A hand giving money in exchange for a trophy labelled "right of first refusal"
Remember when Republicans thought competition was a good thing? Remember when Democrats cared about consumers?
It doesn’t look like either is true any more. At issue is a proposal in the Legislature that would give two Wisconsin-based companies — the American Transmission Company and Xcel Energy — the right of first refusal to build power lines in the state. Right now those companies have to compete with other vendors, regardless of where they might be headquartered.
The companion bills that would freeze out competition are Senate Bill 481 and Assembly Bill 470. The Assembly approved the measure on Thursday; the Senate still needs to act before adjourning sometime in March.
The identical bills were drafted in anticipation of about $2 billion in new transmission line work coming into Wisconsin over the next decade. ATC and Xcel want that business. They just don’t want to have to compete for it and maybe — God forbid — have to take a sharp pencil to their bids.
The utilities are pulling out all the stops and spending lavishly on both lobbyists and campaign contributions. And, in a not so heart-warming way, their largesse is bipartisan. According to the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, in 2023 ATC gave $40,000 to legislators, including $12,000 to the Republican Assembly Campaign Committee, $10,000 each to the state Democratic Party and Committee to Elect a Republican Senate, and $4,000 each to the Assembly Democratic Campaign Committee and State Senate Democratic Committee.
Meanwhile, Xcel Energy (also known as Northern States Power Co.) gave $36,000, including $12,000 each to the Committee to Elect a Republican Senate and Republican Assembly Campaign Committee, and $6,000 each to the Assembly Democratic Campaign Committee and the State Senate Democratic Committee.
And WEC Energy Group, which owns 60% of ATC, gave $36,000, including $12,000 each to the state Republican Party, Republican Assembly Campaign Committee, and Committee to Elect a Republican Senate.
Doors opened by those ice breakers, the companies hired at least three dozen lobbyists (another estimate goes as high as 51) to walk through them and make their pitch to legislators. According to the Citizens Utility Board, in the last half of last year ATC alone spent $217,357 on lobbying and half of the 314 hours it paid for was dedicated to the Assembly and Senate versions of this bill. So over $100,000 was spent just by ATC and just in the last six months of 2023 to lobby on behalf of a bill that would stifle competition in its favor.
One of those influencers was Ellen Nowak, formerly of the Public Service Commission herself, who now works directly for ATC but was actually working on behalf of the bill while she was still on the commission.
Opposition to the bills comes from an unusual coalition that includes CUB, Clean Wisconsin, the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty (WILL), the Grover Norquist Tax Foundation, business groups including Wisconsin Industrial Energy Group, and the pro-free market organization Americans For Prosperity. AFP reported that it dedicated 23% of its time lobbying on the Assembly version of the bill, equivalent to about $50,000 in lobbyist fees, or about half of what ATC spent.
In all, interest groups on both sides spent 2,234 hours lobbying on these bills. That’s as many hours as was spent on the massive overhaul of the state’s regulation of liquor laws and the Brewers’ stadium subsidy deal combined.
CUB and its partners are nonprofits prohibited from making campaign contributions. So, while they’re outgunned but somewhat competitive in the lobbying game, they can’t buy votes — I’m sorry, educate legislators — through campaign donations.
With Republican leadership calling this one of their top priorities, there’s a good chance that one of these bills will pass. We know the Republicans are for it, but what will the Democrats do? When the bill hit the Assembly floor on Feb. 15 it passed with no discussion and on a voice vote. That’s our answer, I suppose. The Democrats are not going to fight this. This is just sad and shameful for the party that used to be pro-consumer.
And if the bill reaches his desk, as it now almost certainly will, what will Gov. Tony Evers do? He hasn’t said, which is strange since the answer is so clear. He should veto it just as Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker did when the same kind of bill passed there with the same support of legislative Democrats. When he vetoed the bill Pritzker said, “Without competition, (utility) ratepayers will pay for these transmission projects at a much higher cost. Competitively bidding transmission construction, instead of giving the utility a monopoly, has been shown to lower costs significantly.”
Pritzker stood up for consumers over campaign cash, a horde of lobbyists and the complicity of some in his own party. Let’s see if Evers can do the same.
Dave Cieslewicz is a Madison- and Upper Peninsula-based writer who served as mayor of Madison from 2003 to 2011. You can read more of his work at Yellow Stripes & Dead Armadillos.
