Aug 8 - McClatchy-Tribune Business News Formerly Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News - Conrad Defiebre Star Tribune, Minneapolis

Minnesota needs a reconstituted Department of Energy to meet the challenges and opportunities of alternative fuels, conservation and renewable energy, DFL gubernatorial candidate Mike Hatch said Monday.

At a news conference outside his attorney general's office in the State Capitol, Hatch also called for requiring electric utilities to produce at least 20 percent of their power from renewable sources by 2020.

And he urged further government study of other energy initiatives such as conservation tax credits, energy-wise building codes, low-resistance auto tires and consumer incentives for alternative-fuel vehicles.

"We face an energy crisis, and change is inevitable," Hatch said. "We cannot wait for leadership from a federal government that has a pro-oil policy. We need to position Minnesota for the future."

Minnesota had a cabinet-level energy commissioner in the 1970s, but the functions of the office were scaled back and eventually merged into the Department of Commerce. Hatch suggested that a new state Department of Energy could evaluate proposed energy strategies on the criteria of cost-benefit ratio, pollution reduction and stimulus for the Minnesota economy.

"We don't get that kind of evaluation now," he said. "It's all piecemeal; it's all politics. It ought not to be just who hired the better lobbyists."

Minnesota utilities lobbied against the so-called "20-20" electric generation mandate when it was debated in the Legislature this year, and it failed to pass. Hatch said that cost the state a chance at landing a major wind turbine manufacturing plant, up to 1,550 new jobs, $1.7 billion in capital improvements and $342 million in payments to farmers operating turbines on their land.

Meanwhile, however, business is booming for alternative energy firms, and Minnesota "has done very well" with ethanol brewed by farm cooperatives for motor fuel, he noted.

"We're not just talking about getting energy, which we're very dependent on and don't have enough of," he said. "We're talking about how it affects our economy. It is important that the state of Minnesota be a leader in encouraging the development of such facilities in our state."