For further information: contact Chuck Slocum (952-939-0068)

ENVISION MINNESOTA WEBSITE: www.envisionminnesota.org

For Release on Friday, May 5, 2006

10:30 AM News Conference

"ENVISION MINNESOTA" PROJECT ANNOUNCED: SEPTEMBER 16 CITIZENS CONVENTION CALLED

[Joint Statement of the ENVISION MINNESOTA Leadership Circle: Wendell R. Anderson, attorney, former Governor and US Senator; Rev. Bob Battle, Pastor, Berean Church of God in Christ; Mary Brainerd, CEO, Health Partners; Mike Ciresi, attorney, RKMC Executive Committee Chair, US Senate candidate 2000; David Foster, United Steelworkers Vice President, "Blue-Green" Alliance; Duane Kell, architect, President, AKA; Tim Penny, consultant, HHH Institute Policy Forum Co Director, former State Senator, US Congressman, independent candidate for governor 2002; Tad Piper, Piper Jaffray & Company; David Saggau, CEO, Great River Energy; Vin Weber, Managing Partner. Clark & Weinstock, HHH Institute Policy Forum Co-Director, former US Congressman.]

"Minnesotans live in a special and remarkable place we have inherited from the generations before us, clean and prosperous, and filled with natural abundance and a superior quality of life.

ENVISION MINNESOTA seeks to ask and answer the question:  what do we see when we imagine Minnesota, now and in the future? 

Particularly, consider our land, our water, and our air.  Think about the natural look and feel of Minnesota and the trends and demographics affecting the state.  We believe that each of us should be compelled to ask if we are doing what we must – whether as individuals, corporations, or communities – to assure that our actions today project and realize the vision we share for tomorrow.

Over the past year, dozens of Minnesota leaders have enthusiastically responded to our call to take the long view.  Working through a series of focus groups and team deliberations, the dedicated volunteers of the Envision Minnesota Project have endeavored to identify the most significant environmental priorities facing our state and to strategize about how we might address those priorities in a focused, thoughtful, meaningful way.  

The attached document contains a summary of our collective thinking, divided into five critical areas:

• Taking Responsibility By Valuing True Environmental Costs and Benefits;
• Leaving a Clean Water Legacy;
• Creating New Energy Sources and Saving Energy;
• Planning for Rapid Growth and Continued Prosperity; and
• Protecting Our Natural Heritage and Abundant Wildlife.

Our effort has been deliberately non-partisan in approach, bringing together individuals from all ideologies around a 'consent' agenda which we today begin taking to gubernatorial candidates and candidates for other offices, government agencies at the state and local level, interested groups and organizations,  and, most importantly, citizens of the state.

In recent weeks, we have seen favorable momentum on issues related to elimination of mercury contamination and permanent state investments to benefit water, habitat and land conservation, demonstrating unusual bipartisan agreement on important quality of life issues.

Central to our activity is the Saturday, September 16 convening of an ENVISION MINNESOTA CITIZENS CONVENTION to include a keynote discussion among the major party candidates for governor.   This first-ever convention will be meeting at St. Cloud State University. On that day, we plan to solicit citizen opinion regarding an ENVISION MINNESOTA key issues ballot, gauging opinions at the convention, over the telephone and over the internet from thousands of residents.

It is our desired hope that these activities will inspire citizens and policy leaders to form consensus on the kind of Minnesota that both preserves and protects our natural, God-given future and that of our children and grandchildren."