Carol Molnau (born September 17, 1949) is an American politician who served as the 46th lieutenant governor of Minnesota, from 2003 to 2011.

Molnau announced she would not run for re-election after she sold her farm to developers and would no longer be living in the area she had represented.

She served as head of the Minnesota Department of Transportation (Mn/DOT) in the Pawlenty administration, where she opposed state funding of the mass transit systems of the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area.

[2] In Summer 2005, rumors began circulating that Governor Tim Pawlenty would drop Molnau from his ticket when he sought re-election in 2006, mainly because of their differences over state funding for the planned Northstar Commuter Rail linking St.

Then, in January 2007, as part of a renewed threat to remove her, Senator Steve Murphy opined that under Molnau the state's transportation infrastructure was "crumbling.

[8] A plan to strengthen the fatiguing steel trusses under the bridge was scrapped, some claim in part due to the $2 million cost of those repairs, although Mn/DOT engineers "scoffed" at the suggestion that this was a major factor in the decision.

After the Interstate 35W bridge collapse some lawmakers publicly questioned her dual role as lieutenant governor and transportation commissioner.

[9] Fallout from the I-35W bridge collapse was evident in a January 2008 Minnesota Public Radio/Humphrey Institute poll, with only one in four Minnesotans approving of the job she was doing as Mn/DOT commissioner.