DFL-controlled energy committees in the House and Senate have labored this month on omnibus legislation designed to address concerns about climate change and to boost Minnesota’s renewable energy industry.

For many lobbyists, working the Legislature is as much about the bills they are able to stop as the bills they are able to pass. That’s why Friday’s final deadline for policy measures to pass through committees in both chambers will be cause for either celebration or relief for Minnesota’s Capitol lobbying corps.

As the first committee deadlines of 2013 loom, Minnesota legislators have spent the week holding hearings on high-profile legislation ranging from the legalization of same-sex marriage to state funding for a Mayo Clinic-driven “destination medical center” development push in Rochester.

The bill, which supporters are calling the Family Economic Stability Act, was introduced in both chambers on Wednesday. In addition to raising the minimum wage, the bill would fund childcare assistance programs and provide per-child tax credits for families.

The outlook for energy policy is quite different as DFLers get set to take control of both the House and Senate in the 2013 legislative session. Business groups that had pursued an aggressive agenda in the last two years of GOP control will likely adopt a more defensive posture.

As they prepare to take the reins of state government starting in 2013, Minnesota Democrats are attempting to strike a delicate balance between erasing a projected budget deficit and handling pent-up demand to tackle liberal social issues after two decades of divided control in St. Paul.

Over the past decade, Senate District 47 — stretching around north metro area cities like Champlin, Coon Rapids and Brooklyn Park — has been a place where moderate Democrats could prosper despite the district’s slight GOP tilt.

The last two election cycles have witnessed wave elections for both parties that tilted the Minnesota House of Representatives in polar opposite directions.

Talk of tax reform created a few pariahs during the 2011 session. A handful of moderate Republicans, including Senate Taxes Chairwoman Julianne Ortman and Finance Chairwoman Claire Robling, proposed reviewing the hundreds of tax breaks on state books.

Nobody knows what the legislative maps will look like in 2012. The politically charged redistricting process will almost certainly be decided by the courts, most likely in February. But that uncertainty over legislative district boundaries hasn’t stopped numerous challengers on both sides of the aisle from declaring their candidacies.