We asked Dane County to bring all the utilities to the strategic climate action table, since they had participated very little in setting the 2013 goals. The county has done so, starting in July 2017. For two years, all the major utilities have been at the table. Late last spring, those utilities testified at a county climate council that they could easily meet all this rapidly growing county’s forecast electricity generation needs with true renewable energy (wind and solar). Yet, in a non-public negotiation with the city of Madison, Madison Gas & Electric committed to less than what is doable and necessary. More recently, for reasons unknown, MGE has turned to UW-Madison researchers other than those who participated in the county climate council.

It would be unconscionable if, in yet another non-public process, MGE is just “shopping around” for an energy goal that is less than both what is necessary and what the community has repeatedly requested. It would be disastrous if MGE is seeking academic support for expensive, risky nuclear power generation, an unnecessary option that has already been rejected by the community.