TUE Am News: New poll shows support for community solar in Republican-leaning areas; AI is changing the cybersecurity landscape, experts say

October 21, 2025

— A new poll shows support for small-scale community solar projects statewide and in Republican-leaning legislative action districts.

The poll included two separate sample sizes: 206 registered voters across the state who were polled July 18-24, and 219 registered voters in four separate Assembly and Senate districts who were polled July 18-Aug. 1. The margin of error for the statewide portion of the poll was 6.8 points and the margin of error for the others was 6.6 points.

The four districts polled were:

Senate District 17 in southwest Wisconsin;
Senate District 31 in western Wisconsin;
Assembly District 85 in north-central Wisconsin; and
Assembly District 88 in the Green Bay area.

All of the districts are held by Republican legislators except SD 31, which is held by Sen. Jeff Smith, D-Brunswick.

The statewide respondents were polled online while the district-specific respondents were polled via telephone and online with a 60-40 split.

The poll, conducted by Iron Light and commissioned by the Coalition for Community Solar Access, shows 79% of the statewide respondents believe Wisconsin lawmakers should support allowing community solar projects. That number dropped slightly to 77% for respondents in the four districts.

Respondents in the four districts were also more likely to support a lawmaker voting for a local-control community solar bill with 66% saying they’d be more likely to support, 25% saying it wouldn’t make a difference for their support and 4% saying it would make them less likely to support.

The share of statewide respondents who said they’d be more likely to support a lawmaker who voted for such a bill was lower at 64% while 28% said it would make no difference and 5% said it would make them less likely to support.

And 64% of both respondent groups said lawmakers need to do more when it comes to acting on rising utility bills.

Roughly half of each group, 46% of district-level respondents and 52% of statewide respondents, said a candidate’s support of local, consumer-choice energy options like community solar is very or extremely important when deciding how to vote in an election.

The news comes as Republican lawmakers Sen. Pat Testing, of Stevens Point, and Rep. Scott Krug, of Rome, introduced AB 493, which would authorize community solar programs through which normal utility ratepayers could subscribe to a small-scale solar facility to receive credits on their electric bills.

The bill would also set limits on how much electricity the solar programs could generate and create other regulations.

However, a group of utility companies, Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce and Fair Rates for Wisconsin’s Dairyland in a letter in September urged lawmakers not to support the measure.

The group contended normal utility customers who don’t enter into community solar contracts would burden the cost of utilities purchasing electricity generated by the new solar projects.

They argued the new bill would “lock in profits for out of state and foreign investors by providing significant state subsidies for their [solar developers] projects, at no risk to themselves, and shift grid costs to non-participating electronic customers who can’t afford or wish not to support their projects.”

A group of pro-community solar organizations including the Coalition For Community Solar Access, RENEW Wisconsin, the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, Wisconsin Farmers Union, Associated Builders and Contractors of Wisconsin and others in a letter argued the bill would help keep costs down and generate power right where it’s used.

“Community solar’s a common-sense way to meet WI’s growing energy needs. With data centers and businesses using more power, we need energy that can come online fast and reliably,” the group wrote. “These projects are built in months, not years, with private dollars—not rate hikes. They keep energy money in WI, support farmers, ease pressure on the grid, and help families save on electric bills.”

The group also argued utilities earn profits by building more infrastructure and won’t “admit that local solar helps avoid those costly projects and saves everyone money in the long run – so instead, they use ‘cost shift’ as the bogeyman to scare people away from real competition.”

See the poll results here.

— AI is changing the cybersecurity landscape, but experts say cyberattackers are still after much of the same info they’ve always been looking for.

A panel of cybersecurity experts during a Wipfli webinar said tactics cyberattackers use to infiltrate businesses are ever-changing, especially as AI develops. But the most common threats organizations face from cyberattackers have largely remained the same, ranging from standard phishing emails to basic human error.

Michael Bodner, president and chief information officer of AWC Technology, said “the landscape of cyber security is probably the most scary thing I’ve ever seen, next to the landscape that I see from AI.”

The most common threat Bodner sees is still the security of payment information and other sensitive documentation, adding “the threat landscape is essentially a growing thing.”

“The risk that we see now is, as we throw out a legacy architecture and move into an information first architecture, we’re having to face the changes in the topology of the landscape,” he said. “And I don’t think that we fully have come to understand what the impact of AI will be.”

Marquette University Chief Information Officer Laurie Panella also said AI is changing the volume and sophistication of the threats coming her way. The types of threats are the same phishing, ransomware and data breaches that have been an issue for years.

“But what’s becoming a bigger priority for me right now, or along the same lines, I guess, would be insider threat, especially in this era of AI,” she said. “The accidental disclosure of sensitive information is something that does keep me up at night.”

Employees using AI to help simplify their own work, inputting information they might not realize puts their employer at risk of a cyberattack, is a major issue right now, Panella added.

Meghan Peck, director of Community Health Center Association of Connecticut’s Health Center Controlled Network program, said the health care industry has seen a roughly 600% increase in cyberattacks since the COVID-19 pandemic. The most common types of attacks are phishing, business email compromise and ransomware attacks, she added.

“And smaller organizations are especially vulnerable because the attackers know that they often will have limited IT staff or limited bandwidth,” Peck said.

Amy Jay, risk information officer for Adams Bank and Trust, said most of the cyberattack risks she sees revolve around human error, such as attackers sending customers texts asking for account details or phishing emails and false invoices to employees.

“Human error tends to be the largest for us and the hardest to combat, just because it is something that humans in general; we forget, we get tired, we just have an issue to where we forget when we have an email come in and didn’t make sure that the link was saved,” she said. “So we try to combat this with a lot of training, both on the customer and on the employee side, the customer training.”

Watch the webinar here.

— The Assembly Agriculture Committee today is holding a public hearing on bills that would bar foreign adversaries from owning ag and forestry land, create a lemon law for tractors and create a nutrient loss prevention grant.

AB 30 defines “foreign adversary” as a foreign government or nongovernment person that the U.S. Commerce secretary has determined engages in conduct significantly adverse to the national security of the U.S. or U.S. citizens.

The bill that would create lemon law for tractors and other implements of husbandry would require manufacturers offer a replacement implement if it cannot repair an issue after four visits to the dealer, or if the implement is out of service under repair for 30 days or more.

The nutrient loss prevention grant program would provide farmers up to $20,000 per year for controlled-release fertilizers, nutrient management plans and technology to determine the most efficient way to distribute fertilizer.

The bill also creates different formulas to determine how much money is given to each farmer depending on which of the three nutrient loss prevention categories the money is requested for.

The program would be administered by the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection.

See the calendar here.

— The Great Madison Chamber of Commerce’s 72nd Annual Dinner today is set to feature the group’s second annual Next Normal employer survey.

The Chamber is inviting more than 1,300 businesses and community leaders to the Monona Terrace Community and Convention Center for the 4-8:30 p.m. event, where this year’s theme is “Switch.”

Daryl Fairweather, chief economist at real estate brokerage and tech firm Redfin, is the keynote speaker.

The event is sold out, but you can see more details and add your name to the waitlist here.

— Registration is open for the Madison International Trade Association’s November 12 event on navigating global intellectual property rights law.

The event will take place 3-7 p.m. at DeWitt Law Firm’s Madison office. The panel of speakers will cover topics such as structuring licensing agreements and how current trade agreements and tariffs impact IP commercialization.

Speakers include:

Joe Leone, Attorney, DeWitt LLP Law Firm, Madison Office;
Joe Miotke, Attorney, DeWitt LLP Law Firm, Milwaukee Office; and
Beth Fischer, Director of IP, Life Sciences, Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation.

UW-Madison’s law school expects surge in applicants to continue

St. Louis-based Schnucks completes acquisition of Festival Foods, expands into Wisconsin

TOPICS

AGRIBUSINESS

– Robot Boosts Bird Flu Testing in Wisconsin Dairies

– Wisconsin Confirms First 2025 Case of EEE in Horse

ECONOMY

– Thermo Fisher to invest in existing Middleton campus

EDUCATION

– Audit finds nearly a quarter of Wisconsin schools missed financial deadlines

HEALTH CARE

– HealthX Ventures invests in WPS Health Solutions to back health tech innovation