A $1.3 billion transportation budget package passed by the Minnesota legislature on May 21 aims to create a Clean Transportation Standard Working Group to study and address information gaps and opportunities related to the development of a state clean fuel standard (CFS). Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is expected to sign the bill this week.

The legislation package is separate from a bill introduced earlier this year that seeks to implement a state CFS. That bill, SF 2584, remains pending in the legislature. 

The transportation budget bill, HF 2887, would require the commissioners of Minnesota’s Pollution Control Agency and the state’s departments of transportation, commerce and agriculture to convene a Clean Transportation Fuel Standard Working Group to study and address information gaps and opportunities related to a clean transportation fuel standard that requires the aggregate carbon intensity (CI) of transportation fuel supplied within the state to be reduced to at least 25 percent below a 2018 baseline by the end of 2030, a 75 percent reduction by the end of 2040 and a 100 percent reduction by the end of 2050. Those are the same levels of CI reductions included in SF 2584.

Membership of the working group would include renewable fuel producers; renewable natural gas (RNG) and organic waste interests; general farm organizations; general farm commodity groups; conventional transportation and fuel producers and retailers; tribal governments; environmental science organizations; environmental justice organizations; automotive manufacturers; forestry interests; electric utilities or cooperatives; electric vehicle charging infrastructure companies; aviation interests; water quality interests; a statewide organization of environmental and natural resource organizations; organizations with expertise in renewable energy and low-carbon transportation fuel policy; conservation organizations; organizations representing sustainable agriculture or regenerative biofuels producers; public health interests; and labor unions.

Appointments to the working group would be made by July 1. The group would be required to submit its findings and recommendations to relevant members of the Minnesota legislature by Feb. 1, 2024.