Grants Archive
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Fresh Energy
September 4, 2025
Amount Requested$10,000.00
Address408 Saint Peter Street, Suite 350
Saint Paul, Minnesota 55102-1125
Julia Olmstead
Chief Development Officer
Email hidden; Javascript is required.
Website
- Carbon Reduction/Clean Energy
Proposal Information
Funds are Being Requested for:Program Support
Mission StatementFresh Energy’s mission is to shape and drive bold policy solutions to achieve equitable carbon-neutral economies. Together we are working toward a vision of a just, prosperous, and resilient future powered by a shared commitment to a carbon-neutral economy.
Amount Requested$10,000.00
Program Budget$590,420.00
Organizational Budget$5,882,545.00
Relationship to the Olseth Family FoundationYes
Summarize Your RequestThis proposal fits into the Olseth Family Foundation’s “Carbon Reduction and Clean Energy” initiative. Fresh Energy requests support for our work to transition Minnesota’s transportation sector away from fossil fuels and onto carbon-free electricity and/or low- or zero-carbon fuels. Specifically, we request general operating support to resource Fresh Energy’s Transportation department and its staffers as they continue to shape and drive the focus and priorities of Fresh Energy’s policy work in advancing innovative, high-leverage opportunities to reduce carbon emissions and spur an equitable energy transition across Minnesota’s transportation sector, with a focus on accelerating the adoption of electric vehicles and build-out of charging infrastructure both publicly and at-home. As with our other policy teams, Fresh Energy’s transportation team will accomplish these priorities through our advocacy at the state legislature and Public Utilities Commission, as well as with state agencies. We will also work through our multi-pronged communications strategy to continue to develop a market for electric vehicles in the state, both for consumers and fleet operators.
This work remains crucially important as the transportation sector is still the largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions in Minnesota. Widescale vehicle electrification is crucial for reducing these carbon emissions in Minnesota and elsewhere. Making the case for the economic and health benefits of vehicle electrification and its role in ensuring that Minnesota remains on the cutting edge for emerging economic innovation and opportunity can help reinforce adoption efforts and buttress and/or mitigate federal, state, and local policy initiatives.
Our work in this proposal will center on expanding charging infrastructure, improving electric vehicle (EV) affordability and access, and electrifying buses and trucks through expanding equitable utility planning and investments for EV charging, and developing consumer and climate-friendly rate designs.
Overview of the Grant Request
Population ServedMinnesotans
Geographic Area ServedMinnesota and the Midwest
List Three Measurable Goals That This Funding Will Help You Achieve.Fresh Energy has been advocating for electric vehicle programming in electric utility planning since the Public Utilities Commission first explored its role in supporting rapid and equitable clean transportation adoption back in 2017. Utilities play a vital role in not only building the backbone of electric vehicle charging in the state – both at-home charging and public charging – but also ensuring that such charging is happening in a way that maximizes benefits to all utility customers and optimizes grid use. This is even more true now when state and federal funding are limited or in flux.
This proposal is focused on bolstering electric utilities’ 2025 Transportation Electrification Plans (TEPs) so that a plan for at-scale investments in charging and rebates is ultimately adopted at the Public Utilities Commission, alongside equitable programs that ensure widespread and affordable access to EVs.
Three specific goals of our work on utilities’ TEPs are:
1. Ensuring that Xcel’s new, permanent multifamily EV charging program matches the market needs and includes tailored solutions for affordable housing, renters, and other people so far under-represented in the transition to EVs.
2. Ensuring utilities’ overall EV investments are in line with climate goals and help fill the gaps caused by federal funding clawbacks and policy reversals (e.g. vehicle rebates where it makes sense), across passenger vehicles and commercial vehicles.
3. Aligning approval of utilities TEPs with their 3-year energy efficiency plans such that funds and outcomes are optimized, and implementation is seamless and not hampered by regulatory complexity.
How Will You Accomplish These Goals?Fresh Energy will accomplish the goals above by engaging in three specific strategies:
1. Serving as a technical expert and primary advocate to utilities and in front of the Public Utilities Commission.
Fresh Energy -- alongside our partners Union of Concerned Scientists, Sierra Club, and Plug In America -- has been a significant advocate for ambitious and equitable electric vehicle planning at the PUC since the 2010s. We will continue to hone our technical expertise to achieve the goals listed above both informally (through discussions with utilities and other interested parties) and formally (through regulatory comments and hearings).
2. Expanding who supports utilities’ transportation electrification efforts to bolster support at the PUC and clear the path for approval.
It is crucial for the PUC to understand that utilities’ investments in grid-and-climate friendly electric vehicle planning and programming is supported across the board by diverse stakeholders. Fresh Energy is working to bring in supportive voices from state agencies, other nonprofits, and EV operators (e.g. electric school operators) to help underscore the role utilities play in paving the path towards rapid and equitable transportation electrification.
3. Communicating a vision and following through on the story that opportunities to shape EV policies still exist.
With the negative outcomes from the most recent federal reconciliation bill and openly hostile response to EVs from the current administration, it can seem potential to make positive change on EVs is limited. However, our work at the PUC remains one of the crucial levers we can still pull to support swift and equitable transportation decarbonization. We will continue to write content and share this opportunity with the broader public and our partners to build momentum towards robust TEPs and a successful outcome at the PUC.
Looking Forward, How Will You Measure These Goals?For the work described in this proposal, Fresh Energy will know it has been successful if we achieve a significant increase in overall EV investments from each of the major regulated utilities in Minnesota in their proposed TEPs (due November 1, 2025) and an outcome from the PUC in 2026 that maintains the majority of investments that are equitable, affordable, and needed to support rapid EV adoption and climate emissions reduction
Implementation Plan
Start Date10/01/2025
End Date09/30/2026
Describe Most Significant Collaborations With Other Organizations And Efforts.Fresh Energy works with a coalition of partners – the Union of Concerned Scientists, Sierra Club (National), and Plug In America – to engage in clean transportation regulatory proceedings at the MN Public Utilities Commission. We are also supporting the Coalition for Clean Transportation (i.e. CCT) -- of which we are a steering member -- in engaging in the informal and formal TEP proceedings. CCT includes MN350, Sierra Club North Star chapter, Health Professionals for a Healthy Climate, CURE, and The Alliance, and focuses on transit bus electrification and electric school bus education and deployment.
What Is The Projected Timeline For The Proposed Activities?July – October 2025: Informal engagement with utilities on their plans, bringing in more and new voices into utility TEPs, researching best practices from other states’ utilities’ TEPs, identifying how to streamline regulatory approval of TEPs that overlap with utilities’ energy efficiency programs.
November 2025 – February 2026: Formal review and analysis of utilities’ proposed TEPs; writing formal regulatory comments and building persuasive arguments for or against specifics; coordinating with other influential PUC stakeholders to strengthen arguments.
February – June 2026: Formal hearing at the PUC on utilities TEPs; outcome established.
Supplemental Information
Current Year Organizational Budget
Program Budget For Proposed Funding Period
Audited Financials (if applicable)
Other EntriesApproval StatusUnapproved
Fresh Energy
September 4, 2025
Amount Requested$10,000.00
408 Saint Peter Street, Suite 350
Saint Paul, Minnesota 55102-1125
Julia Olmstead
Chief Development Officer
Email hidden; Javascript is required.
- Carbon Reduction/Clean Energy
Program Support
Fresh Energy’s mission is to shape and drive bold policy solutions to achieve equitable carbon-neutral economies. Together we are working toward a vision of a just, prosperous, and resilient future powered by a shared commitment to a carbon-neutral economy.
$10,000.00
$590,420.00
$5,882,545.00
Yes
This proposal fits into the Olseth Family Foundation’s “Carbon Reduction and Clean Energy” initiative. Fresh Energy requests support for our work to transition Minnesota’s transportation sector away from fossil fuels and onto carbon-free electricity and/or low- or zero-carbon fuels. Specifically, we request general operating support to resource Fresh Energy’s Transportation department and its staffers as they continue to shape and drive the focus and priorities of Fresh Energy’s policy work in advancing innovative, high-leverage opportunities to reduce carbon emissions and spur an equitable energy transition across Minnesota’s transportation sector, with a focus on accelerating the adoption of electric vehicles and build-out of charging infrastructure both publicly and at-home. As with our other policy teams, Fresh Energy’s transportation team will accomplish these priorities through our advocacy at the state legislature and Public Utilities Commission, as well as with state agencies. We will also work through our multi-pronged communications strategy to continue to develop a market for electric vehicles in the state, both for consumers and fleet operators.
This work remains crucially important as the transportation sector is still the largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions in Minnesota. Widescale vehicle electrification is crucial for reducing these carbon emissions in Minnesota and elsewhere. Making the case for the economic and health benefits of vehicle electrification and its role in ensuring that Minnesota remains on the cutting edge for emerging economic innovation and opportunity can help reinforce adoption efforts and buttress and/or mitigate federal, state, and local policy initiatives.
Our work in this proposal will center on expanding charging infrastructure, improving electric vehicle (EV) affordability and access, and electrifying buses and trucks through expanding equitable utility planning and investments for EV charging, and developing consumer and climate-friendly rate designs.
Minnesotans
Minnesota and the Midwest
Fresh Energy has been advocating for electric vehicle programming in electric utility planning since the Public Utilities Commission first explored its role in supporting rapid and equitable clean transportation adoption back in 2017. Utilities play a vital role in not only building the backbone of electric vehicle charging in the state – both at-home charging and public charging – but also ensuring that such charging is happening in a way that maximizes benefits to all utility customers and optimizes grid use. This is even more true now when state and federal funding are limited or in flux.
This proposal is focused on bolstering electric utilities’ 2025 Transportation Electrification Plans (TEPs) so that a plan for at-scale investments in charging and rebates is ultimately adopted at the Public Utilities Commission, alongside equitable programs that ensure widespread and affordable access to EVs.
Three specific goals of our work on utilities’ TEPs are:
1. Ensuring that Xcel’s new, permanent multifamily EV charging program matches the market needs and includes tailored solutions for affordable housing, renters, and other people so far under-represented in the transition to EVs.
2. Ensuring utilities’ overall EV investments are in line with climate goals and help fill the gaps caused by federal funding clawbacks and policy reversals (e.g. vehicle rebates where it makes sense), across passenger vehicles and commercial vehicles.
3. Aligning approval of utilities TEPs with their 3-year energy efficiency plans such that funds and outcomes are optimized, and implementation is seamless and not hampered by regulatory complexity.
Fresh Energy will accomplish the goals above by engaging in three specific strategies:
1. Serving as a technical expert and primary advocate to utilities and in front of the Public Utilities Commission.
Fresh Energy -- alongside our partners Union of Concerned Scientists, Sierra Club, and Plug In America -- has been a significant advocate for ambitious and equitable electric vehicle planning at the PUC since the 2010s. We will continue to hone our technical expertise to achieve the goals listed above both informally (through discussions with utilities and other interested parties) and formally (through regulatory comments and hearings).
2. Expanding who supports utilities’ transportation electrification efforts to bolster support at the PUC and clear the path for approval.
It is crucial for the PUC to understand that utilities’ investments in grid-and-climate friendly electric vehicle planning and programming is supported across the board by diverse stakeholders. Fresh Energy is working to bring in supportive voices from state agencies, other nonprofits, and EV operators (e.g. electric school operators) to help underscore the role utilities play in paving the path towards rapid and equitable transportation electrification.
3. Communicating a vision and following through on the story that opportunities to shape EV policies still exist.
With the negative outcomes from the most recent federal reconciliation bill and openly hostile response to EVs from the current administration, it can seem potential to make positive change on EVs is limited. However, our work at the PUC remains one of the crucial levers we can still pull to support swift and equitable transportation decarbonization. We will continue to write content and share this opportunity with the broader public and our partners to build momentum towards robust TEPs and a successful outcome at the PUC.
For the work described in this proposal, Fresh Energy will know it has been successful if we achieve a significant increase in overall EV investments from each of the major regulated utilities in Minnesota in their proposed TEPs (due November 1, 2025) and an outcome from the PUC in 2026 that maintains the majority of investments that are equitable, affordable, and needed to support rapid EV adoption and climate emissions reduction
10/01/2025
09/30/2026
Fresh Energy works with a coalition of partners – the Union of Concerned Scientists, Sierra Club (National), and Plug In America – to engage in clean transportation regulatory proceedings at the MN Public Utilities Commission. We are also supporting the Coalition for Clean Transportation (i.e. CCT) -- of which we are a steering member -- in engaging in the informal and formal TEP proceedings. CCT includes MN350, Sierra Club North Star chapter, Health Professionals for a Healthy Climate, CURE, and The Alliance, and focuses on transit bus electrification and electric school bus education and deployment.
July – October 2025: Informal engagement with utilities on their plans, bringing in more and new voices into utility TEPs, researching best practices from other states’ utilities’ TEPs, identifying how to streamline regulatory approval of TEPs that overlap with utilities’ energy efficiency programs.
November 2025 – February 2026: Formal review and analysis of utilities’ proposed TEPs; writing formal regulatory comments and building persuasive arguments for or against specifics; coordinating with other influential PUC stakeholders to strengthen arguments.
February – June 2026: Formal hearing at the PUC on utilities TEPs; outcome established.
Unapproved