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The 2007 Minnesota Legislature <br />`passed several far reaching legislative <br />proposals as part of the "Next <br />Generation Energy Act" to address the <br />climate change issue, including: <br />• a renewable energy standard for <br />electric utilities of 2596 by the year <br />2025; <br />• annual conservation savings for <br />electric and natural gas utilities of <br />1.596 per year; <br />• a limit on new base load <br />generation after August 2009 <br />unless there are carbon offsets; and <br />appropriate strategies, including <br />a Minnesota, region-wide, or <br />national greenhouse gas cap-and- <br />trade program. <br />These measures constitute an <br />aggressive and comprehensive plan for <br />reducing Minnesota's greenhouse gas <br />emissions. To effectively meet these <br />targets, however, we need to develop <br />a forward looking, comprehensive, <br />national solution that ensures a reliable <br />and cost-effective supply of energy. <br />Twenty-first century wholesale electric <br />markets simply do not lend themselves <br />to acap-and-trade regime imposed by <br />a single state or region. <br />We believe that effective climate <br />change policy must: <br />• Be national in scope and recognize <br />regional differences that can im- <br />pact the fairness and effectiveness <br />of any program designed to ad- <br />dress greenhouse gas emissions. <br />• Be economy-wide and apply to all <br />industries, including sectors such <br />as transportation and manufactur- <br />ing aswell aselectric generation. <br />• Protect the ability of U.S. and <br />Minnesota industries to compete <br />in world and regional markets and <br />consider the competitive impact <br />on jobs. <br />• Allow credit for early actions tak- <br />en to reduce greenhouse emissions. <br />• Maintain reliability, protect na- <br />tional security and avoid overreli- <br />ance on any single fuel recognizing <br />the importance to the nation of <br />preserving a diverse mix of elec- <br />tricity generation fuels, including <br />coal, nuclear, natural gas, and all <br />renewable energy sources includ- <br />ing hydro. <br />Support expanded efforts for re- <br />search, development and deploy- <br />ment ofcost-effective technologies <br />to reduce, capture, transform or <br />sequester greenhouse gases from <br />emission sources throughout the <br />national economy. <br />Climate Change Legislation <br />• an aggressive climate change <br />stakeholder-based study to assess <br />