Photo Illustration: Dave Zylstra
Minnesota greatly outpaces Wisconsin in clean energy production. A new report from the Environmental Law & Policy Center, A Tale of Two States, finds that the Badger State is much more dependent on burning fossil fuels than its neighbor to the west.
Since 2015, Minnesota’s solar power capacity grew by leaps and bounds, while Wisconsin’s remained relatively flat, and since 2007, Wisconsin’s installed wind power capacity has done likewise, while Minnesota’s has almost doubled. Minnesota currently has almost seven times Wisconsin’s wind power capacity. In 2018, Wisconsin produced half its energy from coal and 5% from non-hydroelectric renewables. Minnesota, by contrast, produced 37% of its energy from coal and 23% from non-hydroelectric renewables.
Minnesota has five times the wind capacity and more than 16 times the solar capacity of Wisconsin. Nationally, Minnesota ranks 13th in solar power generation, while Wisconsin ranks 41st. In wind power generation, Minnesota is eight, while Wisconsin ranks 25th.
Although Wisconsin has 76,383 clean energy jobs—leading Minnesota by about 15,000—our state’s clean energy companies thrive through out-of-state sales and miss out on the increased in-state sales that would result if renewable energy policies here were more robust, according to the report.
The report cites several causes for Wisconsin’s low ranking. These include the following:
• A low renewable energy standard in Wisconsin.
• Antiquated interconnection standards, which allow utilities to obstruct or complicate solar users from connecting to the electrical grid.
• A lack of community solar policies.
• A lack of customer-friendly net-metering policies for solar users.
• A lack of policies that reflect the “true value” of solar, which considers both the environmental and economic value of solar energy.
• A lack of “pollinator-friendly” policies to encourage planting native pollinator plants underneath and around solar panels to provide a habitat for bees, reduce storm water runoff and improve water quality and soil health.
• A lack of an adoption of energy-efficient standards for utilities.
Though Wisconsin was an environmental leader in both the Tommy Thompson and Jim Doyle administrations, during Republican former Gov. Scott Walker’s two-terms, little was done to advance clean energy or to protect the environment. Previously, there was strong bipartisan support for conservation and renewable energy. But after redistricting in 2011, the Wisconsin legislature became far less bipartisan, and both Gov. Walker and the Republican-controlled legislature grew hostile to protecting the environment and supporting clean energy, according to Dale Schultz, former Republican state senator.
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“Redistricting made the incumbents insulated in a way they had never been before,” he says. “Suddenly the process was awash in sums of money that no one ever dreamed could be available. People only had to do one thing. If they followed the leader, they could keep a job for 10 years, and life was good. But they had to stop thinking. They had to do what the team wanted. When partisanship went from being a lens to view the issues to a straitjacket, where you were absolutely hemmed in and had to follow the leader, things begin to go awry.” Under these circumstances, “it is very hard for the ordinary citizen to get heard,” Schultz explains.
Winds of Change Are Blowing
Elizabeth Ward, conservation programs coordinator for the Wisconsin Sierra Club, says during the past decade, fossil fuel interests really pushed and tested out ways to stifle clean energy, thwarting progress on getting to “the inevitable:100% clean energy.”
“Unfortunately, fossil fuel interests were successful for a long time, but I do think that is changing,” Ward says. “We are seeing more and more demand for clean energy. I think the elected officials will have to come around.”
Indeed, new winds of change that support clean energy are blowing in local communities around the state and now, as well, in Tony Evers’ administration. In August, Governor Evers signed an executive order with a goal of ensuring that, by 2050, all energy consumed in Wisconsin will be carbon free. He also established the Office of Sustainability and Clean Energy. On Thursday, Oct.17, Gov. Evers and Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes both signed an executive order that established the Governor’s Task Force on Climate Change, located at the Urban Ecology Center in Riverside Park on Milwaukee’s East Side.
“Minnesota is the leader in clean energy policy,” says Andy Olsen, co-author of the Tale of Two States report. “Wisconsin’s policies are ad hoc, patched together and not keeping up with the times.” He says in the previous 10 years, Republican legislators in Wisconsin have been dedicated to having an energy economy with a high-carbon footprint and that a lot of climate change deniers made energy policy. In that decade, solar, wind and battery technology have become vastly more affordable and efficient, making them desirable choices for many consumers and utilities.
“What we need from those who say, ‘let the market decide,’ is to allow Wisconsin to have a stronger, more robust, more open clean energy market,” Olsen says. “We need to move away from a high-carbon footprint to a clean energy economy.” He adds that, for many years, Wisconsin’s Public Service Commission has been known to have a bias in favor of utilities. “They are supporting the monopoly utilities at the expense of the majority of Wisconsin citizens. Poll after poll shows that support for wind and solar power is off the charts across the spectrum. We need policies that reflect the will of the people.”
Mark Redsten, president and CEO of Clean Wisconsin, is hopeful that our state will start moving in the right direction soon. In January, Gov. Evers appointed Rebecca Cameron Valcq as a public service commissioner. Redsten hopes that when Evers appoints a second commissioner in 2021, the Public Service Commission will give robust support to clean energy. “The Public Service Commission makes really important decisions about our energy future,” he says. “They haven’t been helpful in the past, but I have to hope that because of the economics of clean energy and because the arguments against it are by people who are fighting a battle that is a decade or more old, that will change,” he says.
“We believe Gov. Evers is a strong leader on climate change,” Redsten adds, “and it is important for him that the agency responsible for climate change solutions has commissioners that support his agenda to get to 100% carbon free by 2050. Ultimately, you will start to see the policies and the decisions of the Public Service Commission reflect that.”
