Clean energy victory; smoothie not sausage

Keith Reopelle

If you follow the political scene in the state capitol to any great degree you've likely heard the analogy between passing legislation and making sausage — if you saw it being made, you wouldn't buy it. Well, if the sausage analogy holds true for most legislation in these cutthroat, partisan times, the recent clean energy legislation was, in stark contrast, more like watching one blend a smoothie.

Senate Bill 459, requiring utilities to significantly increase their investments in renewable energy sources and energy efficiency, sailed through the Senate by a vote of 32 to 1 and through the Assembly 94 to 0.

That's not to say that there wasn't a lot of hard work that went into this bill. To the contrary, stakeholders spent more than a year wrangling over these policies before legislative drafters took their first key stroke. That was the biggest difference between this bill and so many others that never make it out of the sausage grinder; this bill was based on the recommendation of a Governor's Task Force on Energy Efficiency and Renewables that did much heavy lifting back in 2004.

As a member of that Task Force, I spent hundreds of hours debating with utility and industry executives and lobbyists about the appropriate level of efficiency investments, a reasonable level of renewable electric generation, reasonable exceptions for compliance with that renewable requirement, and many other issues. The state utilities varied markedly in their approach to these negotiations as they typically do.

Some of the utilities on the Task Force definitely shared our understanding and appreciation for the environmental and economic benefits of efficiency and renewable energy more than others. Madison Gas and Electric and Alliant, also based in Madison, for example, were especially constructive and easy to work with. At the other end of the spectrum, Wisconsin Public Service Corporation of Green Bay argued through much of the process that there should be no renewable generation requirements, only voluntary goals. At times the posturing and rhetoric left me not knowing whether to laugh or cry — when Xcel (Minnesota-based western Wisconsin utility) argued, for example, against listing environmental benefits among the things the Public Service Commission should consider when setting energy efficiency funding levels.

The Task Force recommendation, and resulting legislation, was a compromise to be sure, but a very productive one, and all the stakeholders deserve some credit — clean energy industries such as Johnson Controls, ratepayer advocates, environmental groups, the utilities, labor unions, merchants, and Governor Doyle for having the vision to convene and create the mission for the Task Force with an Executive Order. Special thanks and credit goes to Bill's authors Senator Robert Cowles (R-Green Bay) and Representative Phil Montgomery (R-Ashwaubenon) for their legislative leadership. Senator Cowles in particular deserves thanks for keeping both stakeholders and legislators together in this effort and fending off 11th hour lobbying efforts to water down the bill. We urge our members in the Green Bay area to thank Senator Cowles for all the time and hard work he and his staff put into this bill.

While it was a compromise and could have been stronger, the bottom line is that this legislation moves Wisconsin farther forward on the path to a clean energy future than any policy in state history. Here are the major provisions in the bill that start us down that path:

• A requirement that state utilities generate 10% of their electricity from renewable resources by 2015 (up from the current 2.2% by 2011).
• A requirement that the state purchase 20 percent of its electricity from renewable resources by 2010.
• Changes to the state's energy efficiency fund, known as Focus On Energy that would prevent diversion of funds to balance the budget.
• A requirement that utilities collect and contribute 1.2% of their annual gross revenues to the Focus On Energy program.  An initial increase from the current $62 million to $82 million. 
• A requirement that the Department of Commerce upgrade the Commercial Building Code to current International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) efficiency standards (2005 standards rather than the 1989 standards the Commercial Building Code is currently based on).
• A requirement that all equipment (computers, copiers, lighting, etc.) purchases for state buildings meet Energy Star or equivalent high efficiency standards.

A recent study¹ conducted by the Energy Center of Wisconsin found that over a six-year period energy efficiency funding levels on this order will reduce energy demand enough to offset the need for a 500 MW power plant. That means less air pollution and lower energy bills. In fact, the levels of efficiency investment set by this bill will save ratepayers in Wisconsin more than $200 million a year while also reducing global warming emissions by more than 600,000 tons every year. That's what I call a win-win policy.

[1] Energy Efficiency and Customer-Sited Renewable Energy: Achievable Potential in Wisconsin 2006-2015. http://72.36.212.11/other/potentialstudyataglance.pdf