Wisconsin joined other states in the growing interest in addressing carbon emissions when it officially released a task force report in June.
The Governor’s Task Force on Global Warming agreed on a group of targets to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions to 2005 levels by 2014 and 22 percent below 2005 levels by 2022. The long-term target is a 75 percent reduction below 2005 levels by 2050. The report also recommends upping electricity generation from renewables to 10 percent by 2013 and 25 percent by 2025.
The report was produced by a task force of about 30 people, consisting of industry, government and nonprofit officials as well as private citizens. Nine subgroups also provided input on topics including carbon taxes, transportation, low-income households, forestry and technical matters.
There was some dissent: Three task force members voted not to approve the task force’s recommendations, and a significant number of recommendations and general discussion from subgroups were not included in the task force report for lack of agreement.
—Ronald A. Wirtz
