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The Latest Legislative Issues
Wisconsin Legislative Review | November 2024 |
By James Buchen, Executive Director The recent election produced dramatic change in the Wisconsin Legislature. The new district maps triggered by a recent Supreme Court decision resulted in a significant shift in favor of Democratic candidates. As a consequence, Republican majorities narrowed and now stand at 18 to 15 in the Senate and 54 to 45 in the Assembly. In addition, nearly 1/3 of the Assembly turned over. Tight margins and new faces are likely to impact both the legislative process and policy outcomes next session. The last legislative session was relatively active on energy and utility issues with more than a dozen bills being introduced in each house in addition to numerous budget provisions relating to the industry. In all, six energy/utility bills passed both houses and the Governor vetoed one of them. At least two of the key pieces of legislation that didn’t pass are likely to be reintroduced in the next session which begins in January. The first of these bills would have authorized the establishment of community solar programs under which retail customers of an investor-owned utility may subscribe and receive credits against their electric bills for electricity produced by the community solar facility. Investor-owned utilities would be required to connect with, and distribute, the electricity generated by the community solar facilities. They would also be required to administer the bill credit system and purchase any unsubscribed bill credits at wholesale rates. WUI opposed this legislation because it would shift costs to non-subscribing customers, produce electricity at a higher cost than utility scale solar, and allow these entities to operate outside of normal utility regulation including consumer protections. The bill failed to pass when the session ended. The second of these bills would have authorized a right of first refusal to incumbent transmission line companies to build new transmission lines. Without this legislation transmission line projects would be governed by a new Federal regulatory framework that calls for competitive bidding for any new transmission line projects and puts MISO in charge of the approval process. WUI supported this legislation because keeping the construction and operation of Wisconsin’s transmission lines in the hands of Wisconsin utilities will keep costs down and avoid the inefficiencies that would result from the grid becoming a patchwork of transmission line operators. It also keeps the regulatory and approval process in the hands of the Wisconsin PSC. Unfortunately, this bill also failed to pass when the session ended. The right of first refusal bill is expected to be reintroduced early next session and WUI will be working to develop bipartisan support in the legislature. Wisconsin utility investors benefit from keeping the ownership of our state’s transmission assets in the hands of Wisconsin utilities rather than turning them over to out of state investors.
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WUI LEGISLATIVE ALERT | PROTECT YOUR DIVIDENDS | January 2024 |
There are only a few days left of this year’s legislative calendar during which legislators can act. Time is of the essence. Contact your State Senator and Representative as soon as possible and urge them to support SB 481 and AB 470.
BACKGROUND Legislation has been introduced (SB 481/AB 470) that would ensure Wisconsin utilities be allowed to continue building, operating, and maintaining the transmission grid in this state. Furthermore, the bills would keep regulatory control in the hands of the Wisconsin PSC.
Without these bills, transmission projects would be put up to competitive bid under a new federal regulatory scheme that would allow out of state investors to build, own and control parts of Wisconsin’s transmission system. This would render the grid less reliable, less efficient, and inevitably more costly to consumers.
Failure to pass these bills would harm utility investors. Currently the transmission grid is primarily owned by Xcel Energy and the American Transmission Company which, in turn, is owned by Alliant Energy, MG&E, WEC Energy Group and various municipal electric utilities. The transmission grid forms part of the asset base upon which income is derived for these Wisconsin utilities, out of which they pay dividends to shareholders. To the extent that out-of-state developers move in and take over construction of new transmission projects Wisconsin utilities and their shareholders will be financially affected.
TALKING POINTS In your correspondence try to make the following arguments:
- I am a shareholder of Wisconsin utility stock and (if retired) I rely on the dividends I receive to supplement Social Security and other retirement benefits.
- Please vote in favor of SB 481 and AB 470 that will allow Wisconsin utilities to continue to build, operate and maintain the transmission grid in this state.
- Without these bills various out-of-state developers will wind up owning and operating parts of our transmission grid, which will make the system less reliable, less efficient, and therefore more costly to consumers.
- Experience from other states has shown that out of state developer’s transmission projects nearly always experience significant cost overruns and the federal regulatory process leads to lengthy delays in needed transmission line expansions.
- Without these bills Wisconsin will lose regulatory control over who builds out the grid.
E-Mail | Identify your legislators and send them an email message. Who is my legislators? Click Here | Mail | Write letters addressed to your legislators. Senator___________ Representative__________ |