Talking Points:

These projects will…

• Exacerbate Energy Burden: This is a last-ditch effort by the most profitable utility in Wisconsin to capitalize on fossil fuels while forcing its already energy-burdened customers to foot the bill.
  • As the most profitable utility in Wisconsin, We Energies makes more than double the revenue of the next most profitable utility. 
  • Racial disparities in energy burden in Milwaukee still remain among the highest in the nation. Black and Hispanic/Latinx neighborhoods each experience more than 2x the energy burden of white neighborhoods.
  • Building these expensive plants is a windfall for power company shareholders, but are harming rate payers. 
    • We Energies customers are still paying the $2.3 billion price tag for the company’s Oak Creek “Power the Future” coal plant completed in 2011, the most expensive construction project in the history of the state, while shareholders earned about a 12.5% rate of return profit on that project. 
  • Over the past two years, We Energies has increased its residential energy rates more than 13 percent – with another potential rate hike on the way. These costly fossil gas projects will increase rates even more and result in stranded assets.

• Worsen Climate Change: Approving these plants would lock us into decades of fossil fuel use during a time 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. WEC Energy Group has stated that these gas plants will be in operation for the next 30 years, despite its goal of an 80% reduction in carbon emissions by 2030 and achieving carbon-neutral status by 2050

• Harm Human Health: In addition to its climate impacts, 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.
  • • 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:

I am writing to ask that PSC staff conduct a full and comprehensive Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on the proposed natural gas power plant in Milwaukee County. New fossil fuel infrastructure like this proposed gas 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

5) Environmental justice impacts, including the energy burden outcomes for already-struggling We Energies 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 periods and hearings 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]