Wisconsin launches task force to study threat of climate crisis on state’s population and economy

Governor Tony Evers is launching a taskforce to brainstorm ways to cut climate pollution, despite inevitable pushback from the state’s Republican-controlled legislature.

The Democratic governor has vowed Wisconsin will meet the goals of the international Paris climate agreement, even as Donald Trump aims to leave the pact and has discounted climate science, rescinded pollution efforts and promoted fossil fuels.

The executive order Governor Evers signed on October 17 establishing the task force calls the climate crisis “a grave threat to the health, safety and economic wellbeing of people and communities throughout the state of Wisconsin.”

Governor Evers is one of two dozen governors in the Climate Alliance, whose members have pledged to reduce their states’ heat-trapping pollution at least 26% below 2005 levels by 2025. Wisconsin is also trying to use only carbon-free electricity by 2050, even though it currently gets about half its power from coal. Eliminating Wisconsin’s climate footprint would require transformative changes to its electrical, transportation, industrial and agricultural sectors...