350 Wisconsin, Faith in Place, Healthy Climate Wisconsin, in partnership with the Clean Economy Coalition of Wisconsin: Wisconsin gubernatorial candidates weigh in on pressing environmental and econmic issues in first of two statewide forums

Madison, Wis. – Last night, more than 300 voters, community leaders, and media from across the state joined the first of two statewide, virtual forums to hear gubernatorial candidates share their policy approaches to clean energy, fossil fuels, data center development, utility accountability, transportation, and community resilience.

Mandela Barnes, Missy Hughes, Sara Rodriguez, and Kelda Roys participated yesterday. The second forum, which will be held on May 19th, will include candidates Joel Brennan, David Crowley, Francesca Hong and Andy Manske discussing the same issues. All major gubernatorial candidates were invited, with only Tom Tiffany declining to attend both dates.

The forums are hosted by 350 Wisconsin, Faith in Place, and Healthy Climate Wisconsin, in partnership with the Clean Economy Coalition of Wisconsin. A recording of the first Forum can be found here.

The two-part format is designed to allow for deeper discussion and broader candidate participation.

There is still time to register for the second forum on May 19 at 6:30 p.m.

Attached are transcripts excerpted from the candidates’ responses to each question. Questions are indicated in bold.

Most of our surrounding states have passed laws that commit them to achieving 100% clean by a certain date. What is your plan to achieve 100% clean energy in Wisconsin by 2050? (Video Timestamp: 00:03:45.000)

Former Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes: I can tell you that there aren’t many more people in the state of Wisconsin who fought harder to build a pathway to renewable energy than I have. I’ve worked with farmers. I’ve worked with business leaders. I’ve worked with youth advocacy organizations, you name it, to ensure that Wisconsin’s put together the most bold, comprehensive plan to address the climate crisis and also create good paying jobs. And I’m glad you brought up Governor Evers’ participation in the US Climate Alliance. I will say that I am the only candidate who has also participated in the U.S. Climate Alliance, led the delegation to COP26 in Madrid, Spain, to further our goals and our commitment to upholding the tenets of the Paris Climate Agreement. Now, I was fortunate to have led this work as lieutenant governor, chairing the Climate Change Task Force. But also out of office, leading the implementation work of former President Biden’s historic climate law with an organization I started called Forward Together Wisconsin. We created good-paying union jobs. We lowered energy bills in real time, and we also created common solutions that were paid for by the federal tax credits. Now, unfortunately, the president and allies in Congress, like Congressman Tiffany, decided to repeal those credits. But we’re going to work hard and bring those credits back at the state level so that we can achieve our clean energy future together. And as governor, I will ensure that we
continue to invest in renewable energy across the state.

Former Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation CEO Missy Hughes: I spent my career working at the nexus of the economy and the environment, working on the executive team at Organic Valley for 17 years. We were completely focused on how you can produce amazing quality products and do it in conjunction with Mother Nature. We set a goal for climate
neutrality, and we achieved that ahead of the time that we set. It is incredibly important that we protect our environment, but we do it in a way that has actual results. My focus at Organic Valley, and then as the secretary of WEDC, was to target ways to actually implement progress on achieving goals and results when it comes to reducing our impact on climate. And as
governor, my plan would include both setting those goals, but then actually making sure we implement them. And we need to implement them both on the side of achieving more renewable energy to make sure that Wisconsin is no longer importing fossil fuels and the tremendous cost to our environment and our economy because of that, but also making sure that we bring
ourselves along towards having less impact on the climate, and that includes making sure that we are addressing how our manufacturers and how our businesses can become more efficient, can become more conscious of their impact on the economy, and then make changes around that.

State Senator Kelda Roys: Wisconsin doesn’t have any fossil fuels, right? So every fossil fuel that we use is something that we’re importing from elsewhere. But we do have tremendous capacity for wind, for solar, for geothermal, and for the technology that is going to help power this clean energy generation movement. It’s a huge economic opportunity, as well as the chance
to have lower energy costs and cleaner air. That’s my plan and my focus as governor. We know that renewable energy will help also protect us from some of the tremendous economic harms that we’re seeing as a result of President Trump’s illegal attack on Iran. We do not want to be held hostage by what’s going on in the Strait of Hormuz, and so transitioning in this way is not just economically protective and environmentally protective, it also helps protect us from some of the chaotic excesses of this Trump regime. The good news is that Wisconsin actually already has a really good starting point. We don’t have to start from scratch. The Office of Sustainability and Clean Energy has put forth a really good roadmap that includes four main strategies,
including accelerating the development of clean energy. As I’ve talked about, investing in infrastructure, updating our emissions goals, expanding how the state credits for energy generation, but also maximizing energy efficiency, because the cheapest, best energy is the kilowatt we don’t have to use, modernizing buildings, and innovating in transportation.

Lieutenant Governor Sara Rodriguez: So, I think the climate crisis is the public health emergency of my lifetime, and I say that as a nurse who’s spent her career responding to public health emergencies. And the science is settled on this. The cost of inaction means that it is paid in asthma diagnoses, in lost crops, in flooded basements, in school days lost to heat, and in water that isn’t safe to drink. So we are going to have to make this the priority that it is. And I would say that as governor, 2050, those
goals, it’s the floor, not the ceiling. Minnesota, Michigan, Illinois, they’ve already passed laws, and Wisconsin won’t get there with executive orders that disappear for the next election. We’re going to have to get there by statute, and with the PSC that works for ratepayers, and with a clean energy build out paid for by the people who profit from it, not by Wisconsin’s
grandmothers. And so I’m going to defend Governor Evers’ executive order. His commitment to 100% carbon free electricity by 2050. And wherever the grid, the workforce and working families can carry us faster, we will go faster. And as governor, I’ll have an administration that pushes utilities forward, not one that protects them from the pace of that change. Michigan passed that
100% clean energy law. Minnesota, Illinois, and we have all of these other ones that have surrounded us, and we only have it by executive order. And so this is why we’re going to have to have that trifecta in 2026 to get this done.

The moment you enter office, how would you approach active fossil fuel proposals like the Line 5 re-route and new gas plants? (Video Timestamp: 00:16:17.000)

Former Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation CEO Missy Hughes: I had the opportunity as Secretary of Economic Development to sit down with each of Wisconsin’s tribes, both in consultation with everybody at once and then individually. And I remember so distinctly sitting with some Tribal leaders and them looking at me as the head of Wisconsin Economic Development and reflecting that the previous administration, through my agency, had really ignored their Tribal sovereignty and their Tribal rights and their respect for the land as a government in prior years, and I deeply held that I would never want to be someone who was disregarding their incredible respect and love for the environment as a leader and as governor. I would make sure that we are not building old infrastructure for an old energy source. And that’s exactly what the pipeline is. Simply building for the old way of providing energy, and where we have resources, where we are moving forward, we have to be doing it with renewable energy. And so, I would work to shut down that project across our very delicate lands, and make sure that we have the focus on building the energy infrastructure that we need. Wisconsin has the
opportunity to be the manufacturer of that energy infrastructure, and that’s where we need to focus our work and our resources.

State Senator Kelda Roys: For me, the number-one goal that I have related to fossil fuels is to bring coal-fired plants offline. We know that they are hugely problematic to human health. The cost is in the billions of dollars a year of adverse health impacts that we have, and so transitioning to cleaner, greener energy, has to start by getting rid of coal-fired power plants. It’s
sort of like you want to pay off your high-interest debt before you pay off the low-interest mortgage that you might have. But I think we also have to really aggressively question this notion that somehow Wisconsin needs a lot more energy generation, and the only way to do that is just to build more energy generation and natural gas power plants. We have a lot of underutilized capacity in our grid right now, and we don’t really talk about that, but if we just increased the utilization of our grid, we can actually get more power without having the massive infrastructure costs that then get passed on to ratepayers. And keep our grid functioning better. We can also make use of the distributed capacity of virtual power plants, right? You know, we have not even scratched the surface of this. And we can also prioritize large load flexibility when you have big, massive users. And say, you know what, if it’s 105 degrees, we want to be able to turn your power off or turn it down, and by the way, you can bring your own capacity. These are highly technical answers to fix this larger strategic question.

Lieutenant Governor Sara Rodriguez: One of the things I have done as Lieutenant Governor is I have made sure that monthly that we meet with Tribal leaders. So I want to suggest, you know, two things are true, that the Bad River Band is a sovereign nation, and that the Bad River is their homeland. It’s not a pipeline corridor, and the community has been clear what it needs, and I do stand with them about what they’re wanting. But the men and women of Wisconsin’s building trades are not the enemy in this fight. They never have been. They have built this state, and they’re going to build whatever comes next. And so the fight in front of us isn’t workers versus tribes, which is what people want us to do. It’s that Line 5 is a 1953 oil pipeline owned by a Canadian corporation that has a documented history of spills and that happened in Minnesota. And it’s moving Canadian oil through Wisconsin to Ontario, so it’s not really helping us specifically. And it’s just fundamentally different than in-state generation and serving Wisconsin homes and businesses. And I think Wisconsinites understand that distinction. I don’t think one foreign oil company gets to dictate what Wisconsin’s water future or override a sovereign nation’s treaty rights. They just simply don’t. And I will direct the DNR to enforce every condition on Enbridge to the letter, and I will hold them financially accountable if there’s any spill, any violation, any cut corner.

Former Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes: This is about prioritizing the future. I got involved in sustainability efforts during my time as an organizer. It was a coalition of folks who came together to take on the state’s largest utility because of the impact of coal burning power plants on the health of Black and Brown and low-income communities. I kept that commitment during my time in the state legislature. My very first speech on the assembly floor was in opposition to a proposed mine because of the health impacts and the fact that communities had been ignored, people who had voiced their concerns and who ultimately felt left behind and betrayed by a broken system. To that point, when we look at the issue of Line 5, the fact that
communities have stood up in opposition, the fact that Tribal sovereignty has been disregarded, the fact that people’s pleas for this to not happen and it continues to be ignored is an indictment on the way that things have been going for far too long. And when I say we have to prioritize the future, we know exactly how we can power this state, and it’s the way we need to power this entire country. We need to focus on renewable energy because the resources are there for us to prioritize this. And we also have a roadmap because we’re so late to the game. The fact is, Illinois, Minnesota, and Michigan are all out in front of us. And as I mentioned, even Iowa is out in front of us. We should be focusing more on creating good paying jobs by increasing our renewable energy capacity here in Wisconsin.Public Service Commissions across the country are playing important roles in
determining how utilities can contribute to a more affordable, green, and sustainable energy system. In Wisconsin, our Public Service Commission is governed by state statutes that were established in the early 1900s. This law does not allow for the PSC to consider climate change or the impact of pollution on Wisconsinites when making their decisions.

Would your administration support a change to this law? How would you support making this happen? (Video Timestamp: 00:23:05.000)

Lieutenant Governor Sara Rodriguez: I think the PSC appointments, which I mentioned earlier, it’s one of the clearest powers that the governor has that does not need the legislature to be able to enact. And so, these are real concrete deliverables that you can expect from your governor. And as governor, what I can commit to is appointing commissioners who have demonstrated independence from utility interests. So, you know, no former utility lobbyists, no revolving door. You know, I want to make sure that we have appointments that bring climate science, ratepayer advocacy, frontline community and labor expertise. And we should explicitly broaden the talent pool beyond the traditional utility attorney pipeline. And yes, I do think that we should have a climate risk in integrated resource plans. Real scrutiny of what the utilities loads are forecasting. And we have to have a hard look at who pays for that capacity. And I think that we have to make sure that we just don’t take those things on spec, that we have to really look at them to make sure that those are accurate assessments. And I do think that the Citizens Utility Board can be a model for the kind of voice that can be amplified in PSC proceedings. That way, we can have individuals within Wisconsin have a voice in what that looks like in terms of increased utility prices all across the state.

State Senator Kelda Roys: As governor, I will make sure that my PSC commissioners are going to be advocates for ratepayers and for consumers. They are going to be conversant in and advocates for clean energy. What they will not be is lobbyists or lawyers for big utilities and investor-owned fossil fuel companies. Our PSC is running on some very, very outdated
regulations, and it really needs to be modernized. I will direct the commission to consider holistic look from climate impact to the cost of pollution, long-term environmental and public health impacts when they’re making decisions about utilities and energy infrastructure. I’ve long been a supporter of integrated resource planning, which is basically forcing the utilities to
cooperate with each other and looking at the whole picture rather than just one little piece of it and taking the utility’s word for it. We also need to make sure that the PSC has the staff necessary to actually interrogate the claims that utilities are making, right? If utilities can just run the table and there aren’t the staff to actually look into the claims that they’re making, then we
don’t really, as rate payers and as members of the public, we don’t have any way to contest that and say, actually, no, WEC, we’re not going to increase your rates again. We also need to increase funding for the Citizens Utility Board. They are our advocates, and they are, you know, wildly outmatched in terms of staffing capacity. And so, helping to equalize that will have a
positive impact on all of us.

Former Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation CEO Missy Hughes: So having been the only one here who sat on the governor’s cabinet, I worked intimately with the public service commissioners that Governor Evers had appointed and understood that, first and foremost, your public service commissioners, my public service commissioners will need to
represent my values because regardless of what we can do and how we can work forward to change policies you need to have someone on your team that reflects what you’re trying to accomplish, and that goes for any of the agencies. We have to make sure that across the board, we have a governor who has appointed cabinet members who reflect the values that they are
trying to administer and accomplish for the state. As a secretary sitting on the cabinet, I saw the ability to move so much of the executive branch and the administration just by leading with your values and just by making sure that when you are implementing things, when you’re pursuing projects, you are doing that in a way that reflects the governor’s values, and that would be what I would seek to do with the public service commissioners. Of course, we need to modernize our statutes. We always need to do that, but in the meantime, we need to make sure that we have people who are representing the ratepayers, representing the environment, and doing everything they can to think about how to move Wisconsin forward and protect our environment and while making sure that we have a grid that also protects our vulnerable communities.

Former Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes: (I’m) really honored to be a part of this fight and being a part of leading this conversation about ensuring that our PSC is actually serving in the interests of people. When I put out my freeze the rates plan, it calls for banning that revolving door that allows commissioners to go on and serve as utility executives or lobbyists.
Now, right now, the agency is not adequate when it comes to doing its job and representing the public interest, and the way that we do that is by putting guardrails in place The same way people are frustrated at how members of Congress get to go on and serve as lobbyists or in industries that they once regulated, it is an issue of public trust and it’s an issue of preventing corruption. It is necessary for any governor to implement these sort of measures. Having the first public service commission in the country means that we have set a standard, but we shouldn’t just maintain that standard. We should be advancing that standard to meet the moment that we currently find ourselves in. Now, they don’t only need stronger power to tackle the climate crisis, but we have to take a hard look at the responsibility to make sure that theare putting our interests over those of monopolies and corporate execs who continue to make out like bandits while the rest of us get ripped off. And that ends when I become governor, no matter who gets in the way. I will freeze the rates. We’re going to lower energy costs, and we
are going to make sure that the interest of the people of the state of Wisconsin are put at the forefront.

What percentage of renewable energy would you power hyperscale data centers with and what would your timeline be? (Video Timestamp: 00:30:29.000)

State Senator Kelda Roys: So, this question seems like it has an obvious answer, right? If we want to decarbonize, if we want to have a clean energy future by 2050, why would we invest in these massive energy hogs and try to build up a bunch of new fossil fuel infrastructure? If you’re going to build something, you should build it right. And so, getting to 100% or as close to 100% as possible is the obvious solution. What I can tell you is absolutely non-negotiable is making sure that data centers and these other massive users pay for 100%, not just of the energy that they use at enhanced rates, but of the new energy infrastructure that is occasioned by their building. We have to have full transparency from both the data centers and from the utilities about exactly what these big data centers are going to require of us to make sure that ratepayers are not left holding the bag. And again, I think we have to be really skeptical of some of these claims that we’re going to need massive new power plants when we haven’t even done the low-hanging fruit of integrated resource planning and using the distributed capacity that
hasn’t even really been tapped in Wisconsin, and mandating increased grid utilization so that we are using our infrastructure that already exists more efficiently. That is a huge driver of the cost, and that is how we’re going to save the most money and save the most energy.

Former Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes: Well, thank you so much, and as my goal is for Wisconsin, or being Wisconsin, having reached 100% renewable energy, we should expect the same thing from any industries, especially when it comes to hyperscale data centers. Now, if there are going to be data centers in Wisconsin, the reality is they have to be good neighbors until they reach that good neighbor standard, meaning that they contribute more than they take away. That is the point of acceptance, in my opinion. Now, as governor, the secrecy deals have to be banned, and we have to ensure that these large corporations, which are the most profitable corporations in the history of this planet by the way, they have to play by the same rules or they can’t be built here in Wisconsin. That includes a statewide framework that ensures that each data center can only be constructed if there is community buy-in, community input and a community benefits agreement. And costs will not be passed on to Wisconsinites. There will be a standard for energy usage and a standard for water quality and air quality as well, where there will be zero pollution. This will be factored in through ongoing quality monitoring from the state’s agencies, and we have to have the statewide framework because we don’t want a data center that is rejected by one community, (and) then they just pick up sticks and go a few blocks down the road to the next community or whoever will have them. We have to ensure that everybody is playing by the same rules here. We also have to ensure that if they are built, it’ll be Wisconsin union workers that staff the centers.

Lieutenant Governor Sara Rodriguez: Thank you for this question. And this is one that comes up consistently everywhere I go across the state that people are really concerned about the energy uses for data centers and the impact on the environment. So, I’ve been pretty clear, as governor, that we should have a floor for legislation and regulation for these data centers. Number one, it…absolutely has to have community involvement because many times I’m hearing out in the community that these data center agreements…the ink is dry and that’s when they hear about a data center coming into their community. We have to make sure that there’s community engagement first. Number two, they have got to pay enhanced energy rates. And so what that means is it’s not just the energy that they’re using, but if they need to pay for the maintenance on the grid, we do not want that on the backs of taxpayers. Not only those enhanced energy rates, but if they want to build here in Wisconsin, they need to invest in Wisconsin, which means they have to build renewables here in Wisconsin. That’s what we need to do. And in terms of water usage, we have to know how much. It can’t be secret, it can’t be behind closed doors or NDAs. We have to know how much water that they’re using, and having these environmental agreements, and if they’re taking water out of the system and putting it back in, it has to be at the same temperature and quality as they took it out. That’s the floor, and communities can have stricter regulations if they so choose, or say, not in my community.

Former Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation CEO Missy Hughes: So, I have set out my non-negotiables for dealing with data centers and really with any partner and any business that wants to come to Wisconsin. We need to protect the environment, we need to protect Wisconsinites and their checkbooks, protecting the ratepayers. We need to make sure
this is powered by renewable energy and that that renewable energy and any construction that’s done is done by union members. These are straightforward, and these can apply to anyone who wants to expand to Wisconsin and wants to be in Wisconsin. As Secretary of Economic Development, my goal always was to find good partners for Wisconsin, and to make sure the companies that were interested in coming here, receiving state incentives, having the benefit of using our roads and having their kids go to our schools, they needed to be good partners for Wisconsin. Again and again, I walked away from deals that weren’t something that I thought we wanted for Wisconsin. Well, I didn’t want companies that were going to come and mine or be polluters, or just chasing every smokestack. In Wisconsin, we have incredible, incredible benefits, and if someone wants to be here, they want to be here for a reason. The data centers want to be here because it’s cool and our land is cheap. Then, we need to make sure you’re going to be partners. I would love to have the legislation that’s been proposed passed because
that would enable me as Secretary of Economic Development and the next person in that role to
be able to say, this is what Wisconsin is demanding of you as a partner. Do you want to meet this or not? But you always have to have someone who’s been in the room and has experience with those negotiations.

What would you do to close loopholes that enable utility companies to use ratepayers’ money to fund lobbying, political expenses, and to stop skyrocketing executive pay and stock packages, including tens of millions of dollars for WE Energies’ top executives in 2025? (Video Timestamp: 042:48)

Former Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation CEO Missy Hughes: As Secretary of Economic Development, we were on the forefront of being the agency within the state that both was creating a green bank and had the opportunity for solar for all and to receive those funds from the federal government. This reminds me of the pain we had at the beginning of the Trump administration when those dollars were dramatically pulled back, and all of the work that we had done hosting the Green Ribbon Commission and hosting this opportunity for Wisconsin was taken away. These (programs) do take incredible federal dollars and support to really change the game on this. And in 2028, when we win back the White House and the federal government, we need to re-implement our efforts around supporting clean energy. And our utilities need to be right there with us, and they need to be supporting our efforts. We will have a public service commission that supports those efforts, and we do need to close loopholes that allow for lobbying that is against what Wisconsin has said its goals are and what we want to do to move the state forward. And we would work with the utilities to make sure that they are advocating on our behalf if we do close those… when we close those loopholes and make sure that we have a working relationship that moves Wisconsin’s renewable energies efforts forward.

Lieutenant Governor Sara Rodriguez: So, I appreciate this question, because I do think it is really important for ratepayers to know that they have a governor who’s going to fight for them. So as governor, I would fight for utility accountability and transparency act. I mean, the three pillars to that: Full disclosure and prohibition. Every dollar a Wisconsin utility spends on lobbying or trade association dues, on political contributions, that has to be paid for by the shareholders, not by the ratepayers. And it’s got to be disclosed publicly. And, they can… the shareholders can spend their own money lobbying. They can’t spend yours as ratepayers. Second, the executive compensation. We already have something from the Citizens Utility Board that’s
proposed as a possible floor to be paid by the shareholders and not by the ratepayers. Because we know that executive compensation has increased nearly 30% between 2022 and 2026. Third, we’ve talked about this already, but the structural reform of the regulatory relationship. The PSC commissioners that I appoint, we’re not going to have that revolving door. No former utility lobbyists, no, you know executives transitioning into regulatory roles. We’re going to have to bring climate science, ratepayer advocacy, frontline community people and labor expertise to broaden that talent pool of the PSC so they can make sure that the ratepayers are put first. Thank you.

Former Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes: These loopholes have been some of the most pervasive things when it comes to affordability and energy that we’re experiencing. And I’m glad to have been out front on this issue being the loudest about the need to hold our utility monopolies accountable. Now, just to paint the picture for folks in the audience, since 2020, the CEO of We Energies has seen his pay triple. At the same time, the most recent rate hike proposal would have meant that people in the state of Wisconsin would have been paying 50% more for their energy bills in the same span that the CEO saw as pay triple. That makes no sense in any sort of common-sense structure when it comes to delivering energy and having
accountability in the transmission of it. Now, I propose the banning of using ratepayer dollars and lobbying and other political expenses with the first person in the race to call for it because this was an issue that stood out. They cannot continue to get away with taking advantage of communities. The problem is, just like a lot of these tech companies, just a lot of the like a lot of
these social media companies, they have been allowed to get away with it for so long. And that’s why we need leadership that is going to end these pervasive practices not only do we need to end the use of ratepayer dollars on lobbying other political expenses, we also have to cap executive pay. Nobody should… you can’t make the argument that they’re in a crisis or
struggling to afford the capital upgrades that the pay for your CEO is going for 4 million to $12 million. Right now, they’re buying politicians and influencing a very broken system that we will fix.

State Senator Kelda Roys: This is a question about high costs, about corruption, and about corporate greed. Let’s look at what utilities are. They are monopolies that are granted by the state. You can’t choose who your energy provider is. It’s just, that’s who you’ve got. And you might have a municipal owned utility, in which case you’re very lucky. You’re probably paying
lower energy rates and getting better service. But if you are serviced by an investor-owned utility, not only are you just at their mercy, especially you’ve got a PSC that has, for too long been absolutely compliant in giving them whatever they want. We also guarantee an incredible rate of return despite the fact that this is a monopoly, right? This isn’t capitalism and competition.
Nearly 10% and far out of step with what our neighboring states do. So the first step we need to do is to bring that guaranteed rate of return down, back to Earth, commensurate with the actual risk, and to take away the incentive to overbuild. We absolutely have to ban recovery from rate payers of any outsized corporate payments, and of any kind of lobbying or advocacy activity, including membership in trade organizations, right? This is fundamental, that our dollars as ratepayers should be going to get the energy that we need, to pay for the necessary infrastructure, not to lobby our elected officials against our own interests. I will direct the PSC to take this into consideration and anytime a utility. It’s asking for rate increase, let’s look at that
executive pay. Let’s see if it’s consistent. Weatherization, installing energy efficient upgrades and having access to reliable
mass transit or purchasing an electric vehicle reduce carbon emissions and lower costs…

As governor, what specific changes would you make to increase access to these resources and lower energy bills? (Video Timestamp: 00:50:37)

Former Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes: I think you outlined so much quite perfectly. In addition to public transportation, we need more walkable communities. We need to lower our reliance on vehicle traffic for people to get from point A to point B. And this is something I have been a part of for quite some time now. Since my time serving as lieutenant governor came to a close, I started an organization from scratch. It is called Forward Together Wisconsin, and we
led on this issue to make sustainable, attainable. Because one of the biggest problems is clean energy had only been available to those folks who could afford it, not necessarily the people who could benefit from it the most, even though we all can benefit from it. And if we continue down that trend line, we would have found ourselves, as we do now with the removal of those
tax credits scenarios where wealthier individuals are paying lower energy costs than lower income households. And that’s the sort of dichotomy that we have to address that is again a part of this broken system that we are working to fix. And we got out in front. We use those tax credits to help low-income eligible households be able to make the energy efficiency upgrades
needed to lower their costs. We provided the upfront financing for energy assessments and the upfront cost for weatherization work on these homes. And Wisconsin had the highest adoption rate for the home efficiency rebate program in the entire country, not per capita, but per state on a per state basis. And we’re going to continue that work as Governor.

State Senator Kelda Roys: So, the question is actually half of the problem, right? Which is that the wealthier you are, the more likely you are to be able to have access to clean, green, sustainable energy. Things like EVs and great public transit near your house, and the ability to put solar panels on your roofs. But it also goes further than that. (It includes) the ability to have
access to high-quality healthcare or to buy organic food. The part that’s not stated is that the burden of producing dirty energy falls way disproportionately on lower-income communities, and especially on black and brown communities here in Wisconsin. So, this is really about environmental justice. One of the most important things that we can do is to help bring coal-fired
power plants offline and expand successful programs like the Weatherization Assistance Program to make sure that renters, not just homeowners or landlords, can actually apply and get all of the assistance. So, making sure that every program that we have is available to anyone, especially low-income folks who are more likely to rent, is one really important way to address this. We can also use the fact that data centers want to come here to create a massive bank, a big public infrastructure fund that can be used for clean, green energy projects. Everything from putting solar panels and geothermal on schools and public buildings to re-upping the funds for these successful programs, and making sure that they’re available toeveryone, especially low-income people. (We should also) make government more efficient so people can actually find and use these programs.

Former Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation CEO Missy Hughes: So first and foremost, we need to recognize that not having a strong energy grid is the most challenging for vulnerable communities. If you don’t have access to cooling in the summer or heat in the winter, you are going to experience the most. Difficult challenges around this, and so we have to
recognize as a state that investing in our grid and investing in renewable energy is going to make people’s lives better and more affordable. If we have a strong grid, we’re able to produce our own energy, and also if we do need to buy energy, we’re able to do it at low cost. And therefore, we’re able to really help these vulnerable communities. But we need to do more than
that. We need to think all up and down our economic chain to make sure that we’re providing folks with the incentives and the opportunities. To be able to invest in clean energy and make changes around weatherization. So, by making sure that we have programs that can help lower-income families be able to afford weatherization and be able to afford those upfront costs. But also making sure that our businesses, as they’re looking at making investments, are doing so with a mindset of clean energy and more efficiency, all up and down the chain, we can make changes to our energy usage, and then we can make things more affordable and be able to strengthen our grid at the same time.

Lieutenant Governor Sara Rodriguez: I do think of this as a public health issue. As a nurse myself, who’s worked in public health for decades, we see what happens when people don’t have access to the funds to be able to pay their heating bill or the funds to be able to weatherize their home. Keeping the air conditioning on for a kid with asthma. These are real healthcare
issues that come into play. And the irony is, the cheapest energy is the energy you don’t use, right? And the families who are paying the highest energy burden are exactly the families who are locked out of the upgrades that would lower it. And that predominantly falls on low-income people, and that predominantly falls on black and brown communities. So, renters can’t
weatherize a building they don’t own. And a family living paycheck to paycheck can’t front the capital for a heat pump when the federal tax credit covers most of it. You know, someone on a fixed income can’t qualify for a home equity loan to insulate the attic. So, the system is really upside down. First, what I would like to be able to do is expand focus on energy, and it’s the
Wisconsin’s Efficiency program. It returns about $5 for every dollar we invest in it, so we can expand that to target low-income households, renters, manufactured housing, Tribal communities, and make them first, not last. Second, fully utilize every federal weatherization dollars still flowing. We’ve got LIHEAP, we’ve got some residual inflation reduction act rebates.
Those are the kind of things that we can make sure that we’re capitalizing on.

What is your plan to support climate adaptation and community resilience planning, for both rural and urban Wisconsinites? (Video Timestamp: 00:57:59)

Lieutenant Governor Sara Rodriguez: The climate crisis isn’t something in the future, right? This is happening right now and we have got to prepare for it. And we’re already paying for it. The 2018 floods that tore through southwestern Wisconsin and Madison, the most recent floods that we’ve had. These are all things that are costing us money right now, not in the future, but
right now. So, the first thing that I would do as governor is name this as a public health emergency because it is. I would direct the Department of Health Services to work with DNR, DACAP, Emergency management to develop a Wisconsin climate and health action plan. It can be modeled after what Minnesota, Michigan, and California are already doing, and it maps risks
down to the zip code and the township. As a nurse and an epidemiologist, I know what gets measured, actually gets paid attention to, and managed. And then resilient infrastructure dollars, (ensuring) it actually reaches the places getting hit hardest. Rural Wisconsin gets more federally declared disasters than urban cities, so we have to make sure that we are getting those dollars to where they’re most needed. Third, agriculture. Wisconsin farmers are on the front lines of this, whether they signed up for it or not. So, you know, expanding cover crops, managed grazing, conservation cost share, really incentivizing the farmers to make sure that they’re doing some of these sustainable practices, and we can fund the producer-led watershed protection program already at the level that it needs to require.

State Senator Kelda Roys: Manufacturing, agriculture, and tourism- those are our top three industries in Wisconsin, and all of them are heavily dependent on our natural resources. They know that climate change is real and that the crisis is here, and climate resilience is also making sure that our economy can be resilient. We need to start building our infrastructure with an eye
towards preventing and mitigating some of the negative effects from the climate crisis that are already occurring. And I think especially about flooding, right, which is something that we deal with a lot in the Upper Midwest. Flooding can be devastating in terms of property loss, loss of life, even contamination of water. So, figuring out what we can do to help manage water, especially with the you know, changing weather that we have the freeze and thaw cycles, is going to require things like recommitting to wetlands and marshes, resilient shorelines, and renaturalization. (We need) expanded use of buffer strips, utilizing precision agriculture so that we are not planting areas that regularly flood and then pushing those nutrients right into our watersheds, right? This is about protecting us from the downsides of climate change that’s already here. I also just want to say, with the recent baseball-sized hail that we’ve seen, we need to be sure that insurance companies are actually providing the coverage that we pay for. I will direct the Commissioner of insurance to be aggressive in protecting and standing up for
consumers, and not their own profits.

Former Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation CEO Missy Hughes: I think we have a lot to learn from other communities as they’ve already started this work. I had the opportunity to travel to Darmstad, Germany, and understand how they are deploying smart technology. To be able to understand the environmental impacts and what they’re experiencing
throughout their community. And it’s this kind of data that really helps us be able to make decisions around funding and how to prioritize what we need to accomplish. At WEDC, we stood up the Wisconsin Environmental Equity Tool, which measures all around the state environmental, socioeconomic, and health impacts from climate and from issues surrounding
pollution and weather. It’s this kind of data that we need to bring into play, and then we will know how to help our communities become more resilient and plan for the future, as we know this will continue to evolve, and we need to be as smart as we can. By having this kind of data, we can understand where there might be flooding in the future, how to mitigate that by making changes to particular creeks or to dams that we have. I live in rural southwestern Wisconsin. I have seen the impacts of what has happened with the flooding. We had two 500-year floods in the span of a couple years. I have driven through Westby that recently experienced. The baseball size hail, and seeing what’s happened to the roofs and the cars. We absolutely need to act on this, but we needed to do it as smart as we can, because we have limited resources, and we need to move fast.

Former Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes: The issue is our seasons have become less and less predictable, our storm systems have become much more intense, and people are feeling the impact of this all across Wisconsin. We’ll have a never-ending rainy season or we’ll have historic droughts. And this all impacts our farming communities. This all impacts rural economies in whole, and it also impacts our urban centers as we haven’t had our building codes updated in some time. A lot of our structures in urban areas are prone to damage due to this growing intensity of storm system. So one thing we need to do is update our building codes. We also need to implement a microgrid strategy that will prevent rolling blackouts to ensure that
energy can still be distributed amongst communities in the event of one of these extreme storms. We also have to work in cooperation with some of our farmer-led watershed groups, as well as other resiliency organizations, to ensure that we’re doing everything we can to implement grants for cover crops so that some of these storms can be a little bit more managed,
and also protect these communities from historic levels of flooding. I’ve been outside a whole lot, and you still see the water has yet to recede from the last historic flooding event that we had. Communities are still going to be paying a price. If food isn’t being produced here, it’s going to lead to a lot of downstream impacts. And I mean that literally and figuratively, because downstream, a lot of pollution gets swept up and pushed into communities as well.