MILWAUKEE — With the August primary election now in the books, the focus is completely on November as the candidates make their case for why Wisconsinites should support them.
During a one-on-one interview with former President Donald Trump on Tuesday, when asked about polling numbers for him and Republican Senate candidate Eric Hovde, the Republican nominee focused his answer on energy.
“You have tremendously high energy prices in Wisconsin, beyond normal, and I’m going to cut your energy in half because I’m going to do things properly,” Trump said. “We’re going to be energy-independent again very shortly.”
The former president went on to talk about how he would solve this issue.
“We have very bad energy policy. The environmental stuff is ridiculous. It’s taken over and it’s just crazy,” Trump added.
Wisconsin consumes almost six times as much energy as the state produces, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Currently, both We Energies and Wisconsin Public Service are asking the state’s Public Service Commission (PSC) for electric and gas rate increases in 2025 and 2026 totaling almost $800 million.
Tom Content is the executive director of the non-partisan and nonprofit Citizens Utility Board that advocates on behalf of consumers.
“The fact is, our rates in Wisconsin do rank among the highest in the Midwest,” Content said.
The organization’s efforts have helped Wisconsinites save more than one billion dollars over the last decade.
“We are at this pinch point where we are still paying for coal plants that are being shut down and then paying for this transition,” Content explained.
Content believes electric bills could jump from roughly $125 a month to nearly $150 by 2026, unless the PSC scales back the proposed increases by WEC Energy Group, which owns both We Energies and Wisconsin Public Service.
“It’s not red versus blue. It’s about the monopoly and making sure there’s balance between the shareholders of the monopoly and the customers paying the bills,” Content said.
Meanwhile, Democrats said they are doing their part to keep costs down during a visit to Milwaukee earlier this month.
“The Biden-Harris administration is obsessed with lowering energy costs for people, and so the Home Energy Rebates program is a $9 billion program across the country,” U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm told reporters during the stop.
The Inflation Reduction Act provided Wisconsin with almost $150 million to become the second state in the country to launch the Home Energy Rebates Program.
“We want to make sure people have the opportunity to make their houses more sellable and more valuable, at the same time they are making the comfort level of the house much better, and they are saving money,” Gov. Tony Evers, who also attended the event, said. “This does create more jobs in the state of Wisconsin, and all those things together help us have a better life.”
According to a survey conducted last year by the Wisconsin Center for Manufacturing and Productivity, 26% of more than 400 manufacturing executives across Wisconsin cited energy costs as their top concerns.