Bill > SF4942

This bill appropriates $88,325,000 in fiscal year 2024 and $80,243,000 in fiscal year 2025 for various agriculture, commerce, energy, utilities, and environment and climate initiatives, primarily for the Department of Agriculture. * **Department of Agriculture - Protection Services:** $32,084,000 in fiscal year 2024 and $22,113,000 in fiscal year 2025. This includes funding for the voluntary cleanup program, soil health financial assistance, pollinator research, noxious weed and invasive plant species assistance, compensation for destroyed or crippled livestock, compensation for crop damage, replacement of analytical laboratory equipment, a meat processing liaison position, program service delivery, grants for continuous-living cover crops, wolf-livestock conflict prevention grants, a transfer to the grain indemnity account, and PFAS in pesticides review. An additional $2,800,000 is appropriated in fiscal year 2025 for nitrate home water treatment in specific counties. * **Department of Agriculture - Agricultural Marketing and Development:** $150,000 in fiscal year 2024 and $150,000 in fiscal year 2025 for international trade expansion. An additional $186,000 each year is for the Minnesota grown account. Funding is also provided for dairy development and profitability enhancement programs, and to maintain current service levels for programs. Additional appropriations are for farmer mental health outreach, grants for farmers markets, cooperative grants, and urban youth agricultural education. * **Department of Agriculture - Agriculture, Bioenergy, and Bioproduct Advancement:** $34,034,000 in fiscal year 2024 and $38,159,000 in fiscal year 2025. This includes funding for the agriculture research, education, extension, and technology transfer program, with specific allocations for the Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station's rapid response fund, research on turkey-related diseases, grants to the Minnesota Agricultural Education Leadership Council, cultivated wild rice projects, potato breeding, the Forever Green Initiative, and farm-scale winter greenhouse research. Significant funding is also allocated to the agricultural growth, research, and innovation program for various initiatives including livestock operations, value-added agricultural businesses, beginning farms, sustainable agriculture research, food hubs, renewable energy infrastructure, crop research, Farm Business Management tuition assistance, and providing food for children. * **Department of Agriculture - Administration and Financial Assistance:** $16,643,000 in fiscal year 2024 and $14,587,000 in fiscal year 2025. This includes appropriations for payments to agricultural societies, grants to the Minnesota Agricultural Education and Leadership Council, grants to the Minnesota State Poultry Association, Minnesota Livestock Breeders Association, Northern Crops Institute, Minnesota State Horticultural Society, Center for Rural Policy and Development, Minnesota Turf Seed Council, GreenSeam, Second Harvest Heartland for food banks, Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation, The Good Acre for the LEAFF program, Emerging Farmers Office, farm advocate services, Region Five Development Commission for mental health counseling, a transfer to the agricultural emergency account, IT modernization efforts, technical assistance grants to community development financial institutions, transfers to the agricultural and environmental revolving loan account, administrative support for the Rural Finance Authority, and coordination of climate-related activities. * **Agricultural Utilization Research Institute:** $6,368,000 in fiscal year 2024 and $4,343,000 in fiscal year 2025 for equipment upgrades, replacement, and laboratory infrastructure. * **Climate and Energy Finance:** $1,133,000 in fiscal year 2025 for the Department of Commerce for a thermal energy network site suitability study, the SolarAPP+ program, and grid-enhancing technologies. * **Public Utilities Commission:** $267,000 in fiscal year 2025 for supporting a thermal energy network deployment work group, reviewing grid-enhancing technologies, and developing a cost-sharing mechanism for distributed generation projects. * **Renewable Development Account Appropriations:** $14,450,000 in fiscal year 2025 from the renewable development account. This includes grants for geothermal energy systems, geothermal planning grants, energy efficiency projects, anaerobic digester energy systems, the SolarAPP+ program, and ultraefficient vehicle development grants. * **Minnesota Energy Infrastructure Permitting Act:** This article establishes new provisions for permitting energy infrastructure, including high-voltage transmission lines, large electric power generating plants, energy storage systems, large wind energy conversion systems, and solar energy generating systems. It transfers responsibilities for environmental analysis of large energy infrastructure facilities from the Department of Commerce to the Public Utilities Commission. * **Certificates of Need:** This article makes conforming changes related to certificates of need for large energy facilities, including adjustments to transmission line capacity thresholds and exemptions. The bill also includes numerous amendments to existing statutes related to agriculture, pesticides, fertilizers, dairy, beginning farmers, and energy policy, as well as repeals of certain statutes and rules.