MPCA seeks more permitting capacity, sustainable aviation fuel readiness and product-stewardship authority

Katrina Kessler, commissioner of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, told the Environment, Climate, and Legacy Committee that the MPCA's budget request focuses on resourcing the agency's core work, improving permitting transparency and speed, and positioning the state for technology and materials transitions such as sustainable aviation fuel and battery recycling.

Why it matters: The MPCA enforces state and delegated federal pollution-control programs and administers several pass-through and remediation funds. Commissioner Kessler said the agency must balance customer service, delegated federal responsibilities and the technical demands of new environmental priorities while operating in a constrained fiscal environment.

Core-operating and air-program funding

Kessler described two near-term items: a modest operating adjustment to cover inflation-driven costs such as fleet, phones and compensation, and an environmental-fund appropriation to align air-program funding with a statutory expectation that air fees cover program costs.

Permitting reform and technical capacity

The MPCA proposal combines staff and technology: the agency would fund permit writers and engineers as a temporary “SWAT team” to address backlog, pilot use of machine learning tools for high-volume tasks such as comment review, and create a temporary permit ombudsman position (described in companion legislation) to assist complex applicants. The agency indicated some of the permitting support will come from the general fund and some from the environmental fund.

Sustainable aviation fuel and circular-economy items

Kessler said the agency proposes three environmental-fund positions to prepare MPCA to review and regulate facilities that would produce sustainable aviation fuel, including assessing feedstock streams and solid-waste implications. The MPCA also proposed a product-stewardship model for electronics and batteries; the agency said it expects to recover program administration costs from the producer-responsibility organization and that the agency request includes approximately four FTEs and agency administration costs (the presentation showed agency costs in the $700,000 range).

Other targeted proposals

- Mercury in skin-lightening creams: one FTE and program funds to support testing, online marketplace enforcement and culturally appropriate outreach. - Food-waste and organics diversion: two FTEs to provide technical assistance and to manage the large Climate Smart Food Systems grant previously awarded to the MPCA. - Remediation backlog: additional remediation division staff, funded by the remediation fund, to triage and assess increasing numbers of contaminated-site reports. - Emergency response cost recovery: a technical correction to clarify the agency’s ability to bill responsible parties for emergency responses that do not meet hazardous-waste definitions; MPCA estimated about $200,000 per year in recovered funds. - County feedlot appropriation correction: a fix to a 2023 appropriation to align biennial intent and save approximately $1 million in the biennium.

Staffing and capacity

Director Tom Johnson said the MPCA workforce is about 900 full-time employees on a typical day; Kessler told the committee that many of the proposed positions are temporary or are drawn from non-general-fund sources.

Committee questions and federal grant context

Committee members asked about the number of new FTEs and how the proposed positions would be funded. Kessler and Director Johnson noted many proposals are funded from special funds. Commissioners and staff also discussed needing to prioritize work where federal funds and state match interact. Kessler addressed questions about the previously reported $200 million Inflation Reduction Act grant (see separate item): she said the award was frozen and then, as of late last week, the federal portal appeared to be unlocked and the MPCA planned to begin submitting reimbursement requests, but she expressed uncertainty about the long-term availability of those federal dollars.