City Climate Corner

You've heard about a climate action plan, but what about a municipal heat plan? In January 2024, Germany passed a law requiring every municipality to develop a heat plan to decarbonize heating. We interview Paula Möhring, Senior Consultant at Hamburg Institut Consulting GmbH, about the ongoing transformation of the heating sector in Germany. She has been working with municipalities across Germany on heat plans. Larry met Paula on a November clean energy trip organized by the University of Minnesota's Institute on the Environment.

The negative impacts of the fossil-fuel based energy system and policies have disproportionately harmed and burdened low-income and BIPOC communities. As we transition to a clean energy economy, how do we make sure that what we put in place is equitable and just? We interview Michelle Vigen Ralston, Principal and Founder at Common Spark Consulting, about the work her team does with cities, counties, advocates, and other organizations to facilitate the creation of equitable energy policy.

There's a heat pump revolution happening in Maine. Already over 100,000 of the 600,000 homes in Maine have heat pumps, and their plan is to be over 300,000 by 2027. One out of every 14 heat pumps in the U.S. is going to Maine, though it is only 0.42% of the US's population. We talk to Andy Meyer, Senior Program Manager at Efficiency Maine, to learn how they've done it, and how it's saving Maine residents a lot of money, even in a cold-weather climate.

There's a lot of exciting things happening in the world of geothermal power. We explore geothermal in general and examine a novel approach leveraging groundwater to substantially reduce the footprint needed. We interview Darcy Solutions CTO Dan King about how their technology is being used by some cities to provide carbon free heating and cooling.

On the shores of Lake Superior, Duluth has received publicity as a "climate proof city" though faces distinct challenges with its cold weather climate. With grants, they are pursuing exciting approaches to creating a geothermal district heating system from their waste water treatment plant and separately, creating resilience in their building stock with solar plus storage and microgrids. We interview Sustainability Officer Mindy Granley, Community Resilience Project Coordinator Bret Crecelius, and Americorps service member Ella Stewart about Duluth's unique 5-year at a time approach to climate planning.

Morris is a small community in conservative western Minnesota that is doing groundbreaking sustainability work. Inspired by students at the University of MN Morris and a partnership with Saerbeck Germany as part of a unique "Climate Smart Municipalities" program, local leaders have come up with "The Morris Model" that guides the community's efforts. We interview former City Manager Blaine Hill and Univ. of MN - Morris Vice Chancellor Bryan Hermann to learn how the Morris Model started and about ongoing solar, wind, biogas, battery storage, composting, and EV infrastructure programs.

Elected Officials to Protect America (EOPA) empowers local elected officials and civic leaders to fight the climate crisis, with a special focus on lawmakers who are veterans. With leaders from all 50 states and Puerto Rico, EOPA is an organizing force for local officials to increase their impact in their own communities as well as on regional and national issues. We interview co-founders Alex Cornell du Houx, and Dominic Frongillo about their programs and some of their work, including banning fracking in NY, supporting offshore wind, and fighting for environmental justice. EOPA is also City Climate Corner's fiscal sponsor.

With this summer of one climate disaster after another, Abby and Larry talk about how they deal with the depressing parts of climate change work, and especially, what gives them hope.

Though Hopkins is one of the smaller Minneapolis suburbs, it packs a big punch on climate action. We dig into two really innovative programs they're doing on reducing the urban heat island effect and speeding deployment of clean energy and energy efficiency solutions with a cost share program. We speak with Hopkins Mayor Patrick Hanlon and Special Projects and Initiatives Manager, PeggySue Imihy Bean, to understand how this small community is taking on big challenges.

Minnesota recently finished a state legislative session for the ages. Democratic control of state government for the first time in a decade, combined with a historic budget surplus, led to the adoption of transformative investments and policies in most every area of government. We dig into new climate policies that especially impact MN cities. Abby interviews co-host and first-term State Representative Larry Kraft about the recently completed session and gets a run down of some of the key new climate policies that were passed into law.

We revisit Ann Arbor, Michigan and their dynamic Sustainability & Innovations Director Missy Stults, to check in on their audacious plan to reach net zero by 2030. They are pushing the envelope in so many ways, from their taxpayers approving $7M per year for climate action, to being on the verge of setting up a new Sustainable Energy Utility, to re-thinking how heating will be provided, and more.

In December 2020 Santa Fe County adopted a resolution to conserve 30% of its land and water by 2030. We interview County Sustainability Manager Jacqueline Beam to understand how the resolution happened, what it means, and how it's being implemented. Plus, we even learn the role beavers are playing!