In his opinion piece, Jack Rogers of the Badger Herald notes that the purchase of the Pelican River Forest and news of new wind and solar energy projects take Wisconsin in the right direction, but continued investment in fossil fuel and natural gas infrastructure undermines Wisconsin’s progress toward clean energy.
In 2019, Gov. Evers signed Executive Order 38, committing Wisconsin to a net-zero carbon emissions future by 2050. Achieving this goal would require an economy-wide commitment to electrify our energy use, decouple from fossil fuels, and conserve forests for carbon storage.
The Pelican River Forest project, 70,000 acres of pristine forest in northern Wisconsin, is representative of the difficulties the Evers’ administration faces in carrying out its climate agenda. While the purchase was originally slated to include Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Program funding, Republican legislators on the Joint Committee on Finance rejected that funding, forcing Evers to seek funding through other avenues in order to conserve it.
The Pelican River Forest project marks the largest conservation project in Wisconsin history and while its success should be heralded, the story shouldn’t be condensed into a single climate-positive headline.
“Doing so risks greenwashing larger problems that exist in the state’s energy infrastructure and path to a renewable future,” writes Rogers. “A transition to net-zero emissions by mid-century is difficult. Continuing to invest in new fossil fuel projects, with extended lifespans, makes the goal nearly impossible,” he finished.
Featured image by Payton Chung, 2006.
