Global Warming Task Force recommendations heating up

Keith Reopelle

Governor Doyle's Task Force on Global Warming began meeting in May, 2007 and has now developed more than 60 recommendations for policies to curb the release of greenhouse gases in Wisconsin.

Members of a Task Force are selected because they are considered experts and advocates in their field and are trusted to be reasonable and collaborative to reach the best conclusion for Wisconsin. The Task Force on Global Warming is comprised of issue stakeholders appointed by Governor Doyle, which is considered an honor.

We are proud to say that Clean Wisconsin is a leader on the Task Force on Global Warming. Clean Wisconsin not only has a seat on the Task Force but also contributes leadership in the following ways:

• We have representatives on four of the six working groups;
• We co-chair three of the working groups; and,
• We are a representative on the Technical Advisory Committee that is overseeing modeling of the recommendations.

Thanks to your support, Clean Wisconsin has played a central role in developing and advocating for strong recommendations on the Task Force. The recommendations have been developed into these six working groups:

• Energy Efficiency and Conservation Work Group
• Electric Generation Work Group
• Transportation Work Group
• Industrial Work Group
• Multi-sector Work Group (e.g. cap & trade/carbon tax)
• Agriculture and Forestry Work Group

Some of the major policy recommendations include:

• Enhanced Energy Efficiency: a tripling of the investment in statewide energy efficiency programs.
• Increased Renewable Energy Standard: increasing the current requirement that 10% of electricity sold by each utility come from renewable sources by 2015 to 17.5% coming from renewable sources by 2020.
• Clean Cars: a requirement that cars have limits to the fleet average greenhouse gas emissions from the tailpipe.
• Cap & Trade: requiring that all large stationary sources must reduce their greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020.
• Carbon Tax: a tax on all significant sources of greenhouse gas emissions that are not large stationary sources covered by the cap and trade program.

You can read detailed descriptions of all of these policy recommendation proposals at the DNR's Task Force website http://dnr.wi.gov/environmentprotect/gtfgw/. The descriptions include an estimate of total greenhouse gas emission reductions, an estimate of the cost, and a description of barriers to adopting and implementing the policy. We urge you to look at some of these proposed policy recommendations and comment on them on line. The Task Force needs to hear from the public; if you support Wisconsin doing its share to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to the level needed to avoid disastrous effects of climate change it will require a great deal of public involvement.

Wisconsin's greenhouse gas emissions were approximately 123 million tons in 2003 (the most recent year we have reliable numbers for). Electric utilities account for 35% of those emissions, transportation 24% and industrial emissions 13%. Scientists estimate that worldwide we need to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions 60 to 80 percent below 1990 levels. Even a 60 to 80 percent reduction from 2003 levels — reducing our emissions by nearly 74 to 90 million tons per year — is a huge up-hill climb. We need everyone involved, including individuals willing to make individual changes and individuals weighing in to support strong policies to reduce emissions.

We give a big thank you to all of our members who attended the listening sessions and made comments to the Task Force on Global Warming in 2007 and we will be looking for your support in 2008 as we work towards implementing the recommendations of the Task Force. We will not be able to do this without your help.