Minnesota saw significant actions in environmental and climate policy in 2023. The Legislature passed laws that put the state on track to 100 percent clean energy by 2040, established a green bank, and invested historic amounts of money into cleaning up pollution and investing in green transportation. Perhaps most significantly for environmental justice, a new policy aimed at addressing the cumulative impacts of pollution in diverse, low-income communities was signed into law.
But the biggest stories didn’t happen entirely at the State Capitol. This year, Minnesota climate activists scored major victories in prolonged fights for environmental justice at the Roof Depot site in south Minneapolis and the HERC trash incinerator in downtown Minneapolis. Community protests, legal battles, and alliances with state legislators put pressure on local governments and brought about climate justice victories.
The environment is the key issue of the 21st century. Minnesotans care about the planet and our natural resources. And increasingly, they are aware of the historical damage done by the heavy industries and highways that fueled the state’s growth. They know that those economic advances often came at the expense of people of color, immigrants, and Native Americans, few of whom got to share in the spoils.
Here are five stories that best capture this year’s climate movement. It’s our third year of reporting on climate change and environmental justice here at Sahan Journal. Thank you for reading.
1. East Phillips activists win control of the Roof Depot site.
In May, the East Phillips Neighborhood Institute pulled off a deal with state lawmakers to acquire the Roof Depot site in south Minneapolis. Sahan Journal started covering the fight over the former Sears warehouse back in 2021. East Phillips is a diverse neighborhood with a long history of industrial pollution. Neighbors wanted to take an old warehouse and create an urban farm with housing, small business space, and a community solar garden. But the city of Minneapolis bought the site to expand its public works yard.
Several times over the past two years, it seemed like the fight was ending with only a conciliatory prize for the community. But days before the city was scheduled to demolish the warehouse, protesters occupied the site. In the meantime, the neighborhood group won a stay of the demolition through the courts. That gave activists time to work out a funding deal with state legislators, who used those dollars to leverage the city into selling the site to the community group.
2. Rising water levels pose risk to wild rice.
In July, visual journalist Dymanh Chhoun and I took a canoe ride through Ogechie Lake with members of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe. Ogechie Lake is a fascinating case of man destroying nature, then restoring it. The Ojibwe people harvested wild rice, or manoomin, on the shallow lake for generations, but logging companies constructed a dam there in the 1930s. Wild rice, which thrives in shallow water, largely retreated from the lake.
Eight years ago, the Mille Lacs Band altered the dam, restoring original lake levels and bringing back the manoomin. Wild rice is a critical nutritional and cultural resource for Minnesota’s tribal nations. But as the state gets warmer and wetter due to climate change, it is increasingly imperiled.
3. Lawmakers require Hennepin County to create closure plan for HERC incinerator to get bonding funds.
Minneapolis residents started fighting the Hennepin Energy Recovery Center before it was built in the late 1980s. But this year, organized opposition against the trash incinerator ramped up the pressure on Hennepin County officials. They protested at board meetings, marched in the streets, and lobbied state legislators.
The work paid off in the bonding bill, when Minneapolis legislators worked in a clause to a $26 million allotment to the county. It required the county to come up with a plan to close the incinerator before receiving the money, intended to fund a new processing plant for organic waste. That led to several developments this fall, and a plan to close the incinerator is expected to be released in February.
4. EPA finds Clean Air Act violations in surprise inspection at Smith Foundry in Minneapolis.
In May, federal investigators with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency conducted a surprise inspection at Smith Foundry, a metal processing facility in south Minneapolis’ East Phillips neighborhood. They found a host of Clean Air Act violations, including improper maintenance of pollution control equipment and failure to maintain records. The result, the agency found, was nearly double the air pollution allowed by state permits.
Neither the EPA nor the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, deputized to enforce the Clean Air Act in the state, publicized those findings. When Sahan Journal reported on the investigation and ongoing enforcement, most residents were unaware of it. The revelations sparked anger in East Phillips, where neighbors have complained about the foundry’s pollution for years. Now the state is attempting to manage the fallout from the findings, and community groups are organizing to try to shut the facility down. The story highlights the growing awareness of and fury at the history of industrial pollution in diverse neighborhoods.
5. ‘Who are we? Starwhals!’ A St. Paul youth hockey team puts a diverse group of girls on the ice.
Last year, I was talking to a source from Minnesota’s clean energy sector. He mentioned that a cousin was coaching a youth girls hockey team in St. Paul, and that they thought the team might be the most diverse ensemble on ice since the Mighty Ducks. Unlike their fictional fellow St. Paulites of the 1990s, the Starwhals are a real group of girls of Chinese, Ethiopian, Filipino, Karen, Native American, and white backgrounds.
Minnesota is becoming more diverse, but youth hockey remains overwhelmingly white in the North Star state. The Starwhals are working to include everyone in their corner of St. Paul. Admittedly, this was not a climate story. But it’s a story I thoroughly enjoyed writing.
