Minnesota state legislators began their 2021 session this week. One of their challenges will be in dealing with all the economic damage caused by the pandemic. That’s according to Joe Smentek, Executive Director of the Minnesota Soybean Grower’s Association. He says his group will be focused this session on retaining past legislative gains.

He expects some regulatory issues to come up this session and his group will work to keep protections for agriculture in place.

Smentek says he thinks lawmakers will take another run at passing some infrastructure bills.

Smentek says as far as any legislation that would place regulations on renewables like biodiesel, it’s critical lawmakers don’t approve some type of measure using standards passed in other states.