by jboullion | Aug 24, 2011 | Uncategorized
From an article by Tom Content published in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on August 19:
Two state utilities said this week new federal pollution rules will lead to higher electricity costs come January.
Wisconsin Public Service Corp. of Green Bay said its residential customers can expect an increase of more than $4 a month next year, including about $2 linked to the new rules designed to limit air pollution from coal-fired power plants.
The utility said it would see higher costs of about $32.6 million in 2012 from the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule that was finalized recently by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. That will result in rates going up by 6.8% instead of 3.4%, the utility said.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency last month finalized stronger regulations for Wisconsin and 26 other states aimed at curbing air pollution from long-distance sources.
Environmental groups praised the new rule because it would reduce acid rain and air pollution as well as help curb health effects from dirty air linked to coal plants. The EPA projected the rule will save up to 34,000 lives a year and prevent more than 400,000 asthma attacks as well as 19,000 admissions to hospitals. . .
The new rule has been in development for several years but the first phase of compliance hits utilities in 2012. WPS said it won’t have time to install pollution controls by next year at its plants, but will be able to comply by purchasing credits from other utilities that have cut emissions.
The utility also said it plans to operate its coal plants less next year than it otherwise would have, and will buy more power from the Midwest wholesale power market as a result, a move that it said is also a factor in higher costs for customers. . . .
On Thursday [August 18], Wisconsin Power & Light Co. [Alliant] of Madison said it would face an additional $9 million in costs linked to the air pollution rule. With the change, the utility is now seeking an increase in 2012 of $20 million, or 2%, utility finance manager Martin Seitz said in a filing with state regulators.
Todd Stuart, executive director of the Wisconsin Industrial Energy Group, criticized the increases, and he noted that large energy users like paper mills will see higher than average increases, compared with homeowners and small businesses. Paper mills served by WPS could see a 9% hike, he said. . . .
“Industry always cries wolf whenever EPA tries to reduce air pollution,” said Katie Nekola, lawyer with the conservation group Clean Wisconsin. “The fact is, the new rule will affect old, inefficient, unnecessary coal plants that should have been shut down long ago. The continued operation of those old units is costing ratepayers money, but you don’t hear industry complaining about that.”
by jboullion | Jul 21, 2011 | Uncategorized
From an editorial in the La Crosse Tribune:
Gov. Scott Walker’s decision to reject $810 million in federal funding for high-speed rail is turning in to the gift that keeps on giving for everyone but the residents of our part of the state.
Worse, it’s costing all taxpayers in Wisconsin more than it needs to – millions and millions of dollars more, according to one analysis.
And western Wisconsin won’t get so much as a train whistle out of the deal.
Earlier this week, a legislative committee in Madison agreed to spend $31.6 million on the Hiawatha rail line between Chicago and Milwaukee. The Hiawatha line makes the trip seven times daily and carried nearly 800,000 passengers last year.
Oh, did we mention that work on the Hiawatha line would have been funded as part of the $810 million grant from the federal government because it was an extension of the now-deceased high-speed rail line between Milwaukee and Madison?
So, let’s review: Wisconsin gives back $810 million. It won’t receive high-speed rail. And, as a bonus, we agree to spend $31.6 million out of our pockets – much of it borrowed – for work that the feds would have funded.
But wait, there’s more:
There’s also the ongoing operating costs as well as the need to pay for maintenance bases and train sheds and locomotives and signals, according to an analysis by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Added up, the analysis shows that the federal grant could have paid for up to $99 million that Wisconsin taxpayers will now have to fund.
All of that is incredible when you consider that the Walker administration objected to high-speed rail through Wisconsin because of the ongoing costs.
by jboullion | Jul 20, 2011 | Uncategorized
Immediate release
July 18, 2011
More information
Michael Vickerman
Executive Director
608.255.4044
mvickerman@renewwisconsin.org
National Study Vindicates Wisconsin’s Clean Energy Policies
Nearly a decade of forward-looking strategies propelled investments in Wisconsin’s clean jobs economy above other Midwest states, according to an economic study issued by The Brookings Institution, a nonpartisan public policy organization in Washington, D.C.
Reviewing data gathered between 2003 and 2010, the Brookings analysis pegged the number of clean economy jobs in the state at 76,858, a net increase of nearly 4,000. Measured as a percentage, Wisconsin’s clean economy accounted for 2.7% of all jobs in the state, compared with 2.5% for Iowa, 2.1% for Minnesota, 1.9 % for both Indiana and Michigan, and 1.8% for Illinois. Overall, Wisconsin ranked 8th among all states and the District of Columbia in the relative size of its clean economy.
The report categorizes clean economy jobs as those in energy efficiency and renewable energy; sustainable forestry products; recycling and reuse; waste management and treatment; organic food and farming; energy efficient appliance and building manufacturing; and more.
“Clearly, Wisconsin’s commitment to clean energy has paid dividends, attracting new businesses and creating high-paying jobs that could have easily gone elsewhere,” said Michael Vickerman, executive director of RENEW Wisconsin, a statewide organization advocating for public policies and private initiatives that advance renewable energy.
These policies and initiatives include the establishment of Focus on Energy, the region’s first ratepayer-funded energy efficiency and renewable energy program, attractive buyback rates offered by utilities for renewable energy, and innovative incentives to encourage customer installation of renewables.
In addition, Wisconsin’s adoption of a 10% renewable energy standard back in 2006 spurred new utility-scale installations built by skilled tradesmen employed by local contractors. During the study period, the number of wind-related jobs in Wisconsin doubled from less than 450 to 900.
As documented in the Brookings report, the wages for these clean economy jobs run higher than the statewide average ($37,931 vs. $35,906).
“Unfortunately, Wisconsin’s clean economy is in danger of losing a good deal of its steam as a result of policy rollbacks and funding cutbacks in the renewable energy arena,” Vickerman said. “The short-sighted attacks we’ve seen in 2011 could throw the state’s clean economy into reverse next year.”
So far this year, the Legislature has reduced funding for Focus on Energy, suspended the statewide rule regulating the permitting of wind turbines, and weakened the state’s renewable energy standard by allowing utilities to count Canadian hydropower toward their requirements.
“On top of that, We Energies, the state’s largest utility, announced that it will discontinue what had been an effective renewable energy initiative,” Vickerman said. “Among other accomplishments, it was instrumental in enabling Helios USA to build a solar-electric manufacturing facility in Milwaukee’s Menomonee River Valley.” The plant now employs 50 workers.
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. More information on RENEW’s Web site at www.renewwisconsin.org.
by jboullion | Jul 19, 2011 | Uncategorized
Safeguarding our economy, environment, and quality of life
A workshop to build local and regional climate planning capacity in the Great Lakes
Who Should Attend: Planners and other professionals addressing land use, public health, stormwater, emergency preparedness, and natural resource management issues.
Workshops include
•Climate change impacts in the Great Lakes region
•Economic benefits of climate planning
•Planning processes and strategies
•Tools, data, and resources
•Regional examples of climate planning
•Stakeholder engagement strategies
•Strategies for incorporating resilience into current planning initiatives
by jboullion | Jul 18, 2011 | Uncategorized
From an article by in the Eau Claire Leader Telegram:
Three years ago, when Patricia Popple first became concerned about sand mines, convincing others to get worked up about the topic was anything but easy.
These days the 71-year-old retired elementary school principal-turned-anti-sand mine crusader has plenty of company.
As sand mines and proposals for mines have popped up across west-central Wisconsin in the past couple of years, so too have people concerned about the impact of those mines.
Mining companies have targeted this part of Wisconsin because the qualities of much of the sand here make it usable for extracting natural gas and oil in other parts of the U.S. The facilities are called “frac” sand mines, named for the hydraulic fracturing process used to extract the fuel.
Popple, of Chippewa Falls, helped organize the group Concerned Chippewa Citizens, which worked unsuccessfully to stop a sand-processing plant being built in Chippewa Falls.
However, the group has been successful in getting out the word about the potential quality-of-life and environmental issues that could come with industrial-scale sand mining.
In recent months Popple has been contacted by people in Lake City, Minn., Winona, Minn., Red Wing, Minn., Maiden Rock, Prairie Farm, Arkansaw, Arcadia, Whitehall, Monroe, and, most recently, Tunnel City near Tomah, sites of existing or proposed sand mines.
But fracing has been a contentious issue in many areas of the country.
