On Thursday night, the Minnesota DFL rammed through an extreme piece of legislation that would require the state to source 100% of its electricity fron non-carbon based sources by 2040.

HF 7, the “blackout bill”, will force utility companies to gradually ramp up solar, wind, hydropower, and biomass production up to the 2040 deadline. As we have seen from states like California, these shifts are detrimental for the power grid.

And unlike California, Minnesota gets cold in the winter. The DFL somehow believes their solar power will heat Minnesota homes for an entire season.

Current renewable energy sources are simply not reliable enough to power an entire state. When Republican legislators proposed adding nuclear power to the list of renewable sources, the DFL shot them down.

The legislation passed in a vote of 70-60, with four Republican legislators absent. Reps Backer, Davids, Kresha, and Urdahl did not vote.

MPR reports that the blackout bill will be heard in the Senate as soon as next week, where swing district DFLers will need to officially make their pro-blackout positions public. If even one of these Senate DFLers defects, the legislation is dead.