If you're a resident of Wisconsin, tomorrow you'll have the opportunity to tell state government representatives what you think leaders in Madison should be doing to address climate change. According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel,
The Governor's Task Force on Global Warming plans to conduct meetings in Milwaukee, Madison, Green Bay and La Crosse.While numerous Midwestern states are focused hard on energy issues, I believe this kind of state-level initiative on climate change is fairly unique in our region (please correct me if I'm wrong). While the first question that came to my mind was will Wisconsin follow California and Florida in implementing plans to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases in the state, I also wonder if a major move in the Badger State will draw the attention of other Midwestern governors and legislatures. Michigan's already on board promoting green business development, Minnesota's at work on growing its use of clean energy sources, and, of course, states a little further south have hopped on the biofuels bandwagon (yeah, I know -- still lots of questions to be answered there...).
The task force is seeking input about how Wisconsin can take steps to reduce emissions from carbon dioxide - a gas that is produced from car emissions and the burning of coal from power plants. ...
The task force said it intended to make recommendations to Gov. Jim Doyle this year.
I wonder if it's possible to get beyond some of the more parochial interests and develop a region-wide climate change compact -- something like what we've seen in the Northeast and West Coast...
UPDATE: MattyBee points out in the comments that Minnesota's already passed a greenhouse gas reduction bill -- 80% by 2050.
Image source: SolveGlobalWarmingWisconsin.org
Categories: climatechange, globalwarming, taskforce, government, governor, jimdoyle, wisconsin
