MILWAUKEE – Despite a ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court rolling back the authority of the Environmental Protection Agency to reduce carbon emissions, WE Energies is moving forward with its carbon reduction plan.
“We remain committed to those very aggressive carbon reduction goals, which is reducing carbon emissions 60 percent by the end of 2025 and 80 percent by the end of 2030,” WE Energies spokesperson Brenan Conway said.
“We’ve also announced plans to exit coal by 2035 and we do not expect that today’s decision and ruling will change that.”
But environmental groups like Clean Wisconsin say the ruling deals a devastating blow to the fight against climate change.
“The rules that EPA is able to promulgate that allow us to fight climate change are really important,” Clean Wisconsin’s Katie Nekola said.
“And these particular rules, which cover carbon emissions from coal plants, are really important because coal is one of the main contributors to climate change,” Nekola said.
Nekola says Clean Wisconsin also thinks energy companies like WE Energies should be moving more quickly to drop coal entirely.
“We applaud all of the voluntary measures that utilities take in order to reduce their carbon output,” she said. “We would argue that it all needs to happen faster.”
“You know we’ve seen these reports come over and over again that say we’re at this tipping point and need to stop generating carbon emissions now. And while it’s great to have a goal and have interim goals like that, and I recognize that there are other things to consider…. we should be moving faster,” Nekola said.
WE Energies pushes back against that assessment, saying that they’re moving as quickly away from coal as possible while still being able to provide reliable energy to people in Wisconsin.
“You want to be able to have goals that are positive, but you also need to make sure that at the end of the day you can keep the lights on,” Conway said.
“Particularly on a hot day like this… You need to make sure you have reliable energy and so we’re always balancing that,” Conway said.
You can listen to interviews with both Brendan Conway of WE Energies and Katie Nekola of Clean Wisconsin in the players at the top of the page.
