NEWS

Making it happen

07/29/2008

Gov. Jim Doyle’s global warming task force has provided lawmakers with a good starting point for meeting the challenge of climate change.

The hard work is done. Now, the harder work begins. Last week, the Governor’s Task Force on Global Warming completed 16 months of labor by voting on a series of measures aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 22% by 2022 and 75% by 2050. Now, it’s up to Gov. Jim Doyle and the Legislature to turn those recommendations into policy. They need to start that work soon.

Perhaps not every recommendation needs to be enacted or enacted exactly as the task force recommended. But the overall thrust of the recommendations is in the right direction and a necessary response if Wisconsin is to do its part to meet the challenge posed by climate change. And, as the editorial below notes, the state should do all it can to achieve those goals earlier.

The best response, of course, would be a sustained and aggressive international and national effort, but Wisconsin can become a leader on climate change, thanks to the work of Doyle’s task force under the leadership of co-chairs Roy Thilly and Tia Nelson.

The task force recommended 63 policies to achieve the recommended emissions. Broadly, it calls for reduced dependence on coal and foreign oil, a serious increase in energy efficiency and expanded power from wind turbines and other renewable sources.

Among its recommendations: expanding the current Focus on Energy conservation program and encouraging other energy-efficiency tools; building wind turbines on the Great Lakes; expanding mass transit, including commuter rail from Kenosha to Milwaukee; establishing more stringent emission standards for vehicles; increasing the availability and use of renewable biomass and biofuels; relaxing limits on the construction of nuclear power plants once certain conditions are met; and participating in a regional or national plan to cap emissions and reduce them over time by allowing parties to trade in emission credits.

Some of those goals will be easier to achieve than others. All of them deserve a healthy debate, especially the recommendations on nuclear power and a cap-and-trade system.

Only this much is sure: The state needs to seriously address climate change issues, and the task force has given the state a good starting point for doing so.