The Clean Energy Jobs Act is up for an Assembly vote today. Keith Reopelle of Clean Wisconsin says the bill began as climate change legislation, but many measures that would reduce greenhouse gasses have been stripped out. Reopelle says what remains is a package which will end up saving money for the state’s utility ratepayers and creating jobs.
“This bill in its current form will save ratepayers. . .anywhere from $1.5 billion to $6 billion over the next fifteen years,” according to analysis by the state Public Service Commission, Reopelle says. Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, the state business lobby, continues to oppose the bill, saying it will have the opposite effect: raising utility rates and killing jobs.
In the state Senate, Majority Leader Russ Decker has apparently not been sold on the bill. “Hopefully Senator Decker has had time by now to take a close look at the Public Service Commission analysis,” says Reopelle. He say the savings to utility ratepayers will come through increased energy efficiency. “We really need to become more efficient, to save those dollars and to keep them in Wisconsin.”
Bob Hague (:60 MP3) AUDIO: Bob Hague reports (:60 MP3)