Minnesota citizens need to lead America in a renewable energy revolution that rejects unsustainable policies favoring fossil fuels, Congresswoman Betty McCollum said in a keynote speech Saturday at the St. Paul Labor Center.

A crowd of more than 100 turned out to advance grassroots strategies supporting "20/20" legislation in the state and in Congress. The state legislation, for example, would require Minnesota utilities to produce 20 percent of their electricity from renewable energy sources by 2020.

The event was sponsored by the Fightback '05 campaign of the United Steel Workers. Campaign coordinator Josh Syrjamaki called renewable energy a way to create good-paying manufacturing and construction jobs, especially in rural Minnesota; protect the environment from the global warming and mercury consequences of coal; and increase the energy independence of the state and nation by moving away from heavy reliance on oil.

Too many elected leaders lack the political will to change America's energy dependence on fossil fuels, Congresswoman Betty McCollum says. Union Advocate photo

Buffalo Ridge, in southwestern Minnesota, is the Saudi Arabia of wind, said Dee Long, former speaker of the Minnesota House who now is program director at ME3, Minnesotans for an Energy Efficient Economy. Minnesota, she said, has enough wind to supply all the state's electricity and then some. But elected officials are refusing to provide the vision and policies necessary, she said.

"Minnesota used to lead the way. Now we aren't even following most of the time," Long said. Seventeen states and the District of Columbia already have renewable energy requirements, she said; Minnesota only has unenforceable goals.

That lack of vision, Syrjamaki said, already has cost the state 1,000 jobs at a wind turbine manufacturing plant that instead will be built in Pennsylvania, which has shown a commitment to renewable energy.

Bush backs big oil
The same lack of vision exists in Washington, McCollum said. She attacked the Bush administration's increasing reliance on fossil fuel energy sources, calling the war in Iraq ? which so far has cost the United States $250 billion and 1,898 lives ? a prime example of what's wrong with American energy policy.

In this era of an increasingly globalized economy, McCollum said, the United States will face only increased competition ? and perhaps further confrontation ? over the world's limited oil supplies.

She noted that President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney both are oil men ? and joked that they believe "a wilderness is not truly ecologically diverse unless it has an oil well or a coal mine."

But she said the president's energy bill ? passed recently by the Republican majority in Congress ? does nothing substantial to encourage conservation, increase efficiency in energy usage or fuel mileage, or promote renewable energy. Instead, she said, it provides $2.8 billion in tax cuts to prop up the failing policies of big oil.

"It's time we focused on the future," she said.

Americans and American businesses are ready for innovative policies, McCollum said ? policies that promote cleaner energy, protect the environment, transform the economy, and lead to true energy independence.

"The only thing that's lacking is the political will."

Steel Workers organizer Stephanie Zawistowski leads a discussion of citizens from St. Paul suburbs. Union Advocate photo

Building pressure on legislators
That's where Saturday's mobilization came in. Polling by ME3 shows that 84 percent of Minnesotans support a renewable energy policy. The support is overwhelming regardless of demographic or partisan political differences, said Steel Workers organizer Stephanie Zawistowski.

The key, she said, is now to get citizens to persuade their legislators and other elected officials to recognize that support ? especially in suburban House districts where Republicans helped kill renewable energy requirements.

Zawistowski brainstormed with two dozen citizens from more than a half-dozen St. Paul suburbs, one of three breakout sessions to generate grassroots action in specific communities in support of renewable policies.

"Wind power is what's going to keep rural Minnesota on the map," said Rep. Aaron Peterson, DFL-Madison, who sponsored renewable energy requirements in the last legislative session. "The towns I represent need energy development."

Get involved
The next Renewable Energy organizing meeting will be Oct. 5 at 5:30 p.m. at the office of the United Steel Workers, 2829 University Ave. SE, Minneapolis.

Michael Kuchta edits the St. Paul Union Advocate, the official publication of the St. Paul Trades and Labor Assembly. E-mail him at advocate@stpaulunions.org and visit the Assembly's website, www.st.paulunions.org

For more information
For more on renewable energy, visit www.fightback05.org or www.uswa.org/am