by jboullion | May 6, 2010 | Uncategorized
A commentary
by Michael Vickerman, RENEW Wisconsin
May 4, 2010
Renewable energy businesses and activists entered the month of April with high hopes of seeing the State Legislature pass the Clean Energy Jobs Act (CEJA), a comprehensive bill designed to propel Wisconsin toward energy independence, along the way creating thousands of new jobs and strengthening the sustainable energy marketplace. This comprehensive bill would have raised the renewable energy content of electricity sold in Wisconsin, while stepping up ratepayer support for smaller-scale renewable energy installations throughout the state.
Unfortunately, on April 22, the State Senate adjourned for the year without taking action on the Clean Energy Jobs Act bill, effectively killing the measure and leaving hundreds of businesses and individuals who campaigned for the bill empty-handed.
If life imitates poetry, then the line that opens T.S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land—“April is the cruelest month”—aptly encapsulates the evolution of a campaign that overcame many obstacles in the final weeks only to be undermined by the unwillingness of Senate leaders to schedule a vote on the bill. The sense of anticipation that began the month was swept away by a combination of personal feuds, extreme partisanship, and increasingly polarized public attitudes toward climate change. That the bill’s demise coincided with the 40th anniversary of Earth Day was seen by supporters as an especially cruel twist of fate.
It certainly didn’t help matters that the some of the state’s most politically entrenched constituencies banded together to fight CEJA at every stage of the process. Among the hard-core opponents were Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, the Paper Council and the Farm Bureau. Their vociferous opposition scuttled bipartisanship, eliminating the possibility that a Republican legislator would vote for the bill.
Working hand-in-glove with vitriolic right-wing radio talk show hosts, the opposition supplied their grassroots faithful with a smorgasbord of exaggerated claims, hyperbole, outright fantasy, and pseudoscience. Though the analysis purporting to document the opposition’s assertions set a new low in academic rigor, it succeeded in its aim, which was to plant the seeds of fear among certain legislators about the ultimate cost of this legislation before the bill was even introduced.
Working just as vigorously for the Clean Energy Jobs Act, a broad spectrum of interests answered the requests for help. Whether they were one-person solar installation businesses or Fortune 500 corporations like Milwaukee-based Johnson Controls, CEJA supporters wrote letters, made phone calls, and corralled their legislators at the Capitol on several days during March and April.
In dozens of face-to-face meetings with their representatives, CEJA supporters made the case for this bill by bringing out their own experiences as business owners, farmers, educators, builders, and skilled tradesmen. They presented a local and highly personal angle to the clean energy policy debate that many legislators had not appreciated before. Their passion and energy were instrumental in giving this bill a fighting chance for passage at the end of the session. Unfortunately, the campaign could not overcome the pique of the Senate Democrats.
One legislator who kept pushing this ambitious bill up the legislative hill until the very last day was Assembly representative Spencer Black, who was one of the four principal authors of the measure. CEJA supporters are indebted to Rep. Black for his vigorous leadership and his determined efforts to round up support among his compatriots for passing this bill.
Two rays of sunlight did manage to pierce through the heavy clouds at the close of April, prompted by the dedication of the two largest wind turbines owned by Wisconsin schools. In each case, the school erected a 100-kilowatt Northwind turbine manufactured by Vermont-based Northern Power Systems. One serves Wausau East High School while the other feeds power to the Madison Area Technical College’s Fort Atkinson branch. The turbines will offset a significant fraction of the electricity consumed at each school.
Located well within the city limits of Wausau and Fort Atkinson, these 155-foot-tall wind generators eloquently testify to the breadth and depth of public support for renewable energy across Wisconsin. Next January, the Legislature will witness the return of clean energy supporters with similar legislation for strengthening Wisconsin’s renewable energy marketplace. In the meantime, we will be working hard to achieve a very different outcome.
END
Michael Vickerman is the executive director of RENEW Wisconsin, a sustainable energy advocacy organization headquartered in Madison. For more information on Wisconsin renewable energy policy, visit RENEW’s web site at: www.renewwisconsin.org.
by jboullion | May 5, 2010 | Uncategorized
From a story by Chuck Quirmbach on Wisconsin Public Radio:
Energy efficiency advocates are trying to keep the energy savings momentum going in Wisconsin, despite the legislature’s failure to pass a major clean energy bill.
The Clean Energy Jobs Act (CEJA) would have counted some energy efficiency moves toward a mandate to make more use of renewable energy. But leaders of the state Senate killed the measure. Five years ago, lawmakers did pass a bill that transferred oversight of the rate-payer funded Focus On Energy program to the Public Service Commission. The PSC’s Jolene Shield says her agency is continuing a planning process to revise goals and priorities for energy efficiency. Shield says phase two of the process means digging into the details.
Shield says PSC commissioners will be deciding how much energy savings should come from households and how much from businesses, and try to judge the impact energy prices will have. Then the PSC will look at whether to go to the legislature’s Joint Finance Committee for additional money to spur access to efficient technology.
by jboullion | May 4, 2010 | Uncategorized
A Community Solar Event
New Richmond WITC Campus
Edwin J. Cashman Conference Center, Burnett Room 105
1019 South Knowles Avenue
New Richomnd, WI 54017
Interested in finding more about Solar Electric Systems?? Find out how you can take control of your energy costs while making a positive impact on the environment! Craig Tarr, PE president of Hudson based Energy Concepts, Inc (ECI) will host an informative presentation on the benefits of solar electric systems, how they work and the available rebate and incentive programs.
Energy Concepts, the State of WI’s “Renewable Energy Market provider of the year – 2009” designs and installs solar electric, wind and solar hot water systems for residential and commercial applications.
Thursday, May 6, 2010 – 6:30 – 8:30 pm
6:30-7:00 Light Refreshments/Socialize
7:00 – 7:45 Solar Electric – The Basics
7:45 – 8:00 Q & A
8:00 – 8:30 SUNPOWER – “The planet’s most powerful solar” presentation
www.energyconcepts.us
Craig Tarr – 715 381 9977
by jboullion | May 3, 2010 | Uncategorized
From a Community Conversation column by Bob Cleaves, president of the Biomass Power Association, in the Sheboygan Press:
Wisconsin is in the midst of a serious debate about the environmental impact of biomass power, and whether increasing their use of clean, renewable biomass for electricity could potentially lead to unintended negative consequences, specifically with respect to forest health and greenhouse gas emissions. The truth, however, is that increasing our use of biomass power will improve forest health in Wisconsin and reduce the amount of greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere.
Biomass power is carbon neutral electricity generated from renewable organic waste that would otherwise be dumped in landfills, openly burned or left as fodder for forest fires.
On average, America’s biomass power industry removes 68.8 million tons of forest waste annually, improving forest health and dramatically reducing the threat of forest fires. This forest waste includes dead debris and brush left to rot on the forest floor. Clearing this debris is a part of regular forest maintenance and is frequently done by state forest services in the form of open burns.
By using this waste to generate electricity, the biomass power industry is preventing the need for open burns and significantly reducing the risk and spread of forest fires. Waste byproducts from other industries and organic waste from the forest floor continue to be the only economically viable fuel sources for biomass power.
Fuel providers to the biomass power industry do not harvest wood solely for the purpose of generating electricity — forests are simply far too valuable.
by jboullion | Apr 30, 2010 | Uncategorized
From a story on WQOW-TV, Eau Claire:
CUMBERLAND, WI. (Press Release) – 3M Cumberland was formally welcomed into the Department of Natural Resources’ Green Tier program today, during Earth Week, at a celebration event at their facility in Cumberland, Wisconsin. DNR officials congratulated 3M for its commitment to environmental protection during the celebration, which included staff and management from the facility, local officials and 3M Corporate officials.
“The Department of Natural Resources is proud to add 3M Cumberland to the growing ranks of Green Tier companies,” Department of Natural Resources Secretary Matt Frank said. “They have proven that they are leaders in their community by managing operations to protect our shared natural resources for future generations.”
Frank said it is fitting the company is welcomed into Green Tier during Earth Week when so much is being done to enhance the natural resources of the state.
3M has a long-standing corporate commitment to three pillars of sustainability, also known as the triple bottom line: environmental protection, social responsibility and economic progress. 3M uses this philosophy to reduce their environmental footprint while continuing to grow their business. To do this, 3M pioneered the concept of pollution prevention with the creation of the Pollution Prevention Pays (3P) program in 1975. The 3P program is based on the reality that pollution prevention is more environmentally effective, technically sound and economical than conventional pollution control equipment. 3P seeks to eliminate pollution at the source through product reformulation, process modification, equipment redesign and the recycling and reuse of waste materials. By 2009, 34 years later, 3P ideas and initiatives from employees have prevented 2.9 billion pounds of pollutants and saved 3M nearly $1.2 billion.
