A Wisconsin Utility Executive Pledges Less Reliance On Coal

A western Wisconsin utility executive says her firm is committed to diversifying its energy sources, even if a federal plan to limit coal emissions from power companies is halted by the Trump administration.

La Crosse-based Dairyland Power Cooperative burns coal for 70 percent of the electricity it provides. The utility pledges to get that number down to 50 percent, within a decade.

Dairyland CEO Barbara Nick told a renewable energy forum Thursday in Madison that the promise will be kept, even if Donald Trump reverses the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan that was meant to try to slow climate change.

“With or without the Clean Power Plan, with or without regulation, we have a strategy that we will diversify because it’s just plain good common business sense,” Nick said.

Nick said Dairyland does expect to add more power from another fossil fuel, natural gas, to ensure reliability of the co-op’s electricity. But she said a plan announced last year to buy more wind and solar energy is also moving ahead.