Plan to Prioritize Environmental Stewardship while incentivizing green economic innovation
Wisconsin is blessed with some of our nation’s most prized natural resources: fresh water, rich forestland, and vast acres of productive cropland. These natural resources not only offer world-class hunting and recreational opportunities, but they serve as economic catalysts for the state. Unfortunately, these resources are being threatened by environmental neglect and climate change, brought forth by inactivity on environmental issues from our representatives in Washington, DC.
On average, Wisconsin’s lakes now have 30-35 fewer days of ice coverage every winter—a trend that is projected only to continue. Not only does this affect our ice fishing season, but it threatens our delicate lake ecosystems. Warming lake temperatures and agricultural runoff are also threatening our fish. Two of Wisconsin’s most-prized fish, the walleye and the musky, are cold water fish that rely on clean, cool, and properly managed water in order to survive and thrive. As our lakes warm, the range in which walleye and musky can naturally reproduce is shifting farther and farther north.
My environmental platform prioritizes fighting climate change and enhancing protection of our environment and it does so by utilizing our market economy, technological innovation, and union labor. I believe in protecting our environment and I also believe in using the market the right way to move this country forward—these goals do not have to conflict.
That’s why, for example, I am a strong supporter of clean nuclear power investments as we transition from dirty to clean energy.
It is true that in order to protect the Wisconsin (and the country) we know and love, we must act fast to transition nationally to a more sustainable economy, but we must do all that we can to minimize the impact on the day-to-day lives of Wisconsinites during this transition. Rather than continuing to lose manufacturing jobs and sending our brightest minds out-of-state through brain drain, we must use this economic transition to green energy to make Wisconsin the center of the next economic revolution.
I support President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act because it puts those same goals to work.
The Inflation Reduction Act has three primary goals
Reducing carbon emissions
Lessening the burdens of climate change and the green energy transition on everyday Americans, and
Turning the United States into the green manufacturing center of the world
This last goal is very relevant to us here in Wisconsin. The bill allocates some $37 billion to the advanced manufacturing required to fuel this green energy transition and Wisconsin is poised to reap the benefits of this investment. We must encourage green manufacturing to call Wisconsin home.
We must use this moment to bring good-paying green manufacturing jobs to Wisconsin—from solar panel and wind turbine manufacturing, to electric vehicle production, to keeping Wisconsin at the forefront of sustainable agriculture research and development. These opportunities will keep our state and our nation beautiful, while revitalizing our middle class and ensuring that every family has a shot at the American Dream.
My plan consists of four central pillars:
STEWARDSHIP OF NATURAL RESOURCES
We must prioritize our state’s natural resources; from Lake Michigan to public hunting land, to the Wisconsin River and everything in between. This means not only fighting climate change, but minimizing threats of forever chemicals like PFAS, ensuring proper protections are in place for our natural areas, and properly managing agricultural runoff. This means regulating CAFOs and large meat processing plants and incentivizing smaller, family farming.
I support public lands, both state and federal, and I support the agencies that manage those lands. I support legislation that protects these lands, like the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act. I will support further legislation that protects our state’s natural beauty and, in particular, will advocate for protections for our carbon-sequestering forests and our Great Lakes, our most prized and precious natural resources.
I also recognize the importance of private land holdings, both for their role in proper land management and allowing productive economic activity in our state. Wisconsin’s own Aldo Leopold was a pioneer in highlighting the role of private land in natural resource management. His work in Coon Valley was groundbreaking in exemplifying the role of small family farms in resource management, and it informs my advocacy.
I recognize and respect Indigenous sovereignty in the state of Wisconsin. I support our First Nations and believe Indigenous land should be protected. Furthermore, I value Traditional Ecological Knowledge and will seek input from Native voices when making decisions about land use.
GREEN TECHNOLOGY JOBS
Wisconsin’s history as an environmental leader, and as a center of the labor movement, make it an obvious choice for leading the country into the green energy age.
The recent Inflation Reduction Act allocates $37 billion towards making the United States the center of the green manufacturing industry, fueling our planet’s transition from brown energy to green energy.
I believe this transition is necessary and Wisconsin can be one of the centers of this manufacturing growth. The technologies necessary to fuel our country on clean energy can bring countless good-paying jobs to Wisconsin. The technology for this transition touches a number of sectors and skill sets from wind-turbine manufacturing to heat pumps. Green manufacturing can revitalize Wisconsin’s economy and our middle class with an emphasis on union labor.
GREEN ENERGY INFRASTRUCTURE
Not only can our state lead the way in manufacturing our nation’s new green infrastructure, but it can lead the way in implementing that technology.
Right now, Wisconsin sends, on average, $12 billion out of state to import fossil fuels like coal, natural gas and oil.
In order to lessen the burden of switching to renewable energy on everyday Wisconsinites, I support using nuclear energy as a clean, affordable energy source as we begin to phase out fossil fuels. Nuclear technology has come a long way in recent years and we must take advantage of it while we continue to develop green energy infrastructure.
Electrifying our state and keeping it clean does not mean getting rid of our big cars and American houses. We can keep all of the creature comforts we know and love and do it while keeping that $12 billion in state. Solar energy is now the cheapest form of energy available to Americans.
I support wind farms, increasing our electric vehicle charging capacity, biodigestion, geothermal energy, hydroelectricity, and solar farms.
SUSTAINABLE FAMILY FARMING
Wisconsin would not be the state it is today without family farms—these farms are the backbone of our state. Unfortunately, our family farms have gone down in number by 40,000 over the last 40 years thanks, in a large part, to CAFOs and large meat processing plants that are running our family farms out of business. These CAFOs and large meat processing plants also destroy our clean drinking water.
This is not only devastating to local economies, but it is bad for our environment too. These large feed operations generate extensive amounts of dirty, harmful agricultural waste that ends up in our beautiful lakes and even our faucets.
On the other hand, research done here in Wisconsin at our own UW-Department of Agricultural Economics by Aldo Leopold brought forth a new age of sustainable family farming. The soil conservation measures that began to be implemented across the state made small-scale farming in Wisconsin some of the most efficient and sustainable uses of land anywhere in the country.
By prioritizing small family farms and ensuring that remaining CAFOs and meat processing plants are properly regulated, we not only save family farms, but we keep Wisconsin clean.
CALL TO ACTION
Research by the Wisconsin Initiative on Climate Change shows that by the middle of this century, statewide average annual temperatures go up by 6-7 degrees Fahrenheit, with at least two weeks a year of 100-degree heat. This will make our climate more like South Carolina and Alabama. As Wisconsinites, we’re proud of our state. We take pride in our world-class hunting, fishing, hiking, biking, and kayaking. We take pride in our agricultural heritage and our abundance of clean water and sprawling forests. Let’s keep it that way. We must step up to the plate and tackle this climate crisis, but let’s do it by making sure every voice is heard and ensuring this transition doesn't hurt our families’ pocketbooks.