Local View: While other states expand it, nuclear energy stifled in Minnesota

Gerald M. Tyler, chairman of Up North Jobs, an Ely-based nonprofit, argues that Minnesota's 30-year-old moratorium on new nuclear power plants is stifling the state's ability to meet growing electricity demands and its 2040 carbon-free energy mandate. The moratorium, enshrined in Minnesota statute 216B.243, Subdivision 3b(a), prevents the construction of new nuclear plants, unlike other states such as Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Wyoming that are expanding their nuclear capabilities. Tyler highlights that industries crucial to Northeastern Minnesota's economy, including mining, mineral processing, forest products, and emerging data-center development, require substantial amounts of reliable, 24-hour baseload electricity, which nuclear power can provide more consistently than intermittent sources like wind and solar. He criticizes state legislators, including Sen. Grant Hauschild, for not prioritizing the lifting of the moratorium during the 2023 debate over the carbon-free energy mandate, despite acknowledging nuclear energy's importance. The article states that Minnesota is not on pace to meet its 2040 goals and warns that the mandate was