Friends and Neighbors,
On Thursday, the Minnesota Senate passed the Minnesota Energy Infrastructure Permitting Act, which reforms the permitting process in Minnesota’s electric energy sector. These improvements are expected to cut an average of one year off the current four-year permitting process for the electric energy sector, which is great, but why wouldn’t Democrats include other industries in their bill?
With complete control of state government, Democrats could have expanded these improvements to include: construction, mining, oil/gas, and nuclear industries. Instead, they completely ignored these other sectors. Without reforms in all industries, important projects (and jobs) will continue to be abandoned in our state – just like with Huber Engineered Woods. Cohasset lost a $439M plant along with hundreds of new jobs because Minnesota’s permitting process was so cumbersome that the company couldn’t meet deadlines.
Democrats will claim their bill is a step in the right direction, but they blocked every single one of our efforts to include these other sectors. We have to stop this war on business and start making Minnesota a good place for companies to invest.
If you have any questions, please reach out any time.
Sincerely,
Minnesota Senate, District 6