Advocacy group urges mandate for cleaner power in Wisconsin

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel --Sep. 7

Sep. 7--Wisconsin should require utilities to produce or buy 10 percent of the state's electricity from renewable sources, the leader of an environmental and consumer political advocacy group says.

Jennifer Giegerich, director of the Wisconsin Public Interest Research Group (WisPIRG), said the state needs a "hard-and-fast" mandate, something more stringent than the 10 percent target recently recommended by a clean-energy task force appointed by Gov. Jim Doyle. Her comments came after the release of a WisPIRG report last week detailing the pollution that would be avoided by reaching that goal.

A recommendation from a task force appointed by Doyle calls for utilities to generate 10 percent of their electricity from wind turbines and other renewable sources by 2015, but Giegerich said that proposal doesn't go far enough because it includes several exceptions that could result in the 10 percent goal not being achieved by then.

Under the proposal, a utility could delay meeting the 10 percent target if it can demonstrate to state energy regulators that achieving the goal is impossible because of Wisconsin's constrained transmission system, or that doing so would raise electricity customers' rates.

"For this to have any meaning it has to be a mandate," Giegerich said. "We would like to call on the governor's office and the Legislature to make that a priority."

But a mandate was opposed by utilities and others, including large manufacturers concerned about rising energy costs.

The Wisconsin Industrial Energy Group, a coalition of more than 30 large manufacturers, believes 10 percent "should be a goal rather than a mandate," said Nino Amato, the group's president.

Power from wind turbines is growing more economical compared with other forms of energy generation, given rising costs of natural gas in recent years and improved wind power technology that uses taller towers and larger turbines.

But wind energy development still depends heavily on renewal by Congress of a federal tax credit that channels money toward wind power development projects.

The WisPIRG report says the state needs to rely more on cleaner power sources because of the environmental and health impacts associated with coal plants.

Wisconsin already depends heavily on coal. State environmental regulators have endorsed construction of two new coal plants in Oak Creek -- the first coal plants to be built in the state since the Pleasant Prairie plant opened two decades ago.

The WisPIRG report projects the amount of pollution that would be prevented over the next decade if the state's utilities gradually built enough wind turbines to generate 10 percent of Wisconsin's power by 2013. If that were accomplished, the state would avoid emissions of more than 13,000 tons of nitrogen oxide, more than 15,000 tons of sulfur dioxide, 23 million tons of carbon dioxide and 291 pounds of mercury, the report says.

To avoid being "locked into a long future of even more fossil fuels, the state needs to take a step back and figure out how to be meeting our needs with cleaner and more sustainable sources," Giegerich said.

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