Where to Listen:
There is no question we are living through a stressful, often overwhelming time. So if you’re feeling hopeless, especially in the face of the climate crisis, no one could blame you. But there is no better place to find hope – than in other people. How you can join people from all walks of life on Sunday, Sept 28 to take a stand for our climate right here in Wisconsin.
Host:
Amy Barrilleaux
Guest:
Heather Allen, Policy Director, Elevate
Resources for You:
Wisconsin Climate March Sunday Sept. 28, Madison, Wisconsin
Transcript:
Amy Welcome to the Defender podcast powered by Clean Wisconsin, your environmental voice since 1970. I’m Amy Barilleaux. So how are you doing? There’s no question we are living through a stressful moment in human history. And if you’re feeling hopeless, especially in the face of climate change, nobody could blame you. But there is no better place to find hope than in other people. How you can take a stand with a whole lot of other people for our climate right here in Wisconsin. That’s right now on The Defender. Climate Week is coming up the week of September 21st, and this year, folks are getting vocal. Clean Wisconsin is one of the supporters of the Wisconsin Climate March, happening to close out Climate Week on Sunday, September 28th. Joining me to talk about it, one of March organizers, Heather Allen, policy director with the nonprofit Elevate. Heather, thanks so much for being here.
Heather Thank you for having me.
Amy I want to start off first, before we get to the Climate March event, I want to ask you about Elevate. So what does Elevate do, what is the organization all about?
Heather Thank you for asking. So Elevate’s been around for just over 20 years, and we are working all across the Midwest, in Michigan, Illinois, and Wisconsin, and in the Pacific Northwest. And what we do, really, our bread and butter, is retrofitting buildings to be more energy efficient and to be water efficient, to be safer, healthier, more affordable to live in those places. So we’ve retrofit probably over 100,000 units of affordable housing. And the families that live there save money because they’re saving on their energy bills, their water bills. And we also do lead removal, whether it’s lead line service replacement or lead windows or lead paint removal. We do all of that to make sure that everyone is safe and healthy and their homes are affordable.
Amy That’s great. And you’re here to talk about a climate march, and I think maybe people don’t always get the connection between buildings and the climate. So what is, if you had to explain to somebody, which I’m sure you’ve had to do, the connection between fighting climate change and efficient, safe homes?
Heather Sure. Well, one of our major uses of energy and one of the major sources of greenhouse gas emissions are our buildings, the places we live, the place we work, the places go to school. And so we at Elevate have focused on improving buildings, both to help reduce climate impacts and help people save money on their energy bills and to help really people build clean energy jobs and access to jobs. So. So we bring those things together, sort of like safe, healthy homes, jobs, and climate action. We say that we’re delivering equity through climate action
Amy Is it something, I guess, that also people can kind of take into their own hands? You know, sometimes climate change feels like it is this big, huge issue that is totally unsolvable and there’s nothing that we can do. When you talk to people about, well, you know, your home is a first step in that battle, what’s the reaction?
Heather Well, that is the best part is working to reduce your energy use and save on reducing, well, reduce your greenhouse gas emissions through making your home more efficient is something we can all do. I mean, the simplest things we can do are reducing energy use when we’re not using it, making sure we’re shutting off our power strips, turning off appliances when we don’t need them, using a home. A home heating system or cooling system that reduces the amount you need to heat up and cool your home. All those are great strategies and you didn’t even have to replace anything. But the next time you replace your water heater, if you replace it with a more energy efficient water heater or an electric water heater from a gas water heater you’re going to save energy, you’re gonna save dollars on your utility bills, and you’re reduce the amount of missions that you’re driving back into. Our climate. And so that’s a really fabulous way to make a difference. You’ve got to make plug. If you want to upgrade your water heater or install a heat pump or do a great deal of home energy retrofits, you actually still can access the tax credit through the end of 2025. And it might just be the right time to do it. You can also still access those. Residential home solar tax credits. So it’s a really short window to get things done, and the contractors are pretty busy, but it’s worth it, you can save thousands of dollars if you get it done by the end of the year.
Amy That’s great, and that’s true, and also a focus on energy, still has for income qualified folks, almost $150 million to help Wisconsinites save energy and upgrade their homes. We’re here heading into climate week, and I think this climate week might feel different than those in the past. It feels hard. To be in the United States right now and be optimistic about progress against climate change? I mean, would you agree? I think we’re all kind of feeling this pressure.
Heather Yeah, I’m like giggling out of the awkward truth of all of this. Yes, it is a strange climate week for all of us. I mean, I think we have seen more and more and more evidence of the impacts of climate change across the world, across the United States, the flooding, the terribly tragic flooding in Texas. We’ve seen here in Wisconsin, we’ve experienced a great deal of wildfire smoke for the second time. That’s really been disruptive. The state fair in Milwaukee had incredible flooding. Milwaukee itself is really still bailing out from terrible, terrible flooding in August. And the state fair also had days where it had terrible air quality because of fires. So just in a short two-week state fair period, we’re having different parts of extreme climate weather impacting real residents here in Wisconsin. So in that way, this climate week feels different to me because we are feeling the effects of climate change more and more frequently, more and more intensely, really truly here on the ground in Wisconsin, so that’s one aspect. And We have had some very seismic changes in the policy and regulatory environment, in the financing of clean energy due to the new administration. And so it is a very, very different time than where we were, say, in December of 2024 in our ability to make progress and our ability shift the energy that’s coming from the grid into our homes. To be more clean and also even just our abilities like I was saying to replace our own home equipment That could reduce energy use On the smaller scale so a lot of our tools have been taken away to fight the climate fight While the fight itself the climate extreme weather events have become more severe So it is a it’s a challenging time and yet more and more people are interested more and people care And that’s why we’re all coming together on September 28th here in Madison, Wisconsin on Sunday to come together to demonstrate that no matter what is happening with the politicians around us, we still care and we are fighting for our future here in Wisconsin.
Amy I ask this sort of question to a lot of people because, you know, it does feel overwhelming right now. If you care about almost anything, there’s something happening. And a wise person recently, our general counsel, Katie Nekola, said to me when I asked her about this, she said, well, you pick something that you care and fight for it. You can’t do everything, nobody can, but pick the thing that you about and start talking to people starts standing up because that’s what we need to do. Do you feel like this is that moment for people who care about climate change?
Heather Yes, I absolutely do feel like it is that moment. If you care about climate change, if you care energy justice, environmental protection, if you about science itself, now is the moment to fight for it. All of that, working on all of those issues is only possible when we have a functioning government. We have rule of law in place and democracy that works for the people so that we can make those changes and protect the environment and protect people at the same time. Through democratic processes. So the fact that that is getting more challenging means that if you care about any of those issues it is definitely time to find your courage, as a different wise person recently told me.
Amy I think we’re all trying to talk to the wise people in our lives. So tell me a little bit about what people can expect on the day of the climate march. What should people do? How should they help get the word out? All those things.
Heather Sure. Wonderful. Well, the hub of information for the Climate March is WisconsinClimateMarch.org. That’s our website where we have all sorts of information and it’s an opportunity for you to RSVP to the march. Let us know you’re coming and get ideas about how to engage. We have a lot of our volunteer roles. We’re looking for volunteers to make this event a success. It’ll be from noon. Till 4 p.m., we will start at Library Mall on the university campus, and we will march up State Street to the capital square, where we’ll have speakers and music on both ends, and it’ll be an opportunity to gather with people, to exchange ideas, to build momentum and to sort of make ourselves visible to the decision makers that we really demand that our Wisconsin elected officials continue to make progress. Bringing Wisconsin to be a 100% clean energy state. That’s ultimately the goal.
Amy Climate change is the kind of topic that can feel, as I mentioned, overwhelming. It can feel hard to do something to figure out your place in the solution. And at the same time, we’re seeing this backslide, I think, on the climate progress we made with the IRA legislation that has now mostly been pulled back. Um, so on this day, when folks get together for this climate march. Is it also about kind of finding hope in each other? Because I think the moment we feel hopeless, that’s the moment, you know, we just decide, oh well, I guess that’s it for the planet. So do you think that this is that kind of chance to ignite that spark of hope again?
Heather Yeah, it’s absolutely going to be a very positive experience and a lot of hope. We actually hope to have some speakers there who will be the representative of the young people who are suing the government here in Wisconsin that are fighting to challenge some laws that make it difficult for the state of Wisconsin to actually move forward on climate action. And those people bring me hope. I mean, they’ve got plaintiffs who are eight years old. And an eight-year-old being willing to file a lawsuit, really for the betterment of humanity, gives me a lot of hope. I mean, that is courage. So other people’s courage can be very inspiring, and I think you will see a lot that on Sunday. And I think every good rally has some excellent signs. There’s usually comedy. People are dressed up. There’ll be some beautiful music and a lot of inspirational speakers. So I think, and coming together. And to see how many people care about the same thing you care about, that is hopeful.
Amy How many people are you hoping, we’re all about hope today, how many people are you are hoping will be there?
Heather Well, we are hoping we have thousands of people there. Um, so come on out.
Amy All right, Heather, thank you so much for talking with me and for being a key organizer of this event. I really appreciate it. Thank you so much. And thank you for listening to The Defender. You can find a link for more information about the Wisconsin Climate March and ways to volunteer in the show notes or head to wisconsinclimatemarch.org. I’m Amy Barrilleaux. Talk to you later.
