MINNEAPOLIS — When Minneapolis City Council Member Robin Wonsley began pursuing a carbon fee in 2022, she saw it as a promising way to cut the city’s greenhouse gas emissions and raise revenue for climate-related projects.

Wonsley succeeded in passing the carbon fee last year, making Minneapolis the only major city in the Midwest to do so. The city began charging its largest carbon polluting facilities for their annual emissions in July, with a total of 65 facilities becoming subject to the fee starting next year.

There’s just one problem: The fee will likely have little effect on climate change.

“It’s way too small to significantly cut pollution,” said Noah Kaufman, who researches carbon taxes at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy.

As the Trump administration retreats from the nation’s commitments to tackle climate change, many city and state governments are stepping in to pick up the mantle. But there are limits to what local governments can do to address a global issue like climate change.

Carbon fees work by incentivizing companies to voluntarily reduce emissions to avoid paying the extra cost. A utility might invest in more renewable energy or install carbon capture technologies. A commercial building owner might invest in energy efficiency upgrades to reduce gas use. Companies won’t change, however, if simply paying the fee is cheaper, Kaufman said.

The carbon fee Wonsley proposed last fall set the price at $452 per ton of carbon dioxide emitted. If a company’s annual carbon emissions were 1,000 tons, it would need to pay the city $452,000. State law, however, only allowed the city to generate enough revenue to recoup the cost of running the program, including administering grants for pollution reduction projects.

“I’d expect facilities to respond similarly to how drivers would respond if gasoline prices increased by 4 cents per gallon,” Kaufman said. “They’ll just pay it.”

The office of Mayor Jacob Frey estimates that Minneapolis’ new carbon fee will reduce annual emissions by 1,000 tons. That’s compared to 3.6 million tons of CO2 the city released into the atmosphere last year.

“I think it’s disappointing,” Wonsley told the Minnesota Star Tribune. “We’ll see if this truly reduces carbon emissions in the coming months, as we get further information back, but I’m skeptical.”

The mayor’s office said a higher fee would have likely constituted an illegal tax. Under Minnesota law, cities can’t establish new taxes or raise current taxes without state approval — a legal dynamic that’s broadly known as pre-emption.

“Minneapolis is committed to leading the way when it comes to climate change,” Ally Peters, communications director for Frey’s office, said in a statement to the Star Tribune. “Every policy shift has to start somewhere, and this is a really important start at the local level.”

The limit on the city’s taxing authority also prevents Minneapolis from charging a facility more than $175,000 per year under the carbon fee, even if the facility’s annual carbon emissions warrant a far higher price.

Xcel Energy’s Riverside Generating Plant emits more than 1 million tons of CO2 each year, compared with NRG Energy Center’s 89,000 tons. Both facilities will be charged the same amount under the program.

Catherine Wolfram, an energy and economics professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management, said the price cap will limit the program’s effectiveness. Without it, she said, Xcel Energy would be paying $5 million next year instead of $175,000.

“That’s unfortunate,” Wolfram said. “A ton of CO2 is a ton of CO2. It doesn’t matter if it came from a small company or a big company.”

Altogether, the city expects to raise more than $1.1 million from 65 facilities next year. That will pay for new staff, as well as grants offered through the city’s Green Cost Share program. Facility owners can apply for grants up to $175,000 under that program to pay for energy efficiency upgrades and other improvements that help mitigate overall air pollution, but don’t necessarily focus on carbon emissions.

There is little consensus over how high a carbon fee should be, said James Coleman, a law professor at the University of Minnesota who focuses on energy law. Estimates of the social cost of carbon — how much financial damage is caused by climate change, essentially — have varied anywhere from $1 to $500 per ton, he said.

The Obama administration, for example, estimated the social cost of carbon at about $43 per ton, while the first Trump administration put that number closer to $3 per ton, Coleman said. A fee of $452 per ton, he added, would be on the very high end, even for more progressive governments like the European Union. Sweden currently levies the highest carbon tax rate at $144.62 per ton.

Amelia Vohs, the climate program director for the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy, shared similar reservations about the city’s carbon fee. But she also saw it as a positive step as the federal government stalls and reverses climate action.

“Having Minneapolis do it helps familiarize people with it and normalize it,” she said. “Turning local and turning toward the state and looking at what can be done in places where we have more control or more influence is exactly the right thing to do in this moment.”

Other municipalities are pursuing similar aims. A report released this week by a coalition of cities and environmental groups found that at least 22 Minnesota cities and counties have crafted climate action plans that aim to reduce emissions. Many of them are also seeking ways to raise funds for their climate programs after federal funds were cut.

Minnesota Sen. Jennifer McEwen, a Democrat representing the Duluth area, said that local governments may not be able to solve climate change on their own, but she still thinks it’s important that they continue advancing strong climate policy.

“The biggest obstacle we have right now is money,” said McEwen, who sits on the state Senate’s Environment, Climate, and Legacy Committee. “Hopefully that federal funding will come back, and then we’ll be ready to receive it, we’ll be ready to act on it, we’ll be ready to make those improvements as soon as those resources become available.”

Meanwhile, Wonsley isn’t giving up her fight for a higher Minneapolis carbon fee. Working with state Sen. Omar Fateh, they’re hoping to pass new legislation that would give cities more flexibility with their taxing authority.

“Cities are trying to figure out, ‘How do we fund our climate resiliency work?’” Wonsley said. “People in our city are saying we have to do something. There’s gridlock at the federal level, there’s potentially not the biggest appetite to do this at the state level. They’re going to organize where they can.”

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