FRI AM News: WisBusiness: the Podcast with Tony Snell Rodriguez, VISIT Milwaukee; Hoffman exec highlights ‘surge’ in interest for geothermal, solar

February 2, 2024

— This week’s episode of “WisBusiness: the Podcast” is with Tony Snell Rodriguez, VISIT Milwaukee’s first director of community engagement and inclusion.

The regional convention and visitor’s bureau earlier this month announced Rodriguez has been elevated to the new role, leading efforts to connect and align tourism activities with community-level priorities. He started with VISIT Milwaukee in 2017 as a volunteer coordinator, and has since led the organization’s internal culture committee, among other roles.

Rodriguez has also served on Milwaukee’s Equal Rights Commission since 2017, and has chaired the commission since 2019.

“In my life, I have been a longtime advocate,” he said. “My role for years has been human rights and advocating for my community, the LGBTQ community, and I’ve been invested in doing that… No matter where I am in life, what position I hold, that’s always dear to me and dear to my heart.”

Rodriguez also discusses the upcoming 2024 Republican National Convention, being held in Milwaukee this summer.

“Not only are all these people coming here, but there’s going to be like 500 plus journalists … from around the world, and when they come here they’re going to be looking for stories,” he said. “They’re going to have their cameras on all kinds of areas, and people and events and happenings that are going on, which I think will shine a special light on Milwaukee.”

He emphasizes the importance of inclusion for both VISIT Milwaukee and the greater Milwaukee community, as well as its role in economic development.

“To create economic impact, it’s important to be a more inclusive community, and by promoting the greater Milwaukee area as a premier tourism destination for all … We want residents to know what we do,” he said. “Because if they love their city and they understand tourism, they’re going to be our biggest ambassadors. And they’re going to embrace that, and we’re going to be able to reflect who they are in our storytelling.”

Listen to the podcast here.

See the full list of WisBusiness.com podcasts.

— An executive with Hoffman Planning, Design & Construction in Appleton is seeing a “real surge” in interest for new geothermal and solar projects as federal incentives reduce related costs.

Mark Hanson, the company’s director of sustainable services, spoke yesterday during the Renew Wisconsin Summit at the Monona Terrace in Madison. He said most of Hoffman’s clients are “watching the budget” closely, so any building upgrades such as rooftop solar arrays need to make sense for them from a cost perspective.

“When you bring in the [Inflation Reduction Act] … we can get 30% on geothermal, a 30% tax credit direct payment,” he said, adding another 10% credit can be earned by meeting certain requirements on American-made components. “You wrap that all in, and you grab your 40% tax credit on that.”

Using a $2.2 million geothermal project as an example, he noted that discount results in a much more affordable development based on front-end costs alone. That’s in addition to $575,000 in funding from an Office of Energy Innovation grant program, he said.

“It was sort of a no-brainer … you’ve got to use the IRA incentives to go in this direction,” he said.

Lauren Reeg, a UW-Madison graduate and senior associate with the Rocky Mountain Institute in Colorado, yesterday said Wisconsin is expected to receive about $149 million in IRA rebates, in addition to other flexible funding sources for building electrification.

And though the federal legislation’s home energy rebates aren’t yet available, according to Focus on Energy IRA Programs Manager Dylan Crye, the state energy efficiency program is urging interested residents to “go do it now.”

“There are a lot of programs and resources available now if you want to electrify,” he said during the conference.

Crye shared details on a number of updated tax credit programs available for tax years 2023 through 2032, including those covering 30% of the cost for solar, wind turbines, fuel cells, battery storage, geothermal heat pumps, insulation materials and more. While cost caps exist for more than half of the examples he shared, many of the tax credits have been expanded compared to tax year 2022.

“You can stack these with the Focus on Energy rebates as well,” he said. “If you’re at all thinking about electrification, go ahead and pull the trigger.”

Meanwhile, Elevate Director of Policy Heather Allen said the nonprofit group is working to support sustainability upgrades for a relatively underserved market: multi-family affordable housing complexes. She shared details on the Lac du Flambeau Elk Point West Apartments complex, a tribally owned building that’s installing solar and battery storage as well as a heat pump system.

The project is expected to reduce the building’s fossil fuel use by more than 70%, resulting in $3,400 in annual savings from solar alone.

“Take this project and multiply it by 10,000 and then you’ve got the state of Wisconsin shifting its carbon on multi-family buildings,” she said.

— A regional effort called Great Lakes ReNEW has been awarded up to $160 million in federal funding over the next 10 years to develop water-related industries across Wisconsin, Illinois and Ohio.

Marquette University, one of eight organizations on the group’s central management team, yesterday announced the National Science Foundation funding. It will be used for job training, research and development, DEI initiatives and more, all centered around “clean water technologies.”

That’s according to Daniel Zitomer, chair and professor of civil, construction and environmental engineering, and Marquette’s principal investigator for the program. Current, an independent nonprofit water innovation hub in Chicago, is also part of the effort.

“We are delighted to team with Current and the other participating industries and universities to build a center that will keep our environment clean while stimulating economic growth in Wisconsin and the entire Midwest,” Zitomer said in a statement on the funding award.

Great Lakes ReNEW was formed to take advantage of the NSF’s Regional Innovation Engines competition, the release shows. The group aims to create a “decarbonized circular ‘Blue Economy’” for the region, leveraging the Upper Midwest’s substantial reserves of fresh water to support economic development.

See the release.

— Attorney General Josh Kaul announced Wisconsin will see more than $6 million from a nationwide settlement with a marketing company that allegedly helped Purdue Pharma sell opioids.

Publicis Health, a global health marketing company, as part of the settlement agreed to recognize the harm its conduct caused, according to a Department of Justice statement, though the statement doesn’t detail how the company will do so. The agreement will also give communities hit hardest by the opioid crisis more financial support. Kaul said the opioid crisis continues to rip through the nation, and “combating that crisis must continue to be a priority.”

“This resolution adds to the substantial amount of funds we’ve helped to secure to support efforts in Wisconsin to fight the opioid epidemic,” he said.

Publicis will have to disclose on a public website thousands of internal documents detailing its work for opioid companies like Purdue Pharma as part of the agreement. The company will also agree to stop accepting work related to opioid-based Schedule II or other Schedule III controlled substances.

States in the suit alleged Publicis was instrumental in Purdue’s OxyContin marketing tactics and acted as Purdue’s agency of record for all its branded opioid drugs. The company also allegedly developed sales tactics that relied on farming data from recordings of personal health-related patient-provider conversations.

Wisconsin so far has received close to $750 million in opioid settlement funds, but that could grow significantly pending a larger nationwide lawsuit involving Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family that owns the company.

More than 10,000 Wisconsinites have died from opioid overdoses since 2000, according to the DOJ statement.

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