Pollution is harmful; cleanup is overdue

From a column by Francisco Enriquez in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

A cloud of soot engulfed Milwaukee recently, with particle pollution levels so high that the Department of Natural Resources issued four days of advisories and watches that warned children, older adults and people with asthma, bronchitis and heart or lung disease to pay close attention to their symptoms. On days when air pollution levels are high, more people suffer from more frequent, more severe and more deadly asthma attacks, heart attacks and strokes.

As a pediatrician on the near south side of Milwaukee, I am deeply concerned about the effects of breathing polluted air. Some of my patients' medical conditions get much worse when they are exposed to an environment that is loaded with irritants and noxious chemicals. Access to health care and medication can lead to improvement, but if they are to heal, then cleaning our polluted environment is paramount.

Where does this pollution come from? In Milwaukee, We Energies' Valley power plant, operating without modern pollution controls, is the single largest source of particle pollutants. Sitting in the Menomonee Valley among some of the most densely populated communities in the state, the stacks are neighbors to some 24,000 people who live within a mile of the plant. The pollution from the plant contributes to violations of health standards that are set to protect public health. Cleanup of the Valley coal plant is long overdue.

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'Green print' saves county greenbacks

From an article by Steve Schultze of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

$800,000 in energy saving has been realized from efficiency program

Milwaukee County has reaped some $800,000 in energy saving from its "green print" environmental program, as well as millions of gallons of water and gasoline saved through more efficient plumbing, cars and trucks.

Though slow to adopt "green" efficiencies, the county jump-started its efforts once a half-time sustainability director was assigned to monitor the program in early 2009. Since then, the courthouse complex and more than 50 other county buildings either have undergone energy audits or soon will.

Lighting, heating, cooling and other upgrades enabled the saving, though it's applied to upfront costs of some $10 million. In theory, after eight years the costs through contracts with private vendors will be covered, and savings will go to the county's bottom line.

"I'm happy with the successes we've had with the resources we've been given," said Supervisor Marina Dimitrijevic, who pushed for the program's creation in 2007. She said more could be done if the county would add more staff time to the effort.

It took more than a year to designate a green print coordinator, with the county's budget problems hindering the initiative.

"By having small changes all over the place, we'll have a very huge result," said Dimitrijevic.

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Solar energy - General overview

Our Sun is the most abundant source of energy on our planet. However, due to a long-term fossil fuel dominance as well as inadequate development of solar power technologies solar energy is far from being regarded as one of the most important energy sources in the world. Many energy experts believe that this will change in years to come, and that one day, maybe even before the end of this century

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200 people rally to support rail line

From an article by Tom Daykin in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

About 200 people attended a Saturday rally at Milwaukee's Amtrak-Greyhound station, asking Governor-elect Scott Walker to back off his pledge to cancel contracts for a planned Milwaukee-to-Madison passenger rail line.

Rally speakers said the rail service would create badly need jobs, provide a more environmentally friendly alternative to driving, and link Milwaukee and Madison to a national rail network that includes Chicago - and eventually Minneapolis.

Without that link, said state Sen. Spencer Coggs (D-Milwaukee), Wisconsin "will be isolated from the rest of the national rail network."

The rally, organized by the Sierra Club and other groups, was part of a statewide action that included rallies in Madison, Eau Claire, La Crosse, Oshkosh and Watertown.

Milwaukee rally organizers asked the crowd to write or call Walker.

Walker says the estimated annual costs to state taxpayers of operating the train, $7.5 million once fare revenue is subtracted, would be too high for an underused and unneeded service.

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Governor-elect Walker should get on board

From a post by Wallace White, principal and CEO of Milwaukee's W2EXCEL LLC, on the BizTimes blog:

Here are my reasons for supporting high speed rail for Wisconsin:

$810 million of work for our engineering firms and contractors and some of our minority and women owned companies. For example, Norris and Associates, a Milwaukee based African-American engineering firm, had won a subconsultant contract with a HSR engineering company. He had just hired 3 engineers and now has had to lay them off. The same is true for all the other companies who had just started to work on HSR contracts.

The returned money may not just go to Illinois or New York where there are Democratic governors. Other Republican governors would love to have the money. Gov. Rick Perry and the Republican administration of the state of Texas is seeking HSR funds to run trains between Dallas, Austin, San Antonio and Houston. The Republican administration of the state of South Carolina has applied for HSR funding to connect Savannah, Charleston, Florence and parts of North Carolina. The Republican administration of Minnesota has joined the Democratic administration of Wisconsin to study HSR between Minneapolis & Madison. They have received $1 million of planning money from the federal government.

The United States is in competition with the rest of the world for economic survival. Transportation is a large part of this global effort - we are competing with Japan, China, Brazil and Europe - all of which have already committed to some form of HSR to expand their economy, reduce pollution, provide service to rural areas and to the poor. Wisconsin Governor-elect Scott Walker should understand - this is part of a bigger picture. . . .

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Rally for trains this Saturday! Noon, Nov. 20, Intermodal Station

Join us as we tell Scott Walker that Wisconsin can't afford to say NO over $800 million dollars in federal grant funds for this project, 9,570 permanent jobs, and increased property values.

When: Saturday, November 20th, 12:00 - 12:45 p.m

Where: Milwaukee Intermodal Station, 433 West St. Paul Ave

Who: Congresswoman Gwen Moore (invited); Sen. Spencer Coggs, SD 6; Robert Craig, Citizen Action; Rosemary Wehnes, Sierra Club; Phil Neuenfeldt, AFL CIO (invited), and You. More details.

If we want to save this train, we need to speak up now! Join us as we tell Scott Walker that Wisconsin can't afford to say NO over $800 million dollars in federal grant funds for this project, 9,570 permanent jobs, and increased property values. Let's extend the popular Hiawatha service connecting Chicago and Milwaukee. Let's create a safe, convenient efficient way to travel throughout the Midwest. We can make a difference, IF we stand together. Please attend and bring a friend!

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LaHood says high-speed rail funds will be quickly reallocated to other states

From an article in BizTimes Daily:

The Obama administration plans to quickly reallocate money designated for high-speed rail if states granted the funds reject them, according to U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.

LaHood made the announcement Monday night to hundreds of politicians, businesspeople, urban planners and rail enthusiasts gathered in New York City to assess the state of high-speed rail in the United States. The three-day conference was presented by the U.S. High Speed Rail Association (USHSR).

Wisconsin Governor-elect Scott Walker, a Republican, has called a planned $810 million high-speed rail line between Milwaukee and Madison a “boondoggle” and is vowing to stop the project.

Ohio Governor-elect John Kasich, also a Republican, has called a planned $400 million high-speed rail line to connect Columbus, Cincinnati and Cleveland a “dead train.”

LaHood said Wisconsin and Ohio will forfeit those federal funds if their governors reject the rail lines.

When the state funds are rejected, LaHood said Monday night, they will be redistributed "in a professional way in places where the money can be well spent,” according to The Washington Post.

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Arguments against rail just don't measure up

From an editorial in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

We need jobs; this would provide some. We need economic development; this would link the state to those networks. Think of it as state money coming home.

Governor-elect Scott Walker wants to stop a fast rail line from Milwaukee to Madison essentially because he thinks it would be a waste of taxpayer money. But what's really in danger of being wasted here is opportunity: opportunity for jobs, for economic growth, for a modern balanced transportation system.

Walker ran on a campaign that emphasized the need for jobs, jobs and more jobs. He has promised to call a special session as soon as he's sworn into office aimed at creating a more business-friendly atmosphere in Wisconsin. He has promised to create 250,000 jobs in his first term. His approach is right on target.

What he and other critics of rail miss is that creating a network of fast trains to connect Midwestern cities can play an essential role in helping businesses connect and in creating jobs. Providing another option to traffic-jammed freeways and hassle-plagued airports could attract new companies and young workers who prefer working on a train to sitting in traffic or being body-scanned in an airport. Add in gas prices that are bound to go up and Wisconsin's occasionally traffic-killing weather, and traveling by rail becomes even more attractive.

Fast rail probably works best for medium-range traveling, say in the 100- to 400-mile range, which is exactly what's being discussed here. And while speeds won't reach the true high-speed standards of Europe and Japan, they are expected to be up to 110 mph by 2015 and will still provide a convenient service that avoids the hassles of driving and flying and allows passengers to rest or work while they're traveling. Using rail to connect business centers and research parks in Chicago to such centers in Milwaukee, Madison and Minneapolis could help those centers interact and feed off each other for growth.

If that network isn't built here, companies and young workers will go to places such as Denver, Minneapolis, Portland, Seattle and Salt Lake City that embrace transit, as Steve Hiniker of 1000 Friends of Wisconsin told us.

A report released earlier this year by the U.S. Conference of Mayors looked at the potential benefits of high-speed rail for four "hub" cities: Albany, Chicago, Orlando and Los Angeles. Chicago would be the center of a network that would connect the city to St. Louis, Detroit and Minneapolis (with stops in Milwaukee and Madison). The report projected "as much as $6.1 billion a year in new business sales, producing up to 42,000 jobs and $2.5 billion in new wages."

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Talgo might move plant to Illinois if Walker kills train project

From an article by Larry Sanders in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

A Spanish-owned train company would seriously consider moving its plant from Milwaukee to Illinois in 2012 if Governor-elect Scott Walker follows through on his vow to kill a planned high-speed rail line, a company executive said Wednesday night.

Also Wednesday, Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn sent Talgo Inc. a letter inviting the company to move to his state and promising to do whatever he could to lure it there.

Talgo has built a manufacturing plant at the former Tower Automotive property on Milwaukee's north side, with employment projected to reach 125 by next year. It has initial contracts to build two trains for Amtrak's existing Milwaukee-to-Chicago Hiawatha line and two trains for Oregon. Fulfilling those contracts will keep the plant in business through the spring of 2012.

The company also was hoping to build trains for a new Hiawatha extension from Milwaukee to Madison. But Walker, the Milwaukee County executive, has promised to halt work on the federally financed $810 million high-speed rail line, saying he doesn't want Wisconsin taxpayers to pick up $7.5 million a year in operating costs.

"If Wisconsin is losing its enthusiasm for its rail program and others are not, we could go to Illinois and manufacture world-class trains there," said Nora Friend, Talgo vice president for public affairs and business development. "We certainly appreciate Gov. Quinn reaching out to us. We will consider very seriously states that want to grow their rail program."

Friend emphasized that Talgo had no plans to move immediately and hopes it can stay in Milwaukee. But Walker's transition office issued a statement Wednesday reiterating the Republican governor-elect's determination to end the rail project.

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Business leaders in Milwaukee, Madison differ on train

From an article by Jason Stein in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Madison - Milwaukee business leaders are showing little public opposition to Governor-elect Scott Walker's plans to stop a Milwaukee to Madison passenger rail line while some business leaders in Madison are trying to revive the $810 million federally funded project.

One reason for that difference: Milwaukee already has the successful Amtrak Hiawatha line connecting the city to the Midwest business powerhouse of Chicago while Madison residents would need the Milwaukee line to have a rail connection to the Windy City.

Tim Sheehy, president of the Milwaukee Metropolitan Association of Commerce, said that his members are much more focused on seeing what Walker can do to balance the state budget, lower or hold down taxes and refocus Wisconsin's strategy to grow businesses. Supporting the passenger rail line - or actively opposing the newly elected governor on the issue - just isn't a priority, he said.

"Quite frankly, our focus was on ensuring that we had that (Hiawatha) connection to Chicago for lots of reasons. (The Madison line has) been more of a nice-to-have discussion than a need-to-have discussion in the business community in southeastern Wisconsin," Sheehy said Wednesday. "In a sense, why beat a dead train?"

But in Madison, business leaders do see more of a benefit to the connection to Chicago. The Greater Madison Chamber of Commerce has gone on record supporting the project.

Kevin Conroy, president and chief executive officer of the Madison biotech company Exact Sciences Corp., has been seeking to revive support for the passenger rail line. Conroy is no stranger to politics - he briefly considered running for governor last year as a Democrat before bowing out to let Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett run unopposed.

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Illinois: We'll take Wisconsin's $810M for Chicago-St. Louis route

From an article by Mary Wisniewski in the Chicago Sun Times:

Illinois wants the $810 million in federal high-speed rail money that Wisconsin Governor-elect Scott Walker has promised to reject.

“We’d love to have it,” said Illinois Transportation Secretary Gary Hannig. He said Illinois, which has already received $1.2 billion in high-speed rail funding, could spend Wisconsin’s money making further improvements to the Chicago-St. Louis corridor to add more passenger runs.

The money also could be used to build stations in Joliet and Rockford, Hannig said.

Walker, a Republican, made opposing a high-speed train line from Milwaukee to Madison a key part of his campaign against Democrat Tom Barrett. Walker objected to the state having to pay up to $7.5 million a year in ongoing operational costs.

State Sen. Jeffrey Schoenberg (D-Evanston) said he would work with other lawmakers to persuade the U.S. Department of Transportation to transfer the money to Illinois. He also would like to see trainmaker Talgo, Inc. move here. Talgo has said it can’t promise to stay in Milwaukee if the state rejects the rail project.

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Walker asks Talgo to stay; says rail decision isn't final

From an article by Jason Stein and Tom Heldin the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Madison — Governor-elect Scott Walker reached out to a Milwaukee train manufacturer Friday, seeking to keep its operations in the state long-term as he advocates for stopping a passenger rail project involving the company.

"Governor-elect Walker is reaching out to leadership at Talgo to encourage them to stay in Wisconsin," Walker spokeswoman Jill Bader said Friday.

A spokeswoman for Talgo, the U.S. unit of the Spanish firm Patentes Talgo, said that Walker told company officials that his decision to stop a proposed Madison-to-Milwaukee passenger rail line is "not final."

Walker, a Republican, campaigned on an unambiguous promise to end the passenger rail line, funded with $810 million in federal stimulus money, which he has called a boondoggle. Bader said Walker was not backing away from that promise.

This week, Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle, a supporter of the project, halted work on that line temporarily after Walker's election.

That has thrown some doubt over jobs at Talgo, which is building two trains for an existing Milwaukee-to-Chicago rail service and had plans to build two more for the proposed Milwaukee-to-Madison line. The company has a site at the former Tower Automotive property.

Democratic U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore said Friday during a briefing in her Milwaukee office that other states are clearly in line to take the funds if Wisconsin turns them down. A lack of public transportation is a significant cause of the high unemployment in the central city because residents there can't reach jobs in the suburbs, she said.

"Walker has a record of being anathema to public transportation," Moore said.

New York Governor-elect Andrew Cuomo made a pitch for the rail money that the governors-elect in Wisconsin and Ohio have pledged to reject. He sent a letter to U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood asking that the roughly $1.26 billion be redirected to pay for a rail project that would connect New York City, upstate New York, Toronto and Montreal.

"High-speed rail is critical to building the foundation for future economic growth, especially upstate," Cuomo said in a statement. "If these governors-elect follow through on their promises to cancel these projects, a Cuomo administration would move quickly to put the billions in rejected stimulus funding toward projects that would create thousands of good jobs for New Yorkers."

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DNR schedules hearing on Valley plant permit

From a blog post by Tom Content on JSonline:

An air emissions permit to operate the Valley power plant in Milwaukee should be renewed, the state Department of Natural Resources has concluded.

That finding, concerning an air emissions permit first issued in 1998, will be the subject of a DNR public hearing Thursday in Milwaukee.

Environmental groups sued the DNR this summer in Dane County Circuit Court because it had not issued an updated permit for the project.

That suit is now on hold while DNR proceeds with work on the air permit.

The Sierra Club and Clean Wisconsin, joined by several other groups, are seeking that DNR become more aggressive in requiring less pollution to be emitted by the We Energies plant, located in the Menomonee River Valley.

The Journal Sentinel reported this summer that the plant is allowed to operate under more lenient standards in part because of its age and in part because it wasn’t required to install modern pollution controls at a time when We Energies was moving forward to install those controls at other, larger power plants.

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Walker says he will stop train project to Milwaukee

From an article by Clay Barbour in the Wisconsin State Journal:

Some $800 million in contracts, a series of difficult legal hurdles and a struggling economy will not stop Governor-elect Scott Walker from doing what he promised on the campaign trail — stopping the train.

Walker, a Republican, soundly defeated Democratic Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett for the right to replace outgoing Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle. He takes power Jan. 1.

The Milwaukee County executive ran a strong campaign on a series of checkbook issues, vowing to cut government spending by $300 million, bring 250,000 jobs to Wisconsin and roll back $1.8 billion in tax increases approved last year.

But few issues so caught the public's attention as Walker's promise to stop the $810 million Milwaukee-to-Madison passenger rail project, a project officials hope one day will link the Midwest, from Chicago to Minneapolis.

Wisconsin transportation officials earlier this week signed a deal to commit the state to spending all of the $810 million in federal stimulus money on rail project, a significant move because it makes it harder for rail opponents like Walker to stop it.

Many political experts felt Walker was simply using the train to gin up voters, never truly intending to bring a halt to the project — a move that could end up costing the state millions of dollars and thousands of jobs. Some assumed Doyle rushed the contracts through in an effort to tie the governor-elect's hands.

But on Wednesday, Walker reiterated his intention to stop the train and said he believed there was a way to do it without the state losing its shirt.

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Wisconsin, feds sign high-speed rail deal

From an article in the Wisconsin State Journal:

Transportation officials have confirmed that Wisconsin and federal administrators have signed a deal to commit the state to spending all $810 million of its federal stimulus cash on a proposed Milwaukee-to-Madison high-speed rail line.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported on its website Monday night the agreement was reached just days before today's election.

The deal is significant because it could make it harder for opponents to stop the controversial project, which officials originally hoped would one day connect the Midwest, from Chicago to Minneapolis.

Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker, the Republican nominee and gubernatorial frontrunner, has said repeatedly that he wanted to stop the rail project, even if it meant repaying hundreds of millions of dollars to the federal government. On Monday, he called the deal "raw political power at its worst."

But Cari Anne Renlund, executive assistant to state Transportation Secretary Frank Busalacchi, said Gov. Jim Doyle's administration was only following its original plan for the project to create construction jobs as soon as possible.

"Essentially what this means is that we've satisfied the federal government that we are ready to start the construction phase," Renlund, the No. 3 official at the state Department of Transportation, told the State Journal. "We can put people on the job and pay them."

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US photovoltaic industry

According to the latest reports the US solar PV market grew 36% in 2009 despite the global financial crisis. However, financial crisis was still heavily felt as this number is significantly smaller compared to 2008 when there was 62% growth of US solar energy market. Looking at this data from global perspective in 2009 US was ranked fourth largest solar photovoltaic market, behind Germany, Italy

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