by jboullion | Jan 21, 2010 | Uncategorized
From an article by Kryssy Pease, Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism, in the Coulee News:
Electric heaters, which have long been a bad deal for most people trying to lower their energy bills, are an even worse deal in Wisconsin this winter because of falling prices for natural gas.
But that doesn’t stop manufacturers of electric heaters from using newspaper and Internet ads — some of which feature home-repair guru Bob Vila and pictures of Amish craftsmen — to attract buyers by promising big savings.
Jack Brennan, 70, of Green Bay, bought two $350 EdenPURE electric heaters after seeing an ad that vowed to “cut your heating bill by up to 50 percent.” When his next bill came from Wisconsin Public Service, it was three times higher than normal.
“I almost died,” Brennan said. “A gal from (Wisconsin) Public Service called me and she said, ‘What are you doing? What did you buy?’ When I told her I bought two of those heaters, she said, ‘Well, you just answered the question.’ “
Steve Kraus, media relations manager at Madison Gas and Electric, said ads promising big savings “are very deceptive,” but spokesmen from two major electric heater companies said they stand by their products.
by jboullion | Jan 21, 2010 | Uncategorized
From a news release issued by the Wisconsin Farmers Union:
Chippewa Falls, Wis. (January 21, 2010) – Three programs from the Wisconsin Farmers Union’s Homegrown Renewable Energy Campaign will be included in Wisconsin’s Clean Energy Jobs Act. During a news conference today with Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection Secretary Rod Nilsestuen, WFU Executive Director Scott Schultz said the farm organization is encouraged by the inclusion of several provisions in the bill that would benefit family farmers.
“This bill has potential for setting Wisconsin up for economic success by playing to family farmers’ strengths,” Schultz said. “The bill recognizes that farmers are part of the solution-not the problem-in securing a future rooted in homegrown, renewable energy.”
One of the bill’s provisions allows the Public Service Commission to set known buyback rates for the generation of renewable energy on the farm.
“Farmers and landowners who build cost-effective renewable energy installations will have guaranteed fixed rates to sell their electricity,” Schultz said. “Electric companies will see benefits from those installations by receiving clean-energy credits that can be used in meeting state requirements.”
by jboullion | Jan 21, 2010 | Uncategorized
From a news release issued by the Wisconsin Farmers Union:
Chippewa Falls, Wis. (January 21, 2010) – Three programs from the Wisconsin Farmers Union’s Homegrown Renewable Energy Campaign will be included in Wisconsin’s Clean Energy Jobs Act. During a news conference today with Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection Secretary Rod Nilsestuen, WFU Executive Director Scott Schultz said the farm organization is encouraged by the inclusion of several provisions in the bill that would benefit family farmers.
“This bill has potential for setting Wisconsin up for economic success by playing to family farmers’ strengths,” Schultz said. “The bill recognizes that farmers are part of the solution-not the problem-in securing a future rooted in homegrown, renewable energy.”
One of the bill’s provisions allows the Public Service Commission to set known buyback rates for the generation of renewable energy on the farm.
“Farmers and landowners who build cost-effective renewable energy installations will have guaranteed fixed rates to sell their electricity,” Schultz said. “Electric companies will see benefits from those installations by receiving clean-energy credits that can be used in meeting state requirements.”
by jboullion | Jan 21, 2010 | Uncategorized
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 21, 2010
MORE INFORMATION
Michael Vickerman
RENEW Wisconsin
608.255.4044
mvickerman@renewwisconsin.org
RENEW denounces WMC’s “fact-free flip-flop” in radio ad on energy bill
RENEW Wisconsin’s Executive Director Michael Vickerman assailed the credibility of a new radio ad launched by Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC) that characterizes the Clean Energy Jobs Act bill as an unaffordable extravagance.
“WMC executed an astonishing fact-free flip-flop with its claim that the legislation (AB 649/SB 450) would raise an average family’s electricity bill by more than $1,000 a year. What’s astonishing about it that WMC is conveniently forgetting existing ratepayer protections, which it endorsed – and claimed credit for — when similar legislation passed in 2006,” Vickerman said.
When the state’s current renewable portfolio standard (RPS) was passed (which directed utilities to source 10 percent of their electricity from renewable generation by 2015), WMC ran an article on its website with the headline “’Energy Efficiency and Renewables Act’ Will Protect Ratepayer Dollars.” That article can be accessed at http://www.wmc.org/display.cfm?ID=1256.
The article says that WMC was instrumental in ensuring that “ratepayer groups will have a clear opportunity to seek delays in the implementation of new renewable portfolio standards, should they have an unreasonable effect on electric rates.”
The Clean Energy Job Act bill would continue those ratepayer protections enacted in 2005 Act 141. So far no utility or energy advocacy group has requested an implementation delay under the current renewable energy standard.
In order for an average family’s bill to increase $1,000 a year, according to Vickerman, electric rates would have to double.
“That will never happen because groups like WMC, Citizens Utility Board, and the Wisconsin Industrial Energy Group would intervene aggressively on behalf of their member using the existing ratepayer protections,” Vickerman stated.
Since the adoption of Act 141’s renewable energy requirements, Madison Gas and Electric’s residential ratepayers have seen annual increases of only 0.8 percent through 2009, even though the utility is already in compliance with the 2015 standard, added Vickerman.
“This outrageous claim is just another example of WMC’s decision to lob grenades instead of working constructively to forge a responsible partnership with all parties to create family-supporting jobs in the clean energy sector,” Vickerman said.
“It’s clear that WMC made up its mind to oppose the Clean Energy Jobs Act bill long before its contents were even known to the public,” Vickerman stated.
“There is no more obvious proof of this than WMC’s sponsorship of a so-called study by the Wisconsin Pubic Research Institute (WPRI) that claims that the bill’s provisions to expand renewable energy supplies would cost utilities $16 billion.”
RENEW previously critiqued the WPRI report in a report titled “Think Tank Flunks Renewable Energy Analysis.” (https://www.renewwisconsin.org/2009/12/think-tank-flunks-renewable-energy_22.html)
“WPRI’s assertions demonstrate yet again that if you torture your economic models long enough, they will confess to anything,” Vickerman said.
END
RENEW Wisconsin is an independent, nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization that acts as a catalyst to advance a sustainable energy future through public policy and private sector initiatives.
by jboullion | Jan 21, 2010 | Uncategorized
From a blog post on by Andrew Weiland in the BizTimes Milwaukee:
Some of southeastern Wisconsin’s key business leaders said today that the creation of a regional transit authority to upgrade Milwaukee County’s bus system and create a Kenosha-Racine-Milwaukee (KRM) commuter rail is essential for the economic vitality of the region.
Backed by some of area’s most prominent business executives, Gov. Jim Doyle announced today new legislation to create a Southeastern Regional Transit Authority (SERTA).
The plan includes a 0.5 percent sales tax increase in Milwaukee County to provide a dedicated funding source for the county’s financially troubled bus system.
Business leaders said mass transit is needed to help people get to work and is a key amenity to attracting talented workers to southeastern Wisconsin.
“This is not a want, this is an absolute need for the community,” said Tim Sullivan, president and chief executive officer of South Milwaukee-based Bucyrus International Inc. The announcement about the RTA legislation was held at the Bucyrus headquarters.
“It’s critical that this legislation pass during the spring 2010 session,” said Robert Mariano, chairman and CEO of Milwaukee-based Roundy’s Supermarkets Inc. “It is foolish to ignore, this is an economic development issue. Transit builds the economy.”
“For the vitality of southeastern Wisconsin, getting this bill through the legislature is critical,” said Scott VanderSanden, president of AT&T Wisconsin.
“We believe regional transit and the KRM is an important investment in the future of our region,” said J. Fisk Johnson, chairman and CEO of Racine-based S.C. Johnson & Son Inc. “More efficient and more affordable public transit can help make a city an even more attractive place for business and can help the vibrancy of a community. The lack of accessibility to Milwaukee and Chicago is a big reason it is more challenging to attract key people to our company.”
“It’s really frustrating to see the constant deterioration of public transit,” said Ed Zore, CEO of Milwaukee-based Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co. “It’s really important for business to have a good public transit system.”
About 700 of his company’s employees use public transit, Zore said.
by jboullion | Jan 20, 2010 | Uncategorized
From an article by Dee Hall in the La Crosse Tribune:
MADISON — The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources is dragging its heels in addressing charges that four University of Wisconsin System coal-fired plants are violating the federal Clean Air Act, an environmental group says.
The Sierra Club alleged in comments last summer that the heating plants at the La Crosse, Eau Claire, Stevens Point and Stout campuses have undergone millions of dollars worth of upgrades that should trigger additional pollution controls.
A consultant’s report commissioned by the state Department of Admini-stration disagreed, concluding that the $16.8 million in changes at the four facilities don’t qualify as “major modifications.“
Officials at the DNR, which issues operating permits for the four plants, say they’re still evaluating the comments.
Jeff Johnson, environmental engineering supervisor for the air-management program at the DNR’s regional office in Eau Claire, said the permit reviews are “complicated” and it will take time to evaluate the written comments filed by the Sierra Club and others expected from the U.S. Environ-mental Protection Agency.
“I do not have all the information on how the comments from Sierra Club and EPA will be handled, but do know we have a small task force working on resolving these issues,” Johnson said.
Charges that state-owned power plants are violating the federal clean-air law come at an awkward time for Gov. Jim Doyle, who late last year unveiled his Clean Energy Jobs Act. It calls for 25 percent of the state’s energy to come from wind, solar, biomass or other renewable sources by 2025. At the end of 2008, the state was at nearly 5 percent.
Wisconsin currently relies heavily on coal, which is a major source of greenhouse gases that contribute to global climate change.
‘We can only move so fast’
While the overwhelming majority of that coal is burned by private utilities, the state owns 15 coal-fired plants that serve UW campuses, state treatment facilities and prisons and state-owned buildings in Madison including the Capitol. The plants provide steam to heat the buildings, and some generate electricity and chilled water for cooling.
“Clearly one of the first and best steps he (Doyle) could take is to clean up the state of Wisconsin facilities,” said Jennifer Feyerherm, director of the Sierra Club’s Wisconsin Clean Energy Campaign. “It seems like the first logical step for someone who wants to take the lead on global warming.”
