After recent hot weather and with more on the way, air conditioners and fans are taxing Wisconsin's electrical grid. It's a good thing the state is slowly but surely moving toward renewable energy, despite resistance from top elected officials.

More than half of Wisconsin's electricity comes from coal, and a big share of the rest is natural gas. When we ramp up consumption, we spew more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, contributing to climate change. That will mean hotter days in the future.

Granted, Wisconsin's share of greenhouse gas emissions is small in the global climate. We could stop burning fossil fuels entirely, and it wouldn't come close to fixing the problem. But that misses the point. Climate change is the result of many such small greenhouse gas contributions that add up to something terrible. So Wisconsin must reduce emissions along with everyone else.

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, only 8.4 percent of Wisconsin's net electricity generation came from renewables in 2015. Under Gov.
Scott Walker and Attorney General
Brad Schimel, the state is stalling improvement. They continue to fight the Environmental Protection Agency's clean energy goals.

But the energy sector is making progress anyway. The most recent evidence is a wind turbine project approved for St. Croix County in western Wisconsin. A judge had halted the project once over some neighbors' concerns.

But the Public Service Commission last month signed off on a revised plan that addresses the judge's ruling. Highland Wind, the company behind the project, could start building by the end of the year, though additional litigation might delay that. At least two more wind projects are in the works.

Some concerns about renewable energy may warrant further investigation, such as the effects of wind turbines on humans, bats and birds. Those should not be deal breakers, though, as long as industry and academic researchers continue to honestly research and tweak the technology to minimize problems. Skyscrapers kill birds when they fly into windows, but we don't ban them.

Companies such as Highland Wind make free-market decisions, but the market exists in the context of those EPA goals and probably other federal mandates down the road. Power companies are prudently hedging their bets that the future is in renewable energy and required reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.

The energy industry has good fiscal reasons to pursue renewables, too. Costs are decreasing as the technology matures. Meanwhile, coal and other fossil fuels will likely cost more in the future.

Wind and other renewable power sources -- especially solar, which can succeed in small-scale, dispersed uses -- will be a big part of Wisconsin's, America's and the world's energy future.

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