by Jim Ott

April 13, 2010 – Today I issued the following statement in response to the introduction of the revised Global Warming Bill. The bill is 150 pages long and the Democrats will likely try to ram this expensive and senseless bill through the legislature within the next week:

“We’ve known for months that the Democrats are intent on passing a global warming bill. After they could not reach a compromise on their initial proposal earlier this year, they are now back and poised to pass AB649.

“Mandating that Wisconsin produce 25% of our electricity from expensive renewables by 2025 is an outrage. We are only at 5% today, and utilities will struggle to reach our current mandate of 10% by 2015. The claim of the bill’s authors that it will reduce costs for consumers is pure fiction. In Iowa and Minnesota utilities have already requested rate increases of 14% and 19% respectively, following the recent adoption of renewable standards.

“Setting a goal that Wisconsin reduces its overall electricity consumption by 2% annually by 2015 sends a message that job growth and commerce are not welcome in Wisconsin. Apparently Democrats value a shrinking economy over a growing one. Is the official goal of our state to drive away commerce and jobs?

“On top of all this, there will be little time to review this complicated piece of legislation before a vote is taken; there will be no way most legislators will be able to fully absorb the content of a 150 page bill that was drafted in secret. AB 649 would be reckless at any time, but in a difficult economy it is unconscionable. The bill will cost our state valuable jobs and have absolutely no benefit to our state’s climate or to anyone else’s.”

AB 649 could possibly come before the Assembly and Senate for a vote either later this week or next week. The current session of the Legislature ends on April 22nd.