Climate change to be a top focus for Walz and his cabinet – Mankato Free Press

A day after issuing an executive order stating that climate change is an existential threat that impacts all Minnesotans, Gov. Tim Walz was in Mankato Tuesday to reinforce the message.

Walz glanced at the half-dozen members of his cabinet including the commissioners of transportation, commerce, housing, pollution control and agriculture, along with the director of the Board of Water and Soil Resources seated behind him and awaiting their turn to speak.

I think it might be a testament to how seriously we take this issue, he told dozens of people attending the day-long Minnesota Environmental Congress at Minnesota State University.

The Democratic governor said its been left to the states to provide leadership and take action in the presence of gridlock on climate change at the federal level.

And thats what we intend to do in Minnesota, Walz said.

Mondays executive order aims to coordinate and accelerate state action to reduce greenhouse gases and prepare for the various impacts of climate change. It warned that the challenges presented by a warming planet extreme precipitation, new invasive pests and diseases, more violent storms will be felt across the states population and across its economy.

Walz recalled the more bipartisan nature of the issue a decade or two ago, when Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty was joining efforts to set nation-leading goals for clean energy production and Newt Gingrich, the former Republican Speaker of the U.S. House, and current Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi appeared together in a television ad calling for cooperation on addressing the climate crisis.

Since then, the issue has become politicized, and the Trump administration is actively opposing efforts to reduce carbon emissions when the world needs our leadership more than ever, the governor said. ... We cant wait. We cant wait for D.C. to decide we can function as a democracy should function.

That leaves the work to lower levels of government, according to Walz, who said Minnesota will join 11 other states in setting stricter vehicle fuel-efficiency standards after Trump tossed out standards set by the Obama administration. The state will look to completely eliminate fossil fuels from its electrical power supply over the next 30 years. And state agencies will consider every decision through the lens of environmental sustainability.

Agencies will also be focusing more on how the effects of climate change impact virtually every aspect of life. Transportation officials will have to consider the increasing frequency of flooding when selecting locations for new roads or road reconstruction. Health officials will have to react to how a lengthened pollen season impacts people with asthma and other respiratory illnesses. Agencies overseeing agriculture and natural resources will have to prepare for the consequences of rising temperatures on farms, lakes and wildlife.

Its not about spreading fear, Walz said. Its about being responsible and rational about what were facing.

After the governor finished talking, the commissioners started. And that was just a fraction of Tuesdays agenda at the sold-out Minnesota Environmental Congress, which was sponsored by the Minnesota Environmental Quality Board.

Sessions focused on freshwater impacts and protection strategies; new strategies in food, biofuel and other agricultural production; how local governments and communities are adapting to more frequent torrential rains and flooding; options for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in transportation; approaches to helping wildlife and plant-life survive in a changing climate, and more.

No, were not going to solve the whole problem ourselves, Walz said. But were going to do something about it.

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Climate change to be a top focus for Walz and his cabinet - Mankato Free Press