by jboullion | Jun 28, 2011 | Uncategorized
From an article by Judy Newman in the Wisconsin State Journal:
Focus on Energy, a statewide program that promotes energy efficiency, is in the midst of big changes: new management by an out-of-state corporation, suspension of a popular rebate program, and sharp funding cuts in the pending state budget.
Nearly 20 people already have lost their jobs, mostly in Madison, as a result of the management change.
Meanwhile, dozens of small Wisconsin businesses that specialize in setting up solar panels and wind turbines fear for their futures because of the slashed allocation and rebate removal.
“It’s a lot of economic activity and jobs in Wisconsin. It’s a lot of energy efficiency, as well,” said Keith Reopelle, policy director for Clean Wisconsin.
Focus on Energy was created in 2001 to provide education, resources and cash incentives to Wisconsin residents and businesses to increase the use of energy-efficient products and systems, from furnaces to solar panels to vending machines.
In the past 10 years, more than 91,000 businesses and more than 1.7 million residents used the program and saved $2.20 for every dollar spent, according to Focus data. . . .
Since taking over Focus on Energy on May 9, one of Shaw’s first decisions, with PSC support, was to suspend payments to businesses that install renewable-energy systems, as of June 30.
Contractors like Seventh Generation Energy Systems were stunned.“It’s pretty devastating,” said James Yockey, chief executive officer. “It probably took out six to 10 projects that we were looking to close … for work in the fall and the coming spring.”
Several of the projects were wind turbines for farmers. “I think the incentives are decisive in people saying yes,” Yockey said . . . .
Program supporters have appealed to Gov. Scott Walker to veto the Focus budget cut, including a letter signed by 124 Wisconsin businesses. As of Friday, there was no word on his response. Walker is scheduled to sign the budget today.
“Cutting Focus on Energy will result in higher electricity bills and fewer jobs,” Randy Johnson, president of U.S. Lamp, a Green Bay energy-efficient lighting design company, said in the letter.
Seventh Generation’s Yockey said he hopes to avoid laying off any of his 16 employees by aiming his business at other states, and that could mean moving the company. “We prefer to be located in Madison but the bottom line is: we’ll see where the business takes us,” he said.
by jboullion | Jun 28, 2011 | Uncategorized
From an article in the Marshfield News Herald:
Rothschild residents seeking a second review of the wood-burning power plant in Rothschild filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the state Department of Natural Resources.
Opponents of the project hope to force the DNR to re-evaluate emissions expected to come from the facility.
Save Our Air Resources filed the suit in Marathon County Circuit Court one day after Domtar decided to go forward with the project and comply with state regulator’s requirements.
by jboullion | Jun 28, 2011 | Uncategorized
From an article in the Juneau County Star:
The company that wants to build an electrical transmission line from Middleton to north of La Crosse will host an open house meeting in Mauston for the public next week.
Plans by American Transmission Company for the Badger Coulee line, introduced in 2010, are moving into phase 2.
The company says Badger Coulee is needed to bring less expensive power from states to the west into the Upper Midwest and to improve the reliability of Wisconsin’s electric transmission grid over the long term. “We’re looking out 10, 20, 30, 40 years,” said Sarah Justus, local relations manager for the company.
If the line is built, it would add about 75 cents a month to a $100 utility bill, Justus said.
The company has examined a broad swath from south-central to western Wisconsin and identified dozens of corridors to consider for the project, which will carry 345 kilovolts of electricity over 150 miles and will cost about $425 million.
Most of the possible routes for the line suggested by the company would cross the southwest corner of Juneau County along existing highways, including Interstate 90/94, U.S. Highway 12 and state highways 80, 82 and 58. . . .
The public open house is scheduled for 1 to 7 p.m. Wednesday, June 29, at Grayside Elementary School, 510 Grayside Ave., Mauston.
by jboullion | Jun 27, 2011 | Uncategorized
From an article by Corrine Hess in the Business Journal of Milwaukee:
Finding a parking spot downtown will no longer be an issue for people willing to pedal.
At least, not if a group of local business leaders backing the bicycle rental initiative have any say in it.
The Discovery World museum hosted B-Cycle Thursday, the group responsible for setting up bike rental stations at 11 cities across the country, including Madison. Joel Brennan, president and CEO of Discovery World, invited the B-Cycle team to present their proposal to the museum’s board of directors.
“This is an innovative idea and we are the center of innovation so we thought it was a good fit,” Brennan said.
Lee Jones, director of sales for B-Cycle, said he hoped the event would spark interest in sponsorships for the program in Milwaukee.
The program is not cheap. Each bicycle, which includes the stand, and the software, ranges from $3,500 to $5,500.
B-Cycle installed about 200 bikes in Madison last month and expects to have the project completed by the end of July with 350 bicycles at 35 stations around the city.
Trek , a Waterloo bike manufacturer, donated the bikes in Madison. However, B-Cycle representative acknowledged it’s unlikely that will happen again in Milwaukee.
B-Cycle was started in Boulder, Colo., in 2008 as a partnership between Trek, Humana Inc. of Louisville, Ky., and Boulder advertising agency Crispin Porter & Bogusky.
The program is modeled after similar endeavors in European cities such as Paris and allows riders to swipe a membership card to unlock a 45-pound bicycle that comes with a lock, lights and basket.
Timing is good for B-Cycle to visit the city. The 11-day Tour of America’s Dairyland series is currently underway and hundreds of bicyclists are riding through southeast Wisconsin. On June 21, more than 600 cyclists rode through Schlitz Park and the Brewers Hill neighborhood.
by jboullion | Jun 27, 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 | Jun 27, 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 27, 2011 | Uncategorized
From an article by Clay Barbour in the Wisconsin State Journal:
In the past six months, three wind farm developers with a combined investment of more than $600 million have stopped operations in Wisconsin — victims of regulatory uncertainty and what some now perceive as a hostile business environment for “green” energy.
The wind farms — planned for Calumet, Brown and Green Lake counties — would have created more than 1,100 jobs and helped Wisconsin reach its goal of generating 10 percent of its energy through renewable sources by 2015.
But new wind regulations, more than two years in the making, were shelved as the Public Service Commission works on a more restrictive set. Combined with a series of initiatives pushed through by Gov. Scott Walker and the Republican-led Legislature, industry officials and environmental advocates say Wisconsin seems more concerned with making green than being green.
“In a typical year, you win some and you lose some. It’s about a 50-50 breakdown,” said Jennifer Giegerich, legislative director for the Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters. “But this year, it has been one loss after another. We are going backwards, fast. And it’s scary. . . .”
Currently the Public Service Commission is holding meetings with advocates and opponents, trying to iron out a compromise. Neither side wants to start from scratch, but PSC officials said they are at a standstill.
“The uncertainty is killing us,” said Dan Rustowicz, of Minnesota’s Redwind Consulting, a company trying to develop a wind farm in Buffalo County. “It’s a shame because Wisconsin has good wind. But we have other options. If you don’t have the political support here, why try and push that rope?”
by jboullion | Jun 24, 2011 | Uncategorized
From an article by Charles Davis in the Green Bay Press Gazette:
Thousands of future jobs are at stake if Gov. Scott Walker doesn’t veto a provision in the state budget that limits funding for the Focus on Energy program, local business leaders said Wednesday.
“I see it being a real detriment to our business and our customers going forward if we don’t have these funding increases,” said Jeff Klonowski, regional manager of Kaukauna-based Energy Federation Inc., which supplies lighting fixtures, foam and weather-stripping materials to area contractors.
But supporters of the provision object to the amount of the funding increase, not the program.
“The Focus on Energy program certainly had a lot of benefits, but the huge increase in assessments that were put in place at the end of last year, we think, were too much, too soon,” said Scott Manley, director of environmental and energy policy for Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, the state’s largest business lobby.
Walker received a letter Wednesday signed by more than 120 businesses asking that he veto that provision in the state budget bill. His office responded with a one-line statement: “We’ll evaluate that provision and make any veto-related announcements once the decisions have been finalized.”
The program
The statewide Focus on Energy program is funded by tax assessments on utility bills and provides grants to help homeowners and businesses pay for energy-efficient upgrades. It also helps pay for consultants to advise property owners on which type of upgrades would be practical and cost-effective. Each year, utility companies contribute 1.2 percent of revenue — about $100 million total — to the program.
The state Public Service Commission proposed in December raising the utility bill assessments from $94 million in 2010 to $256 million by 2014.
The proposal calls for utilities to increase their contributions to $120 million this year. That amount is fixed even if Walker does not veto the provision. However, assessments would drop to around $100 million in 2012, instead of the initial proposed increase of $160 million for that year.
Image by Clean Wisconsin
by jboullion | Jun 24, 2011 | Uncategorized
From an article by Charles Davis in the Green Bay Press Gazette:
Thousands of future jobs are at stake if Gov. Scott Walker doesn’t veto a provision in the state budget that limits funding for the Focus on Energy program, local business leaders said Wednesday.
“I see it being a real detriment to our business and our customers going forward if we don’t have these funding increases,” said Jeff Klonowski, regional manager of Kaukauna-based Energy Federation Inc., which supplies lighting fixtures, foam and weather-stripping materials to area contractors.
But supporters of the provision object to the amount of the funding increase, not the program.
“The Focus on Energy program certainly had a lot of benefits, but the huge increase in assessments that were put in place at the end of last year, we think, were too much, too soon,” said Scott Manley, director of environmental and energy policy for Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, the state’s largest business lobby.
Walker received a letter Wednesday signed by more than 120 businesses asking that he veto that provision in the state budget bill. His office responded with a one-line statement: “We’ll evaluate that provision and make any veto-related announcements once the decisions have been finalized.”
The program
The statewide Focus on Energy program is funded by tax assessments on utility bills and provides grants to help homeowners and businesses pay for energy-efficient upgrades. It also helps pay for consultants to advise property owners on which type of upgrades would be practical and cost-effective. Each year, utility companies contribute 1.2 percent of revenue — about $100 million total — to the program.
The state Public Service Commission proposed in December raising the utility bill assessments from $94 million in 2010 to $256 million by 2014.
The proposal calls for utilities to increase their contributions to $120 million this year. That amount is fixed even if Walker does not veto the provision. However, assessments would drop to around $100 million in 2012, instead of the initial proposed increase of $160 million for that year.
Image by Clean Wisconsin
by jboullion | Jun 24, 2011 | Uncategorized
From an article by Molly Newman in the Marshfield News Herald:
Three companies have their sights set on excavating a high quality sand that lies about 20 feet below Marshfield’s surface.
The hard, round sand, called frac, is found only in older deposits in certain areas, including central Wisconsin. It’s used in hydraulic fracturing, or breaking apart rock using sand and water to pump out oil and natural gas.
Several companies have popped up in the area recently because of increased interest from the oil industry, Completion Industrial Minerals President Tom Giordani said.
“There are shortages in the market for the sand — that’s why everyone’s looking in Wisconsin,” he said.
Completion, formerly TexSand, had some funding delay its business plan during the recession, but now is back on track to begin excavation this summer, Giordani said.
The company is in the process of grading its 57-acre site on 29th Street in Marshfield’s Yellowstone Industrial Park and setting up the excavating equipment, including crushers, screens, dryers and belt conveyors. There will be some small control buildings and two 100-foot storage silos on the site, with an office building constructed later, Giordani said.
Some sand excavation is expected to begin in August and the system will be fully operational by September or October, he said. There is enough sand in the Marshfield area pits Completion is using to last at least 25 years, he said.
But it’s been a contentious issue in some states that have fracking operations. Critics argue that chemicals used in fracking may be contaminating water supplies. And it’s the subject of a documentary titled Gasland.
