WISCONSIN – I had a great time with David Crowley last week in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. I should have worn my old Seattle Pilots jersey! If you didn’t know, the Pilots were the city’s first MLB team before they moved and became the Milwaukee Brewers in 1969, after one awful season in Seattle. They were called the Pilots to honor both aviation and maritime pilots in our region – the team logo was a baseball with wings and a ship’s wheel around it.
Anyway, David and I enjoyed a good chat, talking about the opportunity for Wisconsin to support high-paying union jobs and lower energy costs by responsibly building more clean energy. I wanted to write down some of my thoughts after leaving the Badger State about why this election is so important and why David is the clear choice for Wisconsin.
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The biggest decisions about where you get and how much you pay for electricity aren’t made in DC. They’re made in state capitols.
In most states, it’s the governor who appoints the public utility commissioners who approve or reject rate hikes. It’s governors who sign or veto the clean energy standards that determine whether new power comes from more affordable wind and solar or from volatile gas and coal. And it’s governors who decide whether data centers and other massive new energy users pay their fair share, or pass the bill along to everyone else.
That’s why governor’s races, more than almost any other, will shape what Americans pay to keep the lights on in the years ahead. And few states have more riding on this year’s choice than Wisconsin.
Families in Wisconsin are already feeling the squeeze, with utility bills up nearly 30% in the last five years. And costs could climb even higher. Utilities in parts of the state have proposed raising rates another 14% over the next two years.
Will Wisconsin’s future be run on cheaper, cleaner, more reliable energy generated in-state with good-paying jobs, or continue to be beholden to global oil and gas markets for costly, polluting fossil fuels?
Crowley vs. Tiffany: Two very different paths for Wisconsin
The choice is very simple in this race: David Crowley is a clean energy leader who will put strong guardrails on data centers, while Tom Tiffany wants more data centers run on expensive gas and coal that will raise your energy bills.
Crowley has lowered climate pollution in Milwaukee County by 50% since 2015. Rep. Tiffany voted for the Big, Beautiful Bill that has made your costs very big, and not so beautiful, and has provided huge tax breaks for big oil while killing clean energy projects in Wisconsin and across the country. The Wisconsin governor’s race will be one of the most important state races in the country when it comes to energy policy, and I’m proud to support David Crowley’s vision to lower costs and get more clean energy on the grid.
The Badger State is making real progress in building cheaper clean energy – from utility-scale solar projects in Iowa and Kenosha Counties, to cutting-edge wind projects in Columbia and Marathon Counties. Clean energy is delivering cheaper Wisconsin-made energy while supporting more than 70,000 good-paying jobs in the state.
This is in no small part thanks to the leadership of Governor Tony Evers, who signed an executive order committing the state to the goal of 100% clean energy, created new offices for sustainability and environmental justice, and co-chaired the US Climate Alliance.
The next governor’s job
But Wisconsin’s next governor has an even bigger challenge to solve, thanks to Donald Trump’s chaos, corruption, and climate denial – and Congress and Tom Tiffany’s lockstep support for his agenda every step of the way.
The future of energy in our country is going to be determined by the leadership of states and cities. Americans increasingly want answers to who is going to step up and take action to lower their energy bills and address climate change. And the people who can best answer that call are state leaders like David Crowley.
As new analysis from Evergreen Action shows, Crowley’s plan would save families $826 per household (or $2.1 billion statewide) through 2040. That’s a $4,000 gap with Tiffany’s plan, which would cost families $3,181 in that same time frame ($8 billion statewide). That’s staggering.
Wisconsin needs a governor who will hold utilities accountable for keeping energy bills affordable, and transition to using more low-cost clean energy – just like neighboring states have done. Wisconsin cannot be left behind by its neighbors in the race to build a 100% clean energy future.
Wisconsin needs a governor who will appoint Public Service Commissioners who will ensure families and small businesses aren’t getting ripped off.
And Wisconsin needs a governor who will hold data centers accountable so they don’t increase pollution and electricity bills for the rest of us. Just two of the announced data centers in Wisconsin would require more energy than all current residential customers combined, driving up prices for families and small businesses.
David Crowley will take action to hold data centers accountable. Tom Tiffany’s record is clear – and there’s no doubt he can’t be trusted to stand up to the big utilities and the data center developers.
States don’t have to wait
We already know what works. State leaders have the tools to bring more low-cost clean energy onto the grid, cut families’ bills, and create thousands of good jobs in the process. As governor, I signed laws that put Washington on a path to 100% clean energy, invested in good-paying union jobs through our Climate Commitment Act, and led the nation in protecting communities from dangerous pollution and environmental harm.
State and local leaders have the freedom to decide what their state prioritizes. Each of our states is free to build our own policies, our own industries, our own visions for our own communities. Donald Trump cannot stop us here in Washington and he can’t stop Wisconsin, either.
This November, Wisconsin voters have a chance to decide what their monthly utility bill looks like for years to come. They should choose David Crowley.
Watts on my radar
Energy Empire: Gov. Spanberger on Making Data Centers Pay Their Fair Share
Governor Abigail Spanberger ran and won a decisive victory last year by championing affordability and clean energy. A year later, she has released both a new energy plan for the Commonwealth and a data center accountability framework. In this episode of Energy Empire with Jigar Shah, she goes deep on how Virginia can make the world’s largest data center market pay for the grid built to serve it, about why her energy plan puts a dollar value on public health and climate harms like asthma and sea-level rise, and more.
Green Banks Keep Financing Clean Energy Projects
I have long been an advocate for green banks, which leverage public funds to finance and advance clean energy and climate efforts that private lenders may consider too risky. Despite Trump’s attempts to quash their efforts, green banks across the country continue to fund projects that lower energy costs, create jobs, and reduce pollution.
Trump Promised To Lower Prices For Americans. Here’s What the Data Shows.
Trump promised to cut energy prices in half. He lied. From groceries to gas prices to electricity and more, data shows: costs for working families are through the roof. I know this: In November, voters will hold him (and his party) accountable at the ballot box.