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GREEN BAY, Wisconsin, US, August 16, 2006
(Refocus Weekly)
The state of Wisconsin has set “ambitious goals”
to become the U.S. leader in the drive toward energy independence,
including an initiative to make several university campuses 100%
energy independent within five years.
“America’s energy crisis presents Wisconsin with not only
challenge, but opportunity,” says governor Jim Doyle. “With our
great research institutions, strong agriculture and manufacturing
base, and tremendous renewable resources, we are well positioned to
become America’s leader in the drive toward energy independence. For
the sake of our environment and our economy, we must seize this
opportunity.”
Doyle, with other energy and environmental leaders, signed the
‘Declaration of Energy Independence’ which calls for a joint
public-private effort to generate 25% of electricity and 25% of
transportation fuel from renewables by 2025. It also wants to
capture 10% of the market share for the production of renewable
energy sources by 2030.
Achieving the goal would bring US$13.5 billion a year to the state’s
economy by 2030, while “helping America kick its addiction to
foreign fossil fuels and bringing tens of thousands of new jobs to
our citizens,” he explained. Wisconsin is already leading in many
fields of energy innovation, including the recent Energy Efficiency
& Renewables Act that requires the state to source 10% of its
electricity from renewables by 2015.
Doyle is directing state agencies to work toward the goals in the
declaration, including the immediate selection of at least three
University of Wisconsin campuses that will move off-grid within five
years and generate their own energy with a strong focus on
renewables. He will provide $1 million in grants to companies
developing and commercializing new technologies in bioenergy, and
will “aggressively promote new incentives” to encourage renewable
fuels.
The state will encourage additional research efforts at the
University of Wisconsin to make Wisconsin the nation’s leader in
renewable energy development, and will form an interagency effort to
coordinate and focus the activities of state government toward
achieving the goals of the declaration.
Doyle will also start work for the state “to become a national
leader in groundbreaking research that will make alternative
energies more affordable and available to all, and to turn those
discoveries into new, high paying jobs right here in Wisconsin.” He
will announce additional measures over the next months and make this
effort a priority of his second term.
In 2000, Wisconsin produced no ethanol but, this year, with a total
state investment of $7 million, it will produce 180 million gallons
a year. By 2025, Doyle’s goal is to triple the state’s production of
ethanol.
“Our state will be the nation’s leader in the drive toward energy
independence through efficiency, conservation, and renewable fuels,”
he adds. “From ethanol production to solar panels to wind and hydro
power, Wisconsin is ready to lead the way.”
“When it comes to our nation’s energy future, let’s build an economy
that depends less on the Mideast and more on the Midwest.”
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