by Molly Ingram
December 2024
When you hear "clean economy," the first thing that comes to mind is likely clean energy, visions of solar panels and wind turbines. Although the clean economy encompasses more than clean energy, energy is one of the most common sectors discussed in economic and workforce development contexts. Because of its high profile, this article, the third in DEED's Green and Clean Employment Series, digs into regional and statewide energy employment trends, electric power generation employment trends, where electric power generation employment is headed, and how the workforce data currently available to governments, businesses and other organizations may or may not be able to meet their planning needs.
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A major impetus for the technology changes underway in the energy sector is reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Historically, electricity generation has been one of the largest sources of GHG emissions in Minnesota and nationally. When the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) began conducting GHG inventories in 2005, generating the energy to meet the state's needs was by far the largest source of emissions ("MPCA: Minnesota Greenhouse Gas Inventory Data," n.d.). The expansion of renewable energy infrastructure over the past 19 years succeeded in reducing GHG emissions from the energy sector. In Minnesota and nationally, the transportation sector has surpassed electricity generation to become the largest source of GHG emissions. For Minnesota, in 2020, both the transportation sector and agriculture, forestry and land use sectors generated more GHG emissions than electricity generation.
Large energy infrastructure investments in renewable energy and energy efficiency, as well as the closures and conversions of coal-fired power plants, facilitated this emission reduction. In 2020, emissions from electricity generation were 54% lower than 2005 levels ("MPCA: Minnesota Greenhouse Gas Inventory Data," n.d.), and Minnesota's energy sector is still evolving. A clean energy bill passed in 2023 specifies that Minnesota plans to reach zero emissions from electricity generation by 2040 (Office of the Governor 2023). The bill also requires 55% of Minnesota energy to come from renewable sources by 2035. Meeting the 2035 goal requires renewable energy generation to grow somewhat faster in the next 12 years than it has in the previous 12 years, 23% growth over 12 years compared to 15% growth over the past 12. Minnesota's public and private organizations are working hard to make this happen. We'll review Minnesota's current mix of electricity generation technologies in the Power Generation: Employment and Energy Sources section.
Achieving 100% carbon-free electricity by 2040 is a bigger challenge because we'll need to eliminate carbon emissions from natural gas as well as coal, but there is reason to be optimistic. Investments in cleaner infrastructure and technology are already underway, including transmission, distribution and storage infrastructure, and are supported by private, state, and federal funding. The extent to which federal funding will remain available is not yet known, but there are reasons to think it will continue, chief among those being national security benefits of energy independence and jobs (Marohn 2024). Keeping American products competitive in European markets could also increase support for emissions reduction efforts as the EU's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism nears full enforcement in January of 2026 (US Dept of Commerce, ITA 2024; Sykes 2022).
Because jobs are a main talking point in discussions around energy investments, let's review where the often-cited statistics come from. Most energy employment numbers come from the U.S. Department of Energy's Energy and Employment Jobs Report (referred to as USEER). The USEER was first produced in 2016 and provides national, state and county level data on energy jobs. Employment is reported by energy sector and by technology type (solar, coal, biofuels, smart grids, etc.). Sectors are grouped into three traditional sectors and two key end-use sectors: 1) Electric Power Generation; 2) Fuels; 3) Transmission, Distribution and Storage (TDS); 4) Energy Efficiency; and 5) Motor Vehicles. Because the technologies and sectors of interest to the Department of Energy (DOE) do not perfectly align with publicly available employment data, the DOE uses survey data to estimate what share of employment corresponds to their technology and sector definitions.
Although the public USEER data reports clean energy employment nationally and by state, it does not disaggregate that number by sector or technology. To fill this gap Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2) and Clean Energy Economy Minnesota (CEEM) produce the Clean Jobs America and Clean Jobs Midwest reports. E2 and CEEM create clean employment measures for the three traditional sectors and two key end-use sectors using the USEER data. While USEER defines a technology as clean if it is carbon-neutral (net-zero emissions), Clean Jobs America and Clean Jobs Midwest use a more limited definition of clean (E2 2024) including the following technologies within each sector:
There are some notable exclusions from these clean employment measures such as nuclear and traditional hydropower in power generation and corn ethanol and woody biomass in fuels. This is reflective of both the non-standard nature of clean or green definitions that we discussed in the first article of this series and of how challenging it can be to evaluate the environmental impacts of various technologies (Ingram 2024). Minnesota is grappling with this in relation to how energy sources should be counted under the 2023 clean energy law (Orenstein 2024b; 2024a) and how much to account for emissions generated from the production of energy sources, versus emissions released to when the fuel is used.
Figure 1, below, shows statewide trends in energy employment and clean energy employment over the past six years, 2018 to 2023, using data from USEER and Clean Jobs Midwest. Minnesota's energy employment, estimated by the DOE, was just under 130,000 jobs in 2023, surpassing pre-pandemic levels for the first time. Minnesota's clean energy employment was a little more than 62,000 jobs in 2023, again surpassing pre-pandemic levels for the first time. The share of clean energy jobs has remained nearly constant at 48% over time. Figure 2 shows how energy jobs are split across the five energy sectors. The two end-use energy sectors, energy efficiency and motor vehicles, account for the majority of energy jobs, just over 60% of all jobs. The energy efficiency sector alone accounts for about 75% of all clean energy jobs; however, that share is falling as renewable energy generation and use of electric vehicles grows.
In addition to state statistics, county-level data are available from USEER. While the data have some limitations that users should be aware of, the information still fills a gap in the standard, industry-based employment datasets, like Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW). One limitation is that USEER employment estimates are generally undercounted for sub-state regions. In 2023, about 10,000 jobs, or roughly 7% of Minnesota's total energy employment, were not represented in the county-level data. Undercounting results from USEER data suppression rules and because no aggregated employment statistics are included, which leads to greater underreporting for rural, low population counties. This effects some regions in Minnesota more than others. For example, the Northwest Planning Region contains nine of Minnesota's 15 least populated counties, according to the State Demographic Center's 2023 population estimates. To minimize underreporting to the extent possible, I've estimated missing data using unsuppressed public data from the 2018, 2019 and 2020 USEER reports.
Figures 3 and 4 illustrate how energy and clean energy employment vary across Minnesota. There have been noticeable changes in the location of Minnesota's energy workforce over the past several years. Figure 3 shows all energy employment (blue) and clean energy employment (green) for the Metro (solid lines) and Greater Minnesota (dashed lines). While the majority of energy jobs are in the Metro, the share of energy jobs in Greater Minnesota is rising because post-pandemic Greater Minnesota experienced faster growth than the Metro for both all energy and clean energy jobs. Some of this shift may be temporary due to different recoveries from the pandemic, but changes in power generation and fuel technologies associated with energy jobs in Greater Minnesota are likely here to stay for the foreseeable future.
Figure 4 shows the share of energy jobs that are clean by planning regions (left panel) and by counties (right panel) for the past eight years. Although the metro region has the largest share of clean jobs, the other planning regions' shares of clean energy jobs has increased in recent years. And within planning regions, there are large county variations in the share of clean jobs. The right panel of Figure 4 shows the share of energy jobs that are clean by county and year, with counties colored by their planning region. We see that counties in Central, Northwest and Southwest Minnesota consistently have some of the highest and lowest shares of clean energy jobs.
One reason for such large county variations are regional differences in the prevalence of the five energy sectors. Figure 5 indicates employment by energy sector for each of Minnesota's planning regions from 2018 to 2023. As we saw in the statewide data, employment in the end-use sectors – energy efficiency and motor vehicles – tends to account for most energy employment regardless of region. Although regional changes in employment for the three traditional energy sectors are more pronounced than the statewide trends. After 2020, power generation became the largest sector, by employment, in Central Minnesota, the third largest sector in Southeast Minnesota, and is steadily growing in Southwest Minnesota. In 2023 power generation beat out the transmission, distribution and storage sector to become the third largest sector in Northeast Minnesota. Fuel production has also responded to changing energy markets and technologies, most notably in Southwest Minnesota, where the sector has become the third largest for employment since 2022.
These changes are predominantly from renewable or other low-carbon technologies. Central Minnesota's growth in electricity generation employment comes from increased employment connected to solar, wind, hydropower and other non-fossil fuel power sources such as combined heat and power and nuclear. Northeast Minnesota's increased employment in electricity generation was driven by increases in wind and hydropower jobs. Southwest has seen marked growth in wind electric power generation employment. Southeast Minnesota experienced employment increases associated with hydropower, natural gas and other non-fossil fuel power sources. The Southwest's fuel production employment growth resulted from increased corn ethanol and other clean fuel employment.
As we discussed above, the traditional energy sectors profiled in USEER (power generation, transmission, distribution and storage and fuels) make up less than half of the energy jobs in Minnesota, but they are undergoing faster and more widespread technology and employment transitions than USEER's motor vehicle and energy efficiency sectors. The growth in electricity generation employment, especially clean generation, corresponds to the increasing share of Minnesota's electricity coming from renewable energy sources. Figures 6 and 7, below, are from the Minnesota Department of Commerce's Energy Data Dashboard and report what share of electricity is generated by each fuel source. On the left, Figure 6, we see that energy from renewables has risen steadily since the early 2000s with a larger increase around 2020. The share of electricity produced from coal has fallen steadily but dramatically since the early 2000s due to intentional and joint efforts between government and utility companies. Electricity generation from natural gas has increased as energy companies transition away from coal (Dunbar 2019). Nuclear electricity generation has been stable in Minnesota as a result of a 1994 moratorium on new nuclear power. On the right, Figure 7, shows generation from renewable energy sources split by type. Wind generates the most renewable energy by an extremely large margin and has since 2005, followed by solar, biomass and then hydropower. If you're curious exactly where this generation is located, Clean Grid Alliance has a nice map of Minnesota's wind and solar projects.
Employment in electricity generation mirrors some of the electricity generation trends described above, such as the growth in renewable energy-related employment, but the scale of employment changes across renewable energy technologies deviates significantly from the renewable power generation changes. Figure 8, below, shows employment in electric power generation by energy source for Minnesota as reported by the two main sources of energy employment data. The left panel is employment reported in the USEER data used by DOE and CEEM. The right panel shows employment reported in the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) for the Electric Power Generation industry (NAICS industry 22111), which is a standard source of employment information used by the Bureau of Labor Statistics and other federal and state government agencies.
Employment data from QCEW more closely aligns with the technology mix generating electricity, shown in Figure 6, than the employment data from USEER. QCEW reported fossil fuel-related employment is hovering around 40% for the past six years, similar to fossil fuels' share of power generation. The share of employment related to nuclear electric power generation is also similar to its share of electric power generation, although nuclear employment is not represented in the figure due to data suppression requirements. Renewable energy employment does not align with power generation mix even using QCEW data. Hydropower is overrepresented in employment relative to power generation while solar and especially wind are underrepresented in terms of employment per energy generated.
This situation is reversed in the USEER data. While employment with electricity generation from fossil fuels and nuclear is relatively comparable across the USEER and QCEW data, all renewable energy generation employment (solar, wind and hydropower) reported in the USEER data exceeds QCEW reported employment by roughly ten to one. USEER reports that solar power generation has the largest number of jobs, wind power generation has the second largest number of jobs and in 2021, other power generation, such as geothermal, combined heat and power and biomass, passed fossil fuel power generation for the third largest number of energy generation jobs in Minnesota.
The large differences in USEER and QCEW employment numbers, especially for renewable energy sources, arise because USEER data captures energy-related employment from organizations classified across many different industries as defined by the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) and QCEW reported employment is placed in distinct NAICS industries. Figure 9 illustrates this point. The dashed light green line represents employment reported by QCEW for the Electric Power Generation industry (NAICS industry 22111), and the solid-colored lines indicate the number of USEER reported energy generation jobs by NAICS sector. The number of energy generation jobs USEER found in the Utilities sector (NAICS code 220000) matches almost perfectly the number of jobs QCEW reports for the NAICS Electric Power Generation industry. From Figure 8, we saw that USEER's fossil fuel generation employment is very close to QCEW's fossil fuel generation employment, and the same with nuclear generation employment. This combined with USEER's and QCEW's matching Utility sector employment, as shown in Figure 9, indicates that electricity generation employment for fossil fuels and nuclear power is concentrated heavily in the Electric Power Generation industry as defined by NAICS. However, jobs for electricity generation from renewable sources are spread out across many different NAICS sectors, most notably the Construction sector.
One obvious reason why so many renewable energy generation jobs reported by USEER are in the Construction sector is because renewable energy infrastructure is still being built as technologies continue to expand or as new technologies are developed. The development and expansion of new technologies (and associated energy infrastructure) can also lead to growth in manufacturing jobs via demand for new components and final products.
Unlike construction, manufacturing employment does not need to be in the same state or even the same country as where the energy generation will ultimately occur. This means the employment impacts are more diffuse and may or may not be seen in Minnesota. Renewable energy generation employment in the Professional Services sector follows a similar pattern to employment in the Manufacturing sector in that new technologies or increased demand can spur more demand for R&D or engineering jobs for example, but these jobs need not be located where the technology will ultimately be used.
Although the growth in energy-related construction employment appears most dramatic in Figure 9. For all sectors except the Utility sector, employment in 2023 has grown about 50% compared to 2018 employment according to the USEER data. This may indicate that Minnesota is in a good position to benefit from energy technology innovation across the whole economy, not just in the Construction sector, and could also indicate Minnesota could benefit from increased demand for new energy technology from other states and countries as well.
Another reason that more renewable energy generation employment comes from outside of the Utility sector is that NAICS codes are slow to adapt to technology changes. While NAICS codes are evaluated for updates every five years, with the most recent update in 2022, it can be hard for newer technologies and services to employ a large enough share of workers and be considered stable enough to warrant creating a distinct industry. Energy generation from anerobic digestion, or biogas, is one example of this. Methane released during the anerobic digestion process is captured and can be used as an energy source. This letter from the American Biogas Council petitioning for the inclusion of a biogas industry in the 2022 NAICS update illustrates how complex industry classification can be and why it's challenging to track employment and economic data without an industry code (Serfass 2021).
As Minnesota, other states, and other countries secure financing to expand their clean energy infrastructure in order to meet their GHG emissions reduction goals, it is also crucial to ensure there will be a skilled workforce available to build, run and maintain these new systems. Planning to meet future energy workforce demand can be especially challenging as new technologies are still being developed and explored. DEED's Labor Market Information office is currently conducting an expansive workforce analysis to support the state's 2025 Climate Action Framework, which will include more detailed information on the Energy sector's future workforce needs and how to support them. The analysis will cover energy distribution, fuel production and other energy sub-sectors. This analysis will be released in the second half of 2025, so for this article we'll focus on what changes are currently being planned for Minnesota's electric power generation.
Every four years the Minnesota Department of Commerce releases the Energy Policy and Conservation Quadrennial Report, which provides a detailed review of Minnesota's energy landscape including policy standards, utility pricing trends, generation trends and other topics. Along with past electricity generation trends, the report covers Minnesota projected electricity generation capacity and demand. The most recent report was released in 2024 and included Figure 10, which shows what share of electricity is predicted to be generated by each source in 2035 (Minnesota Dept. of Commerce 2024, pg. 130). Comparing Figure 10 to Figures 6 and 7, we see that the share of electricity generation from wind needs to essentially double over the next ten years from the current 25% to projected 51%. The share generated from solar needs to roughly triple from 4% to 13%, and the share generated from hydropower needs to quadruple from 1% to 4%.
Note that Figures 6, 7 and 10 only indicate the share of electricity generation from each source, not the amount of energy generation. If energy use in Minnesota were to fall dramatically it could be possible to reach the projected electricity generation shares shown in Figure 10. However, Minnesota's electricity demand is projected to increase around 5% over the next 15 years (Minnesota Dept of Commerce 2024). How much demand will increase largely depends on how many businesses and households switch from natural gas to electricity, often referred to as fuel-switching and encouraged as a way to improve energy efficiency and reduce emissions. Meeting increased electricity demand with the projected generation mix shown in Figure 10 will require expanding renewable energy infrastructure for generation, transmission and storage.
As noted in the previous section, most employment associated with electricity generation from non-fossil fuel and non-nuclear energy sources is outside of the Utility sector, with the majority of employment in the Construction sector . Figure 11 shows how many electricity generation jobs USEER report for each job that QCEW reports in the Electric Power Generation industry by power type.
The flat light purple line for fossil fuel electricity generation employment shows that, over the past six years, for each job QCEW reported in the fossil fuel Electric Power Generation industry, USEER identified approximately 1.2 jobs. This implies that for each job within the fossil fuel Electric Power Generation industry, there are only 0.2 jobs in other industries that support fossil fuel electric power generation. This reinforces the previous observation that, for fossil fuels and nuclear power, employment is almost completely located within the NAICS defined Electric Power Generation industry for fossil fuels.
The opposite is true for employment in electricity generation from renewable energy sources. More solar, wind and hydropower electricity generation employment is in industries outside of the utility sector than in the Utility sector's Electric Power Generation industry, as defined by NAICS. Given that most of the non-Electric Power Generation industry jobs are in the Construction sector, this raises some important questions: 1) Is high non-industry employment a permanent feature of renewable energy employment or a temporary feature as we expand renewable energy infrastructure? 2) If this is a permanent feature, what implications does this have for the number and quality of renewable energy jobs as well as barriers to renewable energy career paths? While we can't answer these questions definitively yet, we can review what the current data suggests and highlight some things that policy makers, regional planners, and education and workforce development professionals should keep in mind.
In Figure 11, we see the pattern for hydropower employment is most similar to that of fossil fuel employment. One explanation for this is that, like fossil fuel electricity generation, hydropower electricity generation is well-established. Most of Minnesota's hydropower stations are several decades old and several stations are over 100 years old. Over the past 15 years, many stations have undergone, or are currently undergoing, significant technology upgrades which increase energy efficiency and electricity generation capacity. These upgrades are supported by employment in construction and other non-utility industries but not to the same degree as the infrastructure expansion occurring for wind and solar electricity generation. Each year since 2018, USEER has identified approximately two hydropower electricity generation jobs for each job in the Hydroelectric Power Generation industry as reported by QCEW, so for each job in the Hydroelectric Power Generation industry, there is one job in a non-utility industry that also supports hydropower electricity generation.
From 2018 to 2021, for each job in the Wind Electric Power Generation industry there were roughly 10 jobs facilitating wind electricity generation from other industries, but this number fell to roughly 8 jobs by 2023. This drop is not the result of fewer jobs due to finished infrastructure projects. Figure 8 from the previous section shows both USEER and QCEW find increasing employment in wind electricity generation over this period. The falling ratio of USEER reported jobs to QCEW reported jobs means that more wind electricity generation jobs are being located in the formal Utility sector. This suggests that while some of the growth in wind energy jobs is transitional as energy infrastructure is built out, there is also growth in the more permanent Utility sector jobs associated with the long-term running and maintenance of new renewable energy infrastructure.
It is not clear yet whether wind electricity generation employment will follow the pattern of fossil fuel generation employment, where nearly all employment is in the Utility sector. One feature of renewable energy technologies that will affect what share of jobs are within the Utility sector or in other sectors is that they can be used efficiently and safely on smaller scales, unlike most fossil fuel electricity generation technology. In Minnesota, there has been limited expansion of small-scale wind power generation infrastructure, although Minnesota is one of the states with the greatest potential for profitable small- and mid-scale installations (EIA 2024).
In contrast, the majority of solar electricity generation capacity is from community solar gardens, residential, and commercial installations, not utility-owned installations, which may have important implications for employment. Figure 12, taken from the Minnesota Department of Commerce's Solar Energy Dashboard, shows the total generation capacity from the four different types of solar power installations. In 2023, the solar electricity generation capacity of utility companies was half the capacity of community solar gardens and a third of the state's total capacity. This gap will close over time. The capacity of utility-owned solar power installations grew faster in 2022 than community solar gardens, and there are several utility-owned solar projects in the permitting and planning stages (Orenstein and Steinberg 2024).
The large share of non-utility solar electricity generation capacity, in addition to infrastructure expansion as discussed previously, explains why the ratio of USEER reported solar electricity generation jobs to QCEW reported jobs is so much higher than the other energy sources' ratios. In 2020, the first year for which we have USEER and QCEW solar electricity generation employment data, USEER identified 120 solar electricity generation jobs for each single job in the Solar Electric Power Generation industry reported in QCEW. This ratio fell significantly since then, however, and in 2023, USEER identified only 60 solar electricity generation jobs for each job reported in QCEW, which implies that for each job within the Solar Electric Power Generation industry (NAICS code 221114), there are 59 jobs in other industries that support solar electric power generation.
Similar to what we observed with wind powered electricity generation, the falling ratio of USEER to QCEW reported jobs in solar powered electricity generation does not mean that there are fewer jobs outside the Utility sector or that construction jobs decrease as solar infrastructure construction projects are completed. As we saw in Figure 8, employment in solar electricity generation is increasing in both the USEER and QCEW data, and while the number of all solar electricity generation jobs reported by USEER increased by more than the number of solar electricity generation industry jobs reported by QCEW, the number of solar electricity generation industry jobs grew faster, meaning that an increasing share of solar electricity generation jobs are located in the formal Utility sector. This growth in solar electricity generation employment is likely due to the expansion of solar generation by utility companies but may also include employment at privately-owned community solar gardens if solar electricity generation is the main source of revenue for the business.
Even as the share of solar electricity generation employment in the Utility sector increases, it is unlikely that employment will ever be concentrated as heavily in the Utility sector as it is for fossil fuel electricity generation. Residential, and many commercial, customers that generate solar electric power will need electrical construction contractors to install, maintain, and repair the technology as opposed to the permanent staff of a utility company. We know that, in general, the construction sector faces some unique challenges to attracting and retaining workers, especially a diverse workforce (Casale 2016). The nature of construction work can also make it difficult to ensure that jobs are high-quality or align with common "good jobs" principles. These challenges are generally less prevalent for Utility sector employment.
A simple, high-level wage comparison using DEED's QCEW data tool shows that for Minnesota, the average annual wage in the Utility sector (NAICS code 221) was just over $125,000, and the average annual wage for Specialty Trade Contractors (NAICS code 238, which includes solar panel installation contractors) is just under $80,000. Ongoing analysis is in progress to assess whether these general differences in Construction sector and Utility sector jobs hold true for the specific solar electricity generation within each sector, but these generalities suggest that, as electricity generation moves away from fossil fuels, decisionmakers need to consider the structural shift in employment that is likely to occur and how that shift will impact job quality and access, in addition to considering overall employment changes. The evolution of solar electricity generation employment can also serve as an important benchmark for other energy technologies, such as wind electricity generation and anerobic digestion, that could see differential growth in small, medium, and large-scale projects.
The energy sector has already undergone noticeable technology changes, which have been accompanied by falling GHG emissions and increasing energy employment, and more changes need to occur if Minnesota wants to reach its GHG emissions and clean energy goals. The development and expansion of new electric power generation technology, especially renewable energy technology, over the past two decades played a sizeable role in the energy sector's reduced GHG emissions and increased employment. Growing renewable electricity generation contributed to the increasing share of energy jobs located in Greater Minnesota and supports significantly more jobs than fossil fuel electricity generation.
However, unlike with fossil fuels, most renewable electricity generation jobs are outside of the Utility sector, in sectors such as Construction, Manufacturing and Professional Services . Since 2021, construction accounted for a little over half of all electricity generation employment and accounted for considerably more than half of all renewable electricity generation employment over the six years for which we have data (2018-2023). Even though the share of renewable electricity generation employment in the Utility sector is increasing and the share in construction and other non-utility industries will fall naturally once most new energy infrastructure is built, the share of renewable electricity generation employment in construction or other non-utility industries will likely always be higher that it is for fossil fuel electricity generation. This is because renewable electricity generation technologies can operate efficiently and safely on a smaller scale than most fossil fuel electricity generation technologies, which creates a need for employment outside of the Utility sector to specifically support smaller-scale electricity generation installations, such as residential and commercial. While this is currently most apparent for solar electricity generation, it can also apply to other technologies like wind and biogas (anerobic digestion).
As the energy sector, and the electric power generation sector in particular, continue to evolve and adopt cleaner technologies, the analysis above highlights two key points for Minnesota to consider:
Significant public and private sector planning is in progress to ensure that Minnesota can successfully and equitably meet its clean energy goals and GHG emissions reductions' targets. This article summarize research from an ongoing economy-wide workforce analysis which supports the development of Minnesota's 2025 Climate Action Framework, an update to the 2022 Climate Action Framework. In addition to planning, there are several existing or upcoming state agency programs that actively support workforce development in key clean economy occupations and industries, such as DEED's Minnesota Job Skills Partnership and Clean Economy Equitable Workforce Grant, the existing and expanding apprenticeship programs at Minnesota's Department of Labor and Industry, and the Training for Residential Energy Contractors Program administered by Minnesota's Department of Commerce. DEED's Energy Transition Office oversees several initiatives that support communities undergoing economic transitions as the energy industry evolves. For more information on the workforce development programs, refer to the links above. You can learn more about the 2025 Climate Action Framework and how to get involved here.
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Dunbar, Elizabeth. 2019. "Minnesota's Departure from Coal Will Mean More Natural Gas, Nuclear." MPR News. May 28, 2019.
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———. 2024b. "What Counts as Carbon Free under Minn. Climate Law? It's Complicated." July 20, 2024.
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