Blog Last Updated August 13, 2024 at 1pm

The Public Service Commission (PSC) of Wisconsin is currently considering a request from Wisconsin Power and Light (WPL) – a subsidiary of Alliant Energy – to construct and operate the “Riverside Enhancement Project,” a new power plant that would generate electricity fueled by fossil gas located at Alliant’s Riverside Energy Center in Beloit (Docket No. 6680-CE-187).

As climate activists, we know that in order to prevent the worst impacts of climate change, we need to transition away from all fossil fuels, including fossil gas. With Beloit residents already suffering from severe energy burden and dangerous air quality, we need to make it clear to the PSC that more fossil gas is not a solution!

We just learned that the public comment period on the scope of the project’s environmental assessment has begun, and ends Friday, August 9th. This means we have an opportunity to push PSC staff to do a comprehensive Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) that details the negative impacts these projects would have on the local environment, the community’s health, and the climate.

Submit your comment now!

Docket: 6680-CE-187

Docket Title: Application of Wisconsin Power and Light Company for a Certificate of Authority to Construct and Operate the Riverside Enhancement Project, Consisting of Seven Reciprocating Internal Combustion Engines Capable of Generating up to 17.5 MW total, at its Riverside Energy Center Facility in the Town of Beloit, Rock County, Wisconsin

We’ve provided some sample comment language and talking points below for you to use, but we encourage you to make it your own… your comments will have much greater power if they’re written in your own words and bring in your own personal experiences and concerns! 

There will be additional opportunities to provide input on a draft EIS (if the Commission conducts one) and later on to push the PSC to reject the proposal. Your comments will help ensure the PSC considers the full range of impacts this project would have, and will help fuel our advocacy later on in the process!

Let’s ensure the PSC hears loud and clear that we will not accept any new fossil fuel infrastructure, especially not at the expense of Alliant ratepayers and the health of Beloit residents!

Talking Points

This project will…

• Exacerbate Energy Burden: This is a last-ditch effort to capitalize on fossil fuels while forcing already energy-burdened customers to foot the bill. 

• • The cost of this project is $52.78 million which will be shifted to ratepayers. Alliant has repeatedly come to the PSC asking for rate increases in recent years resulting in a rising energy burden to their ratepayers. 
  • Alliant Energy customers will already see an 8.4% increase between 2024 and the end of 2025. This costly fossil fuel project will increase rates even more and result in stranded assets, like the disastrous Oak Creek Coal Plant (which We Energies customers are still paying for).
  • Building this expensive plant is a windfall for power company shareholders, but harmful to ratepayers. 

• Worsen Climate Change: Approving this plant would lock us into decades of fossil fuel use during a time when we need to be transitioning to renewables, undermining our state’s clean energy goals and worsening climate impacts.

• • Methane, the primary component of fossil gas, is an incredibly potent greenhouse gas. According to NASA, despite the relatively small amount of methane in the atmosphere (compared to carbon dioxide), it accounts for one-sixth (around 17%) of recent global warming. Methane has more than 80 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide over two decades. 
  • Climate change is here, and it will continue to get worse as long as we continue “business as usual.” In 2021, the World Health Organization declared climate change to be the single biggest health threat facing humanity.
  • The extreme weather events we’re already experiencing — including historic droughts and floods, extreme heat days, superstorms, record-breaking wildfires, and unprecedented coastal flooding — will continue to worsen as long as we are reliant on fossil fuels.
  • Both President Biden and Governor Evers have made commitments to take action on climate change and to act in alignment with the 2015 Paris Agreement. This requires moving away from fossil fuels, including gas.
    • The State of Wisconsin has a goal for all electricity consumed within the state to be 100 percent carbon-free by 2050 – building new gas plants will undermine this goal.
    • The Governor’s Task Force on Climate Change Report listed “Avoid new fossil fuel infrastructure” as one of the things we must do in order to stop a climate catastrophe. 

• • Renewable energy saves lives, grows union jobs, and heals communities. 
    • Clean Energy Saves Lives: 100% clean energy production in Wisconsin would prevent 650 ER visits, 670 hospitalizations, and ~ 2,000 premature deaths each year.   
    • Renewable energy – including wind and solar power – provides safe, cost effective, and reliable energy, as opposed to gas plants which have been found to be disproportionately vulnerable to failure during severe weather.  
    • Grow Union Jobs:  Wisconsin utilities announced union commitments for solar, wind, and battery projects, bringing nearly 18,000 good-paying union jobs to Wisconsin.

• • Any new fossil fuel infrastructure will be expensive and lock us into using fossil fuels for decades. 

• Harm Human Health: Burning methane is bad for human health. Over 200 leading medical journals and over 150 major health organizations have issued joint statements about climate and the health impacts of fossil fuels. 
  • Pollution from the existing power plants have made Beloit’s air quality the worst measured in the entire country. Existing energy infrastructure at the Riverside Energy Center creates enough energy  to power 550,000 homes, more than 3x the size of Rock County. Beloit residents should not be forced to sacrifice their wellbeing to power southern Wisconsin.
  • Air pollution from fossil fuel combustion is one of the leading risk factors of premature mortality. Air pollution can negatively affect almost every organ system, including the kidneys, lungs, heart, and brain. Premature deaths from burning natural gas have already surpassed deaths from coal in 19 states.
  • Low-income and BIPOC populations often bear a disproportionate burden of environmental harms and their communities are often targeted for fossil fuel infrastructure, resulting in adverse health outcomes with an increased risk of chronic disease, hospitalizations, and premature death.
  • National Institutes of Health research shows those living in a zip code with a fossil fuel-fired power plant experience asthma hospitalization rates 11% higher, respiratory infections rates 15% higher, and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) rates up 17% higher than demographically similar zip codes with no power plants. 
  • The fossil fuel industry uses aggressive marketing tactics similar to the tobacco industry, promoting gas as a natural, clean energy source, but this is a lie. 

Sample Comment

We encourage you to customize your comment, it’ll have an even greater impact! 

I am writing to ask that PSC staff conduct a full and comprehensive Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on the proposed Riverside Enhancement Project at Alliant’s Riverside Energy Center in Beloit. New fossil fuel infrastructure like this proposed gas-fueled electric generating plant creates a number of public health and environmental concerns, which should be addressed thoroughly in the EIS. 

The EIS should include:

1) All direct, indirect, and cumulative impacts from the project on the climate throughout its lifecycle – including the ongoing impacts of Wisconsin’s other fossil fuel generating facilities

2) Alternatives to using fossil fuels for energy generation and benefits (public health, economic, environmental, climate) to reducing reliance on fossil fuels

3) Air and water pollution, and impacts on local ecosystems and wildlife

4) Public health impacts of pollution on the local community, and more broadly impacts from climate change on public health. Pollution from the existing power plants has made Beloit’s air quality the worst measured in the country (2023 World Air Quality Report).

5) Environmental justice impacts, including the energy burden outcomes for already-struggling ratepayers and the impacts of burning fossil fuels on the local community’s health.

The EIS should also describe how building new fossil fuel infrastructure contradicts Governor Evers’ Task Force on Climate Change report that listed “no new fossil fuel infrastructure” including new gas infrastructure as a key solution to stopping the worst impacts of climate change. It is also in direct contradiction to the State of Wisconsin’s goal to ensure that all electricity consumed in the state should be 100 percent carbon free by 2050. 

Finally, the public comment period and hearing related to the draft and final EIS should be made public in advance of the comment period to allow for robust and inclusive public engagement in the process. 

Thank you for your attention and consideration.

Sincerely,

[Your Name]