Minnesota Environmental Partnership (MEP)

Background

Founded in 1998, the Minnesota Environmental Partnership is a left-of-center coalition of over 70 environmentalist and conservationist groups that advocates stricter environmental regulations and expanded government involvement in climate and energy policy. ¹

MEP functions as a statewide umbrella organization that coordinates advocacy efforts among its member groups to influence Minnesota environmental and energy policy. MEP advocates for policies including a complete transition to renewable energy sources, elimination of fossil fuels, restrictions on mining, and increased government spending on environmental initiatives and environmental justice programs. ²

Activities

The Minnesota Environmental Partnership’s activities include coordinating legislative advocacy campaigns among member organizations, mobilizing grassroots support for left-of-center environmental policies, and providing strategic communications and policy analysis to advance its preferred environmental agenda. The organization has lobbied the Minnesota state government and worked to block legislative proposals it opposes, while simultaneously promoting policies aligned with its ideological vision of environmental governance. ³

Composition and Member Organizations

The Minnesota Environmental Partnership’s coalition includes more than 70 environmental and conservation organizations. These member groups represent a diverse range of environmental focus areas, from water quality and land conservation to climate policy and energy regulation. As of 2025, member organizations include Fresh Energy, the Sierra Club’s North Star Chapter, Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness, Friends of the Minnesota Valley, the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy, and numerous other environmentalist groups active in Minnesota.​ ⁴

MEP describes its coalition members as groups that “align with MEP’s mission and collaborative approach” and collectively work to advance “clean energy, clean water, clean transportation and a healthy environment for all Minnesotans through policy initiatives, public education, and community events.” The organization maintains an “Organization’s Database” listing members and other environmental groups in Minnesota. ⁵

Leadership

As of 2025, Steven Morse was working as the Minnesota Environmental Partnership’s executive director, a position he had held since 2006. Prior to joining MEP, Morse was a senior fellow in the College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences at the University of Minnesota, where he directed the Green Lands, Blue Waters initiative, described as a “Mississippi basin-wide cross-disciplinary initiative to address the long-term ecological impacts of agricultural practices on water quality.” Before his university position, Morse served as Deputy Commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources from 1999 to 2003 and represented southeast Minnesota as a Democrat in the Minnesota State Senate for twelve years, beginning in 1987. ⁶

As of 2025, the organization’s board included Tim Schaefer as board chair, Whitney Terrill as vice chair, Chris Knopf as treasurer, and Theresa Keaveny as board secretary, and directors Marty Cobenais, Dominique Diaddigo-Cash, Kathleen Doran-Norton, Amanda Koehler, Matt Norton, Karuna Ojanen, Howard Markus, Mark Sanstead, Karen Olson Johnson, Theresa Thompson Nix, Joe Beattie, and Avonna Stack. Board members receive no compensation for their service. ⁷

As of 2025, the organization was also employing additional staff including Matt Doll as operations and engagement director, who was handling communications, member services, and individual fundraising; Cristin Curwick as northeast Minnesota organizer, who was focusing on Great Lakes water quality issues; and Andrew Slade as director of foundation relations, who manages relationships with the foundation community. ⁷

Advocacy

Environmental Policy

In 2018, Minnesota Environmental Partnership joined 38 other environmental and conservation organizations in signing a letter to Minnesota legislators opposing the use of the state’s Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund (ENRTF) to pay debt service on $47 million in appropriation bonds for wastewater infrastructure projects in small cities and towns. The letter argued that using ENRTF dollars for wastewater bonding would violate both the constitutional and statutory intent of the fund, noting that Minnesota law explicitly prohibits using trust fund money as a substitute for traditional funding sources and bars spending it on municipal water pollution control projects under state pollution control statutes. ⁸

The coalition warned that the proposal would effectively “raid” the ENRTF until 2040, impose more than $25 million in additional interest costs with no fiscal note outlining the impacts, and undermine voter trust in the dedicated lottery proceeds that Minnesotans had approved to protect the state’s natural resources for future generations. ⁹

MEP and 16 allied environmental and conservation organizations sent a letter on May 8th, 2017, urging then-Governor Mark Dayton (D) to veto the Environment and Natural Resources Omnibus Bill (HF888). The letter argued that HF888 would weaken water quality protections, underfund agencies such as the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and Department of Natural Resources, and roll back safeguards on pesticides and pollinator habitat. It also criticized provisions limiting citizen engagement in environmental decision-making and warned that the bill would set back Minnesota’s efforts to protect public health and natural resources in favor of short-term industrial and agricultural interests. ¹⁰

Environmental Justice

Minnesota Environmental Partnership describes itself as “committed to focusing on Environmental Justice at the core of our work” and has argued that “the environmental community has much work to do to address the deep, systemic inequalities in our organizations, our state, and our nation. The organization works with the Environmental Justice Coordinating Council, described as having “Black and Brown leadership” of environmental and social justice organizations, to identify environmental justice priorities.​ ¹¹

MEP also participates as a leadership team member of the Frontline Communities Protection Coalition, a collaboration between frontline community organizations and environmental organizations designed to “center environmental justice challenges and policies” addressing communities that “most directly experience the impacts of environmental harm and pollution.”​ ¹¹