Do we really need that highway? Law seeks to change Minnesotans' relationship with cars in the wake of a climate crisis.

A law hailed by climate change activists calls for major state highway projects in Minnesota to curb greenhouse gas emissions. And if it doesn't, a road expansion, an interchange, an E-ZPass lane and other projects could be defunded or even abandoned.

Those are extreme examples. But the state law, passed in 2023 and refined this year, sets its sights squarely on transportation — confronting Minnesotans' love affair with their cars, the single biggest contributor to atmosphere-choking gases.

In doing so, the DFL-controlled Legislature directed the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) — a road builder born more than a century ago as the State Highway Commission — to give Minnesotans more choices so they drive less.

"We've created a roadmap for a better way of living," said Rep. Larry Kraft, DFL-St. Louis Park, the freshman lawmaker who championed the new climate law with a team of allies. "We have to think differently and change systems."

Those systems involve the factors that MnDOT's highway planners consider when deciding whether to expand roads and highway infrastructure. Come next year, they will have to take into account climate impacts, including greenhouse gas emissions, plus demand for vehicle miles traveled, a key metric that measures the amount of time people spend driving.

If those calculations do not meet MnDOT's targets, the scope of the project must be altered "until it conforms," or it could be dropped, according a state working group that studied the new law.

Or, a system of offsets could be deployed, such as public transit projects, bike and pedestrian paths, prairie restoration or highway roundabouts.

"The goal is to really change the way we think about transportation investments and to create a framework that strongly encourages more multi-modal investments that don't require as much driving," said Sam Rockwell, executive director of Move Minnesota, a St. Paul nonprofit that promotes sustainable transportation.

The new policy is a critical cog in Gov. Tim Walz's plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050. Climate activists and some lawmakers have long said cutting emissions in transportation has to go well beyond people embracing electric vehicles and adopting California-style clean car rules that call for stricter tailpipe emissions.

"You can't electrify your way out of this crisis," Kraft said.

The new policy goes into effect next February, and many of the details on how it will be implemented are still being worked out.

But for its part, MnDOT officials say they're all in.

Jon Solberg, MnDOT's assistant division director for sustainability, planning and program management, says the climate targets "are another piece of the puzzle" when contemplating road projects. "You have to think about it from a climate perspective. Do we need to expand? We will evaluate all the pluses and minuses."

Solberg said it's not unlike dealing with wetland mitigation, or crafting ways to comply with existing state and federal environmental laws when planning a new project. It will also encourage agencies, regional planning bodies and local governments to work together more to ensure the targets are met.

"It adds another component to good decision-making," he said. "It makes it better. It leaves our world, our communities, in a better place and that's really important."

A working group studying the new law concluded "there are few nationwide precedents for implementing this legislation in its entirety." However, several countries, including Scotland, the United Kingdom and New Zealand, have deployed similar targets for years.

It's unclear whether more scrutiny will increase the cost of roads and other infrastructure, a concern among Republican critics of the law. "This is a lot of new regulations before roads are built, it definitely feels inflationary," said Rep. Tom Murphy, R-Underwood.

"These projects take a long time, and they could be scrapped," he added. "The costs could be significant."

By contrast, RMI, a Colorado-based clean energy think tank, concluded in a study last year that Minnesotans would save up to $91 billionover the next quarter century if the new transportation climate goals are met.

The study attributes the savings to reduced costs for drivers, fewer traffic accidents and deaths, and health benefits from cleaner air and the availability of active transportation options.

"It's nation-leading," said RMI Senior Associate Miguel Moravec, of Minnesota's new law. "This has never been done before."

Looking for guidance

When contemplating the law, Kraft and his legislative colleagues looked to a similar one in Colorado for guidance.

After the law was adopted in 2021, the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) canceled two major highway expansions and Denver's version of the Metropolitan Council moved nearly $1 billion from highway expansions to climate-friendly transportation projects.

"It's changed some projects but not all projects," said CDOT Executive Director Shoshana Lew, in an interview. "It's certainly not the case that we walked away from all our projects. How we do them looks different now, but there are absolutely highway projects where we need them."

In one instance, a $1 billion expansion of Interstate 70 west of Denver heading toward the state's vaunted ski resorts also incorporated transit shuttle service, buses to ski resorts and a carpooling app. The idea: Get people out of their cars, while improving the highway.

"It's striking a good balance," Lew said. "It's all about better options that make people's lives better."

Still, Colorado will likely miss its first greenhouse gas reduction targets for 2025 and 2030, largely because the transportation sector lagged, according to media reports.

Lew said CDOT purposely chose tough climate targets, and the agency will push to meet them. "We didn't want to pick targets that were so far out we would have to walk them back," she said. "Nor something that was too easy."

MnDOT's Solberg said the results from Minnesota's law won't be as dramatic. "MnDOT for many years has effectively said our priority is preservation of the system," he said. "We haven't really planned an expansion for years."

Solberg noted it's too early to determine which highway projects in MnDOT's 10-year Capital Highway Investment Plan will be most affected by the new law.

Critics fear the new law means MnDOT will divert highway funds to public transit projects, including light rail, in an effort to coax people out of their cars. But Solberg said "the money that MnDOT uses is for roads, we can't use it to build transit like that."

Rep. John Petersburg, R-Waseca, wonders how people in rural Minnesota could drive less. "There's no public transit. You need to get places like the grocery store," he said. "If you try to force people to drive less, it's going to be hard."

As the Republican lead on the House Transportation Finance and Policy Committee, Petersburg said he has had many conversations with Kraft about climate change over the past two years. "The discussion was worth having," he said. "But this is a drastic change that is ill-advised."

Kraft, who quit a successful career in the corporate world to focus on climate issues, has heard these concerns before. "I usually tell them, 'I wish you were right, but the earth is telling us we have to think differently.'"