MPCA outlines budget priorities, permits backlog, SAF and e‑waste stewardship to committee

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency on March 25 presented the governor's budget recommendations to the Environment and Natural Resources Finance and Policy Committee, centering on an operating adjustment for negotiated salary increases and inflation, a permitting efficiency package, regulatory support for sustainable aviation fuel projects and a proposed statewide electronics and battery product stewardship program.

The agency described the package as rooted in “our mission to protect and improve the environment and human health,” Commissioner Katrina Kessler said in online remarks introducing the presentation. Tom Johnson, MPCA government relations director, led the committee briefing on the proposals.

The agency told lawmakers the operating adjustment is intended to fund routine work including prevention, permitting, remediation and scientific analysis. Johnson described the permitting package as a mix of budget and policy proposals that would add six temporary positions targeted at backlogged permits, an ombudsperson study and pilot for modernizing processes, a modest credentialing idea for…