WED AM News: WEDC signs MOU with French agency to boost collaboration on key sectors; DNR urges state Supreme Court to reject bid to overturn permit for natural gas-fired turbines

September 16, 2026

— WEDC has signed an agreement with a French economic development agency aimed at boosting collaboration on shared key sectors, including manufacturing, energy, health sciences, agriculture and food.

Gov. Tony Evers yesterday announced the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. has joined a memorandum of understanding with the Agence Économique Régionale of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region of northeastern France.

The MOU aims to “promote closer economic and educational relations” between the two government agencies, the guv’s office says, noting its focus on helping local businesses grow and exchanging expertise between Wisconsin and the BFC region.

Evers calls the expanded partnership “a big step forward toward ensuring the continued growth, expansion and certainty” for companies and regional economies. His statement on the MOU highlights global trade uncertainties and “chaos” in Washington.

“I’m proud of my administration’s efforts to develop and maintain partnerships and friendships with international partners that will continue to pay dividends for Wisconsin’s future economic success for future generations, and this partnership is proof of that good work,” the guv said in the announcement.

Leaders of WEDC and Evers previously visited the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in 2025 during a trade mission hitting parts of France and Germany.

Following the visit, the French regional agency established a formal relationship with Madison’s BioForward on biotherapies, and AER BFC President Arnaud Marthey says Evers’ visit last year was just a starting point.

“This MOU gives us the same kind of framework” for key sectors, Marthey said in a statement.

Meanwhile, BFC President Jérôme Durain says he plans to lead a delegation to Wisconsin and Chicago in October.

“I want us to leave with actual projects on the table, starting with biotherapies and agri-food,” he said in the release.

The MOU notes four priority areas for collaboration between the BFC region and Wisconsin: agri-food, energy, advanced manufacturing, and biotherapies and health sciences.

The guv’s office says they are “natural partners” based on both having a strong manufacturing base, a well-known food and ag sector and research universities, as well as putting a greater focus on biohealth and energy.

See the release.

— The Department of Natural Resources is urging the state’s highest court to reject an environmental group’s effort to overturn a permit for several natural gas-fired turbines.

The DNR wants the Supreme Court to reverse a 2025 appeals court decision ordering the state agency to reopen an air pollution permit it granted to We Energies and Wisconsin Public Service Corporation for seven new turbines at the Wausau-area Weston Generating Station.

The Sierra Club challenged the permit in Dane County Circuit Court in 2022, arguing the permit was improperly issued; the circuit court sided with the DNR.

At the heart of its challenge and yesterday’s arguments is whether the protocol the agency uses to calculate background pollution at a site should be considered an unpromulgated rule.

DNR did not conduct site-specific measurements of background pollution at the Weston site when it issued its permit but used a protocol to estimate whether the proposed gas turbines would exceed air quality standards.

The Sierra Club is arguing the permit should be remanded because the agency’s method for calculating pollution meets the standard to be a rule, including holding the force of law, but did not go through proper rulemaking procedures.

It’s asked for a new determination of the plant’s impacts on air quality based on site-specific air pollution measurements.

The utilities in a 2024 amicus brief argued that conducting site-specific air pollution measurements would require an extended shutdown of the Weston generators and “leave a 128 MW hole in the grid.”

DNR attorney Gabe Johnson-Karp yesterday argued that how the state agency estimated background pollution was just one part of a calculation the agency made to determine if an applicant would exceed national air quality standards.

“DNR would never hold up the memo and point to the memo and say your permit is denied because of background concentrations, your permit is denied because of these measurements,” Johnson-Karp said.

But Sierra Club attorney David Bender argued the pollution calculation still held the force of law even if it wasn’t the final decision-making factor.

He compared the pollution calculation method to rules of evidence in a court.

“It’s not just the final judgment entered by the court after a jury verdict that has the force of law. Procedures that dictate what comes in and what gets considered as part of the process also have the force of law, and that’s what the protocol is,” Bender said.

— American Transmission Company says it has submitted a revised application for a billion-dollar transmission project in Ozaukee County.

In a press release, the transmission utility says the new application for the Ozaukee County Interconnection Project includes “route changes informed by stakeholder feedback, additional environmental information and project analysis completed since the previous filing.”

State regulators in July effectively hit reset on the Ozaukee County project when PSC commissioners voted to revoke the project’s completeness determination, a key marker in its regulatory review.

That came after intervenors complained about the large volume of changes ATC sought to make after staff declared the project complete in December.

Regulators formally closed out the original application on Thursday.

— UnityPoint Health – Meriter has launched a pilot program aimed at improving sleep patterns for older adults in the hospital, with a broader goal of helping geriatric patients recover faster.

The hospital yesterday rolled out details for its Nurses Improving Care for Healthsystem Elders, or NICHE program, on a pilot unit at its Madison site. Its goals include reducing reliance on sleep medication and the incidence of falls at night, along with boosting patient sleep scores and addressing the psychological impact of hospitalization.

After five team leaders recently finished an eight-week course, the group began training registered nurses in geriatric resources and related care.

The program’s initial effort is focused on developing a 24-hour sleep protocol that’s meant to “align with patients’ natural circadian rhythms” and minimize sleep disruption related to staying in the hospital.

While day shift nurses focus on promoting mobility, such as ensuring patients sit up in a chair while eating and maintaining a bright environment, the evening shift prioritizes personalized sleep hygiene and reducing harsh blue light exposure along with red light therapy and providing melatonin.

Meanwhile, the night shift is “bundling” nursing care to reduce interruptions while keeping the patient environment dark and quiet, along with other changes aimed at improving sleep quality.

Yesterday’s announcement noted disrupted sleep for seniors in the hospital is “strongly linked” to greater risk of falls and longer hospital stays, along with hospital-acquired delirium, which can involve confusion and other behavior changes brought on by hospitalization.

See the release.

Top headlines from the Healthcare Report…

— Health officials in northeastern Wisconsin are warning the public to guard against mosquito bites after West Nile virus was recently found in Brown County.

And state health officials have identified a case of the measles in Marathon County that’s unrelated to the ongoing outbreak in southwestern Wisconsin.

Meanwhile, Attorney General Josh Kaul is among the state officials suing the Trump administration over a new rule that would allow immigration officers to deny green cards to legal immigrants for using programs like Medicaid.

For more of the most relevant health care news, reports on groundbreaking research in Wisconsin, links to top stories and more, sign up today for the free daily Health Care Report from WisPolitics and WisBusiness.com.

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— The head of the Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation is applauding CHS Inc.’s plans to build a $700 million soybean facility in southcentral Wisconsin, calling it a “tremendous investment” in the ag sector and local farmers.

WFBF President Brad Olson says bringing more processing capacity closer to soybean farmers in the region will help stimulate new demand while boosting local markets and keeping more farm-generated value in-state.

“For years, Wisconsin soybean growers have watched their crop leave the state to be processed elsewhere, even as products like soybean meal and oil are needed here at home,” Olson said.

The large ag co-op this week announced its plans to build the facility, which is expected to process about 80 million bushels of domestic soybeans each year. It will produce about 2 million tons of soybean meal annually, which WFBF says will provide “critical” animal feed for livestock and dairy farms.

Construction is slated to start in the coming weeks and wrap up by fall 2028.

— This year’s harvest of corn for silage is proceeding ahead of schedule this season, according to the latest USDA update.

The agency’s National Agricultural Statistics Service yesterday issued a crop report showing 97% of Wisconsin corn had reached the dough stage as of Sunday, a marker of the crop’s maturity.

The harvest of corn for silage was 32% complete, well above the five-year average of 21% for this point in the season.

Meanwhile, 27% of soybeans were dropping leaves — another signal of plant development — ahead of the average of 20%.

USDA also reports this year’s winter wheat planting was 17% complete, just behind the average pace of 18%.

The report notes some farmers have begun harvesting corn for grain, particularly in areas of the state that saw little rain over the summer months. At the same time, some parts of northwestern Wisconsin had recent rainfalls, “helping to green up hay fields and pastures,” authors wrote.

See the report.

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