 Thank you Colin Beere for the tour of Sheet Metal Workers Local #10 training facility in White Bear Lake. Sheet metal union workers do such important work that impacts energy efficiency, indoor air quality, fire safety, and more.  On a Climate & Energy Committee tour, what are two words you don’t want to hear when you’re in an elevator at the top of the Sherco coal plant to see where the new, massive, solar farm will be located? “Elevator Emergency” - yep - that’s what came across the call box. We were stuck for 10 minutes or so (felt longer). Believe it or not, this picture was taken after we heard those words!  Great visit to bus maker New Flyer in St. Cloud, on the same Climate & Energy Committee tour. Exciting to see electric buses being built, 15% of their buses today - going to 40%+ next year!  Thank you to the Minnesota Trucking Association (and especially Jacob - the driver!) for taking me on a ride. It was really interesting to learn about this hugely important part of our economy and some of the issues they face. I also appreciated the good discussion about decarbonization challenges of long-haul trucking.  It was very fun (as you can see!) to present the new climate-focused land use & transportation law at the American Planning Association 2023 Planning Conference in St. Cloud with the all-star team that helped make it happen of Sam Rockwell, Katie Jones, and Abby Finis.  One educational thing I did that also weighed me down quite a bit was a visit to Oak Park Heights Correctional Facility. My overwhelming feeling was gratitude for the staff at this maximum security prison, especially because of personnel shortages. It shows the importance of the Minnesota Rehabilitation and Reinvestment Act which we passed last session.  Last month I took a one week trip to Denmark. I was part of a "Green Energy Transition" delegation that also included folks from Oklahoma, Louisiana, Texas, California, and Canada. It was a great learning experience focused especially on how Denmark is leveraging the huge amount of renewable wind energy they've installed and decarbonizing their economy. Big takeaway - when you can supply 130% of your country's electricity needs with renewables (this happened on one of the days we were there), good things happen: - Good thing 1: Prices get cheap (instantaneous prices we saw were 2-3 cents in Denmark vs 90 cents in Germany).
- Good thing 2: You can use renewables to make hydrogen cheaply, which can then be used for hard-to-decarbonize areas (like heavy industry or shipping).
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