Jenny Glumack, manager of legislative affairs for the Minnesota Rural Electric Association, wrote this piece on behalf of its member cooperatives.

On Jan. 5, the Minnesota Legislature proposed a bill to transition all electricity sold in the state to be carbon-free by 2040. The bill must consider potential impacts to the reliability and affordability of the essential electric service provided by Minnesota cooperative utilities to their 1.7 million members.

As new energy generation and transmission facilities are built to meet clean energy requirements, existing generation facilities are bei...