Electric Co-op Today

The Wisconsin statewide and its parent, Cooperative Network, have unveiled a do-it-yourself online calculator that allows consumers to estimate how much their electric bills would rise should state lawmakers pass a pending climate change bill.

Wisconsin electricity users can use this on-line calculator to deduce bills under the state’s pending climate change law. (Photo By: Cooperative Network)

Users can enter information from their monthly electric bills and get an estimate of how much they would expect to pay if the Wisconsin legislature passes the Clean Energy Jobs Act. The calculator, available on Cooperative Network’s Web site, also uses state and federal data to perform the math.

Should the bill pass, electric bills would rise monthly by at least $20, said Tim Clay, the director of environmental and regulatory services at Cooperative Network, an alliance of co-ops in Wisconsin and Minnesota that recently held a “Lobby Day” with lawmakers in the state capitol about the bill.

Until now, he said, the debate about the impact of the legislation on consumers’ pocketbooks and small business’ ledgers has been “largely absent.”

Instead, public discussion has “focused on clean energy jobs and benefits,” said Clay, who came up with the calculator idea. “There were no data to make a good decision on its cost impact. The calculator provides electric consumers an opportunity to determine the cost of the legislation for themselves and weigh that against the bill’s benefits.”

Currently, Wisconsin lawmakers are considering a slimmed-down version of the Clean Energy Jobs Act, which supporters, including Gov. Jim Doyle, have said will create at least 15,000 green jobs in the state because utilities would have to spend about $15 billion on new generation facilities to meet renewable mandates.

Tags: Climate Change, Local Initiatives