Civic Minute

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

The federal government has subsidized oil, gas, and coal for over a century. How much? That depends on how you count. The Treasury puts direct tax breaks at a few billion a year. Independent analysts who include cheap access to public land and regulatory exemptions put it closer to thirty-five billion. And if you factor […]

Tue Apr 21, 2026

1:00

Here’s something worth thinking about. A coal or natural gas power plant has two costs: the plant itself, and the fuel it burns every day. When fuel prices spike — like they are now — your electricity bill goes up too, because your utility is paying more for fuel. A solar farm has one cost: […]

Tue Apr 21, 2026

1:00

Since 1953, a pipeline called Line 5 has carried oil and natural gas liquids from Superior, Wisconsin, across the Upper Peninsula, down through lower Michigan, and into Canada. You’ve probably heard people argue about it. Environmentalists want it shut down. Enbridge, the company that owns it, says that would be a disaster. Here’s what the […]

Tue Apr 21, 2026

1:00

Can an electric car handle a Wisconsin winter? The honest answer: it depends on your life. Cold weather does cut range. At freezing, most EVs keep about eighty percent of their rated miles. On the coldest days — zero, five below — plan on losing thirty to forty percent. What most people don’t realize is […]

Tue Apr 21, 2026

1:00

The United States produces more oil than any country on Earth. It also imports over six million barrels a day. Both of those things are true at the same time. Here’s why. The oil America drills is mostly light and sweet — low sulfur, easy to refine. But about seventy percent of our refineries were […]

Tue Apr 21, 2026

1:00