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Executive Summary
In the coming years, Wisconsin will need to make some difficult choices about its electricity sources. The Public Service Commission state’s electricity demand is expected to grow by 2.3 percent a year for the next decade. Efficiency measures can mitigate this demand growth, but additional power generation facilities will also be necessary—both to satisfy this increased demand and as replacement power as dirty or unsafe plants are retired. Generating power by using fossil fuels or nuclear power imposes unbearable costs on our environment, our health, and our economy. Considering these costs reveals one clear path for Wisconsin: the state must tap into clean, sustainable energy resources such as wind power, rather than increasing our dependence on dangerous, polluting power sources such as coal, natural gas and nuclear-powered plants.
Global Warming
Global warming, caused by the release of greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels, is the most severe impact of our current energy path. If emissions of greenhouse gases are not dramatically curtailed, life in Wisconsin will be significantly altered within the next century.
- Some scientists have estimated that global climate change could lead to a three to eight foot drop in Lake Michigan
- Global warming will cause significant disruption of ecosystems and thus wildlife habitats. Changing vegetation will alter wildlife population size, density, and behavior. Shifts in habitat may force as many as 35 species of birds to change their ranges to exclude Wisconsin.
- Warming is already occurring: temperatures in the past century have risen by an average of one degree.
- In 2003, Wisconsin’s coal-fired power plants released an estimated over 123.6 million tons of carbon dioxide—emissions equivalent to four times the number of cars on Wisconsin’s roads.
Air and Water Pollution
Fossil fuels burned to produce electricity also contribute to Wisconsin’s and the region’s air and water pollution problems, threatening the health of residents and impacting our quality of life.
- During 2003, the eight-hour health standard for ground-level ozone (“smog”) was exceeded 80 times in Wisconsin, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has designated ten counties in Wisconsin as violating health standards for ozone. Ground-level ozone, which is partially caused by emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx), can lead to asthma, bronchitis, increased susceptibility to bacterial infections and other respiratory problems.
- Acid rain, the result of NOx and sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions, kills forests and damages aquatic ecosystems. In Wisconsin, 37 percent of our lakes are acidic or sensitive to acid rain.
- Mercury from coal power plants has contaminated the state’s lakes and streams, leading to a statewide advisory on fish consumption.
Nuclear Hazards
Nuclear power plants are another environmental crisis in the making. Wisconsin’s aging plants generate tons of radioactive waste that will remain lethal for centuries.
- Exposure to radiation from nuclear waste can cause serious health problems, including cancer, developmental disorders, hereditary disease, accelerated aging, and immune system damage.
- Wisconsin’s two nuclear power plants are projected to have 1327 metric tons of spent fuel on site by 2011. These facilities have no safe storage options for their waste, and aging equipment at the plants increases the odds of an accident that will release waste.
- An accident involving radioactive material—whether due to mishandling, equipment fatigue or a terrorist act—could endanger thousands of people.
- Evacuation plans are woefully inadequate, so the growing populations of Kewanee and Manitowoc counties are vulnerable to the release of nuclear material from an accident or terrorist attack.
Wildlife and Habitat Destruction
Statistics about wildlife deaths related to different energy sources indicate that wind power, a renewable energy source, has a more modest impact on wildlife and habitat than do coal, natural gas, or nuclear power.
- Mining for coal or for uranium destroys vast areas of habitat. A single mine can strip up to ten square miles, disrupting individual animals and in some cases entire species. Coal mining in Tennessee threatens the habitat of the Cerulean warbler, a species that is in precipitous decline.
- One study of wind turbines indicates an average of 2.3 avian fatalities at each turbine each year, for a total of 10,000 to 40,000 birds killed per year nationwide. As more wind farms are erected in the United States, new research continues to discover ways to design and site these facilities to minimize wildlife disruption from wind farms.
Wind: The Least Damaging Choice
Wind has great potential for generating electricity that we have only begun to tap. While concerns about wind power’s impacts on vistas and birds and more recently on bats have slowed its development, the impacts are minor when compared to the harm caused by the mining and burning of coal and natural gas, or by nuclear power. Wind power does not contribute to global warming, and produces no air pollution or wastes. For these reasons, wind power, in combination with energy efficiency measures, constitutes one of the few sources with which to reasonably meet Wisconsin’s growing electricity demand.
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