As Minnesota’s representative on the Senate’s energy committee, Al knows that clean energy and energy efficiency technologies provide enormous opportunity for economic growth and good jobs in Minnesota.
Al believes that clean energy and energy efficiency can be win-win for Minnesota—it can reduce our nation’s dependence on foreign oil and address climate change, while simultaneously creating good-paying jobs (and entire new industries) and revitalizing our state’s manufacturing sector.
Having traveled around the state on his renewable energy listening tour of research institutions, businesses, and communities,, Al is excited by what he saw and heard. Minnesota is the Silicon Valley of windows, with companies like Marvin Windows, Anderson Windows, and SAGE Electrochromics at the forefront of exciting new energy-efficiency technologies. And as the nation’s fourth-largest wind energy producer, Minnesota has much to gain from this emerging technology as well.
Meanwhile, cities like St. Paul are heating and cooling their buildings using biomass from Minnesota—a kind of cutting-edge, homegrown, renewable fuel. And our state’s cities and businesses are making their own buildings more energy efficient—investments that create jobs and pay for themselves through energy savings.
With all this potential, Al is working to focus attention on community wind and energy efficiency programs, and to jumpstart the market for clean energy technologies. And his proposed extension and expansion of the research and development tax credit will help Minnesota businesses take hold of these tremendous opportunities.
Meanwhile, Al has been a proud supporter of Minnesota's biofuels industries, which support thousands of jobs in rural parts of the state. He is an original cosponsor of legislation to extend the biodiesel tax credit, and he joined Senators of both parties in fighting an irresponsible attempt to end support for ethanol producers. While Al believes that cellulosic ethanol is the future, he knows that our current corn ethanol program has played a critical role in laying the foundation for a transition to cellulosic—which will have huge benefits for Minnesota producers.
