By Brian E. Clark
WisBusiness.com
A set of proposals to significantly reduce greenhouse gases in Wisconsin is expected to be approved handily when the Governor’s Task Force on Global morning meets Thursday morning in Sun Prairie.
In a 29-3 vote last month, the panel approved a draft report that would return C02 emissions to 2005 levels by 2014, trim them by 22 percent by 2020 and further cut greenhouse gases by 75 percent in the year 2050.
It also suggests increasing the use of renewables, such as wind and solar power, to 10 percent in five years and to 25 percent by 2025. It would also ramp up funding for energy efficiency and other conservation programs.
Todd Stuart, executive director of the Wisconsin Industrial Energy Group, predicted the final vote will be largely ceremonial, though some dissenters may speak against it.
He said his organization continues to oppose the report because it is worried that the high price of cutting C02 emissions may force struggling manufacturers to shut down. He also called a regional cap-and-trade plan for greenhouse gases unworkable.
“We appreciate some of the things that were done to mitigate costs, but overall these recommendations could cost ratepayers between $1 billion and $1.5 billion a year,” he said.
“We will lose 1,000 paper jobs and 1,000 automotive jobs this year, with more auto jobs going away in 2009,” he said. “Other manufacturers who use a tremendous amount of energy are making decisions now that affect their futures in this state.
“We are urging extreme caution with these proposals because we are very coal and energy dependent,” he said. “If companies shut down here and ship jobs to China, where there are few pollution controls, is the environment better off? Our economy certainly won’t be.”
General Motors, which last month announced it will close its SUV plant in Janesville by 2010, also voted against the draft. John Pease, the plant’s controller, said the company backed most of the proposals, but could not support a recommendation to adopt strict vehicle-emission standards recently enacted by California.
Ariens, a lawn equipment maker, also said it could not support the overall plan because of reservations about the cap-and-trade program and the renewable portfolio standard suggestions.
Groups that backed the recommendations include the state’s investor-owned utilities, environmental organizations, the United Steelworkers, agriculture and forestry organizations, plus major businesses such as Johnson Controls and S.C. Johnson.
Barry McNulty, a spokesman for We Energies, said his utility supports the as a whole, but has concerns about some of the specific proposals because of their impact on customer rates.
“Emphasis on energy efficiency and technology development is the most important contribution that can be made toward reductions of CO2,” he said.
“The innovative technology that we are hosting at our Pleasant Prairie Power Plant in Kenosha holds promise of providing a solution to how we use America’s most abundant and affordable energy source, while decreasing our overall carbon footprint.”
He said nuclear power “must remain in the energy mix and we are encouraged that this is reflected in the Task Force package.”
But Katie Nekola of Clean Wisconsin said she believes the report actually adds new restrictions. And the draft specifically says it is not encouraging the building of more nuclear facilities.
“I know some people are saying the report eases the moratorium on new plants until there is a place to store nuclear waste,” she said.
“But the recommendations actually make it harder for out-of-state companies to build nukes here,” she said.
“They would require that these plants would have to be built to meet Wisconsin’s needs, not for shipping electricity out of state,” argued Nekola, who said her group opposes nuclear power primarily for safety reasons.
If the report is approved tomorrow, it will be sent on to Gov. Jim Doyle. He will not attend the event, said spokesman Lee Sensenbrenner.
He said Doyle will soon announce what he will do with the suggestions. Executive orders to enforce some of them are a possibility, Sensenbrenner said.
Other recommendations would need to be approved by the Legislature, he added.
See final draft of the task force report: http://dnr.wi.gov/environmentprotect/gtfgw/documents/MaTF20080724.pdf
