As the cost of wind and solar power continues to fall, a new organization is pushing the Republican-controlled Wisconsin Legislature to embrace renewable energy and begin working on policies to address a rapidly changing marketplace. “Clean energy may very well now be the cheapest source of energy,” Scott Coenen, executive director of the Wisconsin Conservative Energy Forum, told a handful of lawmakers this week at a briefing at the state Capitol…
Coenen urged lawmakers to begin working on policies to address issues such as:
- How to pay for trillions of dollars of investments in coal-fired plants, many of which are now money-losers.
- Making sure Wisconsin is training workers to fill some of the fastest-growing occupations: solar installers and wind technicians.
- Supporting the establishment of more electric vehicle charging stations.
- Addressing third-party financing of rooftop solar panels, a brewing battle between utilities and solar developers who want to be able to lease equipment to home and business owners.