Local View: Minnesota girding against a Texas-sized disaster From the column: "Things are changing. By 2035, we (at Minnesota Power) expect to have coal-free operations. By 2050, we want to be carbon-free. " Written By: Josh Skelton | × Last month’s late-winter storm and power outages in Texas reinforced the fundamental challenge of any plan to transform our energy supply. A seemingly endless supply of renewable and low-carbon resources suggests that the transformation should be easy: Just hook up the transmission lines and let the energy flow through the grid. However, without proper planning to protect reliability, even a robust supply of energy can turn into days without access to life-critical energy.