How 6 Mississippi River priorities are faring at the Capitol
Some of our river priorities are in good shape. Others may need to wait until next year. (Photo by Xiquinho Silva)
FMR entered the 2025 legislative session with a small, but essential, list of legislative priorities focused on funding the programs that protect and restore our great river. With tight timelines and a shrinking state budget to work with, we’ve concentrated on bipartisan legislation and small investments that can have an outsize impact.
Now is a great time to assess the situation before the final push to adjourn by the May 19 deadline.
The context: A tough environment
The budget environment is challenging right now. The state’s two-year November forecast took a turn for the worse in a February update, with a small projected balance of just $456 million this biennium and a projected general fund shortfall of nearly $6 billion for the next biennium. Uncertainty around federal funding (which makes up about 35% of state spending), the impacts of tariffs and economic volatility also loom overhead.
The political divide has also been evident. The Senate’s initial one-seat DFL majority has fluctuated due to tragedy and arrest. In the House, a quorum dispute between both parties made it to the Minnesota Supreme Court, with the court’s ruling effectively resetting the House session. This left lawmakers with little time to advance budget and policy bills before the April 11 deadline for committee action.
With all that in mind, here’s where our top Mississippi River priorities stand as we head into the final weeks of the session.
Forever Green crop research and development
Senate funding (aggregate): $8.704 million
House funding (aggregate): $8.704 million
Our number one priority — keeping the lights on and the tractors purring at the University of Minnesota’s Forever Green Initiative — appears headed for a relatively positive outcome. The House and Senate have included funding for Forever Green and clean-water crops in several bills that are moving forward with bipartisan support:
- Clean Water Fund: $5 million
- Agriculture budget: $1.604 million
- Environment & Natural Resources Trust Fund budget: $2.1 million
While these recommendations fall short of Forever Green’s combined biennial request of $10 million, they represent a high-water mark in overall funding.
One unfortunate wrinkle: Due to an accounting error that forced unexpected cuts to Clean Water Fund spending, the recommended Forever Green appropriation from that fund was cut from $6 million for the biennium to $5 million.
While we’re hopeful we can restore that cut next year, it shows the benefit of putting our Forever Green eggs in more than one basket.
Value chain grants for clean-water crops
Senate funding (aggregate): $450,000
House funding (aggregate): $450,000
As we’ve stressed before, clean-water crops don’t succeed in a vacuum. They need a supportive system of businesses and markets, called "value chains.” This session, we sought to both (1) maintain funding for the MDA’s Developing Markets for CLC Crops grant program, which gives local businesses access to equipment, marketing and other resources; and (2) create a similar program within the Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED), which would focus on larger-scale projects and business development.
We are on track to secure $450,000 for the former via the Environment & Natural Resources Trust Fund. Unfortunately, we will need to try again next session to create the new DEED program.
Sustainable aviation fuel policy
As FMR readers (and webinar attendees) know, there is real promise in efforts to reduce aviation sector emissions through sustainable aviation fuel (also called “SAF”).
FMR has weighed in on House and Senate legislation to enhance and extend Minnesota’s existing SAF tax credit, including support for new language that rewards the lowest-carbon fuels.
In addition, we’re currently working with stakeholders from industry, government, state agencies and environmental organizations to make several key adjustments. We are revising the state’s SAF definitions to allow for carbon-free hydrogen fuel, and trying to prohibit tax credits for specific fuel sources, including imported fuels and feedstocks, biofuels produced on newly converted croplands, and SAF produced in ways that support enhanced oil recovery from depleted oil and gas wells.
We anticipate this language being included in the final SAF package later in this session.
Clean Water Fund defense
Senate: Clean Water Council recommendations intact
House: Clean Water Council recommendations intact
One-third of the state sales tax revenue from the Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment is invested in clean water programs via the Clean Water Fund — the only environmental fund in Minnesota dedicated solely to reducing pollution and protecting clean water.
Every two years, Minnesota's nonpartisan Clean Water Council works with experts from across the state to craft detailed recommendations to the Legislature on how to best invest Clean Water Fund dollars.
FMR strongly supports those recommendations, and we are very grateful to lawmakers of both parties for adhering to them in this year’s Clean Water Fund legislation in Committee. But more work remains.
Want to help? You can urge your lawmakers to support the Clean Water Fund this session.
ENRTF and community conservation funding
Last November, with 77.5% support, voters approved constitutionally rededicating a portion of state lottery proceeds into the Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund (ENRTF). Importantly, voters approved increasing the amount that can be spent from the Trust Fund each year from 5.5% to 7%.
This new 1.5% of the ENRTF (which comes to about $28.18 million per year) is directed to a new Community Grants Program. It was created so new and smaller grantees can access ENRTF funds in ways that are not feasible through the usual LCCMR process.
While the Senate moved both items out of committee without difficulty, the conversation was more challenging in the House. We are continuing to work with House leadership of both parties to get a clean ENRTF bill — one that includes the Community Grants funding — over the finish line this session.
Want to help? You can tell your lawmakers to support the ENRTF and Community Grants Program this session.
Clean Transportation Standard
To protect the Mississippi River and our region from the worst of climate change, it’s imperative we find ways to cut greenhouse gas emissions from our top two pollution sectors: transportation and agriculture. Transitioning to electric vehicles — and away from gasoline and ethanol — is an important part of that strategy.
The Clean Transportation Standard is a market-based policy designed to reward low-carbon fuels such as electricity while directing new funding toward investments in electric vehicle infrastructure and purchase rebates. It would also support the development of winter-hardy oilseeds — the clean-water crops that can be used to create new, more sustainable biofuels that reduce runoff pollution, improve soil health and boost farm prosperity. (These crop can also be used for sustainable aviation fuel.)
While this type of policy has the support of environmental champions in both chambers, a Clean Transportation Standard does not appear poised to advance this year. We look forward to holding additional informational hearings for lawmakers before bringing the bills back for committee action next session.
Other issues we're monitoring
Several high-profile issues have also emerged during the session. Two in particular could impact groundwater quality and quantity in Minnesota.
Safeguarding drinking water in Southeast Minnesota
Led by our friends at the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy (MCEA), legislation came forward to provide direct funding for private well mitigation in eight southeast Minnesota counties where many private wells are contaminated with excess nitrate fertilizer. While FMR supports this work, it is not included in an already crowded agricultural budget. We are hopeful that future Legislatures will provide this funding — preferably in the much larger health and human services budget.
Water-hungry data centers
Multiple environmental organizations and local communities have been grappling with how — or even whether — to accommodate the growing demand for hyperscale data centers. Due to the unique nature of state environmental reviews, no single entity is charged with assessing the entirety of a data center’s potential impacts on our communities (including water use, electricity use, backup diesel generator impacts and noise pollution). Legislation to centralize environmental review was introduced in the House, but is unlikely to advance this session absent stronger bipartisan support.
Looking ahead
The Legislature must adjourn by the May 19 deadline with a complete biennial state budget ready to be signed by Gov. Tim Walz.
Between now and then, budget and policy bills must pass through finance committees and be debated and passed off the floor of each chamber.
Because the House and Senate have vastly different budget proposals, the House and Senate versions of each budget bill will likely differ. In that case, a conference committee made up of members of both chambers will meet and come up with compromise legislation.
We remain confident that the Legislature will be able to complete its essential work before the end of the session. If not, the governor will eventually need to call a special session to give lawmakers more time to complete their work.
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