Winter camelina, an oilseed crop in the same family as canola, could be a climate change problem solver, according to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.

The agency has announced that it will fund a $75,000 grant for the University of Minnesota’s Forever Green Initiative for an independent study on how the state can scale up to 1 million acres of winter camelina, MPCA commissioner Katrina Kessler said Tuesday at the university’s crop research fields in Falcon Heights.

“I think this is a great opportunity to support rural Minnesota, rural communities, farmers who want to innovate – and decarbonize the airline industry to help us meet our goals around getting to carbon neutral in 2050 as a state,” Kessler said.

What is SAF and how do crops help?

Sustainable aviation fuel, or SAF, is fuel made from non-petroleum sources blended with traditional jet fuel to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It can reduce aviation emissions by up to 94%, according to the MPCA.

Winter camelina has a high oil content and a low carbon intensity score, which makes it beneficial for sustainable aviation fuel, according to the MPCA. The crop also helps to improve soil health and water quality. Additionally, it can be used to create animal feed, food and bioplastic, according to Forever Green Initiative co-director Dr. Mitch Hunter.

“Right now, we don’t have a pipeline, so to speak, built to take on farm production and turn it into fuel,” Hunter said. “The study that we’re launching will lay out the steps that we need to take to get there.”

Planning for 1 million acres

In September 2024, Delta Air Lines used SAF derived in part from winter camelina to fuel a flight from Minneapolis to New York. The demonstration flight was the first out of Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport to use SAF.

Every winter, about 17 million acres of cropland in Minnesota has nothing growing on it, according to Hunter. He said these cold months are a missed opportunity for farmers to grow crops like winter camelina, which is planted in the fall and harvested in the spring.

“If we can put productive, profitable crops on those acres that can protect the soil and give farmers something to harvest, we can make progress on improving farm economics, improving water quality and protecting the soil that we depend on for growing food today and for future generations,” Hunter said.

Close to 5000 acres of the crop were planted in the upper Midwest in the fall of 2024, according to Hunter, but the goal for Minnesota alone is to cover 1 million acres.

“We have an ambitious goal, which is to have 1 million acres of winter camelina in the upper Midwest by 2035,” Hunter said. “We will really have to pull out all the stops to get to that goal, but we have a big, committed coalition of supporters who are all behind us in that goal, and that gives me hope that we can get there.”

Farming the crop

A field of pennycress, closely related to winter camelina, grows at the University of Minnesota in Falcon Heights. (Talia McWright / Pioneer Press)

The university and MPCA are encouraging farmers to consider growing winter camelina to help drive the demand for climate-smart crops.

Ben Penner, a farmer from Mankato, said that in 2024, Penner Farms planted close to 150 acres of winter camelina.

Penner said there hasn’t been a crop to hit the market to help with fuel emissions like winter camelina and its relatives, since soybeans, which grows in the summer months and can also be used for sustainable aviation fuel. The potential for a crop like winter camelina is there, he said, but it’s new and that means there’s still a lot to learn.

“The demand is there, and it is a fuel pathway that will grow,” Penner said. “What I tell farmers is, ‘Let’s learn everything we can now so that when that market comes fully online, then we’ll be able to partake in the market rather than watch someone else do it.’”

Along with soybeans and winter camelina, other crops that can be used as SAF feedstock include pennycress, woody biomass and corn, according to the MPCA.

“The journey that soybeans were on 80 years ago is the journey we’re on with winter camelina; taking a promising plant and turning it into a high-performing crop,” Hunter said.

Federal and state funding

According to the MPCA, Gov. Tim Walz’s 2025 budget includes $20 million over the next 10 years for tax credits to promote SAF production in Minnesota. In 2025, the state will also complete a roadmap for SAF industry development and regulation.

“This is part of our whole government approach around climate change,” Kessler said. “We need to be doing whatever we can across the state, across all of our economic sectors to reduce greenhouse gases.”

Kessler and Hunter acknowledged that many environmental organizations and efforts have experienced federal funding cuts under the Trump administration and are unsure whether this will impact their plans.

“We were selected for a $10 million grant from the Department of Energy, which would greatly further our research on camelina and pennycress, and we understand that that grant is currently under review by the new administration,” Hunter said.

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Despite the uncertainty, Kessler and Hunter said the state remains committed to supporting this initiative.

“We remain hopeful that it will come through, and in the meantime, we are extra thankful for the support of all of these partners who can continue the work while we wait,” Hunter said.

The Forever Green Initiative is partnering with Greater MSP’s MBOLD coalition and SAF Hub, Friends of the Mississippi River, Minnesota Environmental Partnership, the McKnight Foundation, MPCA and the Minnesota Department of Agriculture to conduct the study and fund the total cost of the research, which is between $250,000 to $500,000, according to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.

A St. Paul man has been sentenced to 17 years in prison for hiding out in an alley behind his home last summer and fatally shooting a 22-year-old as he drove past.

Lawrence Danzel Phelps, 31, pleaded guilty in Ramsey County District Court to second-degree unintentional murder while committing a felony last week, before the start of the second day of testimony in his trial in the June 24 killing of Royce D. McKinney on the city’s East Side. Phelps’ brother told police the shooting stemmed from a feud over a previous alleged marijuana theft and shooting, according to the criminal complaint.

A plea agreement included the length of his prison term, which he received Monday from Judge Kellie Charles. He was given credit for nearly 10 months already served in custody.

Phelps was initially charged with second-degree intentional murder. In January, prosecutors added the unintentional murder charge and possession of a firearm after a conviction for a crime of violence. Those charges were dismissed as part of the plea deal.

According to the complaint, officers were called to Van Dyke Street and York Avenue about 9:40 p.m. June 24 on reports of gunshots and a horn sounding. McKinney, of St. Paul, was in the driver’s seat of a Chevrolet Tahoe SUV that had crashed into a boulevard tree.

McKinney, who had a gunshot wound to his upper torso, was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police said there was a handgun on the driver’s seat of McKinney’s vehicle. It had a full magazine and no round in the chamber.

About 8 a.m. the next day, Phelps’ 17-year-old brother was seen leaving the area with a backpack and law enforcement pulled over the Uber he was riding in. When officers were taking him into custody, he said, “There is a gun in my bag,” and asked, “What am I wanted for, murder?” and then said the backpack wasn’t his.

The teen told police he knew the gun he was arrested with was involved in the murder and that a friend of his mother’s, “Derrick,” was the shooter.

He said McKinney followed them home from Cub Foods, taunted Derrick and scared his mother by revving his engine outside their home. Police talked to the teen’s mom who “denied the existence of a ‘Derrick,’” the complaint says.

Investigators knew the teen had an older brother, Phelps. They reviewed surveillance video from Cub that showed the teen with his 6-year-old nephew and Phelps, but not another person who could be Derrick, the complaint says.

The teen was charged with possession of a firearm by a person under 18, and later requested to talk with investigators again. He said he’d talked to his mother and “feels comfortable now telling the truth about what occurred,” the complaint against Phelps says.

Lawrence Danzel Phelps (Courtesy of the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office)

He said Phelps previously stole marijuana from McKinney. About three months before McKinney’s killing, McKinney shot at Phelps, and casings found at a shooting scene matched McKinney’s firearm, the complaint says.

The teen said he was at Cub on June 24 when he noticed McKinney in a Tahoe, which followed them home. A couple of hours later, the teen was inside with his family and he heard an engine revving outside. His sister looked outside and said it was the Tahoe again. The teen told Phelps, who grabbed a gun and ran outside.

Soon after, the teen “heard several shots and hit the floor with his other family members,” the complaint says.

Phelps came back inside, saying, “I gotta go,” changed his clothes and left the firearm. “Phelps reportedly said that he hid in the alley and when the Tahoe came by, he jumped out to start shooting,” the complaint says.

Officers arrested Phelps on June 28 in South St. Paul. He said he hadn’t been to his family’s address in a couple of weeks, but then said he’d been there earlier in the week. He said it was only to drop off groceries and he’d left. He said he didn’t know anything about a shooting.

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He had warrants from the Minnesota Department of Corrections for a probation violation in an assault case, domestic-related warrants from Dakota County and a theft warrant from Hennepin County, the complaint says.

In August, a BCA report was filed stating Phelps was a major profile DNA match from swabs taken from the grip of the firearm believed to be the murder weapon.

Phelps has three prior felony convictions for crimes of violence that prohibit him from possessing a firearm: aiding and abetting second-degree burglary in April 2013 in Ramsey County, third-degree assault in March 2022 in Ramsey County and domestic assault in January 2023 in Dakota County.

“I’ve seen firsthand what happens when youth voices are left out of decisions that shape our lives. We know what’s happening in our communities—we live it every day.”

City Hall. (Benjamin Kanter/Mayoral Photo Office.)

When adults talk about the future, they rarely include the people who are going to live in it.

As a student at El Puente Academy for Peace and Justice in Brooklyn, I’ve seen firsthand what happens when youth voices are left out of decisions that shape our lives. We know what’s happening in our communities—we live it every day. We know which teachers stay after school even when they’re not paid to. We know which streets to avoid because of the mounting garbage, which classrooms need more books, and which students need more support.

But no one asks us.

My school is small. It’s rooted in our neighborhood, led by justice, and filled with young people who want to thrive. Some of us want to be lawyers. Others want to be artists or athletes. But we all want the chance to grow into who we are meant to be. That’s hard to do when schools like mine are underfunded, under-appreciated, and overlooked.

It’s not just about education. Our neighborhoods are hit with pollution, housing injustice, and a lack of public investment. Why is it normal to walk past piles of trash or see green space treated like a luxury? Why are immigrant families treated like a threat instead of part of the city’s fabric? These are the issues we talk about—not in press conferences, but in our hallways, lunchrooms, bike rides and walks home from school.

There are solutions. You could literally walk into a school like mine and ask: What do you need? What would make this community stronger? Sometimes, the answer is a new basketball. Sometimes, it’s safer housing for undocumented students. Either way, those answers matter.

That’s why I’m excited about the upcoming “Youth Take the Mic” mayoral forum, where students will ask real questions to the people who say they want to lead this city. It’s a chance to flip the script—where young people aren’t just the ones being talked about, but the ones doing the talking.

So here’s my question for the next mayor: Are you running to help the people who need you most, or just the ones who look good in campaign ads? Will you fund schools equitably? Will you listen to Black and brown students when we say we need more?

Latino students graduate at some of the lowest rates in this country. That’s not because we don’t care. It’s because the system was never built for us in the first place. But we’re still here. We still show up. And we’re ready to lead—if you’re ready to listen.

Noemi Santiago is a 10th grade student at El Puente Academy for Peace and Justice. Fernando Sánchez Carriel is the communications manager at El Puente.

The post Opinion: If You Want to Lead NYC, Start By Listening to Us appeared first on City Limits.

Victoria Elsmore, a Ramsey County court referee in the family division, has been appointed by Gov. Tim Walz to fill the Second Judicial District seat left open with the February death of Patrick Diamond.

Elsmore has been a court referee for the Second Judicial District, which encompasses Ramsey County, since January 2023, presiding over dissolution, custody, support, domestic abuse and harassment matters. She was previously a partner at Collins, Buckley, Sauntry & Haugh, where she practiced family law.

Victoria Elsmore (Courtesy of the Office of Gov. Tim Walz and Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan)

Elsmore will be chambered at the downtown St. Paul courthouse.

“Victoria Elsmore will be a familiar face and a welcome addition to an already dynamic bench,” Walz said Wednesday in a statement announcing the appointment. “She is filling the seat of the late Judge Patrick Diamond, someone who left a lasting legacy on this court and community.

Diamond, who served more than a dozen years on the Ramsey County District Court bench, suffered cardiac arrest in late January and died on Feb. 9 at the University of Minnesota Hospital, surrounded by loved ones. He was 64.

Elsmore’s community involvement includes serving on the Board of Trustees for Mitchell Hamline School of Law, an adjunct professor at the University of St. Thomas School of Law, and the immediate past president of the Ramsey County Bar Association. She earned her B.S. from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse and her J.D. from William Mitchell College of Law.

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