House Energy Committee sends HF 9 to taxes panel after rejecting carbon-capture and sales-tax changes

The Minnesota House Energy Committee referred House File 9 to the Committee on Taxes after roll-call votes that defeated two amendments seeking to narrow or remove parts of the bill.

The committee rejected Amendment A8, offered by Representative Acum, which would have deleted Section 5 of the bill addressing carbon capture and carbon sequestration. Representative Acum framed the amendment as a technical, “friendly” change and argued the technologies named in the bill are already permitted under existing law. "I would encourage people to support the amendment the friendly amendment to be seen as friendly and vote to remove that section of the bill," Acum said. Representative Baker opposed the amendment, saying, "I will not support the amendment," and arguing Section 5 keeps more options on the table as the state works toward its zero-emission objective (referenced in the record as "02/1940"). The A8 amendment failed on a roll call, with…