By Brian E. Clark
WisBusiness.com
SUN PRAIRIE – With a few minor tweaks, the Governor’s Global Warming Task Force unanimously approved an interim report today that asks the state Public Service Commission to change the way it regulates electric utilities to promote conservation and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The report, which says Wisconsin should try to reduce its electric load by 2 percent and natural gas load by 1 percent per year by 2015, also suggests streamlining the process to site windmill farms and tightening commercial and residential building codes. It didn’t address nuclear energy, which some members want to see expanded in Wisconsin.
The document was forward to Gov. Jim Doyle, who praised the diverse group of public, business and environmental leaders for its work.
Dan Ebert, chairman of the PSC and a task force member, said most of the recommendations sent to Doyle are relatively non-controversial. The final report, due out this summer, will deal with transportation, buildings, land use planning and development, agriculture, forestry, industry and other sectors that produce carbon dioxide (CO2).
“These interim steps are a good start and the PSC will play a major part in addressing them,” said Ebert. “We look forward to rolling up our sleeves and getting to work right away.
He said some of the contentious areas that will be considered in the final report include nuclear energy and possible carbon taxes or a cap-and-trade program to limit CO2 emissions.
Tia Nelson, co-chair of the task force, said she was pleased the group was able to reach a unamimous agreement on the interim recommendations.
“Early action is important and there are a number of things that we need to get to work on and will have a meaningful effect on Wisconsin’s greenhouse gas profile,” she said.
She rejected a suggestion that the task force has completed the easy work, but acknowledged that the group “no doubt now has its work cut out for it on things that will be harder to achieve consensus on.”
She downplayed any disagreements and said the minor changes to the document helped bring on board several taks force members who represent industry.
Part of the problem, she said, was the use of the word “decoupling,” which has different meanings in different states.
“The goal is not to have something called ‘decoupling,'” she said. “The goal is
to have the PSC look at options to change how we set rates so energy production is not the driver and that there are incentives for conservation.”
Tom Scharff, who represents the NewPage paper manufacturer on the task force, said he is pleased overall with the interim report.
“There is a lot of good material in there, while there are also some things that cause us concern as large energy users,” he said.
“There’s a mix, so what we have to be careful of is that we don’t unintentionally add cost to manufacturing so that a few years down the road we look back and say we made a mistake,” he said.
Scharff said he wanted to make sure that industry is not punished for undertaking conservation projects.
“If our electric bill as a large consumer doesn’t go down because we are compensating the utilities for lost revenue, projects I normally would do to save energy…” might not occur,” he said.
Scharff said he predicts hard discussions on addtional issues will take place in the next six weeks before the next meeting on April 4.
“And of course, the devil is going to be in the details,” added Scharff, who said he hopes that an expansion of nuclear energy in the state will be among the task force’s recommendations.
Charlie Higley, executive director of the the Citizens Utility Group, said his organization remains opposed to nuclear energy.
But Higley, a member of the task force, said he is pleased with the work the group has done so far.
“I guess you could say we’ve picked the low-hanging fruit,” he said. “It will get a lot harder to achieve consensus now.”
