Thirty -four Wisconsin based companies sign memorandum

We, the above thirty-four Wisconsin-based companies, have signed onto this memorandum to respectfully urge you to modify AB 804/SB 654 to prevent the loss of $7.2 million annually to the Focus on Energy (FOE) Program. We understand the interest of the investor-owned utilities in changing the basis of how FOE funding is collected going forward, and we are not opposed to that change as long as the program remains at its current funding level.

Keeping the FOE program at its currently funding level can be made by increasing the 1.2% rate of collection to 1.3%. If that change is not made we recognize that the result of this legislation will be higher energy bills for commercial, industrial and residential customers, the loss of jobs, and the loss of economic development in Wisconsin.

According to the independent, third-party economic impact evaluation report released just two months ago, the energy efficiency investments made by the FOE program each year result in:

1) Hundreds of millions of dollars in energy bill savings for ratepayers ($803 million in 2014);

2) Thousands of additional job years (3,618 in 2014);

3) Hundreds of millions of dollars in increased personal income ($252 million in 2014);

4) More than a billion dollars in increased sales ($1.19 billion in 2014); and

5) Hundreds of millions of dollars in economic benefits (increased wages, profits and taxes paid) to the state ($640 million in 2014).
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Ken Notes: Maybe I am not alone....