Valcq bad, Valcq good
Re: “She is a lineman for the utilities” (8/29/2019): The decision reached by the three PSC commissioners [giving preliminary approval to the Cardinal-Hickory Creek transmission line] showed a troubling bias in favor of the utility companies. Also troubling was the role that Gov. Evers played in the decision. The governor sent a clear message to the Public Service Commission just days before they met by setting the carbon neutral goal for Wisconsin. His press conference, which was attended by Commissioner Rebecca Valcq, was followed immediately by another press conference at which developers applauded him and said that carbon neutrality could only be reached if the[Cardinal Hickory] line was approved.
Yes, Evers had no vote on the PSC but he certainly encouraged the decision that was made. Nobody who follows politics these days is dumb enough to believe that his press conference and the one that followed were independent events. While I and others support carbon neutrality, had the PSC commissioners taken the time to attend the public hearings during the second half of June, they would have heard from expert witnesses who testified that carbon neutrality could be achieved without building the costly transmission line and destroying the Driftless landscape.
— Mary Kritz, via isthmus.com
It is sad when people you once respected — and voted for multiple times — resort to demonizing decision-makers when important decisions don’t go their way. But there is no other way to describe Dave Cieslewicz’s insinuation that Public Service Commission Chair Rebecca Valcq’s future employment prospects played a role in her vote to approve the Cardinal-Hickory Creek transmission line from Cassville to Middleton. Cieslewicz’s framing of Valcq as a creature of large utilities is a classic misdirection maneuver that obscures the evidentiary record presented to the PSC. What the record clearly shows is that Cardinal-Hickory Creek will accommodate a significant build-out of solar and wind power plants both in Wisconsin and in the region, unlike the alternatives proposed by other parties. Without the added deliverability afforded by Cardinal-Hickory Creek, decarbonizing Wisconsin’s power mix becomes, frankly, an insuperable challenge. It is certainly ironic to find environmental notables such as Cieslewicz taking positions on this line that are logically inconsistent with their usual advocacy for clean energy development. But Cieslewicz’s failure to resolve that contradiction is no excuse for the personal attacks against Valcq and, by extension, Gov. Tony Evers.
— Michael Vickerman, via isthmus.com
Corrections: In last week’s article, “Stealth mode,” it was incorrectly reported that Shannon Ruth-Leigh’s home would be consistently exposed to sounds as loud as 65 decibels. The Environmental Impact Statement found that her home would be exposed to a daily average of 65 decibels from the F-35s. It also misattributed a comparison of sound levels between F-35s and F-16s, which came from an EIS for a base in Burlington, Vermont, not the EIS for Truax. And in the City Guide, the correct winner for Favorite Gym should have been listed as Functional Integrated Training (F.I.T.) in Fitchburg. And last week’s cover photo shows the Observatory Hill entrance to Agriculture Hall, not King Hall.