UW-Madison students are working with community members to push Madison toward using more renewable energy sources.
The City of Madison is in the process of reviewing its energy budget, and plans to renew contracts with Madison Gas and Electric and Alliant Energy. Mary Van Dyke, a UW-Madison junior and clean energy intern at the Wisconsin John Muir Chapter of the Sierra Club, said a sustainable subcommittee has been created to use the upcoming budget vote as a platform to propose a transition to renewable energy for the city. The subcommittee is working with the UW-Madison Student Sierra Coalition and local nonprofit organizations.
“Wisconsin itself does not produce fossil fuels, so it doesn’t make sense to spend so much of our budget importing them when we have all solar wind and technology available already,” Van Dyke said. “We just have to make the switch.”
The committee meets monthly and Madison community members, especially UW-Madison students, are encouraged to attend.
According to Van Dyke, the student turnout at the committee’s September meeting was large and allowed the group to set goals for their plans. They hope that Madison will transition to 100 percent clean energy by 2040 and switch to clean transportation by 2045. They will move forward with specific goals after voting on those proposals and a time frame at their Nov. 18 meeting.
“The fact that we're talking about setting time limits is really huge,” Van Dyke said. “We're trying to get student and community involvement and get them to use their voices to make this more active.”
Van Dyke said the technology needed to switch to renewable energy is already accessible in Madison. She said it would be expensive initially in order to build the infrastructure, but would eventually be self-sustaining and less expensive than importing fossil fuels.
“Switching to renewables would create a lot of jobs, it helps air pollution, it's a better quality of life for our citizens and the environment,” Van Dyke said. “Many cities in the Midwest have also done it … I feel like Madison as a state capital has the responsibility to be a leading example for this state and make the switch.”
