Gov. Jim Doyle announced his agenda Friday for the ongoing United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, listing green manufacturing and a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions as his priorities at the conference.
Doyle said in a statement Friday he plans to address Wisconsin’s status as a manufacturing base.
According to the statement, Doyle will speak at the opening session of the Climate Leaders Summit 2009, meet with international officials and talk with leaders of environmentally focused firms such as wind turbine manufacturer Vestas and General Electric.
Wisconsin Republicans have challenged Doyle on the trip, citing major economic problems occurring throughout the state. Kristin Ruesch, spokesperson for the Republican Party of Wisconsin, said Doyle’s environmental policies have the potential to put more people in Wisconsin out of work.
“We think there’s a lot of work that needs to be done back at home rather than flying to Copenhagen on the taxpayer’s dime to advocate policies that would cause Wisconsin to lose even more jobs,” Ruesch said.
Doyle spokesperson Lee Sensenbrenner said funding for the trip will not come primarily from taxpayer dollars but instead two organizations that helped organize the conference will fund the majority of the trip’s costs. Sensenbrenner also emphasized the importance of the trip to the state’s economy.
“Right now, every dollar we spend on energy leaves the state,” Sensenbrenner said. “[Green technology] is something that will help our state build jobs in a modern economy that keeps our energy dollars at home and makes [Wisconsin] a more secure place.”
Doyle’s trip to Copenhagen coincides with the release of new legislation that — in an effort to make Wisconsin more environmentally friendly — would make policy changes to combat climate change and its effects.
The goals of the climate change legislation are to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, increase use of renewable resources in the production of energy and to increase energy efficiency.
This legislation was based on the findings of Gov. Jim Doyle’s Task Force on Global Warming, which approved a group of policy changes and recommendations that had the same goals in mind.
According to a release put out late last week by the Wisconsin Legislative Council, many state agencies began or are about to begin implementing a number of these recommendations. The new bill allows agencies who need legislative approval to put these solutions in motion.
The new legislation aims to decrease the amount of emissions by 22 percent by the year 2022 and by 75 percent by the year 2050. Other goals of the new legislation include the reduction of statewide energy use of gas, heating oil, natural gas, petroleum and electricity.
Also, the bill mandates for each new building to not exceed the amount of energy it can generate on site by the year 2030. The Department of Natural Resources would be in charge of assessing the progress of the plans through quadrennial reports.
The proposed bill would also create the Climate Change Coordinating Council. The council’s purpose will be “coordinating state programs and actions related to climate change and advising policymakers on related matters.”
The proposals of the new legislation are highly controversial. Rep. Mike Huebsch, R-West Salem, a member of both the Committee on Natural Resources and the Committee on Energy and Utilities, said this new legislation would be a tremendous strain on Wisconsin’s already weak economy.
“The new bill goes well beyond the governor’s task force. This is much more controversial, and we still don’t have any fiscal picture for these recommendations,” Huebsch said.
Huebsch also criticized the lack of consultation with Republicans by the authors of the bill, saying they must not be “counting on receiving any Republican votes.”