Wisconsin opens decade's first new climate efforts

From an article by Evan Lehmann of ClimateWire published in The New York Times:

Wisconsin lawmakers are leaping into a barbed debate on emissionless electricity, making it perhaps the first state to launch a major climate initiative in a new year that promises to be shaped by swirling politics, rugged economics and question marks in Congress.

Discussions begin tomorrow [January 20] on a state plan seeking a 22 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions within 12 years. A haystack of programs would be used to meet that goal, including a major upsizing of Wisconsin's existing renewable portfolio standard, new incentives for residents who produce their own power, and demands for cleaner car fuels.

It is perhaps the brawniest effort of the new decade. But other states are plodding ahead with climate-friendly policies, like expanded mandates on utilities for clean power, wooing manufacturers of solar panels and turbine parts into coal country and making government agencies emit fewer harmful gases.

"A lot of the states that have been taking action are not going to let up on the gas pedal," said Patrick Hogan, regional policy coordinator for the Pew Center on Global Climate Change. "They're not taking it for granted that we're going to get federal legislation anytime soon."