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Look no further than clean energy. Some are calling it the biggest market opportunity in history. Experts of all stripes have repeatedly stated that the nation that wins the clean-energy race will be the nation that leads the 21st century economy. Discovering and implementing cheap, clean and reliable energy technologies is our generation’s final frontier.

But, as Cefali asked, how do we get there? President Obama has proposed doing so by increasing funding for energy education and training through a program called RE-ENERGYSE (short for REgaining our ENERGY Science and Engineering Edge). More than 100 organizations, including the University of Wisconsin-Madison, signed a letter last summer urging Congress to support the program, which would augment energy education in universities, training schools, community colleges and even K-12 teacher education. It’s easy to see why: UW-Madison professor and energy policy expert Greg Nemet said that he thinks “maybe the biggest opportunity is to take advantage of the fact that we have tens of thousands of students here who could potentially be working on [creating a clean energy economy].” However, Congress ignored last summer’s call to action by rejecting Obama’s $115 million budget request for RE-ENERGYSE.

Despite Congress’ lack of support for energy education and training, hope is not lost for Wisconsin. The Wisconsin State Legislature is currently considering a bill dubbed the Clean Energy Jobs Act (CEJA). CEJA rolls out a policy to ramp up renewables to provide 25 percent of Wisconsin’s electricity by 2025. This policy, known as a Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS), makes sense. The RPS ensures a stable, long-term market for renewable energy, thus creating market opportunities and driving investment in wind and other low-carbon technologies. Investment in turn makes clean energy cheaper and lowers utility bills. Perhaps more important, the state’s Economic and Policy Staff has estimated CEJA would create more than 15,000 jobs. In addition to more jobs, the bill provides an opportunity to develop smarter students and a stronger workforce.

Why add a provision to the bill to increase funding for energy education and training? Because the RPS alone will not create the low-carbon energy system Wisconsin needs. The Governor’s Task Force on Global Warming recommended that Wisconsin implement “substantial increases in federal and state research and development (R&D) for greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction technologies.” R&D is particularly crucial to figuring out ways to modernize the electricity grid, store wind and solar power and invent breakthrough technologies. CEJA could support R&D by giving UW-Madison—recently ranked among the top 10 universities for cleantech—and other Wisconsin institutions the funds to advance our energy system. To sustain the R&D of clean energy, CEJA must also invest in Wisconsin’s students. At a recent town hall, President Obama said: “We’re not going to be able to ramp up solar and wind to suddenly replace every other energy source … [W]e’ve got to look at how to make existing technologies and options better.” To meet our clean energy goals over the next century, Wisconsin will need a new, well-educated generation of researchers.

To meet the short-term objectives laid out by the CEJA, Wisconsin must also invest in its current workforce. Along the lines of the proposals laid out by the Governor’s Task Force on Global Warming, we propose that CEJA directly fund the training of Wisconsinites to create knowledgeable workers who can construct Wisconsin’s clean energy economy over the coming years.

We realize that with Wisconsin currently short on cash, it may be fiscally difficult to add an additional program to CEJA. If adding our proposal to CEJA does indeed prove politically impossible, we recommend incorporating it in the next state budget. Now or in the near future, Wisconsin needs to increase energy education. Gaining a competitive edge in clean energy requires not only opening markets with policies like a RPS, but taking advantage of those markets by creating talented researchers and a skilled workforce.

As the saying goes, if you teach a man to fish, he will build a clean energy future. If we fail to invest in today’s students, we will miss a critical opportunity and give other countries a head start in the global clean energy race. This is our chance to lead the generation of a low-carbon economy.

Stephen Collins and Danny Spitzberg are pursuing master’s degrees in public affairs and environmental studies, respectively. Please send all responses to opinion@dailycardinal.com.

(This article was originally published in the Daily Cardinal)

The fourth annual UW-Madison Residence Hall Energy Competition, organized by Big Red Go Green begins Monday.

According to Clay Thomas, Big Red Go Green media intern, the competition encourages residences of each dorm on campus to reduce their energy consumption, offering a prize for the winning dorm. Big Red Go Green is a campaign run by the Wisconsin Students Public Interests Research Group on campus.

Thomas said in the past that the prize has involved parties or socials for all members of the winning dorm, but the organizers are looking into new ideas for this year’s prize.

He added that students who promise to save energy individually by signing a pledge will become eligible to win prizes from area businesses such as Buffalo Wild Wings, Sconnie Nation and Underground Textbook Exchange.

Click here to continue reading at The Daily Cardinal

An ice sculpture of a polar bear outside the conference center in Copenhagen Photo: REUTERS

What exactly happened at the U.N. climate talks last December? While countless commentators have weighed in on international politicking, only a few individuals have discussed the on-the-ground activities and activism.

Speaking before a crowd last Wednesday on UW-Madison campus, two Madison locals shared their first-hand account of their recent excursion to Copenhagen. Molly Stentz of WORT and Free Speech Radio News and John Peck of Family Farm Defenders and La Via Campesina narrated the story alongside dozens of photographs they took both inside and outside the 15th annual U.N. summit.

The presentation was intended to give the perspective of an well-informed visitor, and so Stentz and Peck highlighted many colorful, humorous, and grave incidents. Ice sculptures of (melting) polar bears and other public art decorated the whole city. Singers, speakers, and street theater performers entertained and educated crowds, while fair trade coffee roasters, Food Not Bombs, and other vendors fed the marching masses. And wherever corporate sponsors co-opted the “hope” motto for the conference, graffiti artists made creative edits.

In addition, Peck addressed some items of public concern. He related to the audience that the worst global polluter as recognized by conference attendees is our northern neighbor, Canada. He pointed out how large blocks of African states and island states banded together for voting power. And he said that the two-page Copenhagen Accord resulting from the summit is neither binding nor a draft text to provide the basis for future discussion.

Podcasts broadcasted live from Copenhagen on WORT are available at http://archive.wort-fm.org/

Rachel argues that nuclear power should not be singled-out with nuclear-specific legal hurdles to new power generation construction.  This discussion is an ongoing battle in Wisconsin energy and environment politics, and few expect the debate to be settled anytime soon.  Wisconsin currently has a moratorium which forbids the the construction of new nuclear power plants, unless two conditions are met:

• a federal repository to dispose of nuclear waste is available
• the cost to construct and operate a new nuclear plant is economically advantageous for ratepayers

The recommendations made by Gov. Jim Doyle’s Task Force on Global Warming include the modification of the moratorium, which would effectively reduce the legal obstacles to new nuclear power in Wisconsin.  Other proposed legislation would repeal the moratorium entirely.  Earlier this month the Carbon-Free Nuclear-Free Wisconsin Coalition declared their opposition to an outright repeal of the existing moratorium.  The coalition is formed of a number of existing environmental and citizen’s advocacy groups that range from anti-nuclear advocacy to consumer advocacy.  Their press release, and a full listing of the groups behind the Carbon-Free Nuclear-Free Wisconsin Coalition is available here.

More on the recent resistance to repeal or modify the existing moratorium in the context of Task Force on Global Warming recommendations:

http://www.wrn.com/2009/12/nuclear-power-gets-attention-at-the-capitol/
http://www.wiscub.org/documents/CFNF%20Press%20Release
http://badgerherald.com/news/2009/12/02/groups_rally_to_safe.phphttp://www.wisbusiness.com/index.Iml?Article=178688
http://dailyreporter.com/blog/2009/12/02/anti-nuclear-statements-prompt-strong-legislative-response/

Charley Higley, Executive Director of the Wisconsin Citizen’s Utility Board, a part the Carbon-Free Nuclear-Free Wisconsin Coalition, supports a modification of the existing moratorium (which is also the recommendation of the Task Force) and explains what the modified nuclear rules should be:

“Realizing that many task force members supported the outright repeal of the nuclear moratorium, CUB supported a compromise: the moratorium’s requirement that ‘a federally licensed facility… will be available… for disposal of the waste’ would be replaced by a requirement that ‘the [Public Service Commission of Wisconsin] must find that the nuclear waste plan for the plant is economic, reasonable, stringent, and in the public interest, given the safety and other risks presented by such waste.

“In addition, the task force recommended that any new nuclear plant ‘must be built to meet Wisconsin electricity needs at a cost that is reasonable and advantageous to customers in comparison with available alternatives….’ and that this requirement would apply to nuclear plants proposed by utilities and non-utilities alike.  This recommendation retains the nuclear moratorium’s current requirement that a new nuclear power plant must be ‘economically advantageous to ratepayers’ before the Public Service Commission can authorize construction.

Energy Hub members are encouraged to participate in the discussion on nuclear power in Wisconsin, and on the broader opportunities and challenges that result from the recommendations of the Governor’s Task Force on Global Warming.  Join us for weekly discussions during the Spring 2010 semester, join our email list, or submit your own editorial to the Daily Cardinal (or your favorite news outlet) with your opinion!

“Sustainability starts with people and their needs, not technology,” said Steve Steinhoff while speaking at a Student Bus Advocates meeting on Thursday in the Memorial Union. Addressing an audience largely populated by Urban and Regional Planning graduate students, Steinhoff used his expertise as the Executive Director of the Neighborhood Design Center to lead an informed discussion of what is sustainable neighborhood design and how it can be applied to communities, including Madison.

Rather than focusing on cutting-edge, energy-saving technologies, Steinhoff emphasized that human needs for access, physical activity, housing, and social connections are the driving forces behind decisions that affect community sustainability. For example, the need for physical activity and recreation may motivate a person to relocate his or her home to the countryside or a suburb if they perceive a city as unable to meet their needs. However, that’s not to say transportation, building materials or the state of the environment aren’t important to neighborhood design, Steinhoff said.

One method that Steinhoff discussed and that the city of Madison has already adopted is The Natural Step (TNS), a science-based, comprehensive model for planning in complex systems. To help communities move toward a sustainable future, the requirements of TNS focus on increasing the capacity of residents to meet their needs and decreasing the concentrations of harmful substances like greenhouse gases. For example, TNS advocates for neighborhood development that is:

• Bikeable and walkable (car use increases greenhouse gas concentrations)
• Compact (higher density of housing and businesses)
• Transit-oriented (transit should be an integral part of the development planning process rather than an afterthought)
• Varied in use (both business and residential)
• Diverse in the housing options it provides

Steinhoff recommended that Madison learn from its sister city, Freiberg, Germany. A global leader in sustainable design, Freiberg has successfully integrated cutting edge energy-saving technologies with a human needs-focused community design to create a highly efficient and highly livable city.

To learn more about the steps Madison is taking to develop a shared vision of sustainability for the region, or to get ideas for your own neighborhood, please visit: http://www.neighborhooddesigncenter.org/.

Carbon restrictions are inevitable and will require significant changes to the state’s energy mix—that’s the message from Commissioner Lauren Azar of the Wisconsin Public Service Commission. Azar spoke Tuesday night with Wisconsin Commissioner of Insurance Sean Dilweg about making critical decisions in preparing for the uncertainties of climate change. The lecture was a part of the Nelson Institute’s Community Environmental Forum.

With the looming UN Climate Change conference in Copenhagen and the EPA’s own studies on the impacts of carbon emissions, carbon restrictions are a reality for both utilities and their regulators. Wisconsin’s heavy fossil fuel reliance—70 percent of electricity generation comes from fossil fuels—means a drastic transformation will take place over the next few decades, says Azar. The state’s renewable energy resources, specifically wind power and geothermal energy, are marginal at best, while solar power is not a viable solution in the state with current technology, claims Azar. She says nuclear power will be essential in meeting future carbon emission standards, but many legal challenges remain, including the moratorium on new nuclear power plant construction in Wisconsin.

Commissioner Dilweg is responsible for regulating insurance companies for the 6th largest insurance state in the United States. Like Azar, climate change is posing many new challenges for Dilweg in predicting and planning for the future. He is currently at work on legislation that will encourage insurance companies to plan for the effects of climate change, including extreme weather events.

Both speakers say realistic planning is critical in adapting to the effects of climate change. For Wisconsin, transforming our generation portfolio to mitigate climate change will include key infrastructure decisions in the face of uncertainty. For the people who have to make decisions like those, risk is a fact of life, but with cooperation and accurate information they can make more informed decisions.

More information:

Nelson Institute Community Environmental Forum

Public Service Commission

Office of Commissioner of Insurance