For Democrats trying to convince voters that climate policies can create jobs, Tim Walz offers them a reason for hope. As Minnesota governor, Kamala Harris’ running mate wrangled hundreds of millions of dollars from President Joe Biden’s climate law with the aim of reducing his state’s greenhouse gas emissions, boosting clean energy and generating jobs, writes Adam Aton. His strategy: signing a law mandating 100 percent clean electricity in the state by 2040, filling state agencies with policy experts to win the federal cash, updating the state’s permitting rules to speed up green projects and pressing companies to hire local labor, write Josh Siegel, Catherine Morehouse and Kelsey Tamborrino. Among other results, Minnesota secured one of the biggest climate grants the government has ever awarded a single state — $200 million to cut agricultural pollution — and went from using about 20 percent local labor for new clean energy projects to regularly employing 50 to 70 percent. “I don’t think there’s anywhere in the country with better alignment between labor and climate-solutions folks,” said Kevin Pranis with the Laborers’ International Union of North America in Minnesota and North Dakota. A big question is whether this experience will make Walz an effective pitchman for an energy and climate agenda that the administration has had trouble selling to voters (and which Harris has spent relatively little time talking about since becoming the Democratic nominee). His experience offers a contrast with Republican vice presidential hopeful JD Vance, who denounces the climate law despite the hundreds of millions of dollars it’s delivering to a steel mill in his hometown. Walz will have a chance to make this pitch nationwide when he addresses the Democratic National Convention tonight. The Walz way? Minnesota is competing for climate and energy cash against more-populous neighbors such as Ohio and Michigan, as well as low-tax, low-regulation Sun Belt states such as Georgia and South Carolina. It has still managed to score $410 million in announced federal grants from Biden’s climate law through mid-June, in addition to the $200 million grant to reduce agriculture pollution and a $214 million conditional loan guarantee for a plant that will make chemicals from biomass. Republicans have dismissed the aid recipients as “pet projects.” But supporters such as Democratic state House Majority Leader Jamie Long say Walz’s ambitious pragmatism helped him make clean energy a winning issue. Walz worked with unions, utilities and other energy industry players to craft climate policies that were politically palatable. For example, he passed state subsidies for heat pumps and implemented new building codes to nudge new construction away from gas appliances — but never proposed phasing out gas (an apparently politically explosive option). Not to mention, he’s personally involved. Walz is “the type of person that calls you from his cellphone number, and the number is not hidden so you see ‘Tim Walz’ popping in on your phone,” Martin Pochtaruk, CEO of Heliene, which manufactures solar panel components in Minnesota, told Josh, Catherine and Kelsey.
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