Dispute over Pollution Derails Wisconsin Electricity Proposal

[Guest guest]

Dispute over Pollution Derails Wisconsin Electricity Proposal

BY DENNIS CHAPTMAN

MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL

Jul. 1--MADISON, Wis.--A regional rift over air pollution has helped bog

down a plan to improve electric reliability in Wisconsin.

Differences between western Wisconsin lawmakers and those in the eastern

half of the state have slowed progress on the pioneering bill that would

lift the state's utility asset cap and consolidate transmission facilities.

Although the Assembly hoped to take up the bill on Tuesday, it never made it

to the floor.

``They don't have the votes to pass the bill by breaking the deal (that) the

governor and the affected parties put together,'' Assembly Minority Leader

Shirley Krug (D-Milwaukee) said of majority Republicans. ``There is no

position in this house.''

A major sticking point is the bill's exemption of electric generating

facilities in 25 counties in western Wisconsin from state rules governing

the release of nitrogen oxide.

That exemption -- included in Gov. Tommy G. 's delicately crafted

proposal but scrapped by the Assembly last week -- would mean that

non-utilities in the eastern part of the state would have to make up those

reductions.

The exemption would primarily benefit La Crosse-based Dairyland Power

ative, which has filed suit in federal court seeking relief from

Environmental Protection Agency rules on nitrogen oxide emissions.

Assembly Utilities Committee chairman Tim Hoven (R-Port Washington) said

several western Wisconsin lawmakers backed away from supporting the bill

after the exemption was removed.

``We probably lost seven or eight votes,'' Hoven said.

Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce lobbied against the exemption in a letter

to lawmakers.

``As originally proposed, this carve-out will unfairly shift the cost of

nitrogen oxide emissions,'' wrote Borgerding, WMC director of

legislative relations.

Borgerding said the exemption does not relate to the broader goals of

improving electric reliability.

Dairyland estimates it would have to spend more than $100 million to meet

nitrogen oxide emission standards, and argues that would do nothing to

address ozone levels in non-attainment areas in Wisconsin or any other

state.

The Assembly amended the bill last week, removing the air pollution

exemption and $47 million for energy conservation and aid for the poor. The

bill didn't make it to a final vote, however, and was supposed to reach the

floor on Tuesday.

That vote never came.

With Democrats angered by the removal of the public benefits portion of the

bill and western Wisconsin legislators miffed about nitrogen oxide, Assembly

Speaker Jensen (R-Town of Brookfield) seems in a bind.

``I think our house has clearly established its position on the electric

reliability issue. The public benefits question passed with 55 votes, the

nitrogen oxide portion passed with 68 votes,'' Jensen said.

But a vote to prohibit amendments to the measure passed on a more tenuous

51-47 margin. Jensen led the charge to remove the public benefits portion of

the bill.

Rep. Spencer Black (D-Madison) criticized Jensen for trying to

``grandstand'' on the issue.

``You can't unilaterally pull an agreement like this apart,'' Black said.

``The action on the floor was more related to a future gubernatorial

campaign than to improve electric reliability.''

Steve Hiniker, director of the Citizens Utility Board, said the Republicans'

tampering with the bill has jeopardized the compromise that resulted in

's proposal.

Unless a compromise is worked out before the Assembly's expected session

today to pass a budget conference committee resolution, the reliability plan

seems bound for that committee.

Assembly Republicans want to consider the measure as a separate bill, but

Senate Democrats have included the plan -- with the exemption and the $47

million in public benefits -- in their version of the budget.

Visit the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on the World Wide Web at

http://www.onwis.com/

© 1999, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune

Business News.