FRI AM News: WisBusiness: the Podcast with Tom Hittle, Wisconsin Council on Forestry; We Energies, WPS and MGE will own Rock Co. solar and battery facility

March 13, 2026

— This week’s episode of “WisBusiness: the Podcast” is with Tom Hittle, chair of the Wisconsin Council on Forestry.

The discussion explores the path ahead for the recently announced Wisconsin Forests FIRST initiative, which aims to create a long-term strategy for the state’s paper and forestry industries. It was funded with $1 million in the latest state budget.

“The important part of that is the forests first, so while this is a strategic plan and roadmap for our industry, it is really about putting our forests first and the health of our forests,” he said. “And ultimately, we have to have a healthy forest products industry to have healthy forests. You can’t separate the two.”

The state is currently growing more than twice the volume of timber that it’s harvesting, Hittle said, touting Wisconsin’s “great track record” with forest management.

“But we’re facing some headwinds with our industry moving forward,” he said. “Challenges with workforce, challenges with transportation, challenges in meeting what is really an evolving market, well beyond paper and some of the sawn products that we’ve produced here historically.”

The initiative will begin with an initial “deep dive” into resource availability.

“While we know that we’re growing more than two times what we’re actually harvesting, it’s really a question of how much of that is truly available to the market at a reasonable cost,” Hittle said.

Efforts will also explore regulations and policies that are “impeding” the industry’s success, according to Hittle. Other potential focus areas could include logging truck weight limits, the state’s rail network and others, he said.

He stressed that the initiative will evolve over the two-year funding period, and will ultimately deliver a strategic plan document with “actionable” proposals to the governor and state Legislature by the end of 2027.

Hittle also weighs in on broader market challenges that are impacting the industry, noting “we have lost markets for a substantial amount” of low-grade fiber that’s used in pulp and paper processing. That’s tied to Wisconsin paper mill closures in recent years.

“Those are substantial and those are related to just changing consumer preferences, demand for paper and some paper products,” he said. “We’ve been fortunate that our paper industry has been pivoting and will continue to pivot to other products that can be made with wood fiber.”

Listen to the podcast and see the full list of WisBusiness.com podcasts.

See more coverage on the new effort.

— WEC Energy Group and Madison Gas & Electric will collectively own a solar energy and battery storage facility in Rock County after the purchase was approved by the PSC, the utilities announced.

The Dawn Harvest Solar and Battery Energy Storage Facility includes 150 megawatts of solar and 50 megawatts of battery storage, according to yesterday’s announcement from WEC Energy Group.

Subsidiaries of the Milwaukee-based utility will own the majority of the project, with We Energies making up 120 megawatts of solar and the battery portion and Wisconsin Public Service making up another 15 megawatts, the release shows. The other 15 megawatts will be owned by Madison Gas & Electric.

The project, which will provide enough energy to power more than 45,000 homes, is expected to come online in 2028. It’s being developed by Invenergy, an energy infrastructure company headquartered in Chicago.

See the releases from WEC Energy Group and MGE.

— Circulating legislation would put new limits on retroactive claim denials for health insurance policies in Wisconsin.

Sen. Mark Spreitzer, D-Beloit, and Rep. Clinton Anderson, D-Beloit, this week sent a co-sponsorship memo for LRB-1350 to other lawmakers.

Under the bill, an insurer could only retroactively deny reimbursement for a health policy claim during the 12-month period following the origional reimbursement date, according to the Legislative Reference Bureau. That period would be extended to 18 months for claims that involve coordination with a third-party payer.

These proposed limits wouldn’t apply to any retroactive denials related to fraudulent information being submitted to the insurer, LRB says.

Thirty-eight states have some statute of limitations on retroactive insurance claim denials, the memo notes.

Bill authors say health care providers in their area have raised concerns about insurance companies revisiting an earlier claim “years later” after noticing a mistake that resulted in the insurer overpaying for the patient’s care.

“The provider is then expected to pay back the amount the insurer previously approved but is now calling an overpayment,” authors wrote.

As a result, these providers end up billing other insurance companies, directly billing the consumer or paying the difference themselves, “as is usually the case,” the lawmakers said.

“This is particularly challenging for small, stand-alone mental health counseling providers, who struggle to cover these unexpected costs,” they wrote.

The co-sponsorship deadline is 5 p.m. today.

See the bill text.

— WARF is seeking commercial partners to help develop eye-tracking technology, for use in assistive medical devices to help people with low vision.

The technology, created by inventors Yuhang Zhao and Ru Wang at UW-Madison, involves a method for detecting reading behaviors through eye tracking.

Through a “gaze-aware reading aid,” this approach provides targeted visual and audio help based on the user’s vision, according to an overview from the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation.

WARF included the technology among its top licensing prospects from its portfolio of health care-related innovations coming out of the university.

The eye-tracking technology is paired with supportive “augmentations” to help users read, such as text enlargement, highlighting or arrows to point out the start of a line of text, and other assistance. It’s meant to reduce the amount of time needed by low-vision readers to move between lines of text, reducing eye fatigue and improving comprehension.

The technology can be integrated with a computer or smartphone, with potential applications in head-mounted augmented reality assistive tools, according to WARF.

More than 7 million Americans have visual issues that can’t be fixed with glasses or contact lenses, the overview notes, impacting their quality of life and ability to read.

“Reader-responsive approaches that address the difficulties faced by low vision readers are needed,” authors wrote.

See more in the overview.

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