Last Thursday, Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle held a press conference at Wind Capital in Fitchburg, Wis., to discuss the positive impacts of the Clean Energy Jobs Act (Senate Bill 450) on the residents of our state. He pointed out that a major component of the legislation is the advancement of a broader Renewable Portfolio Standard or RPS. The RPS requires utilities to provide customers with a specific percentage of energy from renewable sources by a date certain on the calendar.
Senate Bill 450 moves the existing 10 percent RPS requirement up from 2015 to 2013, and then goes on to require a 20 percent RPS by 2020 and 25 percent by 2025.
The Renewable Portfolio Standard is the portion of the bill that puts the jobs creation aspect of the legislation into motion. If one simply takes a look around at the number of “green collar” jobs created to date and the number of companies that exist because Wisconsin and other states have already adopted renewable standards, you can see and understand just why this is.
Here in Manitowoc, for example, a major segment of the Manitowoc Cranes market is the area of sales where their lift cranes are dedicated to the erection of wind generation. Manitowoc Cranes employs about 600 workers at all levels. Tower Tech is another even more obvious example of the market response to RPS regulation. Tower Tech builds wind generation towers for large scale wind generation. The company is new on the scene in Manitowoc having been established about six years ago. They are “order rich” and currently employ about 170 workers from shop floor to corporate leadership.
Our own company has benefited from RPSs established by state governments across the nation as energy efficiency reduces the total capacity requirements of utilities and, therefore, Orion products are incented by Wisconsin’s Focus On Energy and other similar programs. Orion currently has about 250 workers that design, produce and sell our products in our Manitowoc location and we also provide countless hours for sales and installation of our products to “vendor partners” nationwide.
Senate Bill 450 is 174 pages long and includes many, many complex ideas and negotiated areas of agreement. I participated in a WisconsinEye interview with three of the four Floor Managers of the Bill on Jan. 5 and what they all could agree on is that something will make it to the Governor’s desk regarding climate change and the potential to take advantage of an environmental problem to stimulate jobs growth.
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Tags: Clean Energy Jobs Act, Renewable Portfolio Standard, RPS
