Vote-Climate is a Minnesota-based environmentalist organization that supports restructuring the energy sector to fight climate change and opposes the construction of new energy pipelines in Minnesota. Vote-Climate has opposed the use of zero carbon nuclear energy. ¹

Policy Positions

Vote-Climate claims that absorption of carbon emissions by the earth’s oceans may lead to acidification and “collapse of the entire food chain.” ² Vote-Climate states that climate change will lead to “famines and [that] wars over water and food will all increase” ³ and that limiting increases in global temperatures to 2 degrees Celsius is required to “maintain a climate similar to what humans have known in their entire 10,000 history,” while higher increases is equivalent to playing “Russian roulette” with our future. ⁴ Vote-Climate claims that sharply reducing non-weather dependent emissions in this decade is “necessary” to maintain our current climate conditions. ⁵

Vote-Climate supported President Barack Obama’s Clean Power Plan, ⁶ a proposed rule that sought to regulate non-weather dependent emissions from power plants through forced reinvestments/re-engineering. The plan would have reduced 32% of non-weather dependent emissions from power plants in the United States by 2030. ⁷

In addition to expensive structural changes to power generation in the United States, Vote-Climate advocates for sustainable agriculture, ⁸ which results in more expensive food products, ⁹ electric vehicles, ¹⁰ and carbon tax plans ¹¹ that would tax energy generation at a flat rate of $40 per ton of CO2 emissions. ¹²

Activities

Vote-Climate recommends several environmentalist podcasts. ¹³ Recommendations made by Vote-Climate include the Hot Take Podcast, ¹⁴ which contains episodes titled “It’s Not Climate Denial, It’s White Supremacy,” “The Case for Intersectional Climate Coverage,” and “Oilgarchy + the Real F*ckbois of Fossil Fuel.” ¹⁵

Vote-Climate has a news clipping service which provides quotations without further context, including: “We have seen in northern Minnesota, yes, some of the fastest-changing winter conditions in the country,” ¹⁶ and “[t]he news for moose is not good across the country’s northern tier and in some parts of Canada. A recent and rapid decline of moose populations in many states may be linked to climate change.” ¹⁷

Vote-Climate urges its readers to petition Congress, ¹⁸ participate in organizations that lobby for more weather-dependent sources of energy in Minnesota, such as Fresh Energy; ¹⁹ oppose energy pipelines, such as the MN350 campaign to prevent a pipeline in northern Minnesota; ²⁰ and join environmentalist organizations such as  Climate Generation/Will Steger Foundation. ²¹

Opposition to Nuclear Energy

Vote-Climate was one of more than 600 co-signing organizations on a January 2019 open letter to Congress titled “Legislation to Address the Urgent Threat of Climate Change.” The signatories declared their support for new laws to bring about “100 percent decarbonization” of the transportation sector but denounced nuclear power as an example of “dirty energy” that should not be included in any legislation promoting the use of so-called “renewable energy.” ²²

Nuclear power plants produce no carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gas emissions, and as of 2021 accounted for 19 percent of American electricity production—the largest source of zero carbon electricity in the United States. ²³ An October 2018 proposal from The Nature Conservancy noted that zero-carbon nuclear plants produced 7.8 percent of total world energy output and recommended reducing carbon emissions by increasing nuclear capacity to 33 percent of total world energy output. ²⁴

Leadership

Jean Ross is the president of Vote-Climate. She studied art and design at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and University of Minnesota. ²⁵ On March 1, 2021, Ross signed on to an environmentalist petition in her capacity as president of Vote-Climate that urged President Joe Biden to halt the Minnesota Line 3 oil sands pipeline. ²⁶

1. “Group letter to Congress urging Green New Deal passage.” Earthworks. January 10, 2019. Accessed July 27, 2023. https://www.earthworks.org/publications/group-letter-to-congress-urging-green-new-deal-passage/
2. “Why it’s Urgent.” Vote-Climate. https://vote-climate.org/why-its-urgent/
3. “Why it’s Urgent.” Vote-Climate. https://vote-climate.org/why-its-urgent/
4. “Why it’s Urgent.” Vote-Climate. https://vote-climate.org/why-its-urgent/
5. “Why it’s Urgent.” Vote-Climate. https://vote-climate.org/why-its-urgent/
6. “Solutions.” Vote-Climate. https://vote-climate.org/solutions/
7. ^[1] Nelson, Colleen M and Harder, Amy. “Obama Announces Rule to Cut Carbon Emissions From Power Plants.” Wall Street Journal. August 3, 2015. Accessed May 5, 2022. https://www.wsj.com/articles/obama-announces-rule-to-cut-carbon-emissions-from-power-plants-1438627158?tesla=y
8. “Solutions.” Vote-Climate. https://vote-climate.org/solutions/
9. Kiefer, Philip. “Why is it so expensive to eat sustainably?” Popular Science.  April 5, 2022. Accessed May 5, 2022. https://www.popsci.com/environment/sustainable-food-system/
10. “Solutions.” Vote-Climate. https://vote-climate.org/solutions/
11. “Solutions.” Vote-Climate. https://vote-climate.org/solutions/
12.  Mooney, Chris and Eilperin, Juliet. “Senior Republican statesmen propose replacing Obama’s climate policies with a carbon tax.” Washington Post. February 8, 2017. Accessed May 5, 2022. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/02/07/senior-republican-leaders-propose-replacing-obamas-climate-plans-with-a-carbon-tax/
13. “Recommended Podcasts.” Vote-Climate. https://vote-climate.org/recommended-podcasts/
14. “Recommended Podcasts.” Vote-Climate. https://vote-climate.org/recommended-podcasts/
15. “Latest.” Hot Take Pod. https://www.hottakepod.com/
16. “A Changing Minnesota.” Vote-Climate. https://vote-climate.org/a-changing-minnesota/
17. “A Changing Minnesota.” Vote-Climate. https://vote-climate.org/a-changing-minnesota/
18. “Take Action – Partners.” Vote-Climate. https://vote-climate.org/partners/
19. “Take Action – Partners.” Vote-Climate. https://vote-climate.org/partners/
20. “Take Action – Partners.” Vote-Climate. https://vote-climate.org/partners/
21. “Take Action – Partners.” Vote-Climate. https://vote-climate.org/partners/
22. “Group letter to Congress urging Green New Deal passage.” Earthworks. January 10, 2019. Accessed July 27, 2023. https://www.earthworks.org/publications/group-letter-to-congress-urging-green-new-deal-passage/
23. “Nuclear explained.” U.S. Energy Information Administration. Accessed July 25, 2023. https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/nuclear/us-nuclear-industry.php
24. “The Science of Sustainability.” The Nature Conservancy. October 13, 2018. Accessed July 25, 2023. https://www.nature.org/en-us/what-we-do/our-insights/perspectives/the-science-of-sustainability/
25. “About Us-Contact Us.” Vote-Climate. https://vote-climate.org/about-us/
26. “President Biden, stand firm against the Line 3 pipeline and act now to halt its construction.” Wilderness Society. https://www.wilderness.org/articles/media-resources/environmental-groups-urge-biden-halt-line-3-pipeline