More than half the U.S. states with laws requiring utilities to buy renewable energy are considering ways to pare back those mandates after a plunge in natural gas prices.

The city of St. Paul is giving Ramsey County a slap on the back for a renewable energy project that St. Paul essentially funded.

It’s been six years since DFL legislators reached a deal with former Gov. Tim Pawlenty to require utilities to produce 25 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2025. Energy advocates are cheering the progress made since the Renewable Energy Standard was passed in 2007, and they’re starting to roll out bills that would increase the amount of power generated from solar and wind.

Gov. Mark Dayton’s administration and a host of rural economic development interests are hoping to boost the amount of renewable energy produced by farmers, homeowners and assorted small businesses. But that goal is running into a controversy over the rate at which those producers are paid for the power they generate, and just how much power they can sell to utilities.

Crown Hydro is considering turning to the Legislature to get its controversial downtown Minneapolis hydroelectric project moving forward, a prospect opponents criticized as an “end-around.”

Rep. Marty Seifert wasn't exactly anticipating success for his proposal to roll back the state's renewable energy goals. The Marshall Republican, who is running for governor, knew his bill was unlikely to gain much support before the House's Energy Finance and Policy Division.

Following last week’s introduction of a bill that would scrap municipal garbage burning and landfill gas as renewable energy sources, the chair of a Minnesota House of Representatives panel said existing burners may be exempted from a proposed ban.

Rather than fixating on the number of green jobs, Minnesota officials and environmental professionals and advocates on Friday agreed to concentrate on boosting energy efficiency and building up renewable energy sources.

[An excerpt of this story was first published in last Friday’s PIM Weekly Report.]With the dismal budget scene, Capitol hearings can be quite a depressing ...