The Minnesota legislature has concluded its 2023 session, but not before passing an expansive energy package, HF2310. Minnesota has a history of bundling individual bills into omnibus bill packages to pass legislation. Ultimately, the House climate and energy package was folded into the House environment and natural resources package, with that combined omnibus bill passing the House on April 17. As the House bill differed from the Senate version, a conference committee was formed on April 25 to hammer out compromise language. This final bill passed both chambers on May 19 with Governor Walz signing it into law on May 24.
Amongst the numerous provisions, the bill includes:
Benchmarking - requires benchmarking for…
From May 18-19, MEEA members united in Detroit, MI for the 2023 Annual Meeting of the Membership. The days went by quickly as members participated in workshops & discussions, networked and explored the Motor City. This time together left our members excited for the year ahead!
Thursday, May 18
MEEA members had the chance to hear from Malcolm Miller, Anjuli Jain Figueroa and Chris Gunn from the Office of Economic Impact and Diversity, US Department of Energy (DOE), as they presented a workshop on the Justice 40 Initiative with a goal of flowing 40 percent of the overall benefits from climate and clean energy investments to disadvantaged communities (DACs). The workshop prompted great discussion among members as they used…
The City of Madison recently became Wisconsin’s first municipality to adopt an energy benchmarking ordinance. Passed in March 2023, the ordinance ensures that large commercial building owners monitor their energy use and take steps to make their buildings perform at optimal levels.
More specifically, the ordinance creates a Building Energy Savings Program (BESP), which includes two requirements. Starting in 2024, non-residential commercial buildings 25,000 square feet and larger will be required to benchmark their energy use annually. And starting in 2025, the largest of these buildings, those over 50,000 square feet, will be required to tune-up their building’s major energy using systems, like lighting and HVAC, every four…
