Community Power

Today we are remembering Representative Karen Clark and are truly saddened to hear of her passing on the last day of Pride month. In the pictures, she graciously held a meeting with Community Power back in 2016 as well as sharing a moment with us right before a committee meeting in 2018.
She was nationally renowned for being the longest serving openly le***an member to serve in a state legislature in the United States. In her first year in 1981, she introduced the gay and le***an human rights bill with Allan Spear, which eventually passed as part of the Minnesota Human Rights bill in 1993. We must also let it be known that Karen Clark campaigned upon local renewable power when she was first elected in 1980. In more recent years, she was a champion for environmental justice both in and out of legislature.
One of her signature achievements, the 2008 Clark Berglund law requires the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency to analyze and consider the cumulative levels and effects of past and current pollution from all sources before issuing or renewing industrial permits in highly polluted, frontline areas. At Community Events she would display her a flip chart illustrating cumulative pollution and used the law she passed to help defend the Phillips neighborhood from projects that would impose further pollution.
After her retirement from the legislature, Karen Clark continued to show up in dedication for her vision of transforming the Roof Depot, a former warehouse, into an urban farm and community hub. She lived to see the day when the East Phillips Neighborhood Institute acquired the Roof Depot site from the city. That fit a larger template in her work with the Women’s Environmental Institute, where she brought in national leaders such as Will Allen on re-localizing food production to the twin cities.

Yesterday, the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission moved to maintain the line extension allowance policy for gas utilities. The policy allows utilities to profit by charging existing Minnesota customers an estimated $34 million every year to extend gas pipes to add new customers while also delivering a return to shareholders.

“The Future of Gas proceeding is a critical opportunity to reimagine and build an affordable, clean energy system, which is why I’m disappointed the Commission chose not to end the unfair policy of line extension allowances," said Natalie Cook, coalition manager, Clean Heat Minnesota "A future continuing to invest in both a gas and electric system is an expensive future and keeps communities hooked on the volatile cost of fossil fuels and growing utility charges."

https://www.sierraclub.org/minnesota/blog/2026/06/utility-regulator-delays-action-cut-34-million-gas-utility-charges-minnesota

PUC maintains subsidies for gas utility expansion The Citizens Utility Board of Minnesota (CUB) is disappointed in today’s decision from the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (PUC) allowing utilities to continue charging ratepayers to subsidize the expansion of the natural gas system.