Clueless in Minnesota: Melissa Hortman, DFL-Brooklyn Park, chairwoman of the House Energy Committee, cites "the increasing fury of hurricanes since Katrina" as a reason we need to pay up for solar power in Minnesota

Solar power growth in Minnesota faces generation gap - TwinCities.com

Rep. Melissa Hortman, DFL-Brooklyn Park, chairwoman of the House Energy Committee, said she supports the concept of a solar energy standard. But like Dibble, she isn't sure that 10 percent is the right target.
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Climate change is another factor, Hortman said. She cited the increasing fury of hurricanes since Katrina, plus the wild swings between sudden floods and drawn out drought across parts of Minnesota this past year as evidence that the state -- and the world -- must move away from fossil fuels and toward alternatives like solar energy.

"I think climate is the biggest challenge facing my generation," she said. "It's our moon shot, if you will.

Better days will return

[1/27/2013] In 2005, Hurricane Katrina was called a consequence of global warming and hence a harbinger of increasing numbers of Category 3 or higher hurricanes. Since then, major hurricane activity has plummeted. No Category 3 has hit the United States since 2005. Sandy was just a Category 1.

It's official: 2012 corn crop was a bin-buster

[1/15/2013] Minnesota farmers produced the largest corn crop in state history in 2012, harvesting a record 1.37 billion bushels, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said Friday in its final grain report of the season.
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The state's sugar beet production was 12.3 million tons, also a state record, USDA said.