A standing-room-only crowd attended a special event at the Grand Marais Public Library on Saturday to hear two speakers talk about the changing climate in Cook County and Minnesota’s ongoing transition to cleaner energy sources. The event was organized and hosted by Cook County Local Energy Project (CCLEP).
Chel Anderson shared her analysis of scientific data on the effects of a changing climate in Minnesota and in North America.
Anderson explained that while this region has seen great changes in temperature over the millennia, the warming trends that we are experiencing in the past century are happening much faster than historical temperature variances, and there is significant risk that many plant and wildlife species will not be able to adapt or move quickly enough to survive.
Anderson pointed out that relatively small temperature differences could have very large impacts. For example the transition from Grand Marais being stuck under a mile of ice during the Ice Age to our current climate resulted from a change in average temperatures of just 9-11 degrees.
Finally, Chel explained that Lake Superior temperatures are warming more rapidly than air temperatures, and this poses a growing threat to the food chain in the lake.
J. Drake Hamilton is science policy director for Fresh Energy, a non-partisan and nonprofit clean energy advocacy group based in St. Paul. She spoke about Minnesota’s long leadership in the transition to zero-carbon energy sources, including the Next Generation Energy Act that was enacted in 2007 and requires all electric suppliers in Minnesota to use new renewable resources for 25 percent of their power by 2025.
Hamilton pointed out that most or all of Minnesota’s utility companies, including our Cook County and Grand Marais electricity suppliers, are on track to meet this requirement many years ahead of schedule. She described the rapid changes in the cost competetiveness of new renewable energy, for example the almost 90 percent decrease in the cost of solar energy over the past 10 years.
Hamilton further cited statements from utility executives from Xcel Energy that wind energy is now cheaper than the fuel cost of existing coal-fired power plants, and described how that company is now planning to source 60 percent of their electricity generation from renewable energy resources by 2030. She also described how many large Minnesota corporations like Target Corporation are aiming to purchase 100 percent of their electricity from renewable energy sources.
Finally, Hamilton described how a trend of increased electrification of transportation and heating loads will help to further reduce carbon emissions and help to mitigate the effects of climate change.
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