FRI AM News: WisBusiness: the Podcast with Kristin Gilkes, Customers First! Coalition; Junction ahead: A Madison train stop is possible but nothing like the hi-speed rail plans of 16 years ago

April 3, 2026

— This week’s episode of “WisBusiness: the Podcast” is with Kristin Gilkes, executive director of the Customers First! Coalition.

The Madison-based nonprofit issue advocacy group was formed about 30 years ago to represent the voice of energy customers in Wisconsin. Gilkes has led the coalition for more than eight years.

She weighs in on the debate over data centers that’s been happening in the state, noting “it’s important to listen to local voices” and electric customers who are saying they can’t bear any more additional energy costs.

As data center proposals face scrutiny and skepticism in some communities while advancing in others, the developers and tech companies are “trying to put forth good proposals” that will be accepted by locals, Gilkes said.

“They’re making commitments that they will pay their own way,” she said. “They want to pay for the energy that they’re using, they want to pay for the energy infrastructure. As is the case in many circumstances, the devil’s going to be in the details.”

Gilkes also discusses the impact of the ongoing war in Iran, which has led to spiking fuel costs in Wisconsin and across the country.

“When gas prices become volatile, that will ultimately eventually have an impact on electricity customers, as well as customers who use gas for home heating, which is the majority of them in Wisconsin,” she said.

She said effective resource planning can help blunt the impact of price spokes, arguing “it was never completely unpredictable” that a disruptive event like this would occur.

“We know that fluctuations in market prices impact customers, you know, so how do we plan for that, and plan a resource mix that will help mitigate some of those costs in the long term,” she said.

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

Check out a recent story featuring remarks by Gilkes.

— Jim Doyle still dreams of what might have been.

The former Wisconsin Democratic governor backs a revived plan to extend Amtrak service from Milwaukee to Madison. But he bemoans the loss of the more extensive plan he championed 16 years ago.

In January 2010, Doyle’s administration won an $810 million federal grant that would have covered the full cost of upgrading and extending Amtrak’s Chicago-to-Milwaukee Hiawatha route, with six of the Hiawatha’s seven daily round trips continuing to Madison at 110 mph. Unlike most federal grants, the state would not have been required to pay any of the project’s capital costs.

But Republican Scott Walker campaigned against the high-speed trains in his bid to succeed the retiring Doyle that year. Walker focused his opposition on the extension’s projected operating costs of $7.5 million a year, which would have been largely offset by fare revenue and expected additional federal grants.

After Walker beat Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, Doyle put the project on hold while U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood tried to convince Walker to let it move forward. When Walker insisted he wanted to spend the money on highways instead, the federal government yanked the grant and redistributed the money to other states before he took office.

Now Amtrak and the Wisconsin Department of Transportation are studying a 79-mph extension to Madison, which Amtrak calls the Hiawatha West. If the project is approved and funded, service could begin in the early 2030s, Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari said. With two round trips daily, Amtrak projects ridership at 255,500 a year.

“This is such a minor thing compared to what Walker killed before,” Doyle said in an interview. The two-term chief executive added that he still thinks the new plan is a good idea and “something is better than nothing.”

Under the federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, WisDOT landed a $500,000 grant to start studying the Milwaukee-to-Madison extension. Like its earlier version, the new route eventually could extend to the Twin Cities by way of Eau Claire. WisDOT has completed the preliminary phase and is awaiting Federal Railroad Administration approval and additional funding to continue planning.

Meanwhile, Amtrak has jumped in to speed up the process by launching its own study of how the Milwaukee-to-Madison segment could work, including possible schedules and new stations in Pewaukee, Watertown and Madison. Those are details that WisDOT otherwise would have had to figure out.

Amtrak has scheduled a webinar for 7 pm April 14 to inform the public about the project. The railroad also has set up a website to gather public comments.

Madison has already chosen two possible sites for a station, while Watertown and Pewaukee have agreed to work with Amtrak on selecting station sites, officials in all three cities said. Watertown initially included $100,000 in its 2026 city budget to acquire a station site, but removed the appropriation because of uncertainty about when it would be needed, Mayor Robert Stocks said.

In another move to hasten the process, service is likely to start with temporary stations, as on Amtrak’s new Mardi Gras line from Mobile, Alabama, to New Orleans, Magliari and local officials said. Temporary stations were installed in Wauwatosa, Elm Grove, Pewaukee, Oconomowoc and Watertown during a three-month trial extension of the Hiawatha in 1998. But the new Watertown and Pewaukee stations wouldn’t necessarily be in the same places, Stocks and Pewaukee Mayor Steve Bierce said.

However, the Hiawatha West isn’t a sure thing. Like other medium-range routes, it would require state operating subsidies, which means its fate will rest with the new governor and Legislature elected in November.

Democratic Gov. Tony Evers has supported passenger rail expansion, while the top two Republican legislative leaders, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu, have adamantly opposed funding trains to Madison. None of those three is seeking re-election. Democrats, meanwhile, are optimistic about their chances of holding the governorship and capturing at least one house of the Legislature.

Intercity rail had bipartisan support when Republican Tommy Thompson was governor in the 1980s and 1990s. Thompson, who also served as Amtrak board chair, energetically advocated for passenger rail expansion across the Midwest, including the route to Madison.

But Doyle said Republicans seized on high-speed rail as a wedge issue to help mount a backlash to first-term Democratic President Barack Obama in the 2010 midterm elections.

See the full story from freelance writer Larry Sandler.

— Gov. Tony Evers has signed into law an incentive package meant to land a biofuels manufacturing plant in northern Wisconsin.

The guv’s office yesterday announced he would sign 33 bills, including AB 619, which authorizes WEDC to certify a business that makes biofuel — largely aviation biofuel — under an existing enterprise zone program will get up to $120 million in taxable years starting in 2026.

It also establishes a definition of biofuel that specifies at least 80% of the organic matter used in its creation was sourced in-state, based on aggregate volume over a five-year period, according to the announcement.

In a statement on the new law, Evers said the change will “create hundreds of high-paying jobs” in rural Wisconsin while making the state a national leader in sustainable aviation fuel.

“By leveraging our state’s strength in forestry products, Wisconsin is well-positioned to meet demand in this growing market, providing a high-value, low-carbon energy source that will drive economic growth and environmental progress,” he said.

Meanwhile, Evers also signed into law AB 657, which creates a sales and use tax exemption for nuclear fusion technology projects.

This marks the latest nuclear energy-related bill the guv has approved recently, after he signed into law bills last year creating a Nuclear Power Summit Board and authorizing a nuclear power siting study that’s being undertaken by the Public Service Commission and UW-Madison.

See the release and see more on the nuclear bill in a recent story.

— The state’s unemployment rate rose slightly to 3.3% in January as total employment in Wisconsin declined over the year.

The state Department of Workforce Development yesterday released the latest estimates from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, showing state unemployment rose by 0.1 percentage points over the month but remained below the national rate of 4.3%.

The state’s labor force participation rate also ticked up to 64.3%, above the national rate of 62.5%.

Meanwhile, total employment was 3,017,400 in January — an increase of 800 over the month but a decline of 18,600 over the year.

See the release.

— Researchers in Madison will explore a potential alternative treatment for kidney transplant rejection through an upcoming clinical trial.

The Program for Advanced Cell Therapy, which involves UW Health and the UW School of Medicine and Public Health, is starting the trial after the FDA in February approved an investigational new drug application for the project.

The program will enroll 18 kidney transplant patients at UW Health for the trial, which is slated to begin next year. The trial will select patients with signs of T-cell mediated kidney rejection, a key focus for the project.

This response occurs when an organ transplant recipient’s T-cells — a form of white blood cell — react to antigens in the body that distinguish between the patient’s own tissues and the transplanted ones. It can affect various parts of the organ and lead to transplant rejection, according to details from UW Health.

By taking cells from a patient’s lip, processing them at the PACT cell manufacturing facility at University Hospital and reintroducing them into the patient’s body, the researchers aim to treat these organ rejections. They’re using patients’ mesenchymal stromal cells, a form of stem cell with injury response functions.

The current standard treatment anti-rejection drugs suppress the immune system’s response to the transplanted organ, which is effective but comes with “serious possible side effects” such as a greater risk of cancer and infection. That’s according to Dr. Sandesh Parajuli, the principal investigator for the trial and an associate professor of medicine at the UW SMPH.

“We are excited to examine this therapy to see if it offers a better option that has very few to no side effects,” he said in a statement.

See the release.

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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— A new special episode of “Talking Trade” features segments from the recent WisPolitics-State Affairs virtual luncheon focused on energy issues amid the Iran conflict.

Watch the episode here and see coverage from the event.

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