Coal Critic Coming to Madison to Speak on Effective Renewable Energy Advocacy, January 13, 2012

For immediate release
December 7, 2011

More information
Michael Vickerman
608.255.4044
mvickerman@renewwisconsin.org

Leslie Glustrom, research director of Colorado-based Clean Energy Action, and an unwavering critic of utility reliance on coal for electricity generation, will be the featured speaker at RENEW Wisconsin’s Energy Policy Summit.

The Summit will be held on Friday, January 13, 2012, at the University of Wisconsin-Extension’s Pyle Center located on the UW-Madison campus. Summit attendees will spend the day discussing and selecting renewable energy strategies that make sense in the current political environment in Wisconsin. More information on the Summit can be found on the RENEW Wisconsin website at http://www.renewwisconsin.org.

As research director, Glustrom authored in 2009 an extensively referenced report on U.S. coal supplies titled, “Coal—Cheap and Abundant—Or Is It? Why Americans Should Stop Assuming that the US has a 200-Year Supply of Coal,” available for free at http://www.cleanenergyaction.org.

Since 2009, Glustrom has traveled to numerous states helping them to understand the likely constraints on their coal supplies.
Glustrom’s on-going research illuminates a future in which coal prices will likely continue to escalate, driven by a combination of less accessible coal supplies, increasing demand from Asian countries, and rising diesel fuel costs for hauling coal to distant markets like Wisconsin.

Clean Energy Action is spearheading a campaign to shut down Colorado’s coal-fired power plants and replace them with locally generated renewable electricity.

“Leslie’s experiences with Clean Energy Action can help Wisconsin renewable energy advocates formulate effective strategies for 2012 and beyond,” said Michael Vickerman, executive director of RENEW Wisconsin, a statewide sustainable energy advocacy organization headquartered in Madison.

“Even though Colorado is a coal-producing state, it has adopted some of the most aggressive policies in the country for advancing renewable energy,” said Vickerman. “Colorado’s commitment to clean energy is driving its economy at a time when its coal output is diminishing. For example, Vestas, the world’s largest manufacturer of wind turbines with four plants employing 1,700 people in Colorado, supplied 90 turbines this year to Wisconsin’s largest wind project, the Glacier Hills Wind Park in Columbia County.”

“Leslie will inspire us to reverse the retreat from renewables and retake the initiative going forward,” Vickerman said.

In Boulder, Glustrom was part of the team that led the successful 2010 and 2011 ballot initiatives allowing Boulder to move ahead with plans to municipalize and break away from the long term commitment to coal plants made by their incumbent utility, Xcel Energy.

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Wisconsin firms join energy efficiency effort backed by Obama, Clinton

From an article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Washington - President Barack Obama is enlisting former President Bill Clinton and companies including Briggs & Stratton Corp., Kohl's Corp., 3M and Alcoa Inc. in a $4 billion initiative to cut energy costs in buildings and encourage hiring for construction jobs.

The program, which the administration forecast would create tens of thousands of jobs, is expected to provide work for energy service contracting firms including Johnson Controls Inc. and Trane.

It combines $2 billion in energy-efficiency upgrades over two years for federal buildings along with commitments from companies, cities and universities to put $2 billion into similar efforts.

The improvements to government buildings will be made under an existing federal program that uses private financing, according to the administration. The goal: boost buildings' energy efficiency by at least 20% by 2020.

"This is good business" that will help create jobs and promote energy independence, Clinton said after he and Obama toured a building in Washington that is being retrofitted. "It's the nearest thing we've got to a free lunch in a tough economy."

Obama is expanding the "Better Building Initiative" he announced in February and joining it with a White House effort to spark hiring that was begun after the president's $447 billion jobs plan stalled in Congress.

Johnson Controls is among 17 contractors, including Honeywell International, Trane and Ameresco, that are active contractors in a government program that pays for energy-saving projects through the savings the government sees over time on its energy bills.

Friday's announcement is a sizable boost for a program that Johnson Controls has worked on since it launched in 1998, said Clay Nesler, Johnson Controls vice president.