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Vice President Kamala Harris isn’t the only one who favors higher electricity and transportation prices for Americans, with more inflation and a limited supply of cars. So is Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. Consider his record.
Increase in electricity prices
In 2023, Walz signed a law requiring that 80% of Minnesotans’ energy be produced from carbon-free sources by 2030 and 100% by 2040. This will continue to drive up electricity prices in the North Star State, contradicting another provision of the law that states utilities must provide “affordable electric service to Minnesotans.”
Minnesota has an advantage with its nuclear power plants, which produce 25% of its electricity, and its wind power, which produces 23%, but it will be difficult to replace the 45% generated by coal and natural gas.
Vice President Kamala Harris and Gov. Tim Walz laugh during a stop at a campaign office on Aug. 9, 2024 in Glendale, Arizona. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
Isaac Orr, vice president of the nonprofit group Always On Energy Research, has estimated that meeting Walz’s energy mandates would cost Minnesota $318 billion through 2050 and require building thousands of megawatts of wind turbines and solar panels.
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Orr told me this would cause electricity costs for Minnesota families to rise by $1,642 per year, or $136 per month. Costs for energy-intensive manufacturing would rise by $222,387 per year through 2050.
Industrial electricity prices in Minnesota are already so high that the Northern Foundry in Hibbing, Bob Dylan's hometown, closed its doors, explicitly citing energy costs, eliminating well-paying union jobs.
Rising car prices
Walz is also raising the price of transportation. Over objections from the Minnesota Automobile Dealers Association, he adopted California’s Advanced Clean Car II standards, which require 35% of new passenger cars, trucks and SUVs sold to be electric or hydrogen-powered by 2036, and 100% by 2035.
Electric vehicles are more expensive than gasoline-powered cars, and their batteries lose range in Minnesota's cold winters. They also face higher electricity rates.
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Forced electric vehicles will cause problems for Minnesotans, but they will help the Chinese, who make batteries and components for electric vehicles and control a large share of critical and crucial minerals. But Walz has a long history of visiting China. He took his students there “almost every summer until 2003” and spent his honeymoon there in 1994, according to Minnesota first lady Gwen Walz.
Pipe blockage
Walz's regulation of electric vehicles will help US adversary China, but he does not want to help US friend Canada.
In 2019 and 2020, Walz blocked construction of the Enbridge Line 3 pipeline, which replaced an older pipeline and transported oil from Canada for refining in the United States, although the project was twice approved by the Minnesota Public Service Commission. Despite Walz's opposition, the pipeline opened in 2021.
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Enbridge Line 3 has created jobs for Americans both in building the pipeline and in refining the oil into products like gasoline, diesel and heating oil.
The decisions made by our elected representatives will determine the price people will pay for gasoline and electricity, and what kind of new and used cars will be sold at dealerships and at what price. Rising energy and transportation prices translate into rising food prices, since food requires energy and fertilizer to grow and store, and transportation to get to the grocery store.
Our representatives also determine how much power Beijing will exert over the US supply chain and whether jobs will come to the US or China.
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Congress passes major energy bills, but the president has ultimate authority over how much we pay for electricity and transportation through regulations enacted by individual agencies.
Tim Walz and Kamala Harris are two of a kind. They care more about climate change than inflation and prefer the rights to solar panels and wind turbines to American jobs. Is this really what Americans want?
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