Climate change is not a distant threat. We feel it here in Minnesota in harsher storms, hotter summers, and growing strain on our farms and natural resources. The Second District has a real stake in getting the response right, and we are home to one of the most significant pieces of energy infrastructure in the state: the Pine Bend Refinery. How we handle a place like Pine Bend will define whether the transition to cleaner energy is something done to our communities or something done with them.

I believe in a just transition, and I want to be honest about what that means. Pine Bend employs people at good wages. Those are our neighbors, and their livelihoods are real. A climate plan that treats those workers as acceptable losses is not a plan I will support. At the same time, pretending we can ignore the environmental cost of how we produce energy is not leadership either. The answer is not to choose between workers and the environment. It is to refuse that false choice.

In Congress, I will fight to transition the Pine Bend Refinery toward cleaner energy while protecting the pay and livelihoods of the people who work there. That means federal investment in cleaner technology and retooling, paired with strong guarantees for workers: wage protection, retraining tied to real jobs, and a seat at the table as these decisions are made. The people who powered our economy should not be left behind as it changes. They should be the first ones brought along.

Beyond Pine Bend, I will support the broader build-out of clean energy that creates good jobs right here in the district, from wind and solar to the skilled trades work of modernizing our grid and our buildings. Climate policy done well is also economic policy. The communities that lead the transition will capture the jobs and investment that come with it. The ones that resist it will simply be left with the costs and none of the benefits.

I will also protect the air, water, and land that our families and farmers depend on, and make sure the burdens of pollution do not fall hardest on the communities least able to bear them. Environmental justice means everyone breathes clean air, not just the people who can afford to live away from the smokestacks.

This is exactly the kind of issue that demands proactive leadership: seeing the change that is coming and shaping it on our terms, for our workers and our environment both. I am running to make sure the Second District meets that future strong, employed, and clean.