by jboullion | May 25, 2011 | Uncategorized
From a news release issued by Make It Work Milwaukee! Coalition:
The Make It Work Milwaukee Coalition supports the preservation of public
transportation funding. Transit and paratransit services are critical to maintaining the independence of older adults and people with disabilities as many do not drive or own a vehicle because of their disability, aging, and/or limited income.
When transportation is cut, not only are people with disabilities and older adults unable to work or get out in their community, but a caregiver may no longer be able to provide care when it is needed. Some people with disabilities need supports at all hours of the day. Transit lowers government costs by helping people with disabilities live independently and be employed.
Our agencies urge legislators to restore transit operating aids to help preserve public transportation. Over the past decade, we have seen harmful reductions in transit services, as local government struggles to maintain essential services with declining resources and increasing fuel costs. The resulting cutbacks have already taken a heavy toll on the ability of people with disabilities and seniors to work and be contributing members of the community, and also made it very difficult for the caregivers they rely on to get to work.
Nearly half of transit use is for work related purposes. Further cuts in transit will cut off people with disabilities and seniors from jobs and education, and lead to higher unemployment. Transit is vital to Wisconsin’s economy, businesses and families, and lowers government costs by keeping people employed and living independently.
In addition, proposed reductions in transit aids are expected to result in significant reduction of paratransit services which are a lifeline for many people with disabilities and older adults. In Milwaukee County along it is expected that a minimum of 2000 people with disabilities and older adults will completely lose access to transportation, leaving them prisoners in their own homes unable to travel to work, to school, to medical appointments, or to buy food. The majority of those expected to lose
service live in suburban areas including Bay Side, Glendale, Franklin, Oak Creek and Greendale. Thousands more will be impacted by the reduction of the service area and may be unable to get to work, to the doctor, or to visit family.
by jboullion | May 13, 2011 | Uncategorized
From an article by Tom Content in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
We Energies won final approval to build a $255 million biomass power plant in north-central Wisconsin Thursday.
The utility had wanted a decision this week to help it keep on target to complete construction by late 2013.
But the utility hasn’t decided whether it will proceed with the building the plant at this point. Utility spokesman Brian Manthey said We Energies and Domtar Corp., its partner in the project, are reviewing conditions that regulators attached to the deal – conditions that aim to bring down the overall cost of the project for utility customers.
The biomass plant at the Domtar paper mill in Rothschild is being proposed at a time when the utility has enough power to meet the needs of its customers but is required because of the state’s renewable portfolio standard.
That standard, adopted by the state Legislature in 2006, requires that 8.25% of We Energies’ power come from renewable sources by 2015.
If the project does not move forward, We Energies executives told investors last week they would want to have discussions with the Walker administration about alternatives, including a possible way of delaying the company’s compliance with the law.
There have been discussions of possible legislation that would help the utility delay the time frame for complying with the law, or it could take advantage of “off-ramps” built into the 2006 law that would allow it more time to comply.
by jboullion | May 3, 2011 | Uncategorized
Statement of RENEW Wisconsin in Opposition to SB 81
Senate Judiciary, Utilities, Commerce and Government Operations Committee
May 3, 2011
Good morning, my name is Michael Vickerman. I am here to represent RENEW Wisconsin, a nonprofit advocacy and education organization based in Madison. Incorporated in 1991, RENEW acts as a catalyst to advance a sustainable energy future through public policy and private sector initiatives. We have over 300 total members, and more than 60 businesses around the state, including Biogas Direct (Prairie du Sac), Bubbling Springs Solar (Menomonie), Crave Brothers Farm (Waterloo), Convergence Energy (Lake Geneva), Emerging Energies (Hubertus), Energy Concepts (Hudson), Full Circle Farm (Seymour), Full Spectrum Solar (Madison), GHD, Inc. (Chilton), H&H Solar (Madison), Kettle View Renewable Energy (Random Lake), Michels Wind Energy (Brownsville), North American Hydro (Neshkoro), Northwind Renewable Energy LLC (Stevens Point), Pieper Power (Milwaukee), Organic Valley (LaFarge), Quantum Dairy (Weyauwega), Renewegy (Oshkosh), and Seventh Generation Energy Systems (Madison).
More on North American Hydro later.
On behalf of our members and the many businesses and individuals who support the continued expansion of Wisconsin’s renewable energy marketplace, RENEW Wisconsin is here to express opposition to AB 114/SB 81, and urges the Legislature not to pass this bill. If passed as is, AB 114/SB 81 would allow electric utilities to use generation from hydro facilities larger than 60 megawatts to satisfy their renewable energy requirements under 2005 Act 141. Manitoba Hydro could easily become Wisconsin’s largest supplier of statutorily sanctioned renewable energy in the next decade.
Because no increase to the state’s Renewable Energy Standard is contemplated in this bill, the outwash of kilowatt-hours from Manitoba in the next decade will crowd out opportunities for utility-scale renewable energy development opportunities in Wisconsin. The window was already closing for in-state renewable energy sources before this bill was introduced. According to Platt’s Electric Daily, Wisconsin Power & Light and WPPI Energy have already accumulated enough renewable electrons and credits to meet their 2015 targets. The same is true of Madison Gas & Electric. The Platt’s article also quotes a Wisconsin Public Service Corporation official stating that the utility can meet its 2015 renewable energy requirements with what it has acquired to date until 2020. AB 114/SB 81 would enable those utilities to enter into contracts with Manitoba Hydro to supply them with post-2015 renewable energy, thereby sparing these utilities from ever having to invest another nickel in a Wisconsin renewable energy project again.
Leaving aside We Energies’ proposed biomass plant in Rothschild, which may or may not go forward, We Energies’ Glacier Hills wind project in Columbia County is the only utility-scale renewable energy project under construction right now in Wisconsin. It will be completed this December. None of the other utilities have any plans to build a renewable energy generating facility in Wisconsin in the next five years. Should this legislation pass, we could go 15 to 20 years before seeing another large renewable energy project built in this state, if ever.
True, there are quite a few wind prospects under development in Wisconsin, all of them pursued by independent companies. But as of late, Wisconsin utilities have shown no interest in entering into a contract with them. And if AB 114/SB 81 is adopted without an increase in the state’s Renewable Energy Standard, Wisconsin utilities will have no reason to buy wind projects or their output, because the utilities can get whatever they need from Manitoba Hydro.
For the record, RENEW supported the Clean Energy Jobs Act introduced last year and the compromise on large-scale hydro in that legislation. That bill would have increased the utilities’ renewable energy requirements along with classifying large hydro as an eligible renewable energy resource. In it there was room for both in-state renewable energy development and electricity purchases from Manitoba Hydro. However, as a stand-alone measure, AB 114/SB 81 would make room for Manitoba Hydro at the expense of local renewable energy businesses. If passed, this bill would effectively turn Wisconsin into a renewable energy backwater for the next 20 years.
In the absence of legislation to increase the state’s renewable energy standard, AB 114/SB 81 is best described as the “Outsource Renewable Energy to Canada Act.”
About North American Hydro, this company owns 25 hydro generating units in Wisconsin and employs about 70 people. Both the company and its employees pay taxes in Wisconsin and spend the income they earn in their respective communities. That won’t happen when renewable energy production is outsourced to Canada.
Let me close by asking a few rhetorical questions.
- How does the elimination of in-state renewable energy development revitalize the state economy and create new jobs?
- How does importing vast quantities of hydropower from another jurisdiction promote energy self-sufficiency and resilience in this state?
- How does purchasing vast quantities of hydropower from another country improve the country’s balance of payments?
- Where will our children and young people go to find renewable energy employment opportunities if we decide that foreign hydro should become Wisconsin’s default energy resource option.
Respectfully submitted,
Michael Vickerman,
Executive Director
by jboullion | Apr 22, 2011 | Uncategorized
From an editorial in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
This Earth Day falls a year and a day after one of the worst environmental disasters to hit the United States. The explosion of BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil rig took the lives of 11 rig workers and released 206 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.
What have we done with the lessons learned in that year? Not so much.
Still missing: a comprehensive energy policy that would significantly reduce the consumption of fossil fuels and place more reliance on alternative or renewable fuels.
There has been some improvement. Cleanup efforts continue, but most of the mess has been removed or has disappeared through evaporation or microbes. The disaster was extensive, but the damage turned out not to be quite as devastating as some expected (although not all of the victims have received full compensation and some effects will certainly linger).
Beaches are open again. Commercial and recreational fishing is back in action. Deep water drilling is probably safer than it was before the explosion; the federal government’s inspection program is tougher and more independent.
But critics say this all could happen again – that, in fact, another disaster is inevitable. That’s the risk of drilling in ocean waters. The feds recently approved the 10th deepwater drilling permit since the disaster.
Some of that is necessary in the short term. But in the long term, relying on fossil fuels is unsustainable.
by jboullion | Apr 19, 2011 | Uncategorized
From an editorial in the La Crosse Tribune:
A year ago Wednesday, the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, killing 11 men and spewing 172 million gallons of oil in the ocean.
While we remember images of spewing oil and blackened beaches, nature has shown her remarkable resiliency, despite man’s best attempts at despoiling her.
A report by more than three dozen scientists grade the Gulf’s health as a 68 on a 100-point scale, which is slightly below the grade of 71 they gave the Gulf prior to the spill. While beaches are open as tourism returns to normal, there are still long-term environmental concerns such as hundreds of young dolphins dying and dead spots on the sea floor.
Jane Lubchenco, head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, told The Associated Press that the Gulf is “much better than people feared, but the jury is out about what the end result will be. It’s premature that things are good.”
It also will be a while before there are tougher environmental and safety rules regulating the offshore drilling industry. The New York Times published a story Monday that said the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has much work to do before more rigid rules can be put into place.
There’s certainly plenty of pressure from the oil and gas industry to resume deep-water drilling. A moratorium on new deep-water drilling was lifted in October, and the Interior Department has approved 10 permits and 15 others are pending, the Times said. The House of Representatives has three bills pending that would speed up permit approval and open new areas for drilling off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts as well as easing environmental rules off the Alaska shores.
Our country has an insatiable need for oil but fails to have a comprehensive federal energy policy to wean our dependence on fossil fuel.
