Feb 27 - The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

More wind turbines and new nuclear reactors are high on the agenda in Washington and Madison, as politicians grapple with how to tell voters that they're responding to high energy prices.

The rising price of coal and natural gas, on the heels of skyrocketing crude oil and gasoline prices, has spawned a search for alternative ways of generating electricity.

Last week, President Bush stumped in Wisconsin for more funding for wind and solar power, as well as a big commitment to new nuclear reactors and clean coal plants. A giant photo of wind turbines was used as a backdrop for his speech.

A day later, in a bipartisan and nearly unanimous vote, the state Senate passed a bill that would result in 10% of Wisconsin's electricity being supplied renewable power, mostly from wind turbines, 2015.

During his talk at Johnson Controls in Milwaukee, President Bush reiterated his State of the Union pronouncement that America is addicted to oil, and that alternatives need to be pursued to help make America less vulnerable to spikes in the prices of oil and natural gas.

That's the same rationale Gov. Jim Doyle and lawmakers in Madison are using as they promote the bill that would prompt the state to increase its reliance on wind turbines and other renewable sources.

If the state measure becomes law, energy experts expect an infusion of investment in new wind power projects in Wisconsin.

Milwaukee-based We Energies will file an application soon to build a 160-megawatt wind power project in the towns of Calumet and Marshfield in Fond du Lac County. It would be the second-largest wind project in the state, topped only the Forward Wind Energy Center in Fond du Lac and Dodge counties.

High prices and better renewable technologies have created a consensus, said Rep. Phil Montgomery (R-Ashwaubenon).

"We've hit the economic critical point that, as the price of natural gas and coal rise, the cost-benefit ratio for renewables and those alternative energy technologies are coming much more in line with the ability of ratepayers to take them on," he said.

Nuclear still controversial

The most controversial element in today's energy debate concerns nuclear power.

At the national level, Bush is banking on nuclear power, putting hundreds of millions of dollars in his budget for new nuclear reactors, the first of which could start construction 2010, he said.

"If we're trying to become less dependent on foreign sources of oil or energy like natural gas, we want to free up our natural gas to keep our manufacturing base intact, we need to move forward when it comes to alternative sources like nuclear power," Bush said. "And there's some encouraging results and the mind-set is beginning to change. After all, the mind-set needed to change. We haven't built a plant since the 1970s."

Last year's federal energy bill provides incentives for new nuclear plants and, while in Milwaukee, Bush said nine companies have expressed an interest in building as many as 19 nuclear power plants.

"We'll start building nuclear power plants again the end of this decade," Bush said.

In Wisconsin, where nuclear power supplies one-fifth of the state's electricity, no new plants have been discussed. But Republican legislators, led Rep. Mike Huebsch (R-West Salem), want to overturn the state's ban on new nuclear plants.

"I am fully convinced that nuclear is the next way to go," said Montgomery, whose energy committee will hold a hearing Wednesday on ending the nuclear moratorium.

Energy observers say the Kewaunee nuclear plant east of Green Bay is the most suitable site in Wisconsin for a new reactor, since Kewaunee was designed to hold two reactors when it was built in the early 1970s.

Doyle opposes nuclear

Opponents of nuclear power, including several state environmental groups, say it is too costly, given the immense costs associated with building a new reactor.

In addition, a new generation of reactors will add to the nation's problem of having to store radioactive spent nuclear fuel at a time that the federal government continues to move slowly on building a national repository for radioactive waste at Yucca Mountain in Nevada.

However, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission last week gave a private company a license to build an interim disposal site on an Indian reservation in Utah for some of the nuclear waste now being stored at nuclear plants around the country.

Gov. Jim Doyle said focusing attention on nuclear power at a time when so many other energy alternatives are available doesn't make sense.

"The governor has said we've not had a nuclear plant built anywhere in the country for three decades, and Wisconsin is not going to be the state that breaks that streak," Doyle spokesman Dan Leistikow said.

Doyle, who supported construction of coal-fired power plants opposed environmental groups, won back the support of those groups with an aggressive push for legislation expanding Wisconsin's use of green power and energy efficiency.

The state bill, proposed Montgomery and state Sen. Rob Cowles (R-Green Bay), will be considered a state Assembly committee this week, and is expected to be taken up the full Assembly on March 7.

The bill has been cheered supporters of energy efficiency, which is identified industries and residents as a way to cut demand for energy during a period of rising prices.

Under the legislation, spending on energy efficiency would be expected to reach $85 million in the fiscal year that begins July 2007. That's up from about $40 million in the current fiscal year.

The bill bars the Legislature from tapping energy efficiency dollars collected on customers' monthly bills and using it for other purposes, said Janet Brandt, of the non-profit Wisconsin Energy Conservation Corp., which runs the Focus on Energy program.

"This really does turn the corner," she said.

At the same time, critics say the president's budget hamstrings programs like energy efficiency and weatherization of old buildings, which can help save on natural gas and bring down prices.

The president's budget cuts energy efficiency spending $100 million, according to the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy.

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Copyright (c) 2006, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.