Don't look at the gas plant behind the curtain! If you feel like tech companies and energy utilities are gaslighting you with their assurances that AI data centers won't hurt our environment, you're probably right.
In this episode, how AI is causing a fossil fuel boom in Wisconsin and the lawsuit just filed to try and stop it.
You may have heard, Wisconsin needs more power and we need it fast. In the next few years, AI data centers will cause an unprecedented surge in energy demand across our state. There are already large expensive new powerplants being built to help meet that demand with more to come. But the big question is, will Wisconsinites be left shouldering the cost?
In this episode, the shocking energy needs of AI, why our power companies are rolling out the red carpet, and the lasting environmental and economic harms that could be left in the wake.
Host: Amy Barrilleaux
Guest: Tom Content, Citizens Utility Board (CUB)
Resources for You:
Citizens Utility Board Data Centers Page
Petition: Take A Stand Against Unchecked Data Center Development
New Analysis: Data Center Water Consumption Will Be Far Higher Than Tech Companies Claim
PSC approves plan to power AI data center with gas plants
What if you could make a difference in the fight to protect our environment by doing nothing at all? In this episode, why fall is the perfect time to be lazy - for the planet.
Host: Amy Barrilleaux
Guest: Elizabeth Braat, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
Resources for You:
Episode 43: The hidden pesticides that could be lurking in your pollinator garden
Neonic Pesticides and their Impact
The amazing story of one Wisconsin food that was banned, burned, disappeared from our plates - and the comeback that's being helped along by solar farms.
Host: Amy Barrilleaux
Guest: Lily Hislop, Savanna Institute
Resources for You:
Black Currants: A once-forbidden fruit
Farming for the Future: Charting a course for a new food system
A Clean Wisconsin analysis shows just two approved data centers in Wisconsin will use more power than all the homes in our state combined. More than the generation capacity of the Point Beach nuclear plant, the single-largest source of power in Wisconsin. And that leaves a lot of people are wondering, where is all this leading us? What will it mean for Wisconsin's precious water resources, our land, our energy bills? And why is it so hard to find out? In this episode, an in-depth conversation on the secrets of data centers.
Host: Amy Barrilleaux
Guest: Michael Greif, Midwest Environmental Advocates
Resources for You:
AI data centers in Wisconsin will use more energy than all homes in state combined
Large Wisconsin data center tax breaks make benefits unclear
MEA Takes Legal Action to Compel City of Racine to Disclose Data Center's Projected Water Use
There is no question we are living through a stressful, often overhwelming time. So if you're feeling hopeless, especially in the face of the climate crisis, no one could blame you. But there is no better place to find hope – than in other people. How you can joing people from all walks of life in Sunday, Sept 28 to take a stand for our climate right here in Wisconsin.
Host: Amy Barrilleaux
Guest: Heather Allen, Policy Director, Elevate
Resources for You:
Wisconsin Climate March Sunday Sept. 28, Madison, Wisconsin
Yes, there are 150-million reasons to listen to this episode. Because Wisconsin has $150 million dollars in federal funding to help make our homes warmer in the winter, cooler in the summer, healthier, more efficient. All the things.
A look at two little-known programs that survived the big Federal cuts and are ready to be used by you.
Host: Amy Barrilleaux
Guests: Dylan Crye, Home Energy Rebates Program Manager, Focus on Energy
Joe Pater, Dir. Office of Energy Innovation, Public Service Commission of Wisconsin
Resources for You:
Watts Up Wisconsin - Focus on Energy podcast
Home Energy Rebates Help Wisconsinites Save Big
How much would you pay to swim in a clean lake? How much to take a breath of fresh, clean air? To fish in a pristine stream? You may not ever think about that, but there is somebody who does -- a lot.
On this episode, meet the professor who's working to understand the economic value of a clean environment.
Host: Amy Barrilleaux
Guest: Dan Phaneuf, Professor, Agricultural and Applied Economics, Unversity of Wisconsin
Resources for You:
Clean Wisconsin: Fighting for Clean Water
The Environmental Protection Agency is quickly getting out of the protection business. And no where is that more clear than its new plan to get rid of the Endangerment Finding, the landmark legal and science determination that climate change hurts people and that the EPA has the responsibility to do something about it.
On this episode a look at why the EPA is now insisting climate pollution won't hurt you, and what walking back the endangerment finding could mean for Wisconsin.
Host: Amy Barrilleaux
Guest: Clean Wisconsin General Counsel Katie Nekola
Resources for You:
Take Action: Tell the EPA not to rescind the Endangerment Finding
Livestock farmers in Wisconsin are getting excited about solar! MG&E's Tyto solar project is home to about 13,000 solar panels, 30 acres of thriving plants, and a flock of happy sheep.
Amy takes a behind-the-scenes look at the solar energy project where 145 hungry sheep are hard at work this summer.
Host: Amy Barrilleaux
Guests: John Armstrong, manager of renewable engineering, Madison Gas and Electric
Beau Stafford, Wiscovery Farms
Resources for You:
Episode 40: Surprising Environmental Impacts of Solar in Wisconsin
Analysis: Solar produces 100 times more energy per acre than corn grown for ethanol
In the long, never-ending struggle to protect our environment, it can be easy to feel helpless, powerless. Maybe nothing underscores that feeling more than trying to stop a big foreign oil interest from building a pipeline across your state. But there is something you can do to speak out against the Line 5 oil pipeline. And it's fun! Amy looks at the Move People Not Oil campaign.
Host: Amy Barrilleaux
Guest: Jacob Ahrens-Balwit, Strategic Communications Manager, Clean Wisconsin
More Resources for You:
Enbridge Line 5 Blasting Area Photos (Instagram)
Move People Not Oil - Take the pledge and more information
If you are feeling afraid to click on news stories every time a decision gets handed down by the US Supreme Court, you're not alone. But some recent Wisconsin Supreme Court decisions are bringing much-needed good news in the fight to protect our environment.
Host: Amy Barrilleaux
Guest: Evan Feinauer, Clean Wisconsin attorney
Resources for You:
Episode 29: Trump's threat to safe water (and how WI can fight back)
Episode 24: What Trump 2.0 means for our environment
Episode 20: Supreme Court power grab
Northern Wisconsin is home to Lake Superior, to beautiful streams and wetlands, to thousands of acres of mesic forests--and to a 72-year-old oil pipeline called Line 5. Now the foreign oil company, Enbridge, that owns and operates the line is pushing to blast and trench its way across northern Wisconsin to build a reroute. Amy gets the latest on legal action to stop it.
Host: Amy Barrilleaux
Guests: Clean Wisconsin attorneys Brett Korte and Evan Feinauer
Resources for You:
What Line 5 means for me (video)
Clean Wisconsin News: Sign up for Line 5 updates and more
Milwaukee is at the center of what the federal government calls an "Area of Concern." A place where so much toxic water pollution and environmental degradation have happened over the course of more than a century, that it needs special attention and funding to get cleaned up.
But how do you confront and begin to heal the collective harms of legacy pollution? Of decades of injustice that is still happening? Amy talks with Shalina S. Ali about how that process can start with art, with creativity, with channeling the mixture of emotions—the joy and pain—that comes with working toward change.
Host: Amy Barrilleaux
Guest: Shalina S. Ali, Co-Executive Director, TRUE Skool
Resources for You:
Area of Concern Community Advisory Commiteee
Peace Park & Garden Mural Unveiling
The Big Beautiful Budget will have some ugly consequences. In this episode, why the fallout from Trump's budget will include bigger bills, toxic emissions, and yep - more risk of blackouts.
Host: Amy Barrilleaux
Guest: Ciaran Gallagher, PhD, Energy & Air Manager, Clean Wisconsin
Resources for You:
Join Clean Wiscosin's Action Network
Have you ever wondered what it's like to stand next to a wind turbine? You're about to find out. In this epsiode, Amy meets 2nd generation Wisconsin farmer Jerry Cigelske at his Columbia County farm to talk about about why cows, grass and windmills have been the key to keeping his family on the land.
Host: Amy Barrilleaux
Guest: Jerry Cigelske, Columbia County farmer
Resources for You:
Showing up for Wind in Wisconsin
Cows in the Woods: What it takes to create a silvopasture
If you are a regular listener, you have heard of neonicotinoids, a class of neurotoxins used on food crops all over the state and country. And it turns out, neonics are hurting a lot more than pollinators - like fish, birds, small mammals and potentially people.
On this episode, what we know about the impacts of neonic pesticides on our bodies and how to limit exposure.
Host: Amy Barrilleaux
Guest: Kayla Rinderknecht, Population Health Fellow, Clean Wisconsin
Resources for You:
Episode 43: The hidden pesticides that could be lurking in your pollinator garden
Episode 33: Wisconsin's bees are acting weird. Here's why.
Neonicotinoids and their Impact
Episode 23 Neurotixins on Our Plates
Neonicotinoids and Human Health
You never know when a life-changing moment is going to come. For Sarah Savage, owner of Tend Native Plants, it came when she picked up a book about pollinators. Amy meets Sarah at her small plant nursery in Blue Mounds, Wis., to talk about the hidden pesticides that could be lurking in our gardens and how to make sure the flowers we buy are truly pollinator-friendly.
Host: Amy Barrilleaux
Guest: Sarah Savage, Tend Native Plants
Resources for You:
Episode 33: Wisconsin's bees are acting weird. Here's why.
Neonicotinoids and their Impact
Episode 23 Neurotixins on Our Plates
Neonicotinoids and Human Health
Expert Speakers Series: Wisconsin Neonic Forum
What's it going to take to make clean energy Wisconsin's new normal? It helps to have a bunch of fresh-faced new college graduates ready to take on the world. UW Platteville has a 100% placement rate for graduates in Sustainability and Renewable Energy Systems. Hear from Renee Stram who just got her diploma--and a job--about her optimistic take on fighting climate change.
Host: Amy Barrilleaux
Guest: Renne Stram, UW Platteville graduate
Resources for You:
UW Platteville Sustainability & Clean Energy Systems program
Local environmental impacts of solar in Wisconsin
Defender Episode 4: Solar vs Corn for Ethanol--which land use produces the most energy?
It's not easy to locate and document Wisconsin's endangered species, but luckily Ernie and Betty White are on the case! They are two of Wisconsin's specially-trained conservation dogs, and they could be the secret to finding some of our state's most threated species.
Host:Amy Barrilleaux
Guests:Laura Holder, Owner, Conservation Dogs Collective
Betty White, Ernie, and Boxie
Resources for You:Episode 33: Wisconsin's bees are acting weird. Here's why.
Episode 11: Wisconsin's Vanishing Bee
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