"Renewable" generally means solar or wind energy. But a Minnesota board has found a way to define exhaustible, high-polluting coal (think global warming, soot and smog) as renewable. When you look at it that way, petroleum is pretty renewable, too. Stuff like this undermines faith in government.
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Xcel Energy electric customers will help pay for a coal-fired power plant on Minnesota's Iron Range, in a controversial use of money from the utility's renewable energy fund.
A state panel is finalizing the order to approve the payments of $10 million over the next five years for the Mesaba Energy Project, proposed by Excelsior Energy Inc. of Minnetonka.
http://www.startribune.com/stories/462/5247438.html