Back
Charlotte, North Carolina, may soon get access to a new tool to deploy in its push toward 100% clean power: data.
The Tar Heel state’s largest city aims to power all government operations with carbon-free electricity by the end of the decade, including the city-owned Charlotte-Douglas International Airport, one of the busiest in the world.
But the hub is a big question mark for the city’s climate target. Officials don’t actually know how much energy it uses — or how much renewable energy they need to offset it — because the utility bills for the five-terminal airport are paid by dozens of individual customers, from Cinnabon to Jamba Juice to airline club lounges.
Now, after a decade of urging by Charlotte and others, Duke Energy has a proposal to change that: an eight-page plan for improved data access that has sign-off from the North Carolina Sustainable Energy Association; Public Staff, the state-sanctioned customer advocate; and Dominion Energy, which serves the northeast corner of the state.
Filed last month with regulators for approval, Duke’s proposed rules could have wide application, said Ethan Blumenthal, regulatory counsel for the North Carolina Sustainable Energy Association.
“For municipalities applying for federal grants, large customers pursuing energy efficiency, and homeowners and solar companies that are trying to right-size solar installations,” Blumenthal said, “this access to data is essential.”
The Charlotte airport is a prime example of one hurdle facing local communities with climate goals. Today, getting total energy usage data for government-owned buildings with multiple meters means reaching out to individual tenants to get permission to access their accounts.
“It would be a very laborious process to do that at the airport and anywhere else we have tenants,” said Aaron Tauber, Charlotte’s sustainability analyst.
The problem extends to private building owners who aim to reduce their carbon footprints or improve efficiency but don’t have insight into their renters’ energy consumption. Honeywell, for instance, is a partner in the city’s “Power Down the Crown” initiative, whereby building managers look to reduce energy use by optimizing efficiency.
“They don’t own all of the data,” Tauber said. “They have tenants in their properties. So, they don’t have visibility to the entire building’s energy use.”
The new rule will allow a large user, from Honeywell to Charlotte, to access aggregated data for a large building with multiple tenants by request to Duke, so long as at least 15 individual accounts are involved, and none consumes more than 15% of the building’s energy use.
“Being a larger city, we do have a lot of large buildings with multiple tenants,” said Tauber. “I’m just really excited for these building owners to really — for the first time — gain an understanding of how their buildings are using energy.”
That understanding, he said, is critical for commercial properties to access a new law that allows them to borrow public money for energy efficiency upgrades and pay it back on their property tax bills.
“Being able to unlock a financing mechanism based on this data will really go a long way for the city to be able to meet our strategic energy action goal of being a low-carbon community,” said Tauber.
The data access rule also applies to a census block, zip code, or other area with at least 15 accounts, which will help local governments meet community-wide climate goals.
“You can use the aggregated data to make good decisions for program design, and where you might want to target,” said Ann Livingston, senior executive and director of programs with the Southeast Sustainability Directors Network. “You can assess: is this particular block or neighborhood really using a lot more energy per house per square foot than others?”
Durham County, for instance, together with neighboring Granville and Orange counties, has a $1.5 million federal grant to help low-income homeowners cut their energy use through weatherization and other upgrades.
“We want to focus in areas where there’s a higher energy use or higher energy burden,” said Tobin Freid, the county’s sustainability manager. “We’d like information at a more granular level than just the county.”
If the new Duke rule is approved, it will also help county officials better tailor the program to individual households and assess its impacts. The proposal would ease the approval process for allowing third-party access to data and ensure that at least two years of prior energy use is included.
“For every home that we work on, we would need historic data to see: what was your energy use before?” Freid said.
Both the aggregated data and third-party access provisions will also be critical for federal programs like Solar for All, aimed at deploying rooftop solar on low-income households.
“Often, those federal funding opportunities require you to assess and report on energy impact,” said Livingston. “Solar for All will be a very clear example of this, where you need to report energy savings for individual participants.”
Apart from the sustainability goals, government officials also have a commitment to manage public dollars efficiently, Livingston noted. That’s especially pertinent for large energy users like Durham County, who may pay a higher “demand charge” for a single 30-minute spike in energy use. Large customers with net-metered solar power also pay more during times of peak demand.
The proposed rules will help solve these challenges by allowing third parties access to machine-readable, easily analyzed data for customers of all sizes. The format would essentially meet national “Green Button” standards, one familiar to the many companies around the country dedicated to managing building energy performance.
The Green Button initiative, a project of the U.S. Department of Energy that originated in Canada, has been around for over a decade – about as long as the Sustainable Energy Association has been advocating for improved customer data access, along with counties like Durham.
But the issue seems to have gained new steam in recent months, as local governments look to take advantage of new federal grants and laws aimed at reducing climate pollution.
What’s more, Blumenthal said, Duke has pledged to implement the rules within 18 months of their approval and help expedite any data requests in the interim.
“There is a commitment to doing everything they can, essentially, to provide data for federal funding purposes up until [the proposal] is fully implemented,” Blumenthal said. “A commitment to try to bridge the gap.”
Asked what prompted the agreement with Blumenthal’s group and others after all this time, Duke spokesperson Logan Stewart said over email:
“A lot has changed in the last decade from a technology, cybersecurity, and customer engagement perspective that made this stipulation possible. Duke Energy is always looking for ways to collaborate with stakeholders to achieve outcomes that benefit customers.”
EMISSIONS: The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative offers a model of successful state-led action on decarbonization, and is considering ways to expand participation as President-elect Trump pledges to roll back federal climate policies. (Energy News Network)
ALSO: In its push to go fossil fuel-free by 2050, Harvard University has more than tripled its sustainability fund to $37 million and entered a new renewable energy partnership with other Boston-area institutions. (Inside Climate News)
TRANSMISSION: An $11 billion project intended to bring 3.8 GW of renewable energy to New York City from the upstate area has been canceled with no explanation. (RTO Insider, subscription)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
WIND:
GRID: Maryland launches a $15 million grant program aimed at strengthening the state’s “battered” grid and preparing the system to better accommodate clean energy resources. (Utility Dive)
SOLAR: Massachusetts utilities regulators issue two orders that will allow more small solar developments to use net metering and make it easier for multifamily buildings to take advantage of the program. (Fall River Reporter)
BATTERIES:
AFFORDABILITY: A new report finds that 100,000 Maine households have trouble paying their energy bills, in part because of competitive suppliers charging more than public utilities. (Maine Morning Star)
GRID: A $4.9 billion federal loan guarantee for a major Midwest transmission project faces uncertainty about whether the Trump administration will follow through with the commitment. (Canary Media)
ALSO: Four business groups call on Iowa regulators to enact ratemaking reforms that ensure utilities make necessary grid investments over the coming decades with limited effects on customers. (Radio Iowa)
CLEAN ENERGY: Congressional Republicans consider scaling back or eliminating a U.S. Department of Energy loan program that has backed a variety of U.S. clean energy projects with billions of dollars in financing. (E&E News)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
CARBON CAPTURE: Wolf Carbon Solutions withdraws its permit application in Iowa for a 95-mile carbon pipeline project that would sequester emissions in Illinois. (Des Moines Register)
SOLAR:
OVERSIGHT: North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, who’s been tapped to lead the Interior Department as well as serve as the Trump administration’s energy czar, could play an outsized role in federal energy policy. (E&E News)
OIL & GAS: North Dakota’s Senate Majority Leader says cost barriers remain to building a $250 million pipeline under a public-private partnership that would deliver Bakken-area gas to other parts of the state. (Prairie Public)
EFFICIENCY: A Minneapolis nonprofit is leading the construction of passive homes on the city’s north side that aim to save homeowners with minimal electric and heating bills. (Sahan Journal)
CLEAN ENERGY: While the Project 2025 policy blueprint calls for eliminating the Energy Department’s Loan Programs Office, Republican lawmakers are uncertain, with some saying the program, which turned a profit last year, could be retooled to emphasize energy sources like nuclear that are favored by conservatives. (E&E News, New York Times archive)
ALSO:
EQUITY: Advocates say anticipated Trump administration climate rollbacks, particularly the expected elimination of the Justice40 initiative, will hit Black communities especially hard. (Capital B News)
EMISSIONS: The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative offers a model of successful state-led action on decarbonization, and is considering ways to expand participation as Trump pledges to roll back federal climate policies. (Energy News Network)
STORAGE: Duke Energy moves to demolish the final units of a former coal plant in North Carolina and replace it with a 167 MW battery storage facility, marking a step toward renewables even though the utility still plans to build gas-fired power elsewhere. (Canary Media)
WIND: A federal agency identifies environmental measures it will likely take in a group of six offshore wind lease areas off New York, pushing ahead despite Trump’s claims he will stop offshore wind development. (Maritime Executive)
NUCLEAR: A Tennessee city that’s historically been a hotspot for nuclear research is seeing a resurgence of interest from companies eager to take part in a new “nuclear renaissance.” (Knoxville News Sentinel)
PIPELINES: Whistleblowers warn the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration is “putting profit over safety” by largely relying on private inspectors hired by pipeline companies to monitor compliance with safety rules. (E&E News)
COAL: Wyoming and Montana join a lawsuit accusing three investment firms of following a “climate activist agenda” by colluding to acquire large stakes in publicly held coal companies and forcing the firms to slash Powder River Basin mine production. (Cowboy State Daily)
EFFICIENCY: A Minneapolis nonprofit is leading the construction of passive homes on the city’s north side that aim to save homeowners with minimal electric and heating bills. (Sahan Journal)
COMMENTARY: A Western journalist says the incoming Trump administration’s pro-drilling agenda will harm the environment while doing little to bolster oil and gas production — which reached record levels under Biden. (Land Desk)
COAL: Wyoming and Montana join a lawsuit accusing three investment firms of following a “climate activist agenda” by colluding to acquire large stakes in publicly held coal companies and forcing the firms to slash Powder River Basin mine production. (Cowboy State Daily)
OIL & GAS: Petroleum firms appeal a court order barring the federal Bureau of Land Management from issuing drilling permits for a Wyoming oil and gas project. (E&E News, subscription)
SOLAR:
BIOFUELS: Advocates push back on California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposal to expand ethanol-blending in gasoline, saying it is unlikely to lower fuel prices and could have environmental impacts in corn-growing regions. (Inside Climate News)
UTILITIES:
CLIMATE: Portland, Oregon, officials launch an online climate dashboard allowing residents to track local greenhouse gas emissions and local progress toward decarbonization targets. (OPB)
OVERSIGHT: California Gov. Gavin Newsom asks state lawmakers to allocate $25 million to fund litigation defending state climate, environmental and other progressive policies from the incoming Trump administration’s expected challenges. (Los Angeles Times)
MINING: A southeastern Utah copper mine lays off more than 55% of its workforce as it moves forward on a “significant restructuring effort.” (San Juan Record News)
PUBLIC LANDS: Wyoming advocates worry the incoming Republican-dominated Congress will overturn the Biden administration’s plan to tighten oil and gas drilling rules on 3.6 million acres of public land in the southwestern part of the state. (WyoFile)
COMMENTARY:
A trailblazing regional greenhouse gas partnership on the East Coast is considering possible changes or expansion that would allow it to keep building on its success — and the stakes grew higher last month with the reelection of Donald Trump.
The 11-state Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, established in 2005, is the country’s first regional cap-and-invest system for reducing carbon emissions from power generation. Since 2021, administrators have been conducting a program review, analyzing its performance since the last review in 2017 and weighing potential adjustments to make sure it continues to deliver benefits to member states.
The role of such programs is more crucial as Trump’s pledges to roll back federal climate action leaves it up to cities, states, and the private sector to maintain the country’s momentum on clean energy over the next four years. In RGGI, as the regional initiative is known, states have a potential model for scaling their impact through collaboration.
“RGGI has not only been an effective climate policy, it’s been an extraordinary example of how states can work together on common goals,” said Daniel Sosland, president of climate and energy nonprofit Acadia Center. “It is a major vehicle for climate policy now in the states, more than it might have seemed before the election.”
RGGI sets a cap for total power plant carbon emissions among member states. Individual generators must then buy allowances from the state, up to the total cap, for each ton of carbon dioxide they produce in a year. The cap lowers over time, forcing power plants to either reduce emissions or pay more to buy allowances from a shrinking pool.
States then reinvest the proceeds from these auctions into programs that further reduce emissions and help energy customers, including energy efficiency initiatives, direct bill assistance, and renewable energy projects. Since 2008, RGGI has generated $8.3 billion for participating states, and carbon dioxide emissions from power generation in the nine states that have consistently participated fell by about half between 2008 and 2021, a considerably faster rate than the rest of the country.
“It has really thrived and been really effective across multiple administrations,” said Jackson Morris, state power sector director with the Natural Resources Defense Council. “RGGI is a winning model. It’s not theoretical — we’ve got numbers.”
Currently, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont are part of the program. Virginia joined RGGI in 2021, but in 2023 Gov. Glenn Youngkin repealed the state’s participation, a move immediately challenged in court; a judge ruled last month that the governor lacked the authority to withdraw the state from initiative, though a spokesman for the governor has declared the state’s intention to appeal.
There is widespread agreement that RGGI will endure despite likely federal hostility to climate measures. There was no attempt to take direct action against it during Trump’s first term, nor has there been any concerted industry opposition, said Conservation Law Foundation president Bradley Campbell, who was involved in the founding of RGGI when he was commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.
Supporters also note that the program has historically had broad bipartisan support: Participating states have been led through the years by both Republican and Democratic governors and legislatures.
Politics has had some influence over the years, though only at the margins. New Jersey, a founding member of RGGI, left in 2011 when Chris Christie was governor, but returned in 2020 following an executive order from his successor. Pennsylvania joined in 2022 through an executive order from the governor, but its participation is now being challenged in court.
Still, RGGI’s foundations are solid and will remain so, experts said.
“The basic infrastructure has weathered the political winds over the decades,” Campbell said.
Nonetheless, RGGI will need to make some carefully thought-out program design decisions during its current review to make an impact in the face of falling federal support for decarbonization.
One question under consideration is whether to maintain the existing trajectory for the overall emissions cap for the program — a reduction of 30% between 2020 and 2030, then holding steady thereafter — or to continue lowering the limit after 2030.
The RGGI states are also contemplating a possible change to the compliance schedule that would require power generators to acquire allowances worth 100% of their carbon emissions each year, and certify compliance annually. The current system calls for certification every three years, and only mandates allowances equivalent to half of carbon emissions for the first two years of each period.
The program is looking for ways to appeal to potential new participant states that have less aggressive decarbonization goals than current member states without watering down the program’s overall impact on decarbonization, said Acadia Center policy analyst Paola Tamayo. Acadia suggested possible program mechanisms such as giving proportionately more allowances to states with more stringent emissions targets to incentivize tighter limits.
“At this point it is critical for states to maintain a high level of ambition when it comes to programs like RGGI,” Tamayo said. “There are different mechanisms that they can implement to accommodate other states.”
The program review is expected to yield a model rule some time over the winter, though updates may be made into the spring as the RGGI states receive and consider feedback on how to accommodate potential new participants.
States will also need to maintain and strengthen their own climate policies to magnify the impact of RGGI, Campbell said. He pointed to Massachusetts, where Gov. Maura Healey needs to show “bolder leadership,” he said, and Maine and Vermont, where the Conservation Law Foundation has filed lawsuits in an attempt to compel the states to meet their own carbon reduction deadlines.
“It’s especially important that the states that have strong emissions reduction mandates speed up the implementation of their climate laws,” he said. “State leadership on these issues is going to be more important than ever.”
EMISSIONS: Maine has become the latest state to sue major oil and gas companies, alleging they withheld information about the environmental impact of fossil fuels in order to pursue profit. (New York Times)
OFFSHORE WIND: A French energy company has paused its plans to build an offshore wind farm off New York and New Jersey for at least four years, citing President-elect Donald Trump’s opposition to wind as a major factor. (New York Post)
NUCLEAR:
FOSSIL FUELS
CLIMATE
TRANSMISSION:
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: A Vermont aviation company successfully completes a flight of its first electric plane, while the airport in nearby Plattsburgh, New York has been selected as the site for a test flight of the largest fully electric aircraft ever to take to the skies. (VTDigger, NBC5)
GRID: Advocates ask federal regulators to require a private equity firm planning to buy four power plants in PJM territory to disclose whether it plans to sell the energy to data centers, amid concerns the purchase could lead to “unreasonable rates” for customers. (Utility Dive)
COAL: Research out of Johns Hopkins confirms the presence of coal dust in a Baltimore neighborhood near a coal terminal, backing up residents claims that the particles coat their homes and cause health problems. (Baltimore Sun, subscription)
CLIMATE: As President-elect Trump seeks to dismantle U.S. climate policy, advocates note the 2009 EPA finding declaring greenhouse gases a threat to public health has already survived numerous legal challenges as the science underpinning it has become more robust. (E&E News)
ALSO: Maine has become the latest state to sue major oil and gas companies, alleging they withheld information about the environmental impact of fossil fuels in order to pursue profit. (New York Times)
CLEAN ENERGY:
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Rivian appears likely to restart construction of its Georgia factory after receiving a nearly $6 billion federal loan, resparking tension for Republican leaders between applauding the company’s investment and criticizing federal support for clean energy. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
OIL & GAS: Analysts say Trump’s proposed tariffs on Canada will increase gasoline prices as much as 75 cents per gallon as many U.S. refineries are engineered to specifically handle Canadian crude; meanwhile, industry groups are pushing for exemptions. (E&E News)
EQUITY: Environmental justice groups worry that millions in federal grants aimed at increasing climate resilience in disinvested communities will not be disbursed before the Trump administration can end the program. (Inside Climate News)
OFFSHORE WIND: A French energy company has paused its plans to build an offshore wind farm off New York and New Jersey for at least four years, citing Trump’s opposition to wind as a major factor. (New York Post)
SOLAR:
COAL: The Biden administration finalizes rules blocking new federal coal leasing in the Powder River Basin, but Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon says he will work with the incoming Trump administration to overturn the ban. (The Hill, news release)
COMMENTARY: A California columnist says popular bakeries’ opposition helped sink Berkeley’s natural gas-tax ballot measure, and urges the restaurant industry to work together to electrify. (Los Angeles Times)
COAL: The Biden administration finalizes rules blocking new federal coal leasing in the Powder River Basin, but Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon says he will work with the incoming Trump administration to overturn the ban. (The Hill, news release)
OIL & GAS:
SOLAR:
CLEAN ENERGY: A Colorado city considers offering a renewable energy company more than $4 million in tax rebates if it establishes a manufacturing facility locally. (Gazette)
UTILITIES:
CLIMATE: Data show Boulder, Colorado has cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 24% over the past six years, with the biggest reductions coming from buildings and transportation. (Boulder Daily Camera)
BIOFUEL: California advocates push back on a plan to produce fuel pellets from wildfire mitigation work for export to Europe and Asia, saying it would pollute port communities. (Los Angeles Times)
GEOTHERMAL: A Colorado startup proposes a 20 to 80 MW geothermal plant on a private ranch in the western part of the state. (Ouray County Plaindealer)
PUBLIC LANDS: Bureau of Land Management Director Tracy Stone-Manning is named president of an environmental group after tightening rules on public land oil and gas drilling and coal leasing during the Biden administration. (Associated Press)
COMMENTARY: A California columnist says popular bakeries’ opposition helped sink Berkeley’s natural gas-tax ballot measure, and urges the restaurant industry to work together to electrify. (Los Angeles Times)
A top executive with Minnesota’s largest utility says data center growth will not prevent it from meeting the state’s 100% clean electricity law, but it may extend the life of natural gas power plants into the next decade.
“As we take all of that coal off the system — even if you didn’t add data centers into the mix — I think we may have been looking to extend some gas (contracts) on our system to get us through a portion of the 2030s,” said Ryan Long, president of Xcel Energy’s division serving Minnesota and the Dakotas. “Adding data centers could increase the likelihood of that, to be perfectly honest.”
Long made the comments at a Minnesota Public Utilities Commission conference this fall exploring the potential impact of data centers on the state’s 2040 clean electricity mandate.
The expansion of power-hungry data centers, driven by artificial intelligence, has caused anxiety across the country among utility planners and regulators. The trend is moving the goalposts for states’ clean electricity targets and raising questions about whether clean energy capacity can keep up with demand as society also tries to electrify transportation and building heat.
Minnesota PUC commissioner Joe Sullivan organized last month’s conference in response to multiple new data centers projects, including a $700 million facility by Facebook’s parent company Meta that’s under construction in suburban Rosemount. Microsoft and Amazon have each acquired property near a retiring Xcel coal plant in central Minnesota.
“We need to ensure that our system is able to serve these companies if they come,” Sullivan said, “and that it can serve them with clean resources consistent with state law.”
Alongside concerns about whether clean energy can keep up with new electricity demand, there’s also an emerging view that data centers — if properly regulated — could become grid assets that help accelerate the transition to carbon-free power. Several stakeholders at the Oct. 31 event shared that view, including Xcel’s regional president.
A 100-megawatt data center could generate as much as $64 million in annual revenue for Xcel, enough to help temper rate increases or cover the cost of other projects on the system, Long said. He said the company wants to attract 1.3 gigawatts worth of data centers to its territory by 2032, and it thinks it can absorb all of that demand without harming progress toward its 2040 clean energy requirement.
Long said data center expansion will not change the company’s plans to close all of its remaining coal-fired power plants by 2040, but it may cause them to try to keep gas plans operating longer. Ultimately, meeting the needs of data centers will require more renewable generation, battery storage, and grid-enhancing technology, but rising costs and supply chain issues have slowed deployment of those solutions.
Other utilities echoed that optimism. Julie Pierce, Minnesota Power’s vice president for strategy and planning said the company has experience serving large customers such as mines in northeastern Minnesota and would be ready to serve data centers. Great River Energy’s resource planning director Zachary Ruzycki said the generation and transmission cooperative “has a lot of arrows in its quiver” to accommodate data centers.
Ruzycki noted, too, that much of the interest it has received from data center developers is because of the state’s commitment to clean energy. Many large data center operators have made corporate commitments to power them on 100% carbon-free electricity, whether from renewables or nuclear power.
Pete Wyckoff, deputy commissioner for energy at the Minnesota Department of Commerce, expressed doubts about the ability to meet unchecked demand from data centers. Even with the state’s recent permitting reforms, utilities are unlikely to be able to deliver “power of any sort — much less clean power — in the size and timeframes that data centers are likely to request.”
He sees hydrogen, long-duration batteries, carbon capture, and advanced nuclear among the solutions that will eventually be needed, but in the short-term the grid could serve more data centers with investments in transmission upgrades, virtual power plants, and other demand response programs.
“These solutions can be deployed faster and cheaper than building all new transmission and large clean energy facilities, though we’ll need those, too,” Wyckoff said.
Aaron Tinjum, director of energy policy and regulatory affairs for the Data Center Coalition, said data centers provide the computing power for things like smart meters, demand response, and other grid technologies. The national trade group represents the country’s largest technology and data center companies.
“We can’t simply view data centers as a significant consumer of energy if they’re all helping us become more efficient, and helping us save on our utility bills,” Tinjum said.
He also pointed to data centers’ role in driving clean energy development. A recent report from S&P Global Commodity Insights found that data centers account for half of all U.S. corporate clean energy procurement.
The true impact of data centers on emissions and the grid is complicated, though. Meta, which participated in the recent Minnesota conference, says it matches all of its annual electricity use with renewable energy, but environmental groups say there is evidence that its data centers are increasing fossil fuel use and emissions in the local markets where they are built.
Amelia Vohs, climate program director with the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy, raised concerns at the conference about whether data center growth will make it harder to electrify transportation and heating. She pointed to neighboring Wisconsin, where utilities are proposing to build new gas plants to power data centers.
“This commission and the stakeholders here today have all done a ton of work and made great progress in decarbonizing the electric sector in our state,” Vohs said. “I worry about possibly rolling that back if we all of a sudden have a large load that needs to be served with fossil fuels, or [require] a fossil fuel backup.”
The Minnesota Attorney General’s Office argued that state regulators need to scrutinize data center deals to make sure developers are paying the total cost of their impact on the system, including additional regulatory, operational and maintenance work that might be required on the grid.
In an interview, Sullivan said he was impressed by tech companies’ interest in having data centers in Minnesota because of the 2040 net zero goal, not despite it. They want to buy electricity from Minnesota utilities rather than build their own power systems or locate in neighboring states, he added, and the October meeting left him confident that “we can deal with this.”
.svg)
