The executive order creating the Governor’s Council on Biofuels (Executive Order 19-35) was signed by Minnesota Governor Tim Walz on Brian Thalmann’s farm in Plato, Minn. on September 16, 2019.
The Council released a report on November 2, 2020 with their findings, conclusions, and recommendations that resulted from a nine-month-long consensus-building process. Topics of discussion included E15 (gasoline blended with 15 percent ethanol) and mid-level blends, biodiesel, and biofuels infrastructure; low-carbon fuel standard (LCFS); biofuels use in the state fleet; public understanding and marketing; vehicles and biofuels; advanced biofuels; and benzene/BTEX.
The commissioner of agriculture was asked by the 2020 Minnesota legislature to prepare a report by January 15, 2021 outlining Minnesota's ability to meet the petroleum replacement goal in Minnesota Statutes, section 239.7911, and use biofuels to achieve the greenhouse gas reductions under Minnesota Statutes, chapter 216H. The Legislature’s directives for this report (contained in Laws of Minnesota 2020, chapter 89, article 4, section 36) closely parallel the directives to the Governor’s Council on Biofuels. Their January 2021 report provided below discusses the Governor’s Council’s recommendations and how they relate to the topics required in the commissioner's report.