Last week, the Minneapolis City Council adopted a pair of proposals which are expected to lift $10 million annually through increased utility franchise fees, greater than tripling the fund meant to assist pay for the town’s climate policy goals.

City officials called the establishment of the fund step one toward implementing the town’s Climate Equity Plan, adopted by the council this past summer, which lays out a decade-long roadmap to achieving climate goals while specializing in low income communities and communities of color.

The 2 ordinances, authored by Ward 7 Councilmember Lisa Goodman and Ward 10 Councilmember Aisha Chugthai, increase gas and electric franchise utility fees citywide. Xcel Energy and CenterPoint Energy will collect an additional $12 per household on average annually, and people additional funds – that are anticipated so as to add as much as $10 million per 12 months – shall be collected by the town starting in January to implement the provisions in its Climate Equity Plan.

That brings the overall of the town’s fund for climate motion to about $13 million, following a 2017 increase in utility franchise fees that helped supply $3 million.

“I’m really thrilled that the Climate Legacy Initiative, which shall be funded through these franchise fees, targets communities of color, low income communities, to create the form of cost savings that individuals have talked about,” Minneapolis City Council President Andrea Jenkins said before the vote. “But more importantly, (it) helps global climate change efforts to constantly move forward.”

Kim Havey, the town’s director of sustainability, said the rise in funding will help them significantly speed up their ability to implement and scale up various efforts to cut back costs, increase efficiency and expand the usage of carbon-free energy. A few of those current efforts include well over a thousand no-cost energy audits for homes and businesses already conducted by city officials, and the Green Cost Share program, which helps pay for property upgrades that help reduce pollution, improve energy efficiency or introduce clean energy like rooftop solar panels.

With the brand new funding, Havey said the town also goals to significantly ramp up staffing and resources to do more ambitious work, like systematically eliminating pollution resembling radon, lead and asbestos from the homes of Minneapolis residents. That will then be followed by improving energy efficiency of homes through weatherization and insulation, in addition to supporting the transition of older homes to electrification.

“We now have about 40,000 homes that must be insulated and weatherized and potentially upgraded for electrification, and we’re now doing 300 to 500 homes a 12 months,” Havey said. “So we actually must ramp this up if we’re going to achieve our goal of getting all 40,000 homes that also have to have insulation, insulated by 2040.”

Deal with equity

The Climate Equity Plan, adopted by the council in July, establishes the goal of 100% renewable electricity citywide by 2030 and net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. It comes after the previous Climate Motion Plan, though it puts more of an emphasis on addressing racial and economic disparities, and promoting environmental justice.

Areas of the town inhabited by low income communities and communities of color are disproportionately affected by the worsening climate. Poor air quality has led to higher asthma rates, and the shortage of tree cover cover directly correlates to higher temperatures, which may cause further health issues.

The Green Zones, identified by the town in 2017 as having high pollution and marginalized communities, were established to assist improve the environmental, social and economic well-being of its residents. The brand new equity plan highlights the Green Zones for instance of its goal: prioritizing programs and resources for the individuals who require them essentially the most.

“Lots of my neighbors and I don’t have the cash to pay for insulation, electrical appliances and the growing cost of utility bills,” Audua Pugh, a Northside Green Zone resident, said ahead of a hearing on the ordinances earlier this month. “The one way our community can get these advantages is for the town to step up and fill within the gaps with some funding.”

In the event of the Climate Equity Plan, Havey said engagement and coordination with community groups was substantial. Namely, with the Just Transition Fund Coalition – a partnership of several groups of activist organizations that developed the People’s Climate and Equity Plan, which has about 90% overlap with the ultimate plan adopted by the town.

City staff also did intentional outreach to specific cultural communities, which he said proved successful in garnering meaningful feedback. Havey said they plan to do more of the identical to tell residents about programs like financial assistance to cut back energy costs, while also getting their ideas about possible future efforts.

“We’re going to be really intentional working with community leaders and community liaisons in each considered one of those groups, and providing education in addition to waiting for people to be engaged and supporting ways in which we can provide feedback on what they think are effective ways to handle climate issues,” he said.