Carolyn’s Coffee Connection

Lt. Governor Announces New Online Tool to Help Homes and Businesses Make Switch to Renewable Energy

Lt Governor Barbara Lawton today announced an easy way to wean your home and business from fossil fuels with the launch of a new online tool designed to connect consumers to all they need to switch to renewable energy.

“All of us in Wisconsin cherish the beauty of our environment,” Lt. Gov. Lawton said. “And every one of us has the power to keep it clean and green. I want it to be as easy as a click of your mouse to make a change that will do just that and contribute to a robust green economy.”

Lawton announced the new web tool at Carolyn’s Coffee Connection, a downtown Kenosha coffee shop that makes sustainability the foundation for its profitable business. Owner Carolyn Berg has made the switch to 100 percent renewable energy as a source of electricity in both her home and business.

Lawton said that roughly 90 percent of residential utility customers have access to “green pricing programs,” which give consumers the option to pay a small premium to power their homes and businesses with renewable energy sources like wind, landfill gas and methane. Lawton provides the website as part of her Green Economy Agenda, to boost visibility of options utilities now make available across the state.

“People in every one of 72 counties have the option to power their homes with renewable energy, but only about 1.6 percent of them take advantage of this tremendous opportunity,” Lawton said. “Imagine what we could accomplish in terms of reducing our carbon emissions, increasing our energy independence and driving development of alternative energy sources if every one of us who can afford about $10 per month made the switch to renewable energy in our home and business.”

Lawton noted that renewable energy purchased through green pricing programs goes above and beyond the ten percent renewable energy requirement dictated by the Renewable Portfolio standard signed into law by Governor Jim Doyle in 2005.

Lawton said that each household that switches to renewable energy prevents a ton of coal from being burned. For every 1,000 homes that switch to 100 percent renewable energy, 3.28 million pounds of carbon dioxide is removed from the atmosphere — the equivalent of removing 300 cars from the road for a year. Lawton said she made the change in her Madison apartment and home in Algoma in just minutes.

“Wisconsin boasts a rich mix of resources being developed to power our homes and businesses in a way that increases our energy independence and reduces our carbon emissions,” Lawton said. “From wind to landfill gas to hydroelectric power to sources of energy not yet imagined, Wisconsin is poised the lead the transition to a renewable energy future that will mean new jobs and a strengthened economy.”

The website, hosted by the Office of Energy Independence, was created as part of Lawton’s Green Economy Agenda, a series of proposals to empower smart individual and institutional action related to climate change as a strategy to strengthen Wisconsin’s competitive position in a global economy.

Those interested in purchasing renewable energy for their home or business can visit the Office of Energy Independence website at: http://power.wisconsin.gov and click on “Renewable Energy.”