Global warming task force issues interim report

From a story by Thomas Content and Lee Bergquist in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

To tackle global warming, Wisconsin should:

• Consider erecting wind turbines on the Great Lakes.

• Reward utilities for cutting energy use instead of building power plants.

• Study the possibility of pumping carbon dioxide from power plants into the ground or sending it by pipeline to other states.

Those are among the recommendations in an interim report that the Governor's Task Force on Global Warming will vote on Tuesday in Sun Prairie.

The task force also will endorse a significant cut in energy use by Wisconsin homes and businesses as a critical first step in addressing global warming. . . .

. . . the panel sought to concentrate on how the state can move the quickest. Its top pick: energy conservation.

If it cuts its appetite, Wisconsin would reverse course and, by 2015, cut electric demand by 2% per year, and natural gas use by 1% annually, the report says.

Other strategies call for adoption of building codes that promote energy efficiency, incentives for green buildings and a directive to owners of rental units to install high-efficiency lighting in public spaces.

To bolster the state's portfolio of renewable power, the report calls for a study by year's end that would evaluate the potential for Great Lakes wind power.