Scott Manley, of Wisconsin Manufacturers ….

Scott Manley, of Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, argued the social cost of carbon provision would be used to ensure the state never again approves a fossil fuel-fired power plant.

Manley said Wisconsin is already a fairly high-cost state in terms of energy; making it more expensive now would be unfairly burdensome on business and residents still climbing out of the impacts of a global pandemic.

According to the PSC, Wisconsin had the secondhighest residential and commercial rates in the Midwest in 2018, behind only Michigan. It was third-highest for industrial rates.

Manley noted the increased assessment on utilities for Focus on Energy would be passed onto consumers and questioned basing energy policy decisions on the “magical thinking” of climate change advocates who he said have often been wrong.

“These are the people who said we wouldn’t have snow anymore by this time, that the ice caps would have already melted and that most of the city of Miami would be underwater today,” Manley said. “None of that happened.”

But Carly Michiels, Clean Wisconsin’s government relations director, argued while some of the upfront costs in Evers’ plan may concern some in the business community, it would be a mistake to assume companies will be able to sustain themselves in the long run without addressing climate change.

Michiels praised the recommendation to double the required Focus on Energy program utility contribution. For every $1 spent, the Focus on Energy program generates between $3 and $5 in benefits and has lower administrative costs than almost any other energy efficiency program in the nation, according to audits.

Two years ago, Evers also sought to raise how much utilities contribute to Focus on Energy beyond the current 1.2 percent, but the GOP-controlled Joint Finance Committee nixed it.

“This program not only saves all ratepayers money, but it can create jobs and helps produce new technologies,” Michiels said. “There’s just a lot of untapped potential there that I think, with the returns that you get on your investment, it just seems like a no-brainer to me.”

The Capitol Report is written by editorial staff at WisPolitics.com, a nonpartisan, Madison-based news service that specializes in coverage of government and politics, and is distributed for publication by members of the Wisconsin Newspaper Association.