Wis Republicans says, "make sure renewable's are reliable and affordable"...uh, which they are already!!!

Unlike the few strong Democratic legislators who's voices are often ignored by the press, Gov. Evers will not suffer that same fate. 

And Republicans are panicking. Look how fast they tried to reframe the idea of middle-class tax cuts and protections for preexisting conditions. Same old out-dated policies. Only now the public will see how stagnant and empty their rhetoric has been for 8 years.

Alternative Energy Ignorance Exposed: Thankfully, you can't hide stupid. Check out what one arrogant Republican legislator said about the prospects of turning Wisconsin into a job-creating renewable energy leader:

1922 cover. Not exactly a new idea

At the annual conference held by the group RENEW Wisconsin, (a) panel following Evers' remarks, Rep. Mike Kuglitsch (R- New Berlin) said he wants to make sure electricity generated from renewables is reliable and affordable, and expansion is driven by the free market.

Wow, where do I start? It's hard to believe anyone could be this out of touch. "Making sure" is code for delaying any change, a tactic that assumes we just don't know enough about wind and solar energy yet (see at bottom what we do know, and what we're missing).

 Let's clear up a few easy points:

1. Wind is now cheaper to produce than coal, so it's affordable, okay? This is not a secret.

2. Try reading a newspaper sometime. Surprise, many big energy companies are committed and "driven," having promised a massive conversion to solar and wind (they don't have to ship fuel or pay for it). Hello?

3. Reliable? Would we be importing unreliable clean energy from outside Wisconsin? Why not be someone else's source of reliable energy by producing it here? And the use of recycled batteries to store energy for later use has already made an impact.

Time to bring in "Alternative Legislators" pushing Alternative Energy: The sad reality of gerrymandering makes it almost impossible to change Wisconsin's direction on energy...or anything for that matter. We'll be stuck in this same place for years, even decades trying to catch up.

So let's be clear about what Wisconsin Republicans are choosing to take a pass on...

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ #1 and #2 fastest growing jobs in the U.S. are solar panel installers and wind turbine technicians. These jobs are good, solid middle class jobs with annual salaries pushing close to six-figures. Beyond construction, the plants (particularly wind farms, with their many moving parts) offer good jobs in the long term.

Not only do wind and solar power bring jobs, they increase the local tax base for revenue-starved public schools and other districts. For example, Nolan County in Texas has seen its tax base increase almost eight fold to nearly $3 billion dollars since the West Texas wind rush began.

Energy Industry leaving GOP fossil fuel policies behind...

While my Trumpian friend wallows in the orange god's lies about coal, and how bad clean energy is for our economy, the rest of the world is laughing, albeit uncomfortably:

WaPo: President Trump’s top White House adviser on energy and climate stood before the crowd of some 200 people and tried to burnish the image of coal, the fossil fuel that powered the industrial revolution, and is now a major culprit behind the climate crisis world leaders are meeting here to address.

“We strongly believe that no country should have to sacrifice economic prosperity or energy security in pursuit of environmental sustainability,” said Wells Griffith, Trump’s adviser.

Mocking laughter echoed through the conference room. A woman yelled, “These false solutions are a joke!” 

Energy Industry Proves Trump Republicans very very Wrong: You know you've got a major problem when the industry you think you're defending...is headed in the complete opposite direction. That's right, Republicans now look even dumber* than before with climate denial. Let's count the ways:

1. A report to the Oregon Public Utilities Commission (OPUC) from PacifiCorp confirmed that the bulk of its coal units cost more to run than to close and replace … that despite White House efforts to support coal, consumption is decreasing and the fuel is … data showing early coal plant retirements could bring hundreds of millions of dollars in net benefits to customers." Energy Innovation's Mahajan added. "It also shows the economics are shifting, and any forward-thinking utility will want to minimize coal."

2. Xcel Energy's "Steel for Fuel" strategy: The utility owns and ratebases the wind or solar project just as it would a coal or natural gas unit, but without the fuel price volatility risk" … the strategy are appearing across the country. 
3. Ohio's American Electric Power initiated development of 900 MW of ratebased wind and solar in September and then announced the closure of 1,590 MW of coal.
 
4. Northern Indiana Public Service Company plans to retire 1,800 MW of coal in favor of renewables within ten years. 
5. Unregulated utilities are also seizing the opportunity. Texas' Vistra Energy shuttered 4.2 GW of coal in favor of renewables and natural gas investments in February.  
6. A July study found electric cooperative Tri-State Generation and Transmission could save customers $600 million through 2030 with new renewables, even if it continues running its coal plants.

For added fun, Democracy Now gets the award for the longest and most exhausting pursuit of a question...ever:

 * I've decided ridiculous disproven talking points should be called just that, dumb. We can't keep repeating the same arguments over and over, purposely boring people, by repeating really dumb debate points. 

Tech Illiterate Scott Walker thinks "Flat Screen TV's" all the rage, ignores Job Creating Alternative Energy

It's been frustrating watching our tech-illiterate governor Scott Walker run from tech-heavy bioscience at the UW, tech-heavy high-speed rail, tech-heavy health care systems, groundbreaking tech-heavy new medical treatments, and tech-heavy climate science.

That's why the Foxconn fiasco was so insane. Suddenly, a tech epiphany hit our clueless governor. That resulted in an overreaction and lots of taxpayer money to bring "tech" for the "first time" into Wisconsin. Who knew?

What, Plan for Modernized Power Grid, Alternative Energy? Imagine Scott Walker and top GOP Republicans working with the Public Service Commission (PSC) to modernize energy and our power grid in Wisconsin...I know, I'd laugh too if it wasn't so sad:

Columbus Business First: After more than a year of planning, the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) has unveiled its PowerForward report, a roadmap to the modernization of Ohio's power grid. Utilities must undertake modernizations that take into account new technologies, renewable energy, electric vehicles, home interfaces like smart thermostats as well as big-picture security issues like emergent cybersecurity threats.

Not binding, PUCO said the 44-page report will serve as a framework ... heard from experts and stakeholders ... focused on emerging technologies that promise to transform Ohio's energy industry and the regulations needed to manage it.

This is not even on the Walker administrations radar:

The energy industry in Ohio will mean more interaction between consumers and their utilities. "This grid is decades old, and in some cases, centuries old," Chairman Asim Haque said. "We want these investments to be made and deployed cost-effectively."

State Utilities Charge Past Walker: While Walker wants to support coal because it's supposedly "less expensive," our state utility companies are so over coal:

ShepherdExpress: We Energies wants to reduce carbon emissions, preserve fuel diversity and reduce costs to customers. “We’re really focusing on retiring our older, less efficient, coal-fueled units, building advanced technology natural gas units and investing in cost-effective, zero-carbon, renewable generation, like utility-scale solar. Utility-scale solar in the past few years has increased in efficiency, and prices have dropped by 70%, making it a really cost-effective option for our customers. We are very focused right now on utility-scale solar.”

Yet Walker still isn't connecting tech to the wind and sun, you know, unlimited free fuel with no shipping costs via our roads or rail: 

Wisconsin lags other states in solar energy production. According to Peter Murphy of MREA, “Policy truly is the only thing—not technology and not financials—that stands in the way of solar deployment in Wisconsin,” he says. “Two easy policies that Wisconsin could enact, following the states of Minnesota and Illinois, are community solar and third-party financing.”

Milwaukee and surrounding areas would experience a solar boom that would likely include options to help low-to-moderate income families reduce their electric bills. And renters, not just property owners, would be able to access the benefits of solar. There is no good reason why we don’t have these solar-friendly policies here,” Murphy says.

1. Community solar (sometimes referred to as “community solar gardens”) involves a large solar array—a small power plant, in effect—which serves multiple households, businesses and institutions. 
2. Third-party financing is an arrangement in which someone other than the property owner owns the solar array and charges the consumer less than what the utility charges.

Jobs, Jobs, Jobs - Republican Rural Voters Rake in "Green" Dollars while voting for Anti-Wind/Solar Politicians: 

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ #1 and #2 fastest growing jobs in the U.S. are solar panel installers and wind turbine technicians. These jobs are good, solid middle class jobs with annual salaries pushing close to six-figures. Beyond construction, the plants (particularly wind farms, with their many moving parts) offer good jobs in the long term.

Not only do wind and solar power bring jobs, they increase the local tax base for revenue-starved public schools and other districts. For example, Nolan County in Texas has seen its tax base increase almost eight fold to nearly $3 billion dollars since the West Texas wind rush began.

Coal and Nuclear target of Free Market's Creative Destruction!

Dumb Ron Johnson defended free market job losses in Wisconsin manufacturing to what he called "creative destruction."

When it comes to the dying coal and nuclear energy industries, let's remember the words of Ron Johnson actually promoting "creative destruction" of jobs in Wisconsin:

Johnson: "In a free market capitalistic system there's always winners and losers, it's creative destruction. That's what happens. It's unfortunate, but let's face it, if it weren't for that we'd still have buggy whip companies." 

Think about it, that attitude won Johnson two Senate terms, from an "America First" voting base who cares more about the (R) next to a name than Johnson's "who cares" attitude about manufacturing job losses in Wisconsin. Imagine trying to convince Trump Party voters that coal and nuclear energy is also falling victim to "creative destruction." Ain't gonna happen, despite the massive shift in jobs to renewables. It was never about job creation or "uncertainty," but instead a ploy to attack Dems:

The wind industry employs over 100,000 Americans and the solar industry employs nearly 250,000. 

Capitalism/Free Marketplace Energy Industry goes Renewable: With wind and solar energy prices at/lower than the price of coal and gas, "free market" energy companies woke up to the fact that they would only have equipment maintenance costs to contend with. No orders of coal or gas, just a free supply of sun and wind: 

1. Xcel Energy is investing heavily in affordable wind energy to power their customers’ needs. In fact, it plans to be 85% carbon free and 60% renewable by 2030. Xcel Energy plans to own more than 10,000 MW of wind energy by the end of 2021. Xcel Energy CEO Ben Fowke said, "[Wind] beats gas, even at today’s prices. I like to say we backed up the truck because the fuel of tomorrow was on sale today.”

2. Great River Energy (GRE) is the second-largest electricity provider in Minnesota and powers many of the rural electric co-ops in Minnesota and Wisconsin. In May, 2018, GRE announced its plan to source 50% of its power from renewables by 2030. “Wind is becoming the new baseload,” stated Great River Energy CEO David Saggau in 2017.

3. MidAmerican Energy is the largest electric utility in Iowa and also serves customers in Illinois, South Dakota, and Nebraska. It plans to provide net 100% renewable energy for its customers energy needs by 2020, and it recently surpassed the 50% mark. CEO Bill Fehrman said, "The beauty of wind is there’s no fuel costs. We will be able to virtually serve 89 percent of our customers’ needs with an energy resource that requires no fuel.”

4. Consumers Energy is Michigan’s largest energy provider and has a goal to reduce carbon emissions by 80 percent by 2040. Consumers Energy CEO Patti Poppe states that “our price to install and deliver wind power is down 75 percent from where we originally thought it would be. In the past people believed that we had to choose between affordable and clean energy; we don’t subscribe to that sucker’s choice.”

DTE Energy is the largest investor of wind and solar energy in Michigan. It plans to power 25% of their energy needs with renewables by 2030 and reduce carbon emissions by 80% by 2050. DTE Energy has invested over $2 billion in wind energy in the past 10 years, noting that “[wind energy has] created hundreds of jobs for residents and a local tax revenue for communities while delivering reliable, affordable and clean energy for our 2.2 million Michigan customers.”

Electric Heat...Again? Yes. So much for that new high efficincy gas furnace: 

Chicago will need to embrace smart thermostats and electric heating to meet long-range carbon reduction goals, according to a recent report. The study by the Rocky Mountain Institute ... includes making the switch from natural gas to electric heat.

Is Trump's Trade War "Created" Destruction? I'm fascinated by Trump Party voters, who once screamed bloody murder over the "uncertainty" created by Obama regulations, and are now willing to give Trump the wait-and-see benefit of the doubt over the massive uncertainty of an expanding trade war with no plan or exit strategy.

Even more surreal, Republicans get to enjoy being against the tariffs all the while being for the anger created by the politics of resentment; other countries have been taking advantage of us, wah! So if a company like Harley-Davidson moves manufacturing and jobs overseas because of Trump's trade war, that's okay:

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) warned on Sunday that President Trump’s policies on trade are starting to do “permanent damage.” Johnson said that his state of Wisconsin has “been particularly targeted” by China’s recently imposed tariffs, which came in response to Trump’s trade measure against the country.

Johnson said that motorcycle manufacturer Harley-Davidson was right to move parts of its production overseas. "Because of the beginning of the trade war...our state has been particularly targeted. Harley-Davidson has been targeted, our cranberry industry, our ginseng industry, but people don't realize that Wisconsin is a huge manufacturing state. They were paying 6 percent tariffs [to get] into Europe, now it's 31 percent. If they manufacture in another country they can enjoy the lower steel prices and remain competitive. So they really don't have a choice." 

Walker's Legacy Fossil Fuel Energy problem leaves Wisconsin far behind our Neighbors!!!

Scott Walker's whole agenda has been to push tired old policies from the 80's and 90's. Not surprisingly, the manufacturing renaissance didn't happen. On the coal burning energy front, Wisconsinites are paying a higher price for their utility bills because those plants needed to clean up their emissions.

Bullheadedly sticking with legacy fuels and claiming falsely that they are still so much cheaper than alternative fuels has effectively left Wisconsin behind most other states.

Wisconsin has some of the highest electricity prices in the nation, although the average customer spends far less on electricity than in most states (residents aren’t running air conditioners as much as their counterparts in the hot and sticky southern states).

So why are Wisconsin’s rates so high?

“Built-in costs. It’s a combination of legacy infrastructure and legacy business models.”said Gary Radloff, director of Midwest Energy Policy Analysis for the Wisconsin Energy Institute. Utilities have invested heavily in power plants and transmission lines that are paid off over decades through customer rates set by the Public Service Commission.

Those investments also include billions of dollars spent on pollution controls for aging coal plants, some of which are now being replaced with new natural-gas plants, said Tom Content, executive director of the Citizens Utility Board, which represents the interests of residential and small businesses.

Content said Wisconsin ratepayers would be better off if utilities had followed those in Minnesota and Iowa by investing sooner in lower-cost natural gas and wind generation. “If you went with natural gas and renewables, you’re not trying to have a cleaner burning cigarette, you’re not smoking,” he said.

Yet the PSC has also approved significant increases in recent years to the flat monthly fee customers pay just to have an account, something consumer advocates argue punishes those who use the least electricity. “We’ve been investing heavily in the supply side,” Content said. “And not in helping customers manage their energy costs.”

Big Energy's Desperate battle to stop the Future, Renewable Energy!

The Trump tax cut declared a frightening historical moment; big business was in charge.

Among the many examples to long to list here, big energy is trying to save its dying business model by getting their obedient Republican servants to pass unthinkably anti-consumer legislation.  

I also want to note this interesting twist. My Trumpian conservative friend in Milwaukee said he was shocked at the corrupting influence of corporate money in government under Trump. When I reminded him of Citizens United, where the conservative geniuses on the Supreme Court claimed unequivocally that money did not have a corrupting influence...he said they were wrong!!! Yes, things are that bad now.

Fossil Fuels Last Gasp? Here's are just a few examples from the Energy News Service that will demonstrate just how bad and irrational things might get. First up, the Politics of Resentment:

Example 1. If you’ve got solar panels on your roof, Westar Energy wants to create a surcharge on your power bill. The utility insists that if it doesn’t charge you extra, all of its other customers will get stuck with the tab of being ready with electricity when the sun lets you down ... the amount of electricity any individual solar power user produces is unreliable.

Solar power enthusiasts want the Kansas Legislature to outlaw such charges. For the utility power from solar rays is a money-losing proposition. Westar estimates the new charge could increase the bill of a customer with solar panels by as much as 50 percent.

The solar industry in Kansas employs about 500 people ... Colorado has about 6,000 workers in the field.

Good-Bye Energy Saving Programs, Jobs: Republicans never cared about jobs, they cared about their donors and exploiting the public's hunger for more and better paying jobs. But really, eliminating consumer energy star programs and allowing utilities to reward and penalize users without state approval? Hello?

Job gains and the burgeoning solar industry in Iowa could be undone by proposals under consideration in the state and federal governments.

There were more than 800 solar energy jobs in Iowa in 2017, a 45 percent increase over the previous year ... solar jobs in Iowa stands in contrast to the national picture: solar jobs declined 3.8 percent nationally from 2016 to 2017 ... a state solar tax credit has sparked roughly $166 million in capital investment across the state. Iowa is No. 42 in the country in solar jobs per capita, according to the Solar Foundation report. Minnesota has more than 4,000 jobs, an increase of nearly 50 percent from 2016 to 2017.

Iowa state lawmakers are considering a couple of proposals ... One would eliminate the requirement for energy efficiency practices altogether ... another provision would allow utility companies to make revenue-neutral changes to utility rates without approval from the state board that regulates utilities, and another that would eliminate a requirement that utilities not apply rates that discriminate against any class of customer. Solar energy advocates say they fear these proposals would allow utilities to increase the rates for solar customers. Josh Mandelbaum, an attorney with the Environmental Law and Policy Center (in) Chicago (said) “...one of the worst pieces of legislation we’ve ever seen.”

Seriously? "Their intent is to foster new programs and services for customers more quickly, not to raise rates on any customers, including those who use solar energy ... to make rates fairer."

21st Century Technology Energy Savings...but will Utilities Cooperate? It's not all Doom and Gloom. I thought this was a fascinating look at what we'll need to do in the future, if only big energy can get on board and change their business model dramatically. Note-Many utilities do welcome change and are trying to adapt:

For Indiana businesses and residents, a few cutbacks during peak energy times could save the state between $448 million and $2.3 billion over 10 years, a new report from Advanced Energy Economy (AEE) said, a national association of business leaders dedicated to making the global energy system more secure, clean and affordable, released the report, “Potential for Peak Demand Reduction in Indiana.”

The report focused on three main strategies: (1) curtailing commercial and industrial electricity demand, (2) installing more smart thermostats across Indiana’s residential sector, and (3) deploying energy storage technologies.

 Check this out:

Demand for electricity can spike for just a few hours each year ... 10 percent of a state’s electric system’s capacity is built to meet demand in just 1 percent of hours during the year, creating significant costs to consumers. One proven tool to reduce peak demand is demand response (DR) which enables grid operators and electric utilities to relieve stress on the electricity distribution system ... using connected thermostats, where utility companies would have the ability to cycle air conditioning or heaters off and on, could produce a $300 million savings.

“In a residential unit, utility companies would be able to cycle on and off a water heater, for instance. But also, in a big box store cycle off an air conditioner for 20 minutes, and no one in the store would even notice it. The businesses and residential customers would see savings on their utility bills as well.” In one scenario where 214,000 smart thermostats were utilized throughout the state, net benefits of $73 million over 10 years were estimated.

The report identified some emerging technology surrounding energy storage that could potentially save the state money, as well. Being able to store some of the power generated by the state’s wind turbine farms and solar panels would provide the state with energy to use during peak usage times.

Nebraska says Wind not Renewable..."Not Nebraska Nice" and "a Scam and isn't green energy by any definition of the term."

If anything describes the state of the Republican Party today, this mind-bending idea is it. Who votes for these people anyway, my god...still, I just love this story:

Yes, this is a real ad on his site!

Nebraska State Senator Tom Brewer (R) has proposed a new bill that would restrict wind power development in the state and end the designation of wind power as “renewable.”

The bill would undo provisions the state has enacted in recent years to streamline wind power development ... provisions that have enabled the state to attract companies like Facebook with the promise of low-cost 100 percent renewable wind power.

If this doesn't make your head explode, nothing will:

It's just that easy...?

“Wind energy is not Nebraska Nice,” Brewer wrote in an opinion piece last October. “Wind energy is a scam that hurts people and animals, wastes billions in tax dollars, and isn’t ‘green’ energy by any definition of the term.”

The truth is a lot less crazy:

In fact, wind power is one of the least polluting power sources available today — and thanks to smart government policies, it has become so cheap that building new wind farms with battery storage is now cheaper than running existing coal plants.

Republicans "Jobs" Myth: It's never been about creating jobs, it's been about some twisted out-of-limits ideological dystopia that...heck, I can't come up with anything else.

The Omaha Public Power District (OPPD) opposed Brewer’s bill noting the strategy of offering companies 100 percent renewable power had landed “a lot of national and international companies in the pipeline” for local job-creating projects.

EPA's Pruitt says Coal keeps Prices Low...not in Walker's Coal loving Wisconsin!!!

Scott Walker's Wisconsin has been very good to our coal burning energy companies. Urban Milwaukee:

His administration continues to have no interest in solar and wind power. Indeed the state now gets 63 percent of its energy from coal, up from about 55 percent when he took office. That’s largely because the Kewaunee nuclear power plant was closed, but it’s also because the state has been asleep on solar and wind power for six years.

It's cheap and...wait a minute... 

The analysis, published by the state Public Service Commission, found that 2015 marked the first year that Wisconsin's rates for residential, commercial and industrial electric customers ranked higher than Michigan as well as six other nearby Midwestern states...

Side-by-Side Comparison about Coal and Solar: How could the costs be so high, coal is so cheap in Wisconsin? And what about the "high cost" clean energy, since coal is now more expensive than natural gas and on a par with wind:

Bloomberg: Solar power is now cheaper than coal in some parts of the world. In less than a decade, it’s likely to be the lowest-cost option almost everywhere.

You'll never hear this from Scott Pruitt, the new secretary and enemy of the EPA. He's still pushing the same lie Scott Walker is; wind and solar are "creating double digit increases across the country," and supposed cheap coal is "lowering electric rates for consumers across the country." Maybe 20 years ago. Pruitt appears totally out of touch with the market...and world:



Pruitt's "degree of ignorance" is embarrassing, and will hold the U.S. back worldwide in wind and solar manufacturing and installation...that's not job creation:

In 2016, countries from Chile to the United Arab Emirates broke records with deals to generate electricity from sunshine for less than 3 cents a kilowatt-hour, half the average global cost of coal power. Now, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Mexico are planning auctions and tenders for this year, aiming to drop prices even further. Since 2009, solar prices are down 62 percent, with every part of the supply chain trimming costs. That’s help cut risk premiums on bank loans, and pushed manufacturing capacity to record levels. “These are game-changing numbers, and it’s becoming normal in more and more markets. Every time you double capacity, you reduce the price by 20 percent. It’s also driven by economies of scale and manufacturing experience since the solar boom started more than a decade ago, giving the industry an increasing edge in the competition with fossil fuels.

Thanks to Wisconsin's popular Focus on Energy program, consumers were able to lower their energy bills...

An analysis of the state's energy situation released Thursday found that residential electric bills in Wisconsin actually rank below the Midwest average, because customers here are using far less power on average than those in other nearby states.

...but Walker had this head scratching plan back in March of 2016...

Bill would cut funding for Wisconsin energy efficiency program: An independent 2015 study showing more than $3 in direct savings and more than $6 in net economic benefits for each dollar invested in the Focus on Energy program between 2011 and 2014. “This change is going to hurt customers, they’ll have less opportunity to take advantage of the programs that Focus on Energy offers, and those programs help customers lower their bills,” said Mitch Brey, campaign organizer of the citizen group RePower Madison. “This seems like a program we should be increasing funding for, not decreasing,” said Brey.

Meanwhile the cost of these (solar and wind) power sources have plummeted. “The average long-term contract price for wind power paid by utilities has dropped 60 percent since 2009,” Bloomberg.com reports. “The solar price drop has been even steeper, falling 65 percent.”

Climate change denial never made any sense to me. The overwhelming consensus supporting climate change should have at least made deniers feel compelled to play it safe, you know, just in case.

But my biggest argument targeted people on a more personal level. A while back I wrote: How can Walker say he's pro-life, when he opposes policy that could save 3,500 Americans from premature deaths a year. That's one 9/11 a year. There's more too: 

Reducing carbon emissions also will cut levels of other dangerous pollutants such as fine particles and ozone by more than 25%. Thus the plan brings substantial and measurable public health benefits ... worth from $55 billion to $93 billion per year by 2030, an amount that greatly exceeds the estimated compliance costs of $7.3 billion to $8.8 billion a year.

 Finally, here's PolitiFact explaining away the Republican myth about the cost of emission control:

In the days leading up to the EPA’s June 2 announcement, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce released a study saying the regulations -- which hadn’t even been made public at that point -- would hurt jobs and economy ... but the study’s authors made several critical assumptions that turned out to be incorrect ... (1) they assumed Obama would want to decrease carbon emissions by 42 percent — not 30 percent — before 2030. (2) The chamber also predicted that by 2022, the EPA would have to require natural gas plants to install carbon capture and storage, a much more costly technology, to reach the 42 percent threshold. The EPA already said last year that new natural gas plants would not need to include carbon capture in their facilities.

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.

Wyoming Republicans "No Tax Pledge" doesn't apply to Wind Energy manufacturers and their cunstomers.

So much for the “no tax pledge."

Republicans seem to have no problem raising taxes and killing jobs if it involves an industry challenging the big money special interests in the fossil fuel industries.

Hypocrites? Think they care? Come on folks, their voters feed on having it both ways.

Wyoming Republicans, just like here in Wisconsin, have decided to put up road blocks to kill wind energy. And if that doesn't work, raise taxes to pay down their deficit. LA Times:

Who owns the wind? We do, Wyoming says, and it's taxing those who use it … Then, with great efficiency for a conservative state not traditionally tilted toward burdening the energy industry, they did something no other state has done, before or since: They taxed it … a state trying to close a budget gap that could reach $500 million.

But now, as one of the world’s largest wind farms is about to begin construction aimed at providing clean electricity to nearly a million homes in California and the Southwest — potentially transforming this fossil fuel state into a major player in renewables — some powerful state lawmakers are looking to raise those taxes.

The company that has spent nine years trying to build the wind project ... “Just about every legislator we’ve met with asks us, ‘You tell us how much we can tax you before we put you out of business,’” said Bill Miller, chief executive of the Power Co. of Wyoming.

In their view, the tax increase is more about politics — Wyoming lashing out at clean energy as payback for federal policy aimed at scaling back the coal industry on which the state has always relied.

Republicans there are also recycling an argument used to oppose the XL Pipeline; not enough jobs: 

Supporters of the tax increase say that it likely will not provide anywhere near the jobs and other benefits fossil fuels have. They also say Wyoming doesn’t necessarily need clean energy.

Odder still, the wind company is a subsidiary of company involved in fossil fuels and is owned by a major Republican donor, Philip Anshutz.

Ray Peterson, a contractor who hopes his rig company will get work with the new wind project, wrote to the revenue committee this month to oppose any move to raise taxes further.

“We expected the Obama Administration to wage war on coal and oil as they promised,” he wrote. “What is most alarming, and completely unexpected, is realizing Wyoming state officials are willing to threaten killing the creation of new business, much needed jobs, a generous amount of tax revenue and diversification of our state’s energy dependent economy to wage war on renewable energy sources.”

Here in Rawlins, the seat of Carbon County, a name that now seems plenty ironic, local leaders support the wind project, but not the idea of taxing it further.