Minneapolis City Council Unanimously Votes for a Better Energy Future

Today the Minneapolis City Council passed a resolution, supported by Minneapolis Energy Options, that lays out guidelines for the future franchise negotiations with Xcel Energy and CenterPoint Energy and keeps our  city’s energy options open. The City Council voted unanimously in favor of this resolution, written by Council Members Cam Gordon, Robert Lilligren, Elizabeth Glidden, Betsy Hodges, and Gary Schiff.

“We thank the City Council for voting yes today to keep our energy options open, said Dylan Kesti Campaign Coordinator for Minneapolis Energy Options.” Kesti said, “The City Council is responding to the desire of thousands of Minneapolis residents to expand our energy options to get what’s best for the city we love. The community has been heard and we are now on a path to secure a clean, affordable, reliable, and local energy future.”

The resolution calls on the City Council to adopt an energy vision and goals for the franchise agreement negotiations, including those goals already laid out in the Minneapolis Climate Action Plan, and drawing on the information that will come from the Energy Pathways Study, currently underway. The resolution will ensure that these goals and others will be expressed in negotiations with Xcel and CenterPoint. It also requires that City staff begin negotiations with Xcel and CenterPoint and report back on progress by June 30^th, 2014.

The resolution also commits the City of Minneapolis to continue to work for energy freedom and advocate for reforms at the state level that will give the City greater ability to implement the City’s energy goals, and calls on Xcel Energy and CenterPoint Energy to help achieve these reforms.

Further, the resolution calls on the Minneapolis City Council to remain committed to continuing to explore all options for meeting the City’s energy goals.

The resolution comes after weeks of dialogue in Minneapolis about the franchise agreements and our city’s energy future. The Minneapolis Energy Options campaign has been working to secure options for clean, affordable, reliable, and local energy, and this agreement preserves those options.

 “This is a major step toward cleaner, more affordable power in Minneapolis, which has always been our goal,” said Minneapolis Energy Options campaign coordinator, Dylan Kesti. “Coming on the heels of CenterPoint Energy’s agreement to support the campaign’s goals, Xcel’s initial offers to Mayor Rybak, and the Energy Pathways Study authorized by City Council earlier this year, this resolution gives us an excellent foundation for the work ahead. Our work has just begun, and we thank the City Council for its leadership as a partner in the process.”