Civic Minute

When gas prices spike, you pay more. But where does that extra money actually go? Oil was sixty-six dollars a barrel in February — before the Iran war. By mid-April, it was over a hundred. The price difference flows to whoever owns the oil. In the U.S., it goes mostly to oil company shareholders — […]

Tue May 5, 2026

1:00

Every gallon of gas you buy in Wisconsin includes about fifty-one cents in taxes — roughly thirty-three cents to the state, eighteen to the federal government. People grumble about it. But here’s what that money does: it builds and maintains the roads you’re driving on. Wisconsin’s gas tax used to be indexed to inflation — […]

Tue May 5, 2026

1:00

When gas prices go up, we want someone to blame. The president. The oil companies. The government. But the price of a gallon of gas isn’t one thing — it’s four. About half the price is crude oil — set on a global market that no president, no company, and no country fully controls. Another […]

Tue Apr 28, 2026

1:00

The United States already produces more oil than any country on Earth — nearly fourteen million barrels a day. That’s a record. And gas still shot past four dollars this spring. Why didn’t all that production protect us? Because American oil enters a global market of over a hundred million barrels a day. Our record […]

Tue Apr 28, 2026

1:00

In January, the United States invaded Venezuela — a country with the largest oil reserves on Earth. Gas prices that week? Two dollars and eighty-one cents. They barely moved. Because despite all those reserves, Venezuela produces less than one percent of the world’s oil. Reserves don’t set prices. Production does. Then the U.S. and Israel […]

Tue Apr 28, 2026

1:00

When gas prices spike, most people notice at the pump. What they don’t notice is what happens to the electricity coming out of their wall. Power plants are dispatched in order of cost — cheapest first. When natural gas is cheap, gas plants run. When gas prices rise, coal becomes the cheaper option, and utilities […]

Tue Apr 21, 2026

1:00

Do you know who sets your electric rate? It’s not your utility. It’s the Public Service Commission — three people, appointed by the governor, who decide what every utility in Wisconsin can charge you. They’re the most powerful government body most people have never heard of. Here’s how it works. Your utility is a regulated […]

Tue Apr 21, 2026

1:00

Fifteen percent of Wisconsin’s electricity comes from one place: the Point Beach nuclear plant near Two Rivers. It runs day and night, produces zero carbon, and because it was paid off decades ago, it’s some of the cheapest power on the grid. Wisconsin used to have a second nuclear plant — Kewaunee, up the coast. […]

Tue Apr 21, 2026

1:00

You hear it every election: "energy independence." It sounds simple. Drill more, import less, control our own destiny. But the more you look at it, the more complicated it gets. The United States produces more oil than any country on Earth. We’re also a net importer of crude — over six million barrels a day […]

Tue Apr 21, 2026

1:00

Every gallon of gas you buy is already ten percent ethanol — alcohol made from corn. You’ve been burning corn in your car for years. Here’s what you may not know: a third of the entire U.S. corn crop — five and a half billion bushels a year — goes to making ethanol. Not food. […]

Tue Apr 21, 2026

1:00