With one day left in the Legislative Session, the Senate has a number of really bad bills on the calendar that could threaten Wisconsin's clean air, water, and future. Contact your Senator today!
Tell your legislators to protect ALL residents access to clean, safe drinking water!
With the legislative session coming to a close, the Senate is considering resurrecting a bill that would allow factory farm owners, frac-sand mine owners, and other massive developers to build high-capacity wells with little oversight from the DNR. Having access to sufficient quantities of clean water is necessary for Wisconsinites to live and raise their children without fear, and creates the bedrock of our economy. After seeing the aftermath in Flint Michigan, we know what can happen when we take clean water for granted and regulators do not focus on ensuring everyone has access to clean water. We cannot afford to let Wisconsin become the next Flint. This resurrected high-cap well bill, AB874/SB239, threatens everyone’s access to water and allows one person's actions to harm his or her neighbors.
All waters in Wisconsin - lakes, streams, and aquifers - are connected. Water use must be monitored and reviewed periodically, with necessary adjustments related to rainfall, ground water recharge or water use patterns in the area near the well. AB874/SB239 will not allow this. Removing the ability of the DNR to review and adjust as necessary means the state will not be able to prevent direct harm to our water resources. Examples of this include Little Plover River running dry in Portage County or the necessary protection of neighbors in Monroe County of the Jorgenson dairy’s well running dry - both due to ground water withdrawals on adjacent property.
Protect Wisconsin's clean air and protect energy efficiency funding!
There is a bill moving forward with a sneaky line that would change the formula for Wisconsin's energy efficiency and clean energy program, Focus on Energy. This change could result in a $7 million decrease in the program.
Focus on Energy works with eligible Wisconsin residents and businesses to install cost-effective energy efficiency and renewable energy projects. The program is funded by a requirement that utilities invest 1.2% of their revenues to Focus on Energy. Since 2001, this program has created over 16,000 jobs, saved homeowners and businesses nearly $2 billion on energy bills, and reduced emissions of carbon dioxide by 5 billion pounds. Audits of the Focus on Energy program show that for every $1 invested in the program, $3.40 is returned. In 2014 alone, more than $700 million in economic benefits were returned from the program and over 2000 jobs were created.
Preserving the funding for Focus on Energy will:
- Allow more homeowners and businesses to save on energy bills
- Create more local, family-supporting jobs per year (i.e., from installers of insulation to heating and air conditioning to lighting to windows and doors)
- Reduce our dependence on fossil fuels
- Clean up our air and avoid the environmental and health effects of burning more coal
Tell your Senator to save Focus on Energy's Funding today!
Support local communities' rights to curb plastic bag use--ban the ban on the ban of plastic bags!
According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) up to one trillion plastic bags are used worldwide. Early this year, a report found that worldwide, the oceans could have more plastic than fish by 2050 if we continue on this trajectory! Given that these bags are often used as a means to simply carry products home and then are discarded, cutting them out makes a huge environmental impact with little inconvenience. Though the plastic bags are in our lives for mere minutes at times, they stay on the planet for much longer. The strong leadership on the microbeads bill showed how non-partisan protecting our important waterways from this type of pollution is.
Communities are starting to recognize this problem and have begun making regulating plastic bags, take-out containers, or other single-use containers. Some communities are banning the distribution of the bags, others are putting a fee on them, and others are just regulating the use. While the state legislature should be encouraging this forward thinking, instead it is moving to pass a bill that would ban local regulation of these products. This 'Bag the Ban' bill is ALEC inspired and is another attempt by big money to stop progress in this country.
Thank you for taking the time to stand up for Wisconsin's environment, clean air, clean water, and democracy,