minneapolis.

In the year since the campaign has been active, it has a remarkable list of accomplishments:

• A set of principles and desired outcomes for the city’s franchise negotiations, from the city’s Citizens Environmental Advisory Committee, reflecting a desire to make progress on clean, affordable, reliable, and local energy
• A city-funded Energy Pathways study that will explain how the city can reach these outcomes, up to and including forming a municipal utility
• A legislative agenda (see page 9 – Utility Franchise) focused on expanding the city’s flexibility in its franchise negotiations and removing perverse barriers to forming a locally-owned utility
• A remarkable number of candidate endorsements from those running for city council and mayor, and a persistent focus on energy in the city election campaign in 2013.
• A historic memorandum of understanding with the city’s gas utility committing it to partner with the city on achieving greenhouse gas emission reductions of 30% by 2025
• A letter from Xcel Energy promising to work toward the city’s energy goals (a start, with a suitably skeptical reply from the mayor)
• A unanimously adopted “Framework for Reaching City of Minneapolis Energy Goals” (RESOLUTION 2013R-353) that articulates the need for progress, the steps ahead, and the city council’s commitment to using the franchise negotiations to move toward a better energy future.

A year ago the only guarantee was that Xcel Energy and CenterPoint Energy would continue their 100-year monopolies over the city’s electricity and gas service. By the end of 2013, the city is demanding its utilities focus on a future that includes affordable energy for cost-burdened families, reliable energy for city businesses, and local clean energy for the city’s economy. It’s an effort to transform the city from an energy consumer to an energy decider.

It’s similar to what has happened in Boulder, CO, where years of fruitless negotiation with their incumbent electric utility (the same that serves Minneapolis, incidentally) drove them to authorize the city to form its own electric utility in 2011. Minneapolis hasn’t tested out all its alternatives yet, but it’s clear that one modest, citizen-driven campaign has put a better energy future front and center.

Disclosure: I serve as the chair of the steering committee for Minneapolis Energy Options, the awesome grassroots campaign working on a better energy future for Minneapolis.