MADISON, WI—Yesterday, members of the Wisconsin State Assembly circulated the “Wisconsin Energy Reform Act” for co-sponsorship to members of the legislature. Representative Nate Gustafson (R-Fox Crossing) released the following statement.
“When it comes to energy policy, neither AB 25, Right of First Refusal (ROFR), nor LRB-2777, The Wisconsin Energy Reform Act (WERA), gets it right. Both bills reflect the same top-down mindset that says government—not markets—should be picking winners and losers.
WERA is just ROFR with extra steps in that it takes that government-knows-best approach even further—imposing a maze of new regulations on energy developers, mandating farmland easements, and expanding state control over how and where we build, while removing any sort of sunset provision. It’s central planning in a different wrapper.
This allows a government created monopoly to continue to exploit ratepayers. The added “competitive bidding” only requires that the Public Service Commission’s chosen companies, aka the retirement plan for PSC’s bureaucrats, thereby saving their money after sticking it to the taxpayers. Afterwards they will ask the PSC for the permission to raise your rates, which was recently granted to them!
Those who support local control in anyway should oppose both bills! Real reform means getting government out of the way—not writing more rules, carving out special deals, or micromanaging the energy sector from Madison. Let the market work. Kill them both.
During this season of Lent, only one thing should be rising from the dead, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, not this interference to American Energy.”
