Brian Dake

Three of the state’s major utilities are planning to spend almost $2 billion on five renewable energy projects as part of their plans to cut carbon emissions and shift to clean energy.

We Energies, Wisconsin Public Service and Madison Gas and Electric filed plans with the Public Service Commission to acquire and build facilities that would cost around $1.9 billion combined. The five projects are expected to power about 250,000 homes. They include 500 megawatts of solar, around 180 megawatts of wind and 100 megawatts of battery storage.

We Energies would own 80 percent of the projects. WPS and MGE would each own 10 percent.

We Energies and WPS, which are owned by WEC Energy Group, plan to invest nearly $8 billion in renewable energy, natural gas projects and storage in Wisconsin. The Milwaukee-based company said it’s part of a larger plan to save customers more than $2 billion over the next two decades.

Utilities say renewable projects will also help reduce costs in the face of new regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency that require coal plants to reduce 90 percent of their emissions by 2039.

However, consumer advocates like Wisconsin’s Citizens Utility Board, or CUB, have voiced concerns about the pace and cost of the transition as utilities like We Energies retire coal plants and invest in renewable energy.

The utility is currently asking to raise electric rates 6.9 percent in 2025 and nearly 4.8 percent in 2026, which is due in large part to its energy transition. In a filing, CUB said that means customers would pay about 36 percent more or roughly $40 extra per month on their electric bills in 2026 compared to December 2022.

Construction work on a high-voltage transmission linking Iowa and Wisconsin has been completed and the line is fully operational, a group of utilities announced September 27.

American Transmission Company, Dairyland Power Cooperative and ITC Midwest began work on the 102-mile Cardinal-Hickory Creek line between Iowa’s Dubuque County and Wisconsin’s Dane County in April 2021. Construction wrapped up late the previous week, ITC Midwest spokesperson Rod Pritchard said. The 345-kilovolt line was fully energized on September 26.

The utilities say the line will improve electrical reliability and support renewable energy projects.

Members of the International Longshoremen’s Association are set to go on strike at 12:01 am ET Tuesday at three dozen facilities spread across 14 port authorities. There are few signs that a deal could be reached by the deadline set by the ILA and the United States Maritime Alliance, which uses the acronym USMX. The maritime alliance represents the major shipping lines, all of which are foreign owned; as well as terminal operators and port authorities.

The strike, which would be the first at these ports since 1977, could stop the flow of a wide variety of goods over the docks of almost all the cargo ports from Maine to Texas. This includes everything from bananas to European beer, wine and liquor, along with furniture, clothing, household goods and European autos, as well as parts needed to keep US factories operating and American workers in those plants on the job. It also could stop US exports now flowing through those ports, hurting sales for American companies.

The union has pledged to continue to handling military cargo even during a strike and said passenger ships won’t be affected. Oil tankers and ships carrying liquified natural gas usually go to other facilities that are not affected by the strike, as do bulk ships carrying things like grain. But almost all the other ports along the two coasts could be affected.

The USMX claims the union is refusing to negotiate in good faith and says the two sides have not met in person since June.

“We remain prepared to bargain at any time, but both sides must come to the table if we are going to reach a deal, and there is no indication that the ILA is interested in negotiating at this time,” the management group said last week in a statement,

The USMX has offered upwards of 40% in wage increases over the six-year contract, according to a person with knowledge of negotiations. The ILA is not publicly discussing its demands but it is reportedly asking for annual pay hikes that would result in raises totaling 77% through the life of the contract, with top pay climbing from $39 an hour to $69.

The union says it has continued to talk with the USMX, just not in face-to-face negotiations. It said management knows what it is demanding in order to get a deal done and that any strike will be management’s fault, not the union’s. It said its demands are reasonable given the level of profits in the shipping industry.

The American economy expanded at a  3% annual pace from April through June, boosted by strong consumer spending and business investment, the government said Thursday.

The Commerce Department reported that the nation’s gross domestic product — the nation’s total output of goods and services — picked up sharply in the second quarter from the tepid 1.6% annual rate in the first three months of the year.

Consumer spending, the primary driver of the economy, grew last quarter at a 2.8% pace. Business investment was also solid: It increased at a vigorous 8.3% annual pace last quarter, led by a 9.8% rise in investment in equipment.

The third and final GDP estimate for the April-June quarter included figures showing that inflation continues to ease, to just above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target. The central bank’s favored inflation gauge — the personal consumption expenditures index, or PCE — rose at a 2.5% annual rate last quarter, down from 3.4% in the first quarter of the year.

A category within GDP that measures the economy’s underlying strength rose at a solid 2.7% annual rate, though that was down from 2.9% in the first quarter. This category includes consumer spending and private investment but excludes volatile items like exports, inventories and government spending.

The Conference Board on Tuesday reported that its Consumer Confidence Index fell this month to 98.7, down from an upwardly revised August reading of 105.6.

The Justice Department sued Visa on Tuesday, accusing the company of illegally monopolizing the debit card market and therefore driving up prices for businesses and consumers.

The lawsuit, filed in the Southern District of New York, says Visa handles more than 60% of debit card transactions in the U.S. and collects more than $7 billion in annual processing fees. The company allegedly used its market power to stifle competition and keep fees artificially high, according to the suit.

The University of Wisconsin–Madison remains a top destination for talented students from the state, the nation and the world, with a record-setting 65,933 applicants for this year’s fall freshman class. The university enrolled 8,516 freshmen, its second-largest freshman class. It also welcomed 1,375 new transfer students to campus this fall. 

UW–Madison is once again exceeding its commitment to enroll a minimum of 3,600 new Wisconsin resident freshmen. This year’s figure of 3,825 is especially significant given the stagnant number of Wisconsin high school graduates and the decreasing number of Wisconsin high school graduates pursuing post-secondary education. 

A separate Board of Regents enrollment policy measures UW–Madison’s commitment to the state by requiring the university to enroll annually at least 5,200 new undergraduate students (new freshmen and new transfers) who are Wisconsin residents or Minnesota reciprocity students based on a three-year rolling average. The university exceeds this with its most recent average of 5,616.

The GOP-controlled House approved a resolution Friday that would overturn a new Biden administration rule on automobile emissions that Republicans say would force Americans to buy unaffordable electric vehicles they don’t want.The House passed the measure, 215-191. Eight Democrats voted in favor, while one Republican, Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, voted no.

The rule issued by the Environmental Protection Agency in March would impose the most ambitious standards ever in the United States to cut planet-warming emissions from passenger vehicles.

Under the regulation, industry could meet the limits if 56% of new vehicle sales are electric by 2032, the EPA said. The standard also would require at least 13% plug-in hybrids or other partially electric cars by 2032, as well as more efficient gasoline-powered cars that get more miles to the gallon than cars currently on the road.

“The EPA’s latest tailpipe emissions rule is not really about reducing air pollution. It’s about forcing Americans to drive electric vehicles,’’ said Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Washington, the chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

She called the rule “unreasonable” and “just another example of how the Biden-Harris administration’s rush-to-green agenda is handing China the key to America’s energy future, jeopardizing our auto industry and forcing people to buy unaffordable EVs they don’t want.’’

The new standards are designed to be technology-neutral and performance-based, EPA Administrator Michael Regan said, noting that there are “multiple pathways companies can choose to comply″ with the rule. The EPA could achieve its carbon pollution goals even if sales of battery electric vehicles are as low as 30% in 2032, as long as stringent standards for gas-powered cars are met, he said.

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday enacted its first interest rate cut since the early days of the Covid pandemic, slicing half a percentage point off benchmark rates in an effort to head off a slowdown in the labor market.

With both the jobs picture and inflation softening, the central bank’s Federal Open Market Committee chose to lower its key overnight borrowing rate by a half percentage point, or 50 basis points, affirming market expectations that had recently shifted from an outlook for a cut half that size. The decision lowers the federal funds rate to a range between 4.75%-5%.

In addition to this reduction, the committee indicated through its “dot plot” the equivalent of 50 more basis points of cuts by the end of the year, close to market pricing. The matrix of individual officials’ expectations pointed to another full percentage point in cuts by the end of 2025 and a half point in 2026. In all, the dot plot shows the benchmark rate coming down about 2 percentage points beyond Wednesday’s move.

“The Committee has gained greater confidence that inflation is moving sustainably toward 2 percent, and judges that the risks to achieving its employment and inflation goals are roughly in balance,” the post-meeting statement said.

A report card from a group of civil engineers graded Wisconsin’s infrastructure with a C+ in an assessment that covers 17 categories, including parks, roads and energy.

The American Society of Civil Engineers issues the report card every four years as a way to give residents and policymakers a picture of where a state stands when it comes to transportation, water systems, waste management and other infrastructure. This year, Wisconsin became the first state to have broadband evaluated as part of the report.

The report card is intended to identify infrastructure areas with critical needs and to keep things running smoothly where the state is already doing well. The report authors offered three key recommendations for raising the state’s grade in 2028:

• Increase overall investment in infrastructure;
• Ensure that infrastructure is safe, reliable and resilient;
• Monitor access and improve data collection.