Category: ENERGY2021_MN WISCONSIN_CN

The Wisconsin Public Service Commission, which regulates public utilities in the state, is currently deciding what role the state’s energy efficiency program will play in developing the local market for heat pumps. Heat pumps are an efficient, climate-aligned solution for space heating and cooling that can perform well in Wisconsin’s cold climate. By replacing fossil fuel furnaces, heat pumps can also help mitigate future gas infrastructure costs and improve indoor and outdoor air quality that directly impacts health.

Gov. Tony Evers has released Wisconsin’s first clean energy plan, a proposal that he said would lower energy bills, fight climate change by investing in clean energy technologies and possibly create up to 40,000 jobs.

On a brutally cold day here earlier this week, Kirill Shchapov stood 200 meters off the shore of Lake Michigan, using a green auger to drill into a glistening ice sheet that stretched to the horizon. A fountain of water erupted when he yanked the auger from the hole. But soon Shchapov, a limnologist at the University of Minnesota (UM), Duluth, and other researchers were busily lowering nets and instruments through the opening, collecting water samples and shellfish that lived on the lake floor some 5 meters down.

From cars to motorcycles, and fire trucks to charging stations, Wisconsin has a key role in the development of electric vehicles.

Wisconsin’s rooftops could support enough solar panels to meet two-thirds of the state’s electricity needs, generating more electricity than all fossil fuel sources combined last year.

There’s a multitude of climate change-driven issues that Midwest is already starting to face and that will only get worse. This includes long stretches of drought followed by heavy periods of precipitation leading to flooding.

The University of Wisconsin Oshkosh community will start the month of October focused on the Earth and climate change. Earth Charter Community Summit 2021: Climate Action in Wisconsin is the theme of a week of events intended to teach, inspire and rally the campus community.

In 2018, flooding over Father’s Day weekend carved a hole through a major highway in far northwestern Wisconsin, disrupting travel for months and sending three times the amount of sediment that flows each year into one Lake Superior bay. Now, a project aims to slow the flow of runoff as the region faces more frequent, intense storms due to climate change.

Two bills proposed by Biden would help Wisconsin address a range of issues, according to a Democratic state representative and GOP state senator.

A Kenosha pastor is fasting for climate change. The Rev. Jonathan Barker, pastor of Grace Lutheran Church, stopped eating on Saturday and said he will continue the protest until Congress passes a climate bill.