Commentary by Michael Vickerman, Executive Director Almost two decades have elapsed since Dr. James Hansen, a scientist with NASA Goddard Space Institute, injected global climate change into the political bloodstream. “It’s time to stop waffling,” Hansen told a Congressional panel. “The greenhouse effect is here.”

Note: RENEW and Clean Wisconsin submitted the following response to an Alliant Energy commentary that highlighted the use of biomass in a proposed Cassville generation plant. Beware of “Flex Fuel” Coal Plants by Michael Vickerman and Ryan Schryver

Commentary by Michael Vickerman RENEW Wisconsin What is it about living within sight of large wind turbines that spooks certain people to the point of irrationality?

Guest column by Michael Vickerman, Executive Director RENEW Wisconsin When FPL Energy’s windpower project in southwest Wisconsin was completed in 2001, it became the largest of its kind in the state. The 20 turbines visible from U.S. Highway 18 more than doubled Wisconsin’s wind generating capacity. Support for the Montfort project was rock-solid at every level, from local landowners to the Iowa County Board, and the windpower plant was approved without a dissenting vote.

Off the Beaten Path in Wind Country by Michael Vickerman RENEW Wisconsin November 27, 2007 In late October I went on a nine-day, 2,500-mile-long road trip from Wisconsin to the East Coast. The pretext for this journey was the annual renewable energy marketing conference, held this year in Philadelphia. There, I was to give a talk on the State of Wisconsin’s plans to buy renewable electricity to offset part of its energy use.

Cape Wind Commentary
by Michael Vickerman
August 31, 2007

When the news of a proposed windpower project in the waters off Cape Cod broke six years ago, the last thing developer Jim Gordon expected to create was a political tempest of such ferocity that it became the nation’s No. 1 energy hot spot, displacing Alaska’s North Slope in the process.

Cape Wind Commentary by Michael Vickerman September 13, 2007 This is the second installment in a series of Michael Vickerman's commentaries inspired by Wendy Williams’ and Robert Whitcomb’s absorbing new book Cape Wind, which chronicles the political clashes triggered by a proposal to build America’s first offshore windpower project. The Cape Wind proposal envisions 130 turbines in the Horseshoe Shoal area of Nantucket Sound, a shallow stretch of water equidistant from Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket Island.

July 31, 2007

Ms. Julie Heuvelman
Calumet County Planning Department
206 Court Street
Chilton, WI 53014-1198

Dear Ms. Heuvelman;

Petroleum and Natural Gas Watch by Michael Vickerman, RENEW Wisconsin July 27, 2007, Vol. 6, Number 9

Petroleum and Natural Gas Watch by Michael Vickerman, RENEW Wisconsin June 26, 2007, Volume 6, Number 8 For some turnout is the measure of success at the annual Midwest Renewable Energy and Sustainable Living Fair, held each year in central Wisconsin over the summer solstice weekend. But the presenters and exhibitors at this three-day expo have their own yardstick for gauging a good fair: jaw muscle fatigue.