Walker Legacy: ATC Transmission lines Importing Wind Energy!!!

Cap Times's Editor Dave Zweifel wrote an opinion today in opposition to ATC's plan for a transmission line connecting green wind energy in Iowa to Middleton, saying we don't need the extra power anymore. That's true, but he never brought up the fact that it was clean energy. Why? And when is Wisconsin supposed to transition to clean energy without first importing it?

To be clear, I hate ATC's above ground transmission lines. I've always thought policy should have at least dictated that in beautifully scenic areas, like parts of southwest Wisconsin, underground lines would be the only available option. But we've never had that state policy debate. Why?  

Is this also part of Scott Walker's legacy? Yes. Think about it; Walker ignored green energy production in Wisconsin for 8 years, and instead stuck with fossil fuels. Walker pushed frack sand mining of all things, because digging up Wisconsin's country side is preferable to transmission lines? 

Republican legislators delayed and "debated" the supposed horrors of green energy's "noise" and "destructive" use of valuable agricultural land for solar and wind. Taking a pass on our energy future, Republicans made Wisconsin dependent on other states, and they're loving it. There's a reason why we pay more for energy than most every other state in the country. 

So instead of shorter ATC transmission lines connecting us to Wisconsin's own wind or solar farms, making us more independent, we have to import it from Iowa with unsightly ATC transmission lines:

MISO, the Indiana-based Midcontinent Independent System Operator, has identified the project as one of 17 transmission proposals designed to improve the reliability of the electric grid, provide lower-cost power to the Midwest and expand the infrastructure to renewable energy sources. “The cost of wind energy has declined dramatically in the past decade, and wind is now the least expensive source of new electricity generation in America,” said Tyler Huebner, executive director of RENEW Wisconsin. “We need to build the infrastructure that connects wind-produced electricity with customers.”

Delays already have pushed back the possible completion date, if approved, from 2020 to 2023.

Proof Walker and Republicans to Blame: Better late than never? We wouldn't be having this discussion if not for Walker, Vos, and Fitzgerald's opposition to the climate related alternative energy movement and ATC's campaign contributions. It's all just a big hoax anyway, right? 

Meanwhile, Alliant Energy, of Madison, is building a 700-megawatt natural gas-fired power plant and a two-megawatt solar field in Beloit, and at least two wind farms are being developed in the state, so a transmission line bringing in more power is not needed, the organization says.

There is support for clean energy...

Chris Kunkle, regional policy manager for Wind on the Wires, a St. Paul-based organization that promotes renewable energy (said), "These projects are vital to ensuring we can transition our energy system to cleaner energy.

Walker Legacy will Haunt us for Decades: While ignoring actual state debt by claiming Wisconsin has a $500 million budgetary surplus, Republicans want voters to believe that spending cuts to education, infrastructure improvements, environmental protections, state parks, joking about green energy, and stopping progress is something we should celebrate as fiscally responsible.

For now, ATC's sprawling transmission lines will spread like duck tape across our aging energy infrastructure.    

The Good, Bad and Ugly in Trump (and Walker) Energy News...

Like everything else in Scott Walker's Wisconsin, unless you're a well established major Republican corporate campaign contributor, don't expect to do business here. New and reemerging industries like solar and wind that don't quite fit into the conservative dystopian vision, or haven't been pre-approved by ALEC, sadly won't be allowed to prosper or create thousands or millions of next-gen jobs. We have a Groundhog Day governor.

Areas not on Walker's radar: Hemp products, legalized marijuana, solar, wind, climate science dealing with changing weather patterns affecting cities and farmers, mass transit, border to border rollout of rural high-speed broadband, college affordability, prison reform, etc..  But Walker loves that eggs-in-one-basket Foxconn deal with its itty-bitty satellite offices around the state. 

Even more revealing is the fact that so many other deeply red states are actually moving forward with many of the vilified items I listed above. 

Take energy for instance.

Solar Growth Slow in Wisconsin: While the "free market" and so many big energy producers are giving up coal for resource free solar and wind, Walker won't get behind it:

Jim Tinjum, an associate professor of engineering with a specialty in renewable energy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, (went on a) #bikethewind tour last year ... Tinjum noted that on the solar front, Wisconsin leaves a lot to be desired. “Even though I’m from Wisconsin, I see Wisconsin as playing catchup in the role of advancing solar,” noting that his department teaches a course for solar installers, engineers and designers. He noted that the Wisconsin utility WPPI was a sponsor of his trip, and that he expects to see utilities and other players invest more in solar in the Midwest and Wisconsin in coming years.

Walker's "Sand Rush" feeds draconian Fossil Fuel Thinking: And why is solar and wind on the backburner?  Walker's gift; tearing up the most incredibly scenic part of our state:

Domestic drilling for oil and natural gas is expected to drive “extreme” demand for the frac sand prevalent throughout western Wisconsin. Wisconsin has historically produced about a third of the domestic supply of industrial sand.

But on the horizon, we're already being told cheaper solar and wind-generated electricity will flip how we're going to heat our homes. Yup, they're now predicting a return to...electric heat.

Where are the "Pro-lifers? "Pollution Illnesses and Deaths Hard to Prove in Court Pt. 1, so...

Reuter: The EPA said it was reconsidering part of an Obama-era rule on emissions of mercury from coal-fired plants. Under the 2011 Mercury and Air Toxic Standards, or MATS, rule, coal plants have had to reduce emissions of mercury, a pollutant that can be dangerous to pregnant women and put infants and children at risk of developmental problems.

The U.S. Supreme Court which left MATS intact in 2015. But it sent one issue, the justification for creating the rule, back to a lower court ... In 2016, the Obama EPA found the costs justified as the rule saved consumers on healthcare bills, a finding that industry challenged. 

Mary Anne Hitt, who fights coal plants at the Sierra Club: “This is outrageous and appalling. The American people are not going to stand for (a MATS) repeal just to please a few millionaire coal executives.”

Pollution Illnesses and Death Hard to Prove Pt. 2, so...: This is a subscription story I could not find anywhere else, so here's the screen capture and link. Breathtaking? These are our public servants?

Pollution Illnesses and Death Hard to Prove Pt. 3, so...: We have a right to Life, Liberty, and Property, right? It's right there in the 5th and 14th Amendment. Is it now time to change this meaning too, just like the Supreme Court did with the 2nd Amendment?

National Geographic: Juliana v. United States, a lawsuit filed by 21 children against the federal government over climate change, is headed to trial later this year, after the Supreme Court rejected the Trump Administration’s efforts to derail the case. Justice Anthony Kennedy rejected the government’s request ... noted that the “breadth of the (children’s) claim is striking…” The trial is scheduled to begin October 29 in Eugene, Oregon. The Obama Administration sought unsuccessfully to have the case dismissed, arguing remedies for climate change are better addressed by Congress than in court. 

The children’s suit, filed in federal court in 2015 by the non-profit Our Children’s Trust, alleges that the government has failed to protect Earth from the effects of climate change, putting the lives of future generations at risk and violating their basic constitutional rights to life, liberty, and property.

Trump Hides National Monuments Successes Undercutting Claims to Reduce Parks: Thanks to Trump accidentally releasing unredacted Interior Department docs. These lying sacks of sh*t:

As the Trump administration downsized Utah's Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments, Department of the Interior officials dismissed evidence that the monument designations brought benefits, the Washington Post reports.

The Interior Department's Freedom of Information Act team uploaded thousands of pages of documents that had not been completely redacted. The next day, officials took down these documents and replaced them. The erroneously un-redacted documents contain facts that cast some monuments in a positive light. 

1. One 2017 analysis by the Bureau of Land Management mentioned that once Grand Staircase-Escalante became a national monument, the annual rate of archaeological listings in the area more than doubled, and vandalism dropped. In December 2017, President Trump moved to shrink the monument by 46 percent.

2. In another document, Interior Department official Randal Bowman recommended deleting fishing data from an assessment of the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument. The administration reviewed the Atlantic Ocean monument—which President Obama created in 2016—amid concerns that the monument's ban on fishing hurt local fishers. Bowman sought to nix data showing that from 2005 to 2014, about two-thirds of the area's shipping vessels generated less than five percent of their annual landings from the waters that became the monument. “This section is based on information provided by NOAA and the Fishery Management Council, and so can be presumed accurate,” he wrote in a comment. “However, including all this information undercuts the case for the ban being harmful.”

So what does the Trump administration propose doing about the slip?

According to legal experts interviewed by the Post, Trump officials could argue that the intended redactions fall under the “deliberative privilege” exemption of the Freedom of Information Act. That clause aims to protect executive branch staffers as they honestly discuss and hone policies.

Walker's reliance on Coal hurts Rural Farmers, their Income and Job Creation.

Wind energy is a great rural job creator across the country, but not in Walker's Wisconsin. I'm just hoping a few Democrats will read this and decide to ride the wind wave into rural voter support. Unlike most GOP rhetoric, this is a real issue they can get behind.

Hate to bring it up, but it looks like Minnesota is at it again. Midwest Energy News:

A new report says proposed renewable energy investments in Minnesota could create

From 1923...Wisconsin's not there yet...

more than 5,000 construction jobs and $7 billion in economic activity, largely in conservative, rural parts of the state.

“We are clearly seeing a bigger (political) divide in Minnesota and clean energy is a way to bridge that divide,” said Chris Kunkle, Wind on the Wires regional policy manager for Minnesota. “You’re talking about advancing policies and investments from the Twin Cities that benefit rural Minnesota and create new jobs and tax revenue. These are in really red areas, this is rural America."

And just like Wisconsin, rural voters in Minnesota "wanted to try something different:" 

President-elect Donald Trump — who has called climate change a hoax and whose senior advisor, Steve Bannon, holds radical anti-climate views — won in most rural Minnesota counties.

You'd never know it by anything Republicans say in Wisconsin, but wind technology has dramatically changed: 

The reason for newly proposed projects in those counties stems from improved turbine technology that allows for greater production out of less wind, policy manager Chris Kunkle said.

The report shows that more than 3,300 megawatts (MW) of wind projects could create 12,573 jobs, including those in construction, while paying property owners $9 million annually in lease payments and local governments in excess of $9 million in taxes.

But if Republicans finally get their way, failed bills from the past will pass and dramatically change everything, at their own peril:

Michael Webber, deputy director of the Energy Institute at the University of Texas, believes perils exist for any move by Trump to push for the removal of tax credits. 
“All those rural districts in America’s wind corridor might not be thrilled if their preferred candidate seeks to undermine one of their most important sources of economic growth,” he wrote recently in the New York Times.