In This Issue:
- Policy Adoption Meeting is Next Thursday! – Please Join Us!
- Regional Climate Action Plan Approved by Metropolitan Council
- Arterial BRT Plan Update
- Federal Action Impacts THC Market in Minnesota
Policy Adoption Meeting is Next Thursday! – Please Join Us!
Metro Cities’ policy adoption meeting will be on Thursday, November 20th at 4:00 pm. This is a one hour virtual meeting for the final adoption of legislative policies for the coming year. A quorum is required. The CEO and Director of the MN Historical Society, Kent Whitworth, will be our guest speaker. Your attendance is important! RSVP to Jen Dorn at [email protected].
Regional Climate Action Plan Approved by Metropolitan Council
At their meeting on November 12, the Metropolitan Council voted to finalize the Comprehensive Climate Action Plan (CCAP) and to submit the plan to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
This work began in 2023 and is funded via a federal EPA grant. The CCAP includes an 11-county greenhouse gas inventory, emissions projections, and reduction targets. It draws on content found in the Council’s existing Priority Climate Action Plan, the Imagine 2050 Regional Development Guide, and information gathered via community collaboration. The Priority Climate Action Plan was submitted in Spring of 2024. The presentation at this week’s Council meeting contains graphs illustrating GHG inventories by sector as well as a list of reduction measures for each of those sectors (transportation, electricity, building energy, and industrial processes). One new GHG reduction strategy was added to the document to reflect changes in state law around highway expansion and greenhouse gas emissions mitigation.
Legislation passed in 2023 now requires the regional development guide to plan for and consider climate adaptation and mitigation. As a result, local governments in the region will be required to consider GHG emissions and climate adaptation in their comprehensive plans. One key component of this CCAP is the development of technical assistance tools for local governments to help them meet this requirement.
As part of Wednesday’s motion, the Council also accepted the public comment report on the CCAP. Themes from the public comments include requests for clearer visuals, details on implementation, prioritization of inclusive and equitable approaches, as well as several sector-specific suggestions.
Click HERE to view the final draft for the Comprehensive Climate Action Plan.
Contact Mike Lund at [email protected] or 651-215-4003 with any questions.
Arterial BRT Plan Update
Metropolitan Council members were provided with an update on the region’s arterial bus rapid transit (BRT) plan at their meeting on November 12. Metro Transit staff are currently engaging in detailed technical evaluation of possible new BRT corridors after which the proposed lines will be ranked and prioritized.
There are eight BRT lines planned to be operating by 2030. The A, B, C, and D lines are currently operating. The E line will open on December 6, 2025. The F line is undergoing engineering work, and the G and H line are in the planning stages. Click HERE for more information on current and future BRT lines in the METRO system. Of the corridors staff are currently evaluating, the top three performing corridors will become the J, K, and L lines.
The presentation from Wednesday’s meeting went into detail on how corridors are identified, screened, and evaluated for inclusion in the BRT network. The presentation also touched on how the West 7th Street corridor is being folded into this process.
Corridors are evaluated using criteria including ridership estimates, equity impacts, costs, and land use (walkability, housing density, transit-supportive land uses, and population increases). This technical evaluation will be used along with community and rider feedback and readiness considerations to prioritize the three new BRT lines. The top three prioritized corridors are anticipated to be presented in January 2026 as an information item. Click HERE to view the full presentation from Wednesday’s meeting.
Contact Mike Lund at [email protected] or 651-215-4003 with any questions.
Federal Action Impacts THC Market in Minnesota
A provision contained in the legislation ending the federal shutdown reverses the change made in the 2018 farm bill that legalized low-dose hemp-derived THC products. The bill, which was passed by congress and signed into law by the President on Wednesday, prohibits hemp products containing more than 0.4 milligrams of THC, which is the psychoactive ingredient in cannabis. This change will become effective one year from now.
Minnesota has regulated these products since 2022. The state’s breweries have been especially active in the production and sale of hemp-derived products since their legalization. State law currently prohibits entities from holding both a lower-potency hemp business license and an adult-use cannabis retailer license. A 2025 change in law gave cities the authority to hold both license types to allow cities interested in opening a municipal cannabis retail operation to continue selling these popular low-potency hemp products at their municipal liquor stores.
The change passed into law this week puts companies working in the hemp space in the same situation as adult-use cannabis businesses, who cannot write off operating expenses on their tax bill, cannot access traditional banking, and cannot obtain the same types of insurance as businesses selling federally compliant products. Members of the hemp industry are hoping a federal regulatory framework can be developed before the prohibition becomes effective and many are pointing to Minnesota as a model for such a framework.
Contact Mike Lund at [email protected] or 651-215-4003 with any questions.