by jboullion | Mar 4, 2010 | Uncategorized
From the newsletter of John Muir Chapter of the Sierra Club:
At the annual Great Waters Group Holiday Party, John Bahr was named this year’s GWG Environmental Hero. Each year a volunteer receives this honor for his or her efforts in “Exploring, Enjoying, and Protecting the planet.”
John has worked diligently for the past five years on the issue of global warming and energy conservation. He has raised awareness of this important problem through talks to anyone who will listen and through meetings with civic and business leaders. He has targeted his home community of Wauwatosa, helping it develop practical ways to reduce its energy use.
He now sits on a Wauwatosa committee that is developing a strategy to make the entire community a “Cool City.” Congratulations, John. The Great Waters Group stands behind you in all your efforts.
by jboullion | Mar 4, 2010 | Uncategorized
An announcement from Wisconsin Environment, IBEW, Helios USA, Access Solar, Clean Wisconsin, Sierra Club, Milwaukee River Keeper:
Come join us Thursday, March 11th at 6:00 p.m. for a Clean Energy Town Hall Forum.
A panel of experts will discuss how the Clean Energy Jobs Bill will benefit the greater Milwaukee area with green jobs, lower energy bills and a cleaner, healthier environment.
Plus, talk with local installers about rebates and incentives to use energy efficiency or renewable energy for your home or business.
Speakers include: Dan Kohler, Director of Wisconsin Environment; Steve Ostrenga, CEO of Helios USA; Dave Boetcher, Government Affairs Coordinator for IBEW, Senator Jim Sullivan of the 5th District; Susan Stratton, Executive Director of Energy Center of Wisconsin and Matt Frank, DNR Secretary
Co-Sponsors: Wisconsin Environment, IBEW, Helios USA, Access Solar, Clean Wisconsin, Sierra Club, Milwaukee River Keeper
Any questions contact Lindsay North at (608) 287-0867. RSVP here!
West Allis Public Library
7421 W. National Ave
Constitution Room
West Allis, WI 53214
by jboullion | Mar 3, 2010 | Uncategorized
From an article by Nathaniel Shuda in the Wisconsin Rapids Tribune:
A Canadian energy producer’s latest effort to build a wind farm on the Great Lakes is one of several projects industry officials say is spurring interest in the concept.
The Great Lakes basin serves as a prime location for offshore power facilities because of high wind volumes and space, industry leaders said, which has some south Wood County business leaders poised to take advantage of what they call an invaluable resource.
“It costs a lot more to construct a tower in the water than it does on land, but when you put wind turbines on land, they’re set away from cities, so you need transmission lines,” said Jenny Heinzen, a wind-energy technology instructor at Lakeland Technical College. “What you’re spending in construction is far less than what you’d spend in transmission costs.”
Toronto-based Trillium Power Wind Corp. is gearing up for its planned 710-megawatt offshore wind facility in the middle of Lake Ontario that would power at least 300,000 homes a year in the Canadian province, according to a news release the company issued Thursday.
Its project, which also has connections to Denmark-based wind-energy component producer Vestas Wind Systems, is just one of many recent events the top executive of a Wisconsin Rapids-based manufacturer says further support the company’s plans to build what officials now say is a 535,000-square-foot $70 million wind turbine blade plant in the Rapids East Commerce Center.
“The market has validated our conversation,” said Sam Fairchild, chief executive officer of Energy Composites, which launched a Great Lakes Consortium in August to help promote the Great Lakes region within the wind-energy industry.
by jboullion | Mar 3, 2010 | Uncategorized
From an article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel by Tom Daykin:
The decision by Spanish train maker Talgo to locate its first U.S. assembly plant at the former Tower Automotive site on Milwaukee’s north side will have a bigger payoff than the 125 jobs it will create, a company executive and public officials said Tuesday.
Talgo will expand and add jobs if the company sells more trains, Chief Executive Officer Antonio Perez said Tuesday. Talgo already has orders for at least four trains from the states of Wisconsin and Oregon, and it hopes to sell several trains to other states with new high-speed rail lines, said Perez and Gov. Jim Doyle.
Also, while Talgo will import train car shells from Spain, it will buy other components from U.S. suppliers, Perez said. Those vendors could include Milwaukee-based Super Steel Products Corp. and Oak Creek-based Milwaukee Composites Inc. Such supplier contracts are expected to create around 450 jobs throughout the Midwest, Doyle said.
Finally, Talgo’s facility at the former Tower site boosts the city’s efforts to create a business park there, said city Development Commissioner Rocky Marcoux. That business park, dubbed Century City, will eventually have an estimated 700 to 1,000 jobs, he said.
Much of this, however, depends on developing a national high-speed rail system – financed with an initial investment of $8 billion in federal stimulus tax funds – that critics believe will draw fewer passengers than expected.
Talgo said Tuesday it will soon begin assembling trains in Milwaukee. Perez said the company will begin work between June and September and is already recruiting employees. About 60 positions are needed to build trains and another 65 jobs for maintenance work, he said.
by jboullion | Mar 2, 2010 | Uncategorized
From a news release issued by Clean Wisconsin:
Madison, Wis – Despite big oil and coal spending hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to confuse and turn the public against the Clean Energy Jobs Act, Wisconsin residents and businesses demonstrated overwhelming support for the bill in recent legislative hearings, with supporters outnumbering opponents by more than a 2 to 1 ratio, according to data recently obtained from the Wisconsin State Legislature.
“Attendance at the hearings shows that Wisconsinites support the Clean Energy Jobs Act, despite the attempts of big oil and coal lobbyists to sour public perception with misinformation and deceptive advertising,” said Keith Reopelle, Senior Policy Director at Clean Wisconsin. “Energy independence may be bad for the big oil and coal companies, but it’s good for the hard-working people of Wisconsin.
Supporters of this bill realize that greater energy independence means higher profits for Wisconsin businesses, more jobs, and a cleaner, healthier environment.”
In an attempt to weaken the Clean Energy Jobs Act, Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC) and big oil and coal companies have flooded the capital with lobbyists and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on advertisements and studies that use biased, outdated and discredited information to attack the bill.
Despite this misinformation campaign, individuals supported the bill 2 to 1 at recent legislative hearings, with actual businesses supporting the bill by a 3 to 1 margin.
by jboullion | Mar 2, 2010 | Uncategorized
From a news release issued by Clean Wisconsin:
Madison, Wis – Despite big oil and coal spending hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to confuse and turn the public against the Clean Energy Jobs Act, Wisconsin residents and businesses demonstrated overwhelming support for the bill in recent legislative hearings, with supporters outnumbering opponents by more than a 2 to 1 ratio, according to data recently obtained from the Wisconsin State Legislature.
“Attendance at the hearings shows that Wisconsinites support the Clean Energy Jobs Act, despite the attempts of big oil and coal lobbyists to sour public perception with misinformation and deceptive advertising,” said Keith Reopelle, Senior Policy Director at Clean Wisconsin. “Energy independence may be bad for the big oil and coal companies, but it’s good for the hard-working people of Wisconsin.
Supporters of this bill realize that greater energy independence means higher profits for Wisconsin businesses, more jobs, and a cleaner, healthier environment.”
In an attempt to weaken the Clean Energy Jobs Act, Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC) and big oil and coal companies have flooded the capital with lobbyists and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on advertisements and studies that use biased, outdated and discredited information to attack the bill.
Despite this misinformation campaign, individuals supported the bill 2 to 1 at recent legislative hearings, with actual businesses supporting the bill by a 3 to 1 margin.
by jboullion | Mar 2, 2010 | Uncategorized
From a news release issued by Clean Wisconsin:
Madison, Wis – Despite big oil and coal spending hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to confuse and turn the public against the Clean Energy Jobs Act, Wisconsin residents and businesses demonstrated overwhelming support for the bill in recent legislative hearings, with supporters outnumbering opponents by more than a 2 to 1 ratio, according to data recently obtained from the Wisconsin State Legislature.
“Attendance at the hearings shows that Wisconsinites support the Clean Energy Jobs Act, despite the attempts of big oil and coal lobbyists to sour public perception with misinformation and deceptive advertising,” said Keith Reopelle, Senior Policy Director at Clean Wisconsin. “Energy independence may be bad for the big oil and coal companies, but it’s good for the hard-working people of Wisconsin.
Supporters of this bill realize that greater energy independence means higher profits for Wisconsin businesses, more jobs, and a cleaner, healthier environment.”
In an attempt to weaken the Clean Energy Jobs Act, Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC) and big oil and coal companies have flooded the capital with lobbyists and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on advertisements and studies that use biased, outdated and discredited information to attack the bill.
Despite this misinformation campaign, individuals supported the bill 2 to 1 at recent legislative hearings, with actual businesses supporting the bill by a 3 to 1 margin.
by jboullion | Mar 2, 2010 | Uncategorized
From an editorial in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
The tone and tenor of the debate over the Clean Energy Jobs Act was determined the moment the legislation was named.
Supporters built into the name what they, not unreasonably, believed would be one of the bill’s principal virtues: job creation. But, with recession-induced trauma still fresh in everyone’s minds, it is simply too easy and expedient – facts be damned – to call virtually any new legislation a jobs killer, from health care reform to even a jobs bill.
We believe the jobs will be there, but it is important at this juncture to recognize that this bill is not really intended as an economic stimulus measure. In very real terms, it is an attempt at economic and environmental reinvention – done with the specter of climate change and all its effects looming.
Yes, climate change, with humanity as a major contributor, is real. But even if you don’t believe that, there is little to no downside to a future in which a good portion of our energy comes from renewable sources – 25% by 2025 – and no downside to a future in which energy efficiencies mean we are doing the same or more with less energy.
The reinvention comes in two other goals: growing new technologies and fostering energy independence. Doing this will have far more enduring effects on those bottom lines in the future than any short-term benefit derived from doing nothing now to cushion today’s corporate bottom lines.
On jobs, there are two dueling studies cited most often on whether the Clean Energy Jobs Act will actually create jobs.
One is by researchers at Michigan State University and the University of Southern California for the Center on Climate Strategies, the results of which are similar to findings by various state agencies. It forecasts a net increase of more than 16,200 new jobs in Wisconsin by 2025. It predicts a boost to the state’s economy of $4.85 billion total “in net present value” from 2011 to 2025.
The other study was done by the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute. It contends that policies similar to those in the bill would kill 43,000 Wisconsin jobs. The problem: It did not model the actual policies in the bill.
The Michigan study is more believable.
by jboullion | Mar 1, 2010 | Uncategorized
From a guest column by State Rep. Amy Sue Vruwink in the Stevens Point Journal:
As the Wisconsin state Legislature continues to move forward with its legislative session, and the happenings in the State Capitol are fast and furious this time of year, I wanted to take this opportunity to discuss an issue that will affect all of us in central Wisconsin.
The Legislature has made a commitment to Wisconsin’s small businesses and to agricultural producers with the Clean Energy Jobs Act. The Clean Energy Jobs Act, state Senate Bill 450 and state Assembly Bill 649, contain various recommendations of the governor’s Global Warming Task Force to address climate change and grow the state’s green economy through several key measures. These include: Renewable Energy Buyback Rates (aka Advanced Renewable Tariffs), increasing Wisconsin’s renewable portfolio standards, which is 25 percent by 2025, establishing and administering an Energy Crop Reserve Program and requiring the Department of Natural Resources to promulgate a rule requiring the reduction in the carbon intensity of transportation fuels sold in this state, also known as implementing a Low Carbon Fuel Standard.
Currently, Wisconsin sends $16 billion out of state each year for our energy needs. If we can start using some of the natural resources we already produce in agriculture and the forestry sectors, we can keep that money here in Wisconsin. We know that other states are doing it, and we know that other nations are doing it. We here in Wisconsin have the ability to be a leader in that economy. However, we all know that the devil is in the details, and this legislation is no different than any other legislative proposal that comes before the Legislature. Elected officials on both sides of the aisle have questions that need to be addressed regarding this legislation, and in the near future there will be meaningful debate. Regardless of the final outcome, we as a state, and we as an agricultural community need to be involved in the decision-making process.
by jboullion | Mar 1, 2010 | Uncategorized
From a story on WQOW-TV (Eau Claire):
Spooner (Eau Claire) – The DNR unveils designs for a new facility it hopes will lead the state in energy efficiency.
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources hopes to set the gold standard in green.
“Well, the fact is this building is very expensive to operate,” says Wisconsin Secretary of Natural Resources, Matthew Frank. “We think, in the long run, we’re going to be saving the taxpayers money by investing in a new building.”
The department’s northern headquarters in Spooner is 45 years old. The department says it would cost millions to get the building to meet the state’s new energy efficiency standards.
So, Thursday morning, it unveiled plans for a new highly energy efficient building. The new 18,000 square foot facility will be built right behind the old building in Spooner.
The headquarters serves 18 northern counties, including Barron, Polk and Rusk.
The department says the building will meet the highest level of international energy and environmental standards. The building will, for example, face north to allow for more natural light inside. Rain gardens will collect storm water and water the grass. The builder will also use local materials.
