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[Back] [Email to a Friend] [Printer Friendly Version]Activists Are Also Battling Power Plants
The Capital Times :: FRONT :: 4A
Saturday, March 26, 2005
By Pat Schneider The Capital Times
Like Clean Air Madison, Citizens for Responsible Power started as a
grass-roots group of residents, pulled together mostly by word-of-mouth
concerns over plans of a local industry, says chairman Steve Bulik.For Bulik's Racine-based group, access to a state consumer fund and the contributions of a like-minded business have enabled it to take on utility We Energies in court over its plans to build two coal-burning power plants on the shores of Lake Michigan.
The case is going to the state's high court.
A Dane County judge ruled that the Public Service Commission had been too quick to approve the utility's application to build the plants, but the state Supreme Court will hear oral arguments Wednesday in an appeal by the PSC and We Energies.
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Early on, Citizens for Responsible Power relied on the skills of its members, Bulik said. Trained professionals, such as engineers and attorneys, offered counsel, and others donated labor to research, developing pamphlets, designing charts and other tasks.
Members also worked to get to know the system they would be challenging.
"Before PSC hearings, we'd have a gathering with food to prepare people to go to the hearings," Bulik said.
And the lesson learned?
"There's too much cronyism," Bulik declared of the power industry and its public regulators.
His group was able to tap the public Intervenor Compensation Fund, set up by the state to finance consumer groups on utility issues, for $78,000.
Then Racine-based S.C. Johnson & Son, an international producer of household products with a history of environmental activism, joined the battle. "They had money to throw around in terms of lobbying, public relations work, attorneys," Bulik said.
Clean Air Madison also relies on the expertise and labor of its members, its directors say.
The group was able to get financial help through Midwest Environmental Advocates, a public interest law firm based in Madison.
Midwest Environmental Advocates tries to expand the resources available to community groups such as Clean Air Madison through its Impact Litigation Fund, said executive director Melissa Scanlon.
Her firm provides an "incentive grant" to attorneys, who in turn agree to cap legal fees, so the total legal cost is known. The attorney then donates one-third of the case time, Environmental Advocates pays one-third and the litigants pay one-third.
Clean Air Madison received a $10,000 grant from the public interest law firm toward its legal fees.
"The fund makes it easier for community groups to raise money," Scanlon said. "They have two-thirds of the money in the bank, so it's not so overwhelming."
The firm looks especially to fund cases that may have the capacity to set legal precedents or involve low-income people or communities of color, she said.
Scanlon said that knowing where to try to influence decisions is key for grass-roots groups. "Successful groups look at where a decision is being made and go directly there."
It's important also that activists think about what issues influence local decision-makers and persuade them with arguments about the long-term health, economic and social impacts of the disputed project, Scanlon said.
The Impact Litigation Fund is an incentive to mount an effective legal fight, but litigation is the last thing Scanlon recommends.
"The most important thing to do is to educate one another and the public and organize as a group to work with officials and project proponents to see if they can work out their difference before they go to court," she said.
E-mail: pschneider@madison.com