Coulee News - Printable Version

Story originally printed in the Coulee News or online at www.couleenews.com

Published - Monday, August 06, 2007

Input is sought for governor’s global warming task force

MADISON n The Governor’s Task Force on Global Warming will hold its first round of public input sessions on Aug. 6. The session is planned to be held simultaneously in La Crosse, Green Bay, Milwaukee and Madison and is scheduled to begin at 4 p.m.

The La Crosse session will be held on the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse campus in Wing Hall, Room 102, at 1705 State St.

Gov. Jim Doyle created the Task Force on Global Warming in April 2007. The public is encouraged to provide comments on global warming at this input session that are directly relevant to the mission of the task force. Doyle asked the task force to:

Identify specific short term and long term goals for Wisconsin greenhouse gas emission reductions.

Present viable, actionable policy recommendations to the governor to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Wisconsin.

Identify ongoing opportunities to address global warming locally while growing our state’s economy, creating new jobs and utilizing an appropriate mix of fuels and technologies in Wisconsin’s energy and transportation portfolios.

Public comments on these topics will be taken into consideration by the task force as it prepares its final recommendations for the governor by the end of this calendar year.

A second round of public input sessions will be held in the fall, prior to the issuance of the final recommendations. All task force and associated work group meetings are free and open to the public.

Citizens are encouraged to attend the public input sessions and provide written comments on global warming solutions to the task force. Whenever possible, citizens planning to attend are asked to pre-register by submitting their name and the location where they plan to provide their comments.

Pre-registration e-mail instructions can be found at the Task Force on Global Warming Web site at: http://dnr.wi.gov/

environmentprotect/gtfgw/. While pre-registration is encouraged, walk-in public participation is welcome.

The PSC and DNR plan to accept written comments at the public input sessions, through mail to the attention of Melody Marshall or electronically through the task force Web site.