This year, I announced Wisconsin’s “Declaration of Energy Independence,” my plan for the state to generate 25 percent of our electricity and 25 percent of our transportation fuel from renewable fuels by 2025.
The plan also calls for Wisconsin to capture 10 percent of the market share for all production of renewable energy sources by 2030, helping our nation kick its addiction to foreign fossil fuels, and bringing $13.5 billion annually to Wisconsin’s economy by 2030. This investment would create tens of thousands of new, high-paying jobs so that our educated young people can stay in Wisconsin and enjoy all the great things that life in this state has to offer.
Our state’s energy independence strategy relies on our ability to become a leader in groundbreaking research and developing technologies to make alternative energies more affordable and available to all Wisconsin citizens – and to turn those discoveries into the high paying jobs of the future.
We are moving forward towards achieving these goals.
Last week, I announced that UW-Green Bay, UW-Oshkosh, UW-River Falls and UW-Stevens Point will take part in a pilot program to make their campuses completely energy independent within the next five years. These campuses will be the first state facilities to move “off the grid,” producing enough energy to exist independent of traditional energy infrastructure.
By committing four of our campuses to energy independence by 2012 we are tapping into the ingenuity of the UW System and laying the groundwork for a cleaner, more self-sufficient energy future in Wisconsin.
But that is just the beginning.
I am also launching a public/private initiative to invest $450 million – including nearly $80 million from the state - in renewable energy and the bioeconomy. Not only will this investment help make us more energy independent, but it will create 17,000 new jobs for Wisconsin.
My initiative has three parts:
First, we will create the Wisconsin Energy Independence Fund, which will make $50 million in low interest loans available to Wisconsin businesses looking to expand production and use of renewable energy. This investment will leverage over $100 million in private sector support. Leaders from agriculture and forest industries, private utilities and academic institutions will oversee the administration of the fund, facilitating economic development in renewable fuels.
Second, we will provide tax credits for gas stations to invest in E-85 and biodiesel tanks and pumps – increasing the availability of ethanol by more than 400 percent. We’ll make the same credits available to businesses in Wisconsin that have their own vehicle fleets and pumping stations.
And third, we will make $20 million in grants available to companies that are developing new technologies to increase renewable energy. This will not only to help lead the way to energy independence, but will leverage over $240 million in private investment and help convert new technology into high-paying jobs of tomorrow.
Of this amount, $5 million will be earmarked for Wisconsin’s effort to build the first cellulosic ethanol plant in the nation. Cellulosic ethanol – which is produced from timber or switchgrass -- has a much higher energy yield than traditional ethanol and holds the potential to create thousands of new jobs in Wisconsin.
This new state funding will encourage innovative new energy technologies across our state that will help the nation kick its addiction to oil. All together, we estimate it will generate a total of $450 million in public and private investment and create thousands of good paying jobs for Wisconsin’s future.
As I’ve always said, when it comes to our energy future, we should be more dependent on the Midwest, and less dependent on the Mideast.
