by Ed Blume | Sep 5, 2012 | Uncategorized
From an article in BizTimes by Molly Newman:
“Milwaukee area food waste will be used to generate power in an anaerobic digester that will be built at Potawatomi Bingo Casino in Milwaukee.
The facility will be able to break down organic materials into methane gas, powering engines that will produce up to 2 megawatts of power. That adds up to about 16 million kilowatt hours per year, enough to power 1,500 homes, which will be sold back to Milwaukee-based Wisconsin Energy Corp.
“We will be producing the energy and selling it back to We Energies under a tariff agreement, which will then count toward their renewable energy portfolio standard requirements in Wisconsin,” said Jeff Crawford, tribal attorney general for the Forest County Potawatomi Community.
The energy production will offset most of the Potawatomi Community’s energy costs throughout the state, and also renew its commitment to the environment, he said. The tribe has about 17,000 acres of land throughout Wisconsin”
Read the full article here.
by jboullion | Jun 24, 2011 | Uncategorized
From a commentary by Jeff Anthony, American Wind Energy Association, on BizTimes.com:
The Wisconsin Assembly recently passed a bill that would enable hydroelectric power from Manitoba, Canada, to be shipped to Wisconsin to meet the state’s 2006 renewable energy law requiring 10 percent of the state’s electricity to come from renewable energy by the year 2015.
If enacted into law, the effect of the Manitoba Hydro Bill will be to ship jobs to Canada and reduce Wisconsin’s ability to meet its clean energy requirement by building more homegrown Wisconsin energy projects.
One of the bill’s sponsors, State Sen. Frank Lasee (R-De Pere), was quoted saying, “This new law will keep electric bills from going up by making it more affordable for utilities to meet green energy mandates.”
Unfortunately, he was mistaken in assuming that other forms of “green energy” will raise electricity rates in the state. If he had gotten his facts straight, he would have found that wind energy costs are at near-record lows, and many utilities in the U.S. are reaping the benefits of lower electricity rates as wind energy expands on their systems. But the facts about wind energy costs, like many other facts, apparently weren’t relevant in the rush to pass this ill-conceived bill.
What Sen. Lasee failed to mention is that his bill will also have a significant impact on Wisconsin by sending good-paying jobs that would otherwise have been created in Wisconsin – to Canada instead.
Sen. Lasee and the other state legislators who voted for the bill would have the state import electricity from Canadian energy projects that use Canadian workers. Today, Wisconsin supports 2,000-3,000 workers in the wind energy industry alone, and the Manitoba Hydro Bill now threatens many of those jobs in Wisconsin.
This is just the latest example of legislative activities that are exporting good-paying, clean energy jobs out of Wisconsin. Why?
At the beginning of the year, another onerous bill was proposed to impose extreme requirements on where Wisconsin wind projects can be located. A few weeks, later a joint committee of the legislature voted to suspend Wind Siting Rules that had been developed through a collaborative, open, and fair process. This rule was suspended by the joint legislative committee on the very day that these far better new rules would have taken effect.
Combined, these actions have jeopardized approximately 700 megawatts of wind projects that were proposed in the state, resulting in the potential loss of $1.8 billion investments and 2 million construction job-hours. And guess what – those 2 million job-hours will not show up in Wisconsin, and will likely move to neighboring states.
So what will be the next step in the “Wisconsin Jobs Export Agenda”?
Well, another piece of anti-clean energy job legislation has emerged, Assembly Bill 146, which would significantly reduce the growth of renewable energy in the state. The Wisconsin clean energy law was originally created to incentivize new renewable energy development and increase fuel diversity. AB 146 would effectively remove that incentive.
by jboullion | Jun 23, 2011 | Uncategorized
Two articles from Catching Wind, a newsletter published by RENEW Wisconsin with funding from a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy:
State’s Hostility Toward Renewables Escalates
At the urging of Wisconsin utilities, several lawmakers have introduced a bill to allow a renewable energy credit (REC) to be banked indefinitely. If adopted, this measure (AB146) would constitute the most devastating legislative assault yet on the state’s renewable energy marketplace, which is already reeling from the suspension of the statewide wind siting rule this March and the loosening of renewable energy definitions to allow Wisconsin utilities to count electricity generated from large Canadian hydro projects toward their renewable energy requirements.
“Leaders” Lag Citizenry on Wind Support
Public support for wind energy development has held strong against the attacks launched by Governor Walker and the Legislature’s new Republican majority, according to a poll conducted between April 11 and April 18 by the St. Norbert College Survey Center for Wisconsin Public Radio.
Asked whether Wisconsin should “increase, decrease or continue with the same amount” of energy supply from various sources, 77% favored increasing wind power, the highest of any option (60% favored increasing hydropower, 54% biomass, 39% natural gas, 27% nuclear, and 19% coal).
by jboullion | May 26, 2011 | Uncategorized
From statements issued by three groups in opposition to Assembly Bill 146:
“Clearly, this bill is a drastic step in the wrong direction for our state. The Wisconsin Energy Business Association therefore opposes this attack on renewable energy in our state.” – Wisconsin Energy Business Association. Full statement.
We strongly recommend that this bill not be approved as it solves no known problem in Wisconsin and seeks only to roll-back policies on renewable energy that have served the state well and are otherwise benefitting Wisconsin residents with cleaner air and lower prices for electricity. – Wind on the Wires. Full statement.
Fresh attack on Wisconsin voters’ desire for a renewable energy standard would kill wind projects and sap state’s economy, say wind energy advocates – American Wind Energy Association. Full statement.
by jboullion | Feb 3, 2011 | Uncategorized
From an article by Mike Ivey in The Capital Times:
When President Obama toured the state last week, he visited two companies in Manitowoc to promote Wisconsin’s high-tech, clean-energy economy.
First, the president stopped at Tower Tech Systems, which manufactures utility-scale wind towers. Then he toured Orion Energy Systems, which makes high-efficiency lighting and solar-focused products.
“These aren’t just good jobs that can help you pay the bills and support your families,” the president told some 200 workers at Orion. “They’re jobs that are good for all of us; that will make our energy bills cheaper; that will make our planet safer; that will sharpen America’s competitive edge in the world.”
But some are wondering whether Gov. Scott Walker, despite his “open for business” mantra, and the new Legislature share the same enthusiasm for emerging technologies and the promise of high-paying jobs.
During his first month in office, Walker has proposed strict rules that could hamper the wind power industry, nixed the Charter Street Biomass Project on the UW-Madison campus and returned more than $800 million in federal money for upgrading Wisconsin’s passenger and freight rail infrastructure. There’s also talk about limiting embryonic stem cell research, an issue that’s more symbolic than substantive.
Put together, it’s not exactly what economic development advocates were hoping to see from a governor who’s vowed to create 250,000 new private sector jobs.
“I don’t want to get in trouble here … but there’s some hand-wringing among our members,” says Bryan Renk, who heads BioForward, a trade association for the state’s bioscience and biofuel industry.
Both Gov. Tommy Thompson and Gov. Jim Doyle were big supporters of emerging technologies. Doyle in particular backed clean-energy initiatives and pushed a sweeping renewable energy bill in his last term that eventually died in the Legislature.
