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Donning a curly-headed clown wig and a big red nose—metaphorically speaking, since it could conceivably go either way—Tim Walz resurfaced on X to name the “first victims” of President Trump’s tariff war with Canada:

The first victims of Trump’s trade war? Minnesotans struggling to pay their skyrocketing electric bill.

Minnesota cannot afford Trump’s billionaire-run economy. We have to put a stop to this madness. https://t.co/g2Dq3MHzjv

— Governor Tim Walz (@GovTimWalz) March 10, 2025

What an utter moron. The first victims in Trump’s “trade war” are Walz’s own Minnesotans—but it couldn’t possibly have anything to do with Walz and his progressive government’s years-long war on affordable energy now could it? “Struggling” to afford “skyrocketing” electric bills? Smells more like Democrat rule and the “net zero” agenda than anything else, but let’s look at the facts.

Minnesota only imports a “very small” amount of its electricity from Canada, at least according to the spokeswoman for Minnesota Power—I read somewhere, though I can’t find it now, that “very small” import was around 1% of the total electricity capacity. And, in 2023, Walz himself signed a state-level “Green New Deal” bill into law, which required all electricity to be “carbon free” by 2040, and was described as an “ambitious” and “robust” piece of climate legislation.

Now, in 2022, the Center of the American Experiment, a conservative think tank project of Power Line Blog’s John Hinderaker, released a pretty ground-breaking report that revealed this:

Not a single Minnesota wind facility generated above 45 percent of its potential output

Data from Lawrence Berkeley National Labs shows that no Minnesota wind facility produced more than 45 percent of its potential output in 2021.

Several facilities in neighboring states met the 45 percent threshold, but only one facility, a small 38-megawatt (MW) facility in Iowa, operated above a 50 percent capacity factor, producing 52.3 percent of its potential output.

Of course, that revelation meant nothing to Walz, who as we know, still went on to wage political war on energy sources like coal, gas, and oil. For context, as of 2023, “renewables,” like the half-functioning wind turbines noted above, account for the largest portion (33%) of Minnesota’s electricity. Since Walz was first elected in 2018, coal-fired plants have rapidly shuttered, as part of the “transition” to non-reliable sources.

Here’s this, from 2020:

Xcel Energy has four coal-burning units that are still operating. Two units at its Sherco Power Plant near Becker are slated to close in 2023 and 2026 while the last one there could close in 2030, pending regulatory approval. The company is also proposing to close its coal-fired Oak Park Heights plant in 2028.

Meanwhile, Otter Tail Power plans to shutter its Fergus Falls plant in 2021 while Minnesota Power is preparing a proposal for state regulators that would close its two remaining units in Cohasset, on the Iron Range.

And, from 2022:

Minnesota Power and clean power groups filed an agreement Monday with state regulators on the utility’s power generation plans, which also include adding more renewable energy sources.

From an EIA report this past September:

The state’s largest power plant by capacity, the Sherburne County Generating Station, is coal-fired. It previously had three generating units with a combined capacity of 2,238 megawatts. One of the plant's units was retired at the end of 2023. Two-fifths of the remaining capacity at the Sherburne plant will retire at the end of 2025, and the rest is scheduled for retirement in late 2034.

And not to mention, if the dollar were actually worth what it should be worth—instead of being devalued by more than 97% in the last century—maybe struggling Minnesotans could afford to weather economic uncertainty and market corrections? Just a thought.

Image: YouTube video screen grab.