From city hall to the local library to traffic lights, Wisconsin municipalities have made it a goal to reduce spending and emissions by switching to green energy.
The post More Wisconsin cities are powering municipal operations with renewable electricity appeared first on WPR.
Enbridge said its investigation of valves at sites along the company's Line 6 pipeline revealed no active leaks after a valve failure caused an oil spill in Jefferson County last year.
The post Enbridge says no leaks found at other sites along Line 6 oil pipeline appeared first on WPR.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced late Tuesday it will release previously authorized grant funds to farmers and small rural business owners to build renewable energy projects — but only if they rewrite applications to comply with President Donald Trump’s energy priorities.
The move has left some farmers perplexed — and doubtful that they’ll ever get the grant money they were promised, given the Trump administration’s emphasis on fossil fuels and hostility toward renewable energy.
Some of the roughly 6,000 grant applicants have already completed the solar, wind or other energy projects and are awaiting promised repayment from the government. Others say they can’t afford to take on the projects they’d been planning unless the grant money comes through.
A Floodlight analysis shows the overwhelming majority of the intended recipients of this money reside in Trump country — congressional districts represented by Republicans.
After hearing of the USDA’s latest announcement Wednesday, Minnesota strawberry farmer Andy Petran said he suspects many previously approved projects won’t be funded. He’d been approved for a $39,625 grant to install solar panels on his farm. But like many other farmers nationally, Petran got word from the USDA earlier this year that his grant money had been put on hold.
“It’s not like any small farmer who is looking to put solar panels on their farms will be able to put a natural gas refinery or a coal refinery on the farm,” Petran said. “I don’t know what they expect me to switch to.”
Petran was counting on the benefits that solar power would bring to his farm.
After getting word in September that the USDA had approved his grant application, he expected the solar panels would not only reduce his electricity bill but allow him to sell power back to the grid. He and his wife figured the extra income would help expand their Twin Cities Berry Co. and pay down their debt more quickly.
Petran’s optimism was soon extinguished. A USDA representative told him earlier this year that the grant had been frozen.
His 15-acre farm about 40 miles north of Minneapolis operates on a razor-thin margin, Petran said, so without the grant money, he can’t afford to build the $80,000 solar project.
“Winning these grants was a contract between us and the government,” he said. “There was a level of trust there. That trust has been broken.”
In its announcement, issued Tuesday night, the USDA said grant recipients will have 30 days to review and revise their project plans to align with President Trump’s Unleashing American Energy Executive Order, which prioritizes fossil fuel production and cuts federal support for renewable energy projects.
“This process gives rural electric providers and small businesses the opportunity to refocus their projects on expanding American energy production while eliminating Biden-era DEIA and climate mandates embedded in previous proposals,” the USDA news release said. “… This updated guidance reflects a broader shift away from the Green New Deal.”
USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins said in the release that the new directive will give rural energy providers and small businesses a chance to “realign their projects” with Trump’s priorities.
It’s unclear what this will mean for grant recipients who’ve already spent money on renewable energy projects — or those whose planned projects have been stalled by the administration’s funding freeze.
The USDA didn’t directly answer those questions. In an email to Floodlight on Wednesday, a department spokesperson said the agency must approve any proposed changes to plans — but offered no specific guidance on what or whether changes should be made.
“Awardees that do not respond via the website will be considered as not wishing to make changes to their proposals, and disbursements and other actions will resume after 30 days,” the email said. “For awardees who respond via the website to confirm no changes, processing on their projects will resume immediately.”
The grant funding was put on hold after an executive order issued by President Trump on his first day in office. It froze hundreds of billions of dollars for renewable energy under President Joe Biden’s massive climate law, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).
The law added more than $1 billion to the USDA’s 17-year-old Rural Energy for America (REAP) program.
About 6,000 REAP grants funded with IRA money have been paused and are being reviewed for compliance with Trump’s executive order, according to a March 5 email from the USDA’s rural development office to the office of U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Maryland.
A lawsuit filed earlier this month challenges the legality of the freeze on IRA funding for REAP projects.
Earthjustice lawyer Hana Vizcarra, one of the attorneys who filed the suit, called the latest USDA announcement a “disingenuous stunt.”
“President Trump and Secretary Rollins can’t change the rules of the game well into the second half,” she said in a statement Wednesday. “This is the definition of an arbitrary and capricious catch-22.”
Under the REAP grant program, farmers pay for renewable and lower carbon energy projects, then submit proof of the completed work to the USDA for reimbursement. The grants were intended to fund solar panels, wind turbines, grain dryers, irrigation upgrades and other projects, USDA data shows.
At a press conference in Atlanta on March 12, Rollins said, “If our farmers and ranchers, especially, have already spent money under a commitment that was made, the goal is to make sure they are made whole.”
But some contend the administration is unfairly making farmers jump through more hoops.
“This isn’t cutting red tape; it’s adding more,” said Andy Olsen, senior policy advocate with the Environmental Law and Policy Center, a Midwest-based environmental advocacy group. “The USDA claims to deliver on commitments, but these new rules could result in awarded grants being permanently frozen.”
U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, a longtime farmer and Maine Democrat who sits on the House agriculture committee, said she thinks it’s illegal and unconstitutional for the administration to withhold grant money allocated by Congress. Beyond that, she said, it has hurt cash-strapped farmers.
“This is about farmers making ends meet,” she told Floodlight. “It’s not some ideological issue for us.”
Using USDA data, Floodlight identified the top 10 congressional districts that received the most grants. They’re all represented by Republicans who have said little publicly about the funding freezes affecting thousands of their constituents. It’s impossible to tell from the USDA data which REAP grants will get paid out.
The congressional district that received the most REAP grants was Iowa’s 2nd District, in the northeastern part of the state. Farmers and business owners there got more than 300 grants from 2023 through 2025. The district is represented by U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson, who has previously voiced support for “alternative energy strategies.”
“More than half of the energy produced in Iowa is from renewable sources, and that is something for Iowans to be very proud of,” she told the House Appropriations Committee in June 2022.
Hinson’s office did not respond to multiple requests for comment on the matter.
The No. 2 spot for REAP grants: Minnesota’s 1st Congressional District, represented by U.S. Rep. Brad Finstad. In that district, which spans southern Minnesota, more than 260 farmers and rural businesses were approved for REAP grants.
Finstad’s office did not return multiple emails and calls requesting comment. His constituents have been complaining about his silence on funding freezes. They’ve staged at least two demonstrations at his offices in Minnesota. Finstad said he held a Feb. 26 telephone town hall joined by 3,000 people in his district.
In a Feb. 28 letter to a constituent, Finstad said Rollins has announced that the USDA will honor contracts already signed with farmers and that he looks forward to working with the administration “to support the needs of farm country.”
Finstad is no stranger to the REAP program. Before becoming a congressman, he was the USDA’s state director of rural development for Minnesota. In that role, he was a renewable booster.
“By reducing energy costs, renewable energy helps to create opportunities for improvement elsewhere, like creating jobs,” Finstad said in a 2021 USDA press release. That has since been deleted from the agency’s website.
Rollins, meanwhile, called herself “a massive defender of fossil fuels” at her confirmation hearing, and she has expressed skepticism about the findings of climate scientists. “We know the research of CO2 being a pollutant is just not valid,” Rollins said at the Heartland Institute’s 2018 conference on energy.
She has also said that she welcomes the efforts of Elon Musk and his cost-cutting Department of Government Efficiency team at the USDA.
Jake Rabe, a solar installer in Blairstown, Iowa, said he has put up more than 100,000 solar modules in the state since getting into the business in 2015. More than 30 of his customers have completed their installation but are awaiting frozen grant funding, he said. At least 10 more have signed the paperwork but are hesitant to begin construction. Millions of dollars worth of business is frozen, he said.
On top of that, Rabe said, the state’s net metering policies — in which solar users get credits for any excess power they send back to the grid — are set to expire in 2026.
“I kind of feel like it may be the beginning of the end for the solar industry in Iowa with what’s going on,” said Rabe, who owns Rabe Hardware.
Despite it all, he remains a Trump supporter.
“Under the current administration, I think we’re doing things that are necessary for the betterment of the entire United States,” he said.
On March 13, Earthjustice, a nonprofit environmental law group, filed a federal lawsuit against the USDA on behalf of five farmers and three nonprofits. They’re seeking a court order to compel the Trump administration to honor the government’s grant commitments, saying it violated the Constitution by refusing to disburse funds allocated by Congress.
Vizcarra, the Earthjustice lawyer, said she is disturbed by the lack of concern from Congress, whose powers appear to have been usurped by the administration.
She added, “These are real people, real farmers and real organizations whose projects have impacts on communities who are left with this horrible situation with no idea of when it will end.”
One of the plaintiffs, Laura Beth Resnick, grows dahlias, zinnias and other cut flowers on a small farm about 30 miles north of Baltimore.
Florists are her customers, and demand for her flowers blooms during cold-weather holidays like Thanksgiving. Each of her three greenhouses is half the length of a football field, and heating them during those months isn’t cheap, Resnick said. The power bill for Butterbee Farm often exceeds $500 a month.
So a year ago, Resnick applied for a USDA renewable energy grant, hoping to put solar panels on her barn roof — a move that she estimated would save about $5,000 a year. In August, the USDA sent word that her farm had been awarded a grant for $36,450.
The cost of installing solar panels was $72,000, she said. So she paid a solar contractor $36,000 upfront, expecting that she’d pay the rest in January when the federal grant money came in. The solar panels were installed in December.
But the federal government’s check never arrived. A Feb. 4 email from a USDA representative said her request for reimbursement was rejected due to the Trump administration’s recent executive orders.
Resnick said she sought help from her elected representatives but got “pretty much nowhere.”
After hearing about the USDA’s announcement Wednesday, Resnick said that based on the response she’s previously gotten from the USDA, she’s not confident she will get her grant money.
“I’ve lost my trust in the USDA at this point,” she said. “Our project is complete, so we can’t change the scope of it.”
Van Hollen, the Maryland Democrat, said he supports the legal fight against the funding freeze.
“Donald Trump and Elon Musk are scamming our farmers,” Van Hollen said in a statement to Floodlight. “By illegally withholding these reimbursements for work done under federal grants, they’re breaking a promise to farmers and small businesses in Maryland and across the country.”
Since 2023, when IRA funding became available, the USDA has given or loaned about $21.3 billion through programs to support renewable energy in rural areas, according to a Floodlight analysis of agency data, including the REAP program.
Those grant payments were processed until Jan. 20, when the Trump administration announced its freeze.
Trump’s decision was in line with Project 2025, a conservative blueprint crafted by the Heritage Foundation aimed at reshaping the U.S. government. That document called for repealing the IRA and rescinding “all funds not already spent by these programs.”
Environmental groups have sharply criticized the administration’s move, and several lawsuits are challenging the legality of the freeze of IRA funding.
At a recent public roundtable, Maggie Bruns, CEO of the Prairie Rivers Network, which supports Illinois communities’ transition to clean energy, listed REAP grants that have been held up in Illinois, where her multifaceted environmental nonprofit is based. A $390,000 grant for a solar array at the grocery store in Carlinville; $27,000 for solar panels at an auto body shop in Staunton; $51,000 for a solar array for a golf course in Alton.
Since 2023, farmers and businesses in Illinois have been approved for more than 590 REAP grants, making the state the third highest in number of recipients in the United States, Floodlight’s analysis shows. In an interview with Barn Raiser, Bruns said the decision to freeze such grants has caused unneeded stress for farmers. Before the executive order, USDA’s rural development team had worked hard to bring dollars for renewable energy projects to Illinois farmers, she said.
“That’s the thing we should be celebrating right now,” Bruns said, “and instead we have to fight to make sure that money actually does land into the pockets of the people who have gone ahead, jumped through all these hoops and are attempting to do the right thing for their businesses and their farms.”
In January, Dan Batson’s nursery in Mississippi was approved for a $400,367 REAP grant — money that he planned to use to install four solar arrays. He intended to use that solar energy to power the pumps that irrigate more than 1 million trees, a move that would have saved the company about $25,000 a year in electricity costs.
Seated in a wooded area about 30 miles north of Biloxi, his 42-year-old GreenForest nursery ships potted magnolias, hollies, crepe myrtles and other trees to southern states. Until a couple of months ago, Batson had been excited about what the grant money would mean for the business.
But when he saw news about the funding being held up earlier this year, he called a local USDA representative who confirmed the funds had been frozen. Batson had already sent the solar contractor $240,000. Now, his plans are on hold.
“I just can’t do the project if I don’t get the money,” he said.
Tuesday’s announcement from the USDA makes him no more confident he’ll get the money, he said.
Batson said he’s a fiscal conservative so he understands the effort to cut costs. “But,” he said, “the way they’ve gone about it has disrupted a lot of business owners’ lives.”
Floodlight is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates the powers stalling climate action.
Barn Raiser is a nonprofit newsroom covering rural and small town America.
Farmers in Trump country were counting on clean energy grants. Then the government moved the goalposts. is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.
Dozens of people are calling on state utility regulators to block key pieces of a more than $2 billion plan to build new natural gas infrastructure in southeast Wisconsin.
The post Natural gas opponents call on PSC to block largest piece of We Energies’ $2B plan appeared first on WPR.
IN JANUARY, SOLAR AND WIND WERE 98.4% OF NEW U.S. GENERATING CAPACITY STRONG GROWTH BY RENEWABLES STILL PROJECTED FOR NEXT THREE YEARS Washington DC – A review by the SUN DAY Campaign of data just released by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) reveals that the combination of solar and wind accounted for more than 98% of new …
The post Latest USA Solar and Wind Capacity appeared first on Alternative Energy HQ.
Tribal members chant and drum in a ceremony in the Wisconsin Capitol rotunda Tuesday before the State of the Tribes address in the Wisconsin Assembly chamber. (Photo by Erik Gunn/Wisconsin Examiner)
Pride of heritage, “uneasiness surrounding the recent changes at the federal government level,” praise for Gov. Tony Evers and an appeal to adopt provisions in his budget directed toward Wisconsin’s 11 tribal nations were among the themes of the State of the Tribes address in the Capitol Tuesday.
“Our government-to-government relationship is forever transforming the work we do together. It contributes to shape our communities for everyone’s benefit,” said Thomas Fowler, chair of the St. Croix Chippewa Indians of Wisconsin, this year’s speaker for the annual event.
Fowler’s 50-minute speech celebrated the treaties going back nearly 200 years that, he said, established Wisconsin’s “reservations and territories in exchange for thousands of miles of our historical homelands and began the trust relationship between the federal government and tribes today.”
He highlighted the tribal nations’ initiatives and independence, but also their distinctive relationship with the United States.
“Tribal nations each have their own governments, languages, stories, traditions, values, beliefs and ceremonies,” Fowler said. “We operate our own health care facilities, law enforcement agencies, educational systems, social services and more. Our tribal people are both citizens of the United States and members of their own sovereign nations, and we are very proud of this.”
But he also spoke to historic injustices, the work needed to right past wrongs and the continuing education required to understand indigenous identity.
Fowler praised Wisconsin’s Department of Administration — the executive branch agency that most directly deals with Wisconsin’s tribal nations — for its description of that identity. “Tribal members are not racial minorities. We are citizens of our own tribal nations,” he said.
“Gov. Evers has repeatedly acknowledged the importance of respecting tribal nation sovereignty and has committed to empowering tribes to manage their own affairs and resources,” Fowler said.
Fowler called on lawmakers to enact a series of bills, including legislation granting tribes a larger role in licensing teachers and legislation requiring school districts to report the number and ages of children enrolled who have tribal affiliations — the latter of which passed the Assembly later Tuesday.
He also urged them to advocate for passage of a federal act calling for a truth and healing commission on boarding schools where Indian children, taken from their families, endured abuse for decades, their cultural heritage denied, and where many died.
The act, which passed the U.S. Senate at the end of last year but “continues to sit” in the U.S. House of Representatives, “seeks to uncover the U.S. government’s role in Indian boarding school systems,” Fowler said. “The tragedy of boarding schools requires remembrance, so that the spirits of our ancestors are not lost or forgotten.”
That history has contributed many ills, he said, including family separations, drugs and violence within communities, disruption of Native American parenting and damage to the health of families.
Tribal communities such as the Ojibwe are also looking to revitalize their cultural connections, he said, including recovering their native languages.
“I encourage all of us in this room to push further in our communities, to move into a place of normalized use of our language amongst community members,” Fowler said.
He also made a direct pitch for Wisconsin to legalize medical cannabis — a plant cultivated by indigenous peoples as an herbal medicine, treating pain, inflammation and “addressing spiritual maladies.” Medical cannabis also holds the promise of “moving people off highly addictive drugs, drugs which are killing our people,” he added.
Fowler spoke as well of missing and murdered indigenous women, a phenomenon “too common for our people” but still inadequately acknowledged.
“We need more state and federal resources,” he said. “We need adequate funding allocated to serve our understaffed police departments, more cohesive law enforcement training, strengthened alert systems, increased funding for tribal programs that provide shelter and increased mental health resources.”
Fowler urged lawmakers to do more to address water quality in the state, stiffening regulations on agricultural chemical runoff as well as threats from pollution, climate change and habitat loss. He called the December spill of 69,000 gallons of oil from Enbridge Line 6 “disheartening,” endangering the land, waterways, food, medicine and cultural practices.
“Our partnership with the state and the protection of our and stewardship of our lands has never been more important,” Fowler said. “The challenges are too vast to tackle alone. We must unify to secure the highest level of environmental protection possible.”
Fowler saved his last words for the scores of tribal members who watched from the back of the Assembly chamber and the galleries above it.
“We are not broken,” he told them. “We are strong and we will continue to rise.”
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.
In the hectic, fast-paced world of school transportation, performing with excellence isn’t just a feigning, casual interest—it’s a necessity. An obligation. The daily mission of safely and efficiently transporting students requires the optimization of every resource available: mental clarity, physical energy and emotional resilience. These three components are the building blocks for peak performance, and when they’re aligned, you’ll know you’re bringing your “A game” to the field of play of school transportation…as well as life.
Here’s how outperformers optimize these three key resources:
Mental Resource Optimization: Clarity and Focus
As motivational speaker and author Tony Robbins says, “Where your focus goes, energy flows.” Mental sharpness is non-negotiable in school transportation. From route planning to handling last-minute changes, cognitive overload and poor decision making can lead to errors and unnecessary stress.
Focus on the intersection:
Outperformers channel their mental focus on the intersection of the “Things That Matter + Things They Can Control.”
The Venn diagram, below, appears to be common sense, but it’s not always common practice. Focus too much on outcomes outside of your control and your mental resources are drained by stress, fear, worry and anxiety (“I’m really nervous about the results from this new process.”) It’s giving too much weight to what might happen instead of what you’re doing. It’s okay to visit there, but you don’t want to live there.
On the other hand, if you focus too much on tasks that aren’t impactful, you’ll feel mentally overwhelmed and frustrated (“I have too much to do and not enough time to do it.”) Try trimming your lengthy to-do list into a limited strategic priorities list. Then, watch what happens to your mental bandwidth.
Savor the small wins:
How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time! Especially when we’re faced with complex or daunting tasks, it can be human nature to mentally disengage. Usually, this is because the enormity of the situation engulfs us, and we feel like we’re never going to get to the other side. It makes it hard to start and even harder to sustain.
The above image is from my book, “Outperform The Norm: Daily Execution. Extraordinary Results.” The remedy is to separate the tall “ladder” into smaller rungs, steps, milestones, benchmarks, wins, etc. When you do this, you’ll instantly become more mentally motivated. As you start making progress, you’ll not just focus on how much farther you have to go; you’ll also be empowered by focusing on how far you’ve come!
Mindfulness breaks:
We can all benefit from slowing down to speed up. Specifically, find time in your daily routine for mindfulness breaks where you consciously slow down your breathing (and, in turn, your mind). This allows you to speed up your mental game later.
Try taking two breaks throughout the day—ideally around times that are most stressful—and focus on nothing other than breathing in through your nose for a count of four (your shoulders should not come up when you do this!), then breathing out through your mouth for a count of four. Do 10-15 breathing cycles and you’ll feel calmer and mentally refreshed afterwards.
Physical Resource Optimization: Energy is Everything
As I was writing this article, I was recovering from a 10-day cold. I was saddled with a cough, congestion, aches, sore throat, fever And a SEVERE lack of energy. Have you been there? When you don’t have energy, doesn’t everything—including basic, day-to-day tasks— feel much, much harder? This is where a lot of Americans exist. Not necessarily in sickness, but in a depleted state of energy. And in a field with early mornings and long hours, optimization is impossible without physical vitality.
Prioritize sleep:
Sleep is our greatest source of energy renewal and quality matters more than quantity. One of the best ways to ensure a higher quality of sleep is to employ the 3-2-1 method:
• 3 hours before bed: Avoid caffeine and alcohol
• 2 hours before bed: Finish eating
• 1 hour before bed: Stop screen time (phone, iPad, etc.)
A golden rule for all mental, physical and emotional optimization is to focus on progress, not perfection. Are you always going to stop screen time exactly an hour before bed. Probably not. But can you make progress from where you are now? Absolutely. That progress will lead to more energy and better sleep.
Movement is medicine:
Quality movement / exercise is the greatest performance-enhancer on the planet. Nothing else replicates the benefits we get from moving our body:
Exercise doesn’t have to be a one-hour bootcamp. Any movement matters—it can be a 10-minute stretch in the morning or a 20-minute walk over lunch. These things add up. Small wins become big wins over time.
Fuel your body, nourish your brain:
Most people don’t link what they put into their body and how it impacts the way they think, feel and perform. It does. And instead of worrying about the totality of going on a “diet,” simply strive to make a healthy choice for breakfast (a piece of fruit and glass of water, for example). Behavioral researchers call this a “micro-commitment” and you’ll be committed to making more healthy choices for the rest of the day.
Emotional Resource Optimization: Resilience and Connection
The emotional component of school transportation is often overlooked, but it’s arguably one of the most important areas for optimization. Handling student behavior, navigating parent concerns and thriving through change requires emotional resilience and connection.
Remember what you DO:
If we met for a cup of coffee and I asked what you do, you’d probably say that you work in school transportation efficiently. What are the consequences if you don’t show up and perform with excellence? Far too often this gets lost in the day-to-day craziness of
our lives. The challenges, struggles and conflicts tax our emotions and cloud our connection to the good we do. Remember the students you serve. It matters. You matter!
Be elastic:
There is a common misconception about resilience (or “mental toughness,” as it’s called in athletics). Resilience does NOT mean that you’re impervious to emotional letdown, anger and doubt, and bulletproof to any adversity that comes your way.
Emotional resilience means you’re elastic, like a balloon. If something doesn’t go your way, how long does it take you to “bounce back into shape” (the definition of resilience)? Optimization comes from lessening the time of experiencing negative emotions, recognizing they aren’t benefiting you and consciously choosing to move onto something better.
Leverage your reference points:
Have you ever been faced with a challenging situation where you couldn’t see the light at the end of the tunnel? Or you doubted getting to the finish line at the end of the “race?”
We all have. Reference points are emotionally challenging events in your life that you’ve faced and overcome. The Norm looks at these times and discounts them, wondering why they had to go through it.
Outperformers see it differently. They look at these events as growth experiences that taught something about their own courage and fortitude. These situations, then, become reference points, giving a reservoir of emotional strength and internal belief with which to fight future battles—for you and for your team.
Your Call to Action
Imagine a school transportation department where dispatchers are mentally sharp, school bus drivers are energized, and leaders foster a connected, emotionally resilient environment. The impact goes beyond operational efficiency—it creates a culture of peak performance that benefits students, parents and the entire community.
But mental, physical and emotional optimization aren’t a one-time effort. It’s a daily commitment. Start by identifying ONE area where you or your team can make a small but meaningful improvement. Then, apply “speed of implementation,” where you take an action step as fast as possible toward this commitment. Remember—progress, not perfection! Keep outperforming!
Editor’s Note: As reprinted in the March 2025 issue of School Transportation News.
Scott Welle is a sports psychologist, author, keynote speaker and trainer. This month at STN EXPO East in Concord, North Carolina, he shares with TD Summit participants how exceptional leaders inspire others. He also provides his “Outperform the Norm” message to all conference attendees with a keynote on March 24. Learn more at stnexpo.com/east and scottwelle.com.
Related: STN EXPO East Keynote Speaker Brings Dynamic Performance Strategies to North Carolina
Related: School Start Times and the Impact on Teen Mental Health
Related: Time Well Spent
Related: (STN Podcast E218) Onsite at STN EXPO Reno 2024: Coming Together for Safety, Technology & Clean Energy
The post How Outperformers Optimize Resources appeared first on School Transportation News.
The Trump administration announced more than two dozen rollbacks of environmental regulations Wednesday that may affect efforts to limit pollution in Wisconsin from fossil fuel plants, vehicles and neighboring states.
The post EPA targets rules that could affect pollution from power plants, vehicles in Wisconsin appeared first on WPR.
The Trump administration announced more than two dozen rollbacks of environmental regulations Wednesday that may affect efforts to limit pollution in Wisconsin from fossil fuel plants, vehicles and neighboring states.
The post EPA targets rules that could affect pollution from power plants, vehicles in Wisconsin appeared first on WPR.
Threats of escalation in President Donald Trump’s trade war against Canada sparked concerns this week about how the conflict could affect electric bills. But state utilities say they only receive a tiny fraction of their energy from Canada.
The post Could Trump’s trade war affect Wisconsin’s electric grid? appeared first on WPR.
We Energies has invested in renewable energy such as this solar farm, yet it continues to push for new gas-powered plants. Columnist John Imes argues that these proposals would set Wisconsin back, delaying progress toward a smarter, clean energy future. (WEC Energy Group photo)
Wisconsin stands at a critical energy crossroads. We Energies’ plan to build massive new methane gas plants is a costly misstep that threatens to lock in high energy costs, undermine clean energy goals, and leave ratepayers footing the bill for outdated infrastructure.
At a time when clean energy and storage solutions are proving to be more reliable and cost-effective, doubling down on fossil fuel dependency is a financial and environmental mistake Wisconsin simply can’t afford.
We Energies has publicly committed to reducing carbon emissions by 80% by 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. Yet, its proposed gas plants move in the opposite direction — locking in long-term fossil fuel reliance when cleaner, cheaper alternatives are available.
One of the key justifications for these plants is the anticipated electricity demand from data centers. However, rapid advancements in AI-driven efficiency — such as DeepSeek — could dramatically cut data center energy consumption. If We Energies locks in billions for gas plants just as these efficiency gains accelerate, Wisconsin ratepayers could be left footing the bill for infrastructure that is no longer needed. Instead of overbuilding based on outdated projections, Wisconsin should prioritize flexible, adaptive energy solutions that can evolve with technology.
If Wisconsin continues to lag in clean energy, it risks losing business investment. Major corporations like Microsoft, Google, and Meta have committed to 100% carbon-free energy by 2030. We Energies’ push for new gas plants directly contradicts these corporate sustainability goals, which could drive investment out of the state.
Rather than doubling down on fossil fuels, Wisconsin should implement on-site demand response incentives for large energy users—reducing peak demand without costly new gas infrastructure.
We Energies’ push for new gas plants isn’t just unnecessary — it’s an economic gamble that could burden ratepayers for decades. Natural gas prices remain volatile due to global market instability, making long-term reliance on gas a risky bet for Wisconsin’s energy future.
Meanwhile, states across the Midwest are rejecting new gas plants in favor of renewables, battery storage and energy efficiency. If Wisconsin fails to follow suit, residents and businesses could face skyrocketing energy costs and stranded fossil fuel assets that quickly become obsolete.
Rather than allowing utilities to dictate energy policy, Wisconsin must take a more strategic approach. Other states have already adopted comprehensive energy transition plans that prioritize renewables, storage and grid modernization. Without a coordinated strategy, Wisconsin risks falling behind — leaving businesses and consumers to bear unnecessary costs.
The recent GreenBiz 25 conference, where more than 2,500 sustainability professionals gathered, underscored a key reality: Businesses are proving they can “do well by doing good.” Companies are cutting energy use, reducing emissions and making strategic clean energy investments that align with both business and environmental goals.
Despite political resistance, responsible businesses are stepping up. But they can’t do it alone — Wisconsin policymakers must work with business leaders to create a regulatory environment that supports clean energy innovation rather than hindering it.
The outdated notion that natural gas is the only way to meet peak demand is being disproven across the country. Texas, California and even Alaska are deploying large-scale battery storage systems to replace gas-fired peaker plants. Battery storage costs have fallen 90% over the last decade, making it the clear economic winner over new fossil fuel generation.
Before committing billions to new gas plants, Wisconsin should first maximize cost-effective battery storage—proven technology that reduces emissions while keeping electricity rates stable.
Instead of building expensive new gas infrastructure, Wisconsin should follow the lead of other states that are repurposing existing fossil fuel plants into clean energy hubs. By investing in solar, wind, and battery storage at existing power plant sites, Wisconsin can leverage existing grid connections and transition to a cleaner, more resilient energy system.
This “clean repowering” strategy allows for a smoother transition while maintaining grid stability—without saddling ratepayers with the cost of unnecessary new gas plants.
Wisconsin has a historic opportunity to lead the Midwest in clean energy innovation. But We Energies’ gas expansion plan is a step in the wrong direction.
Investing in clean energy solutions creates jobs, lowers costs and aligns with corporate sustainability goals. Locking in new gas plants while battery storage and renewables continue to outpace fossil fuels is an expensive mistake Wisconsin can’t afford.
The choice is clear: Do we cling to outdated, expensive fossil fuel infrastructure, or do we embrace a smarter, more resilient clean energy future?
The answer should be obvious—for our economy, our environment and the future of Wisconsin.
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.
2024 was a standout year for fusion with multiple companies and technology types raising funds. As concerns around meeting the energy demands for...
The post Diversifying Approaches to Achieve Fusion: How Growing Demands for Energy Are Encouraging Investors to Back a Broad Variety of Fusion Systems appeared first on Cleantech Group.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced late Friday afternoon that some of its programs funding renewable energy projects are “operating as normal,” but left open the question of whether billions more in loans and grants promised to farmers, small rural businesses and electric cooperatives would be honored.
The day before, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins had said the department would continue to review spending under the Biden administration’s sweeping climate law, the Inflation Reduction Act, “to ensure that programs are focused on supporting farmers and ranchers” and not “far-left climate programs.”
Among those waiting for clarity are Travis and Amy Forgues of western Wisconsin. About two years ago, the couple bought the Hidden Springs Creamery, an 80-acre sheep dairy nestled in the hills of Westby, Wisconsin. Twice a day they milk 300 sheep to make cheese, including a creamy feta that last year won second place in the American Cheese Society’s annual competition.
As part of their effort to modernize the farm, the Forgueses decided to install a solar array to power their operation. To offset the $134,000 cost of installation, they applied for a $56,000 Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Last year, they got approved for the grant and built the solar array, never doubting that the USDA would pay once the project was completed, as outlined in the contract they signed with the feds.
But last week, the Forgueses said they received an email from the USDA saying the program had been paused, leaving them scrambling to figure out how to pay for the rest of their new solar array.
“You can’t have people spend this kind of money and then just pull the rug from (them),” said Travis Forgues. “I didn’t spend the money thinking maybe I’ll get it back. I spent the money because we had a signed contract.”
The pause was the result of an executive order issued by President Donald Trump on his first day in office freezing hundreds of billions of dollars for renewable energy — including REAP.
At least 7,500 farms and rural businesses across the country have received REAP grants from the USDA since 2023, according to a Floodlight analysis of USDA grant data.
On Friday, a USDA spokesperson said some funding for REAP would operate as normal, but only if it came through the Farm Bill. That apparently won’t help the Forgueses or potentially thousands of other farmers like them who had more than 25% of their project paid for by the USDA. That’s the cutoff point where funding from the Farm Bill stopped and funding from the Inflation Reduction Act started.
Since 2023, when Inflation Reduction Act funding became available, the USDA has given or loaned approximately $21.3 billion through programs that could be used to support renewable energy in rural areas, according to a Floodlight analysis of agency data.
The legality of the continued freeze in federal funding remains unclear.
On Friday, a federal judge in Rhode Island kept in place a temporary restraining order from Jan. 31 that ordered the Trump administration to stop withholding federal funds appropriated by Congress. Attorneys general from 22 states and the District of Columbia, led by New York, argued that the broad funding freeze violated the separation of powers and several other laws.
The lone attorney representing the Trump administration argued that the agencies were exercising their lawful discretion.
Some programs, like REAP, go directly to farmers looking to place solar panels or wind turbines on their land. Others, like the New Era program, help rural electric cooperatives build renewable energy to lower members’ monthly bills. New Era was not among the programs cited by the USDA spokesperson as operating as normal.
The Yampa Valley Electric Association, which serves Steamboat Springs, Colorado, and parts of Wyoming, expected to get $50 million from the USDA’s New Era program, according to Carly Davidson, the co-op’s public relations specialist.
New Era is the USDA program dedicated solely to renewables that has allocated the most money, more than $4.3 billion in grants since 2023, according to a Floodlight analysis.
The Yampa Valley association was planning to use the money to purchase renewable energy to keep electricity costs low for its members, Davidson wrote in a statement. The project is still in the planning stages, but it would provide both solar generation and battery storage, according to Yampa Valley Electric.
Connexus Energy, Minnesota’s largest consumer-owned electric cooperative, was hoping to use its $170 million in New Era grants to build out its renewable generation portfolio, spokesperson Stacy Downs said. The co-op, which serves over 146,000 customers, still hopes the funds will come through so it can add solar, wind and hydropower, as well as battery storage, Downs said, adding, “We’re still hoping to be receiving them.”
The largest USDA energy program, the Electric Infrastructure Loan and Loan Guarantee Program, offers money to rural co-ops, which use it to expand or upgrade their power grids with new transmission lines and smart-grid technology. That program, which allows for the connection of more renewables, has loaned out $12 billion since 2023.
On Friday, a USDA spokesperson stated that the program was operating as normal, along with four other USDA programs that could potentially be used to reduce carbon emissions: Rural Energy Savings Program, REAP Program with funding appropriated through the Farm Bill, Guaranteed Underwriter Program, and High Energy Cost Grants.
“These freezes seem to be intentionally chaotic and unclear,” said Hannah Smith-Brubaker, executive director of Pasa Sustainable Agriculture, a nonprofit that helps farmers adopt sustainable practices and that also receives money from the USDA.
“We are fielding calls every day from farmers who are mid-project, and their contractor wants to know when they’re going to be paid.”
Patrick Hagar, co-owner of Squashington Farm near Mount Horeb, Wisconsin, is feeling that uncertainty. Hagar and his wife purchased a 20-acre farm three years ago in southern Wisconsin, where they grow organic produce.
Last fall, they put money down to purchase a solar array that will end up costing them $50,000, he said. They were promised $15,000 back from the USDA through a REAP grant.
“The vast majority of the fossil fuel energy and carbon outputs are being put forth by a small (group) of really wealthy businesses,” Hagar said. “I don’t think that absolves small farms and small businesses from trying to do what they can.”
But, he added, “It’s frustrating to have a signed contract for something, and feel like, you know, you live in a country where a signed contract doesn’t mean what a signed contract has always meant.”
And it’s not just farmers affected by the freeze. Small rural business owners who qualify for various USDA renewable grants and loans are also waiting to see what happens with USDA’s review of funding — money the agency has already agreed to pay.
Atul Patel, owner of the Holiday Inn in Frackville, Pennsylvania, planned to install a solar system on his hotel costing just over $360,000.
“We would like to be energy independent,” Patel said. “In this area, the lights flicker a lot.”
Patel said he put 20% down on the project and was planning to finish the installation once the weather improved in the spring.
He added, “Our fingers are crossed.”
Floodlight is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates the powerful interests stalling climate action.
‘Chaotic’ USDA funding freeze stalls rural renewable projects is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.
There’s a lot of untapped potential in our homes and vehicles that could be harnessed to reinforce local power grids and make them more resilient to unforeseen outages, a new study shows.
In response to a cyber attack or natural disaster, a backup network of decentralized devices — such as residential solar panels, batteries, electric vehicles, heat pumps, and water heaters — could restore electricity or relieve stress on the grid, MIT engineers say.
Such devices are “grid-edge” resources found close to the consumer rather than near central power plants, substations, or transmission lines. Grid-edge devices can independently generate, store, or tune their consumption of power. In their study, the research team shows how such devices could one day be called upon to either pump power into the grid, or rebalance it by dialing down or delaying their power use.
In a paper appearing this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the engineers present a blueprint for how grid-edge devices could reinforce the power grid through a “local electricity market.” Owners of grid-edge devices could subscribe to a regional market and essentially loan out their device to be part of a microgrid or a local network of on-call energy resources.
In the event that the main power grid is compromised, an algorithm developed by the researchers would kick in for each local electricity market, to quickly determine which devices in the network are trustworthy. The algorithm would then identify the combination of trustworthy devices that would most effectively mitigate the power failure, by either pumping power into the grid or reducing the power they draw from it, by an amount that the algorithm would calculate and communicate to the relevant subscribers. The subscribers could then be compensated through the market, depending on their participation.
The team illustrated this new framework through a number of grid attack scenarios, in which they considered failures at different levels of a power grid, from various sources such as a cyber attack or a natural disaster. Applying their algorithm, they showed that various networks of grid-edge devices were able to dissolve the various attacks.
The results demonstrate that grid-edge devices such as rooftop solar panels, EV chargers, batteries, and smart thermostats (for HVAC devices or heat pumps) could be tapped to stabilize the power grid in the event of an attack.
“All these small devices can do their little bit in terms of adjusting their consumption,” says study co-author Anu Annaswamy, a research scientist in MIT’s Department of Mechanical Engineering. “If we can harness our smart dishwashers, rooftop panels, and EVs, and put our combined shoulders to the wheel, we can really have a resilient grid.”
The study’s MIT co-authors include lead author Vineet Nair and John Williams, along with collaborators from multiple institutions including the Indian Institute of Technology, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and elsewhere.
Power boost
The team’s study is an extension of their broader work in adaptive control theory and designing systems to automatically adapt to changing conditions. Annaswamy, who leads the Active-Adaptive Control Laboratory at MIT, explores ways to boost the reliability of renewable energy sources such as solar power.
“These renewables come with a strong temporal signature, in that we know for sure the sun will set every day, so the solar power will go away,” Annaswamy says. “How do you make up for the shortfall?”
The researchers found the answer could lie in the many grid-edge devices that consumers are increasingly installing in their own homes.
“There are lots of distributed energy resources that are coming up now, closer to the customer rather than near large power plants, and it’s mainly because of individual efforts to decarbonize,” Nair says. “So you have all this capability at the grid edge. Surely we should be able to put them to good use.”
While considering ways to deal with drops in energy from the normal operation of renewable sources, the team also began to look into other causes of power dips, such as from cyber attacks. They wondered, in these malicious instances, whether and how the same grid-edge devices could step in to stabilize the grid following an unforeseen, targeted attack.
Attack mode
In their new work, Annaswamy, Nair, and their colleagues developed a framework for incorporating grid-edge devices, and in particular, internet-of-things (IoT) devices, in a way that would support the larger grid in the event of an attack or disruption. IoT devices are physical objects that contain sensors and software that connect to the internet.
For their new framework, named EUREICA (Efficient, Ultra-REsilient, IoT-Coordinated Assets), the researchers start with the assumption that one day, most grid-edge devices will also be IoT devices, enabling rooftop panels, EV chargers, and smart thermostats to wirelessly connect to a larger network of similarly independent and distributed devices.
The team envisions that for a given region, such as a community of 1,000 homes, there exists a certain number of IoT devices that could potentially be enlisted in the region’s local network, or microgrid. Such a network would be managed by an operator, who would be able to communicate with operators of other nearby microgrids.
If the main power grid is compromised or attacked, operators would run the researchers’ decision-making algorithm to determine trustworthy devices within the network that can pitch in to help mitigate the attack.
The team tested the algorithm on a number of scenarios, such as a cyber attack in which all smart thermostats made by a certain manufacturer are hacked to raise their setpoints simultaneously to a degree that dramatically alters a region’s energy load and destabilizes the grid. The researchers also considered attacks and weather events that would shut off the transmission of energy at various levels and nodes throughout a power grid.
“In our attacks we consider between 5 and 40 percent of the power being lost. We assume some nodes are attacked, and some are still available and have some IoT resources, whether a battery with energy available or an EV or HVAC device that’s controllable,” Nair explains. “So, our algorithm decides which of those houses can step in to either provide extra power generation to inject into the grid or reduce their demand to meet the shortfall.”
In every scenario that they tested, the team found that the algorithm was able to successfully restabilize the grid and mitigate the attack or power failure. They acknowledge that to put in place such a network of grid-edge devices will require buy-in from customers, policymakers, and local officials, as well as innovations such as advanced power inverters that enable EVs to inject power back into the grid.
“This is just the first of many steps that have to happen in quick succession for this idea of local electricity markets to be implemented and expanded upon,” Annaswamy says. “But we believe it’s a good start.”
This work was supported, in part, by the U.S. Department of Energy and the MIT Energy Initiative.
© Credit: Courtesy of the researchers
Bergen, Norway February 17th, 2025 — Since going into service in 2015, the MF Ampere has now sailed an astonishing distance equivalent to 17 times around the equator on batteries alone, solidifying its place as a groundbreaking achievement in sustainable maritime transport. A decade on and the Ampere continues to showcase the transformative potential of electric …
The post World’s first fully electric ferry celebrates 10 years of success appeared first on Alternative Energy HQ.
In 2024, the Asia-Pacific region (APAC) saw a relative cooling off period after the meteoric growth experienced in 2023. The Energy & Power...
The post APAC: What We Learned from 2024 and What It Means for 2025 appeared first on Cleantech Group.
LOS ANGELES, Calif. – Blue Bird Corporation (Nasdaq: BLBD), the leader in electric and low-emission school buses, donated an advanced electric school bus to Hoop Bus Inc, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to youth programming and community engagement across North America. The full-size, zero-emission bus is equipped with basketball hoops at the front and back, turning the vehicle into an interactive, mobile court. Hoop Bus will use this electric vehicle to serve thousands of at-risk youth in under-resourced communities across the Golden State.
The zero-emission hoopbus makes its debut today at 1:00 p.m. PST at West Oakland Middle School in Oakland, Ca. Following the dedication ceremony, the nonprofit will host a P.E. Takeover, one of its signature programs. This high-energy and inclusive social-emotional-learning experience meets students grades 4-12 where they are at, encouraging health equity, team building and self-love. This P.E. Takeover kicks off Hoop Bus’ event series leading up to NBA All-Star weekend on Feb. 14-16, 2025.
Since its inception in 2019, Hoop Bus has impacted 320,000 youth annually with hundreds of events and was featured in NBA’s Emmy-award winning
75th anniversary campaign. Hoop Bus operates six vehicles of change in metropolitan areas across the United States, including San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, and Miami. Three of those hoopbuses are Blue Bird buses.
“We are pumped to add our first all-electric, zero-emission vehicle to the Hoop Bus fleet,” said Hoop Bus executive director Dan Moroni, who led the conversion project of the Blue Bird electric vehicle. “This electric bus allows us to bring basketball-based programming to communities across California in a clean and quiet ride. As a vehicle of change, it will help us rebuild, empower and amplify communities through basketball.”
Hoop Bus converted the vehicle into a mobile basketball court and tricked out the interior by adding collaborative seating areas, storage spaces, flatscreen TVs, and a basketball rack. The nonprofit also added solar panels to the vehicle and will use the clean energy generated to run the sound and entertainment system on its state-of-the-art hoopbus.
“We think it’s a slam dunk to help Hoop Bus build better communities by bringing the game of basketball to people in need,” said Blue Bird president and CEO Phil Horlock. “As an added plus, our all-electric bus generates zero emissions, protecting the health of riders, drivers, and the community-at-large.”
Blue Bird donated a Blue Bird All American electric bus in excellent condition to the nonprofit. The 40-foot bus can traditionally carry a maximum of 84 students for up to 120 miles on a single charge.
Blue Bird partner organization InCharge Energy, the leading provider of EV charging solutions and service support for electric fleets, donated a Level 2 AC vehicle charger to Hoop Bus ensuring the bus is fully charged overnight and ready to provide basketball-based programming to local youth each day. The donation includes a virtual site assessment and route planning consultation, the charging hardware, as well as one year of InControl charge management and maintenance software and data plan.
Blue Bird is the only U.S.-owned and operated school bus manufacturer in the United States. The company is the proven leader in low- and zero emission school buses with more than 2,500 electric-powered buses on the road today.
About Blue Bird Corporation
Blue Bird (NASDAQ: BLBD) is recognized as a technology leader and innovator of school buses since its founding in 1927. Our dedicated team members design, engineer and manufacture school buses with a singular focus on safety, reliability, and durability. School buses carry the most precious cargo in the world 25 million children twice a day making them the most trusted mode of student transportation. The company is the proven leader in low- and zero-emission school buses with more than 25,000 propane, natural gas, and electric powered buses sold. Blue Bird is transforming the student transportation industry through cleaner energy solutions. For more information on Blue Bird’s complete product and service portfolio, visit www.blue-bird.com.
About Hoop Bus
Hoop Bus Inc is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that fosters community engagement and youth programming in communities across America that need it most. They partner with other nonprofits, schools and corporate brands to break down social barriers, promote health equity, increase attendance and teach life skills through the love of basketball. For more information or to make a tax-free donation, visit www.hoopbus.com.
About InCharge Energy
InCharge Energy provides reliable, cost-effective charging solutions for North American fleets of all sizes. Its service and maintenance offerings, available in every state and province, are designed to support multiple brands of charging equipment. The company also offers a range of customizable financial solutions to meet every business objective and budget, accelerating the path to fleet electrification for auto manufacturers and dealerships, school districts, and state and local agencies. The InCharge team of service experts works remotely to keep chargers operational and dispatches on-staff, highly trained technicians across the continent to facilitate rapid issue resolution. The company’s open-API InControl
is the first fleet charging software to be widely adopted across North America to control costs and manage charging results. This AI-powered charger maintenance platform is purpose-built to keep electric fleets on the roads, empowering businesses with key insights to easily optimize fleet operations and minimize total cost of ownership (TCO). Headquartered in Los Angeles, InCharge has operating facilities in Richmond, Virginia; Montreal, Quebec; and Bellflower, California. Learn more about InCharge Energy and its services at www.inchargeus.com. You can also follow InCharge on LinkedIn.
The post Blue Bird Donates Electric School Bus to Hoop Bus appeared first on School Transportation News.
U.S. Domestic Solar Production Reaches Historic Milestone Washington, D.C. – The United States has surpassed 50 GW in domestic solar energy manufacturing capacity for the first time in history, enough to power approximately 37.5 million homes. This milestone marks an impressive progress—bolstered by clean energy investments in the Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law—by the renewable energy …
The post U.S. Domestic Solar Production Reaches Historic Milestone appeared first on Alternative Energy HQ.
Offshore wind supply chain faces systemic pressure as 2030 clean energy targets loom – Shoreline Wind report Governments should provide clearer policies and integrate new tender criteria, while developers can empower smaller firms through standardized contracts, improved payment terms, and collaboration with specialist service providers Smaller firms are particularly vulnerable, struggling to compete and …
The post Offshore wind supply chain appeared first on Alternative Energy HQ.
A bill that would empower Wisconsin municipalities to block the construction of solar and wind farms in their backyards has been introduced a second time.
Currently, local governments possess limited authority to regulate the siting and operations of solar and wind farms, but as the number and size of projects grow — solar panel fields spanning thousands of acres and wind turbines as tall as the Statue of Liberty — some residents from the Driftless Area and central Wisconsin say the state’s system for approving energy projects unfairly stacks the scales of power against communities that live alongside the facilities.
Meanwhile, a clean energy advocacy group and former Wisconsin utility regulator said the bill would enable a discontented minority to dictate energy policy for the entire state, effectively kill renewable energy development and generate uncertainty for businesses.
The Republican-backed proposal comes amid a wave of construction after federal lawmakers invested billions of dollars during the Biden administration to slow the pace of climate change. The ensuing backlash and enactment of local restrictions are playing out across the country.
Here’s what you need to know:
Some context: Investment in renewable energy has been a state priority for decades and a requirement for Wisconsin’s utilities. It also is central to Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ ambitious climate goals. Wisconsin seeks to operate a carbon-free electric grid by 2050.
In 2023, 9% of net electricity generated within the state came from renewable sources, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
The governor’s Task Force on Climate Change expects most future emissions reductions to come from large-scale utility projects, especially the replacement of aging coal plants with solar farms.
In 2016, the state generated just 3,000 megawatt-hours of electricity from utility-scale solar facilities. Seven years later, it increased to 1.2 million. Nearly two dozen more solar farms are in the pipeline.
Wisconsin’s utility regulator, the Public Service Commission, oversees the approval of large projects, but opponents say gaps in state oversight make Wisconsin attractive to private developers, who aren’t mandated to share project expenses or evaluate ratepayer impacts.
They don’t have to demonstrate the energy created by the new installation is even needed at all — requirements if a public utility were to construct the facility. (The commission considers costs when utilities want to purchase power or an energy facility.) But developers can sell solar and wind farms to Wisconsin utilities. Ratepayers shoulder the infrastructure costs and pay state-authorized rates of return.
The commission reports that, compared to the Midwest and national averages, Wisconsin residents pay higher rates but less on their monthly bills because they consume less energy.
Opponents of large-scale projects also criticize the state’s disclosure requirements, which enable developers to acquire land rental agreements, often confidential, before communities are officially notified.
Residents often accuse industry of minimizing their concerns over impacts to wildlife, roads, aesthetics, property values, utility bills, health, topsoil and water quality.
Yet climate change jeopardizes those same things, and land rental and municipal payments can be a lifeline. The construction of solar and wind farms can divide towns and neighbors. Public hearings quickly get messy.
Organizers have mounted challenges, playing out in boardrooms, courthouses and the Legislature. Several towns enacted restrictions on renewable energy projects, a push supported by Farmland First, a central Wisconsin advocacy and fundraising group. Last year, a developer sued two Marathon County towns over their wind farm rules.
President Donald Trump is the latest to seed doubt over the merits of large-scale renewable projects after issuing a Jan. 20 executive order that suspends federal permitting for any wind farm while agency officials review government leasing and permitting practices.
The bill: The proposal requires solar and wind developers to obtain approval from every city, village and town in which a facility would be located before the Public Service Commission could greenlight the project.
Senate Bill 3’s authors, Rep. Travis Tranel, R-Cuba City, and Sen. Howard Marklein, R-Spring Green, said the measure responds to constituents who feel their concerns over continued development in the Driftless Area continue to fall on deaf ears.
“We are hoping to kick-start a conversation because the way I view it now, renewable energy projects are essentially the wild wild West,” Tranel said. “People have figured out that they can profit exorbitant amounts of money off these projects, and they are just popping them up left and right, and our current attitude is long-term ramifications be damned, and I don’t think that that makes any sense.”
Currently, the commission reviews proposals for energy facilities with a capacity of at least 100 megawatts. For scale, an average wind turbine in 2023 had a capacity of 3 ½ megawatts. A megawatt of solar generation might cover 7 ½ acres.
Local governments review projects less than 100 megawatts in capacity, but municipalities can impose restrictions on solar and wind farms only in limited instances, such as demonstrating they will protect public health or safety — a tall order. Additionally, municipalities that enact siting restrictions on wind farms cannot impose criteria more stringent than commission rules.
The bill would apply to any solar or wind farm with a 15-megawatt capacity or more. If a municipality fails to take action within an allotted period, the proposed facility would be approved automatically.
An identical proposal introduced during the previous legislative session, exclusively backed by GOP lawmakers, failed to receive a committee hearing.
Yea: Some of the bill’s backers view the influx of large energy projects as the harbinger of “utility districts” across Wisconsin’s rural spaces, primarily for the benefit of urbanites.
It’s not that proponents of local control snub clean energy, said Chris Klopp, a Cross Plains organizer who has joined challenges to transmission and solar projects. Rather, regulators could respond to climate change more equitably.
“This idea that you can just decide you’re going to sacrifice certain people, well, I think there’s a problem with that,” she said. “Who decides, and who gets sacrificed? None of that is a good conversation. It should be something that works for everyone.”
Nay: Representatives from EDP Renewables, NextEra Energy, Pattern Energy and Invenergy — developers with a Wisconsin presence — didn’t respond to requests for comment.
But former Public Service Commission Chair Phil Montgomery said local governments lack the agency’s battery of professionals it takes to evaluate whether an energy project would meet the state’s energy needs.
Empowering Wisconsin’s 1,245 towns, 190 cities and 415 villages to weigh the facts against their own standards would spell disaster for ratepayers, he said.
Michael Vickerman, former executive director of RENEW Wisconsin, a renewable energy advocacy nonprofit, said the bill unfairly targets wind and solar.
“You’re deciding that this industry will no longer be welcome in this state,” he said. “It becomes such an arbitrary and mysterious, unstable, unpredictable process that the developer says, ‘Screw it. I’ll just go to Minnesota. I’ll go to Illinois.’”
What’s next? More than 20 co-sponsors, all Republicans, signed on to the bill, and it has been referred to a Senate committee. Klopp hopes to rally more lawmakers to obtain a two-thirds, veto-proof majority.
Montgomery said even if it leads nowhere, the bill certainly sends a message to investors.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to clarify information provided by former Public Service Commission Chair Phil Montgomery.
Bill Watch takes a closer look at what’s notable about legislation grinding its way through the Capitol. Subscribe to our newsletters for more from Wisconsin Watch.
Republican bill seeks more local control over wind, solar farms is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.
Login