As a Minnesota ‘climate champion’, Gov. Tim Walz looked to California for inspiration

The run-up to the 2024 presidential election has been supercharged by hot-button issues ranging from abortion to immigration. “California’s reputation as a climate leader is well-deserved, and Walz is a perfect example of what that looks like,” said Mike Young, senior political and organizing director with California Environmental Voters. Walz also signed an executive order in 2019 that established a climate change sub-Cabinet in the state, which is tasked with identifying new strategies to meet greenhouse gas reduction goals and “prepare Minnesota for the impacts of climate change that cannot be avoided or mitigated.” Since the passage of President Biden’s landmark climate bill, the Inflation Reduction Act, in 2022, Minnesota has seen $1.15 billion in clean energy investments and nearly 2,000 new clean energy jobs, according to an assessment from the group Climate Power. Last year, Minnesota became the first state in the Midwest to adopt California’s strict tailpipe emission standards — despite significant opposition from state Republicans and the Minnesota Auto Dealers Assn., who bemoaned in a court petition that “Minnesota is not California.” The Clean Cars Minnesota rule went into effect this year after a lengthy legal battle, and requires car manufacturers to make and deliver passenger vehicles that produce less pollution, and to deliver more zero-emission vehicles to the state for consumers to purchase. Walz also didn’t mince words when Trump rolled back a signature Obama-era climate policy known as the Clean Power Plan in 2017 — issuing a statement denouncing the order as denying “the very existence of climate change.” “The science on climate change is settled,” Walz said.