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In the upcoming presidential election in the United States this November, Tim Walz, the Governor of Minnesota, is running for the position of Vice President on behalf of the Democratic Party. His most notable claim to fame is his reputation as a climate reformer. Walz’s biggest ambition as a politician is to achieve 100 per cent carbon-free electricity by 2040.
It is also known his implementation of climate reforms are devoid of any attention-seeking manoeuvres. Since becoming governor, Walz has consistently supported climate reforms across the globe.
According to a report by The New York Times, Kamala Harris, the Democrat presidential candidate, stated that her Vice Presidential candidate Walz is recognised for his popular personality and roots in America’s rural hinterland.
Governor Walz signed a Bill in 2023 that mandates Minnesota to obtain 100 per cent of its electricity from carbon-free sources by 2040.
Walz recently made national headlines by criticising Republican policies and terming them as strange.
However, in his campaign, Walz is focusing more on the threats posed by climate change and is continuously implementing ambitious policies designed to reduce the use of fossil fuels that are menacingly warming the Earth.
In 2023, Walz signed a law mandating that Minnesota must generate all its electricity from wind, solar, and other carbon-free sources by 2040. This will eliminate climate-warming pollution generated by coal and gas power plants.
This law came amid a legislative session where Minnesota Democrats, in collaboration with Governor Walz, advanced nearly 40 other climate reform initiatives. In June 2024, he signed a law designed to streamline the permitting of renewable energy projects to accelerate the implementation of clean energy by 2040.
After the devastating floods in several parts of his state in June, Governor Walz remarked that while signing this law, communities in Minnesota have been waiting for months to recover and rebuild after extreme weather events caused by climate change. He said this measure will help protect our environment and accelerate clean energy projects, while also assisting in the crusade against climate change.
While more than half of the states in the US already have laws or regulations in place that recognise the need for clean electricity, only a handful of states, like Minnesota, have moved rapidly towards achieving clean electricity.
Following this law, Minnesota will rely on clean electricity sources more quickly than California, which has been a leading state in climate action for decades.
The law implemented in Minnesota is even more ambitious than what President Joe Biden tried to include in his 2022 climate law but failed to achieve. Walz has the backing of the climate activists who view it as a model for future climate legislation.
Backing Walz, Bill Holland, the state policy director for the League of Conservation Voters, said that we cannot be more excited about his leadership in battling climate change.
Nonetheless, it is noteworthy that Governor Walz’s actions on climate are facing opposition from the neighbouring state of North Dakota, which is heavily reliant on coal and is also a major gas producer.
North Dakota’s Republican Governor Doug Burgum who is an energy policy advisor to Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump argues that Minnesota’s new climate law is unconstitutional.
He believes that this law will ultimately prevent Minnesota’s utilities from purchasing coal or gas-generated electricity from other states for its customers.
Under Burgum’s leadership, a three-member panel formally filed a case with the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission in June, claiming that the law’s provision is constitutionally dubious and constitutes an improper attempt by Minnesota to export its internal energy policy decisions to neighbouring states.
They also argue that it infringes on the rights and sovereignty of other states. A spokesperson for the Walz administration sent questions about the case to the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission, which had not responded to the emailed questions by July 5.
Before becoming governor, Walz was a school teacher elected to Congress in 2006. He is known as a reliable leader in the Democratic Party for environmental policies, and is now being recognised as a champion for the cause of climate legislation.
His tryst with environmental protection began when his state began to witness the acute impacts of extreme weather events caused by climate change and started taking measures to mitigate them. Over the past five years, severe droughts have forced Minnesota’s ranchers to cull some of their herds much earlier than usual.
Also, the smoke from wildfires in Canada covered Minnesota’s skies and the state faced a shortage of fishing and cross-country skiing, leading to significant economic losses. It was after all this that Walz gradually steered his politics to address the climate crisis.