Busloads of Wisconsin Utility Investors members from the Green Bay and Milwaukee areas, plus many others arriving on their own, met at the Inn on the Park Hotel in Madison May 20th to hear WUI Chairman Roger Cole, WUI Executive Director Bob Seitz and representatives of the five state utilities and the American Transmission Company discuss current issues before the Wisconsin Legislature affecting utility shareholders. Attendees then walked to the Capitol where they met with legislators to inform them about important utility concerns. After lunch, the group heard Assembly Energy and Utilities Committee Chair James Soletski, D-Green Bay, discuss the future of nuclear energy and other issues.

May 20, 2009 · 10:00am-1:00pm
Let your representatives know they need to protect your investments!!

There has never been a more critical time to join with other WUI members and make your voice heard. Among the issues the Legislature faces are:
• Lifting Wisconsin’s Nuclear Moratorium
• Fuels for our future. Interest groups in Madison constantly fi ght over how to generate electricity in the future and how utilities can cover the cost of fuel. Citizens and investors need to join that debate.
• Returns on our investments are under attack. The Mandatory Debt legislation WUI members defeated last year is likely to return this year. We cannot allow government to eliminate our shareholder returns and force excessive debt on Wisconsin utilities.

HERE’S HOW IT WORKS. . .
You can drive to Madison or ride one of the comfortable coach buses from Brookfield or Green Bay. We will meet at the Inn on the Park Hotel across the street from the State Capitol at 10:00am.

Once in Madison, you will hear up-to-the-minute updates from Legislative leaders and representatives of Wisconsin utilities.

We will schedule meetings for you with your own State Senator and Representative in their offi ces in the Capitol. Members will join into groups to meet with their legislators together. If there is anything you’ve wished you could say to your elected representatives, this is your chance to meet them in a group of voters with the same interests.

After meeting with legislators, we will return to the Inn on the Park for lunch and door prizes. By 1:00 pm, you will be on your way home.

Transportation will be provided by coach buses picking up WUI members from the following locations:

Brookfield • Departs at 8:30am from the Goerke’s Corners Park and Ride located off I-94 at the US-18 exit in Brookfi eld.

Green Bay • Bus departs at 7:30am from the Brown County Packerland Park and Ride in Green Bay. Passengers should take WIS 29/32, and head south on County EB (Packerland Avenue). The lot is located to the left.

WUI is a grassroots organization that depends on citizens making themselves heard. Join us at the Capitol, meet your legislators and make yourself heard!
WATCH FOR REGISTRATION FORMS IN THE MAIL

After more than fi ve years of planning and construction, the American Transmission Company has completed conversion of ten miles of transmission lines in Walworth County Wisconsin to 138,000 volts. The voltage conversion is the fi rst phase in ATC’s 30-mile conversion project in Rock and Walworth Counties that will strengthen the electric system serving the growing areas.

The eastern segments of the project, from the Elkhorn Substation located in the City of Elkhorn to the Bristol Substation and extending to the Southwest Delavan Substation located outside of Delavan, are now energized and operating at 138,000 volts. The remaining 22 miles of western segments of this multi-year, multi-phase system upgrade will continue to operate at 69,000 volts until ATC completes construction and upgrades this summer.

“This is a key milestone in the project and immediately benefits residents and business owners in Walworth County,” according to Mary Carpenter, local relations representative. “We are eager to complete the remaining work on the western segments and complete the entire conversion this summer.”

According to Carpenter, the remaining effort includes work on several substations in Rock County, modifi cations to some existing lines and the replacement of an existing line through the City of Delavan between the Bristol and Delavan substations. “Crews have begun work and will wrap up in June,” she said. The final phase of the project, which will begin this summer, includes removing several miles of existing 69,000-volt lines that will be retired once the conversion is complete. These include a line north of the City of Delavan and a line between the Bristol Substation and Lake Geneva.

Reps. Henry Waxman (D-California) and Edward Markey (D-Massachusetts) have introduced a 684 page draft bill called the “Clean Energy and Security Act,” which includes sweeping policy proposals, including a cap-and-trade program. The bill calls for cutting greenhouse gas emissions 20 percent below 2005 levels by 2020 and mandates tougher efficiency standards for appliances. The bill also requires that the U.S. derive 25 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2025. The bill fails to specify exactly how the costs of the emitting carbon will recovered. It calls for a cap-and-trade system that would place a limit on how much greenhouse gas emissions businesses and companies would be allowed to emit and requires companies to seek permits to emit beyond that amount. However, the bill fails to specify how the system would work. On the encouraging side, earlier this month, the U.S. Senate passed a measure requiring that any legislation seeking to impose a cap-and-trade program must receive sixty votes in order to pass. The vote will make passing any cap-and-trade legislation extremely difficult since Democrats hold a majority in the Senate, but do not, by themselves, have the votes necessary to reach the 60-vote threshold.

The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (MPUC) has granted the CapX2020 utilities a Certificate of Need to construct three 345-kilovolt electric transmission lines in Minnesota. The decision confirms the need for a major upgrade of the region’s transmission system to meet customers’ growing demand for electricity and to increase access to new resources, including renewable energy in southern and western Minnesota and in North and South Dakota.

“The planning and regulatory review for high-voltage transmission lines is detailed, extensive and comprehensive,” said Laura McCarten of Xcel Energy, a CapX2020 coleader. “The commission’s decision affirms the need for new infrastructure that will serve Minnesota customers with affordable, reliable electricity for years to come.”

The project’s Certificate of Need application was fi led in August, 2007, starting a rigorous state review process that culminated in today’s decision. The three transmission lines approved are:
• A 240-mile, 345-kilovolt line between Brookings County, South Dakota, and Hampton, Minnesota, plus a related 345-kilovolt line between Marshall and Granite Falls, Minnesota.;
• A 250-mile, 345-kilovolt line between Fargo, North Dakota and Alexandria, St. Cloud and Monticello, Minnesota.
• A 150-mile, 345-kilovolt line between Hampton and Rochester, Minnesota, and La Crosse, Wisconsin

The decision by the state MPUC is the first major step in a regulatory process that is expected to take at least another 18 months. The lines must also get Minnesota permits for their routes and face regulatory hurdles in North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin.

The National Weather Service has issued an unusual warning because of a Dodge County wind farm which may be disrupting its ability to monitor storms in southeastern Wisconsin. The service claims the wind farm’s giant turbines – each as wide as a football fi eld and as tall as a 20-story building – are sending false storm signals to the government’s weather radar system.

Weather service officials say they see no significant public safety threat, although they say the wind farm has caused radar interference and could confuse some storm watchers.

Located just outside the Dodge County community of Iron Ridge, the wind farm includes 36 turbines that began operating over the past few months, generating electricity for several surrounding communities. The farm is about 30 miles north of the National Weather Service offi ce in Sullivan, which provides radar coverage and severe weather alerts across a 125-mile radius that includes all of southeastern Wisconsin.