Op-Ed: Minnesota’s burdensome clean transportation standards drive up costs

Minnesota legislators may try to phase out traditional motor fuels and the vehicles that run on them. The state is already imposing strict tailpipe standards and an electric vehicle sales mandate that go into effect for model year 2025 cars. Next, lawmakers are considering another step towards a California-style ban on sales of new gasoline-powered vehicles: a Clean Transportation Standard (CTS) that is a more aggressive version of California’s low carbon fuel standard program. It’s a terrible idea with dire consequences for Minnesota families.

The carbon program is required by a law passed in May 2023 directing four state agencies to convene a CTS Work Group to study options for reducing carbon intensity of transportation fuels by as much as “100 percent” below 2018 levels by 2050. Carbon intensity of fuel is how much carbon dioxide is emitted for each unit of energy in different types of fuel, like gasoline, diesel, or ethanol.

Read the full article on “The Center Square.”