Daily Digest for January 29, 2021 Posted at 7:45 a.m. by Michael Olson |
Good morning,
House Democrats and Senate Republicans are presenting sharply different visions for the way Minnesota elections should work.
Democrats want to expand voter registration and make it easier for Minnesotans to vote by mail. Republicans want to establish a photo ID requirement to vote, even though Minnesotans rejected that idea eight years ago.[Read More]
DFL state lawmakers propose what they say is most ambitious clean energy goal in U.S. With a slate of executive actions this week, President Joe Biden is aiming the country to use 100 percent clean energy by 2050. In a bill introduced last week, DFL Minnesota lawmakers propose doing it by 2040. [Read More]
Hope and skepticism as Biden promises to address environmental racism The Biden administration has pledged an aggressive, broad-based approach to achieving environmental justice. Among a raft of executive actions on the climate Biden signed on Wednesday, he created a new White House council on environmental justice, and pledged that 40 percent of the benefits from federal investments in clean energy and clean water would go to communities that bear disproportionate pollution.
There are other indications of the administration's willingness to address the environmental effects of systemic racism. Biden's nominee to run the EPA, Michael Regan, would be the first Black man to lead the agency, and top positions in other agencies and within the White House are being filled by people who have spent their careers working on equitable climate and environment policies.
But academics, former federal officials and activists warn that the administration will need to rebuild the government's relationship with people living in communities where little has changed over the decades, and where the Trump administration's regulatory rollbacks, the pandemic and escalating climate-driven disasters have led to rising death tolls. [Read More]
Minneapolis council to consider move to establish rent control Whether it’s called rent stabilization or rent control, the measure is designed to set limits on the rates at which housing costs can grow. The Minneapolis City Council is expected to start the process Friday toward regulating rent increases.[Read More]
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