By Brian E. Clark
For WisBusiness.com
Major businesses will continue to reduce energy consumption to save money, regardless of what Congress or the Wisconsin Legislature do, the head of the Wisconsin Industrial Energy Group said Monday.
But the chair of the state’s utility regulator said although many companies are becoming more energy efficient, others are not doing what they could and may need to be prodded with policy changes. The Public Service Commission’s Eric Callisto also predicted the rate structures for utilities may be altered by the PSC to encourage conservation.
“The companies I represent are already cutting back just to remain competitive,” said Todd Stuart, WIEG executive director. He spoke on a “Changing Business Practices in a Sustainable World” panel at the WisPolitics.com-sponsored Focus on Midwest Energy III Conference held Monday at The Madison Club.
WIEG represents industries that are the state’s biggest power consumers, some with utility bills of $1 million a month, he said.
Stuart said WIEG members do not want any state or federal mandates and would prefer to have their decisions directed by the marketplace. He said they operate on “thin margins” and fear energy costs will increase significantly because of requirements that utilities produce energy from solar or wind farms.
Though time is running short, Stuart said the Legislature may pass some climate change bills this session.
Gov. Jim Doyle’s Clean Energy Jobs Act calls for updating renewable portfolio standards to generate 25 percent of Wisconsin’s fuel from renewable sources by 2025 and reducing energy consumption by 2 percent annually by 2015. Doyle said a comprehensive economic assessment of the package found that it would directly create at least 15,000 green jobs in Wisconsin by 2025.
Even if no bills with renewable mandates are passed, state PSC Chair Eric Callisto said he will seek to increase funding for the state’s Focus on Energy program.
The program, which he lauded as extremely successful at helping “pick off low-hanging fruit” such as inefficient light fixtures, motors and heating and air conditioning systems, now raises $90 million annually from a 1.2 percent levy on utilities.
Callisto also praised efforts to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and said he “would love to have price on carbon, the sooner the better.
“We need to transition to a carbon-constrained environment,” he said. “But the intent of the legislation is not to break the bank on this. We can do it in a reasonable way.”
Mary Schlaefer, executive director of the Wisconsin Energy Conservation Corps, said businesses should take advantage of Focus on Energy programs that have helped residents and companies save millions of dollars.
“Many firms are operating in a very cost-competitive environment,” she said. “Their energy costs are only second behind labor. And electricity prices are trending up again, so even more businesses are making the commitment to energy efficiency, sustainable and renewable.”
She advised business leaders to take advantage of Focus on Energy programs to “benchmark” their current energy use so they can determine how much they are cutting back with more efficient lighting, heating and other savings efforts.
Brian Anderson, a self-described “green attorney” with the Whyte Hirschboeck Dudek law firm in Madison, said the pressures to reduce energy consumption are coming from both the market and policy makers.
He also said a Johnson Controls executive told him recently that “companies that aren’t going out of business.”
He said he tells real estate developers they need to collect and document energy savings programs and the performance of their buildings. He said the LEED green building certification system is now becoming widely accepted and that some U.S. cities are making it mandatory.
And he also noted that Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, is demanding that its suppliers meet a list of 12 climate control measures.
“The cost of energy is going to increase in coming decades because of the huge demand for power by places like India and China,” said Anderson, who has visited both countries recently. “Wisconsin is positioned to do well in the future and cutting back on power use has to be part of that plan.”
