by jboullion | Jan 12, 2010 | Uncategorized
From a news release issued by Bubbling Springs Solar:
MENOMONIE, WIS. – Bubbling Springs Solar will join with Organic Valley, a farmer-owned cooperative of more than 1,300 organic family farmers nationwide in La Farge, Wis., to provide discounted bulk purchase rates for solar thermal collectors. This collaboration will help make solar energy affordable to their member farmers, and employees. Additionally, Organic Valley is currently working with Wisconsin’s Focus On Energy to assess the feasibility of installing Bubbling Springs’ flat plate collectors at one of their facilities in La Farge.
“We are extremely excited to work with Bubbling Springs Solar on this joint venture. Organic Valley and our farmer owners recognize the potential of harnessing the sun, both for the environment and for our bottom line. We remain committed to lowering our carbon footprint and believe clean, renewable energy generated on site is a cornerstone to achieving this goal,” said Jennifer Harrison, Sustainability Program Manager, Organic Valley.
Bubbling Springs Solar is dedicated to providing manufacturing jobs in Wisconsin and to making high-quality solar thermal collectors readily available to the growing customer base in the upper Midwest. Bubbling Springs Solar collectors have been created in line with strong values for both renewable energy and for environmentally friendly manufacturing. Organic Valley is also a mission-driven organization that has grown dramatically since their inception as a small, organic farmer cooperative in 1988. Now the organization has more than 1,300 member farmers in 33 U.S. states and Canada that produce award-winning products, including milk, eggs, juice, soy and produce, and a full range of meat products under the Organic Prairie label.
by jboullion | Jan 11, 2010 | Uncategorized
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 11, 2010
MORE INFORMATION
Michael Vickerman
RENEW Wisconsin
608.255.4044
mvickerman@renewwisconsin.org
RENEW Wisconsin hailed today the Public Service Commission’s approval of what will become the state’s largest wind farm to be built in Columbia County.
Known as Glacier Hills, the proposed 90-turbine project will produce approximately 400 million kilowatt hours of clean renewable electricity annually, while directing $648,000 a year in local aid payments to Columbia County and the townships of Randolph and Scott.
“This project is certain to deliver a shot in the arm to wind-energy equipment suppliers, skilled laborers, and construction contractors throughout the state, not to mention area landowners and local governments,” said Michael Vickerman, executive director of RENEW Wisconsin, a statewide membership organization that advocates for renewable energy.
If We Energies’ experience with its previous wind project is any guide, this project will account for more than 400,000 labor hours during construction, according to Vickerman.
The state’s 10% renewable energy standard is the main policy driver behind this project, he said.
Vickerman said: “To be certain that Glacier Hills will not be the last large wind project constructed in Wisconsin, the Legislature must raise the current renewable-energy standard on utilities. The provisions in the recently introduced Clean Energy Jobs Act, which we strongly support, would lift that requirement to 25% by 2025.”
“The state can lock in additional jobs and revenue streams to localities by passing the Clean Energy Jobs Act this winter,” Vickerman said.
by jboullion | Jan 8, 2010 | Uncategorized
From a news release issued by Governor Jim Doyle:
MADISON – Governor Jim Doyle today was joined by business leaders, labor, legislators and environmental organizations as he launched the Clean Energy Jobs Act, a landmark legislative package to accelerate the state’s green economy and create jobs. New industry-recognized research shows the package will directly create at least 15,000 green jobs in Wisconsin by 2025.
“Addressing climate change is not just an environmental issue, it’s about creating green jobs,” Governor Doyle said.
“The Clean Energy Jobs Act offers new standards to help accelerate Wisconsin’s green economy. I am calling on the Legislature to update renewable portfolio standards to generate 25 percent of our fuel from renewable sources by 2025 and set a realistic goal of a 2 percent annual reduction in energy consumption by 2015.”
The Clean Energy Jobs Act, State Senate Bill 450 and State Assembly Bill 649, implements the recommendations of Governor Doyle’s Global Warming Task Force to address climate change and grow the state’s green economy through several key measures:
• Enhanced renewable portfolio standards – A new 20 percent standard would be set for 2020 and a 25 percent standard would be set for 2025. The current 10 percent standard would be accelerated from 2015 to 2013. By advancing our current renewable portfolio standards, and setting new standards, we will ensure more of our energy dollars stay in the state, creating thousands of jobs for Wisconsin families in fields like construction, manufacturing, and agriculture.
• Enhanced energy efficiency and conservation efforts – Graduated statewide electricity savings goals would be set, leading up to a 2 percent reduction by 2015 and annual reductions thereafter. The cheapest way to lower carbon emissions is through energy conservation. By setting achievable conservation goals, this bill will help reduce energy costs in businesses and homes across the state.
A comprehensive economic assessment of the Clean Energy Jobs Act found that the package would directly create at least 15,000 green jobs in Wisconsin by 2025. More than 1,800 jobs would be created in the first year alone. The assessment also found that between 800 and 1,800 construction jobs would be created each year from 2011-2025, and more than 2,000 manufacturing jobs would be created once the laws are fully implemented.
Michael Vickerman, RENEW Wisconsin’s executive director said:
Wisconsin’s existing 10% Renewable Energy Standard has driven significant investment in rural, forestry and agriculture markets by encouraging the construction of large wind, biogas, biomass and solar projects. Increasing the Renewable Energy Standard to 25% in 2025 would continue to generate more of the lucrative payments to landowners and biofuel / biomass providers as well as create more jobs constructing and maintaining the additional projects are built to meet the new standards.
The bills also include three of the proposals backed by the Homegrown Renewable Energy Campaign:
• Renewable Energy Buyback Rates, also called an Advanced Renewable Tariffs, would set utility payments for small renewable energy producers who want to “feed energy” into the electric grid, enabling farmers and rural businesses to help Wisconsin become more energy independent with biopower, wind and solar.
• The Biomass Crop Reserve Program would award contracts to farmers to plant native perennial plants, which the farmer can then sell for bioenergy production, helping to solve the chicken-and-egg problem of jumpstarting the homegrown fuels market.
• A Low-Carbon Fuel Standard would be a market-based approach to promoting the cleanest, low-carbon fuels for Wisconsin, and would put Wisconsin in a position to capture the rapidly-developing clean energy market by using Wisconsin’s abundant natural resources like switchgrass.
Statements of support for the legislation came from Customers First!, WPPI Energy, CREWE, Clean Wisconsin, ACRE, MEUW, Sierra Club, and others.
by jboullion | Jan 7, 2010 | Uncategorized
From the introduction to a report issued by Wisconsin Environment:
Madison – As the state of Wisconsin begins to consider the Clean Energy Jobs Act, legislation aimed at reducing the state’s dependence on fossil fuels and creating new jobs in the clean energy economy, Wisconsin Environment Research & Policy Center released a new report today debunking recent claims made by special interest groups attacking the initiative.
In the last month, opponents of the initiative have relied on a November 2009 paper by the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute [WPRI], “The Economics of Climate Change Proposals in Wisconsin,” to suggest that transitioning the state to a clean energy economy would result in massive economic disruption. Wisconsin Environment RPC has provided a new, detailed analysis of the flawed methodology used in the WPRI report.
“Wisconsin decision-makers need well-thought-out analyses of economic and environmental challenges –- including from those who, like WPRI, bring a libertarian perspective to the debate -– if the state is going to address those challenges in the most effective way,” said Dan Kohler, Director of Wisconsin Environment. “Unfortunately, WPRI’s analysis does not meet even the most basic standard of accuracy, and, as such, makes no useful contribution whatsoever to the ongoing policy debate.”
Wisconsin Environment RPC, in its new report “Flawed from the Start: How the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute Gets the Economics of Energy Policy Wrong”, found that the WPRI report fails to acknowledge the many obvious economic and other benefits that would result from a broad effort to repower Wisconsin with clean energy. Among the long list of benefits (apparently) not considered in the analysis are the following:
• Avoided costs of electricity generation, transmission and distribution infrastructure resulting from reduced energy demand or the incorporation of on-site renewable generation.
• Increased income for Wisconsin farmers resulting from increased use of biofuels and the potential to lease lands for wind turbines and other forms of renewable energy development.
• Health benefits (including reductions in absenteeism, early mortality and possibly health care costs) from avoided fossil fuel-related pollution, including reductions in pollutants that form smog and soot, and mercury deposition in waterways.
• Avoided economic impacts of global warming in Wisconsin, including predicted changes that threaten to reduce the productivity of agriculture, increase the possibility of dangerous floods, shift the composition of Wisconsin forests, affect the winter recreation industry, and more.
• Reductions in the risk to individuals, businesses and government posed by sudden shifts in fossil fuel prices. Energy efficiency improvements and renewable energy both have hedging value as insurance against sudden spikes in fossil fuel costs.
Previously, the coalition for Clean, Responsible Energy for Wisconsin’s Economy (CREWE) and RENEW Wisconsin issued similar critiques of the WPRI report.
by jboullion | Jan 6, 2010 | Uncategorized
From an article by Chris Detjen and Maia Dedrick on MinnPost.com:
On Saturday, Dec. 12, Aurora Conley, a 25-year-old Ojibwe native of Bad River, Wis., walked at the leading edge of a 100,000-person march through the streets of Copenhagen — the largest climate mobilization in history, by many estimates — carrying with other indigenous people a banner that said “The World Wants a Real Deal.” The following Wednesday, she spoke at a press briefing on behalf of the International Forum of Indigenous Peoples on Climate Change.
“It was really imperative that we were at the front lines of the march, and that we’re at the front lines of the climate movement,” Conley said. “Indigenous peoples are the ones most impacted by climate change and the practices causing it. Our cultures and traditions are the ones that are dying first.” When asked for examples of these impacts, she spoke of close native friends who have developed cancer due to suspected exposure to toxic oil sand mining residues.
A local leader, Conley is studying to become a solar panel installation trainer for other Native Americans, and has worked with Winona LaDuke through the environmental organization Honor the Earth. At the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, she took her leadership global.
Conley was in Copenhagen as one of 12 Midwestern young people attending the conference through Expedition Copenhagen, a partnership between the Will Steger Foundation and Stonyfield Farm. Like all of us on the Expedition, Conley used her time there to connect people in her community back home with this year’s historic deliberations in Copenhagen.
Midwest contributes 20% of U.S. greenhouse emissions
Expedition delegates hailed from seven states in the Upper Midwest: Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, North Dakota and South Dakota. Our region’s voice matters greatly on climate change. The Midwest contributes 20 percent of greenhouse gas emissions produced in the United States each year, largely because of its dependence on coal-fired electricity.
