Wisconsin is poised to become more environmentally friendly in the near future with some assistance from UW-Madison students.
The Wisconsin Public Interest Research Group is currently running a campaign out of Madison called the New Energy Future, a student initiative designed to implement the recommendations of Gov. Jim Doyle's Energy Task Force.
\We're trying to get someone to champion a bill to make it mandatory to put Wisconsin on the steps to newer energy,"" said New Energy Future Coordinator and UW-Madison junior Katie Hamblin.
The recommendations were released last December and in order to introduce the corresponding bill, WisPIRG is seeking aid from students.
Hamblin and her team of six student interns are launching an aggressive paper campaign, which employs postcards signed by Madison students and sent to their home addresses across the state.
Gov. Doyle's recommendations include plans to convert at least 10 percent of the state's energy to a renewable variety by 2013. State buildings, including university structures, would have to use 20 percent renewable energy sources, according to Hamblin.
Hamblin said WisPIRG hopes to see a bill introduced in April or May.
Thursday, the state chapter of WisPIRG introduced an energy report that detailed the benefits the state would reap by partially converting to renewable energy.
In addition to the obvious environmental advantages, the report also includes the ""economic and consumer benefits of clean energy policy,"" said WisPIRG Federal Energy Field Organizer Bryden Sweeney-Taylor.
According to Hamblin, implementing a renewable energy standard of 10 percent by 2013 would generate an average of 155,000 new jobs between 2005 and 2020, as the new energy sources would have to be built and maintained.
Sweeney-Taylor asserted the report was designed to keep Wisconsin residents adequately informed on the subject of renewable energy.
""There is so much spin and so little information that's out there,"" he said.
David Shaffer, a UW-Madison junior and intern on the New Energy Future campaign, said the public's input is integral to adopting a renewable energy program.
""We're pretty much trying to get people to come out with a voice that says this is good for Wisconsin-we want this,"" he said.
