Tim Walz broke through on America’s biggest climate challenge
Vice President Kamala Harris’ choice of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate elevates a politician with one of the strongest state-level records on clean energy in the US.
In 2023, Walz signed into law a target for Minnesota to get 100% of its power from zero-carbon sources, including nuclear, by 2040, and coal has fallen behind renewables and nuclear as the state’s top sources of power for the first time during his tenure. He set aside $2 billion in grants for clean energy projects in the state, a move likened to a local version of the federal Inflation Reduction Act. And in June, he signed legislation aimed at shaving a full year off the time it takes to get permits to build energy and grid transmission projects. Earlier, as a member of Congress, he voted in favor of carbon-pricing legislation and pitched it to skeptical constituents in Minnesota as a new way to squeeze profit out of farmland.
Yet Walz has also shown a willingness to engage with the fossil fuel industry, including by approving the controversial Line 3 oil pipeline and supporting a hydrogen production project backed by Marathon Petroleum and the pipeline company TC Energy.
“He’s a fantastic pick,” said Josh Freed, senior vice president of climate and energy at the think tank Third Way. “Walz has a very mainstream, sensible, pragmatic, energy independence-oriented record.” [Continue reading…]