Op-Ed: We Energies Cannot Ignore Residents’ Disapproval of New Gas Plants

Opinion Piece by Jaeden Carrasquillo – Conservation Club Officer

High-school students, environmental organizations, local community groups and concerned citizens alike took to the streets on Thursday to protest the We Energies price hike to pay for new natural gas plants. The group of protestors marched to the Drury Plaza Hotel, where a public hearing was being held by the energy company to hear citizen concerns. The company plans to increase the average Wisconsin resident’s utility bill by at least 9% by 2025.

The protest started at the We Energies headquarters and ended at the public hearing, attracting as much attention as possible en route. Organizations across Wisconsin gathered, including Action for Climate Emergency (ACE), Healthy Climate Wisconsin and Metcalfe Park Community Bridges. ACE and other co-organizers of the rally provided food and transportation for the Golda Meir High School students along with UW-Milwaukee students.

As I photographed this protest, I was filled with inspiring awe and furious anguish. I witnessed high schoolers march against a corporation actively working against their right to a clean future and financial stability. They should’ve been in their classrooms, cramming for a pop quiz next period. Yet here they were holding up their creatively worded signs with slogans that only riled-up teenagers could produce.

This should’ve been enough to spark public outrage. The brave Milwaukee residents who told their stories to invoke change are why I chose Conservation and Environmental Science as a major, using my Journalism, Advertising, and Media Studies minor to help amplify the struggling voices in my city. I could not live with the guilt of sitting idly knowing I had ample opportunities to use my voice to speak out against these system’s injustices.

Systemic change does not occur quietly, and Melody McCurtis, the Deputy Director and Lead Organizer for Metcalfe Park Community Bridges (MCCB) lives this. McCurtis has been with MCCB for the last eight years, having been raised in Metcalfe Park on the Northside of Milwaukee. Her resident-led organization is committed to improving their community and fighting against the social inequality their neighborhood faces.

“My community already cannot afford the rates as it is, and to be putting forth even more rate hikes is ridiculous,” McCurtis expressed, stating that 2024 marks the third year in a row that MCCB has protested utility price hikes. “Folks are really having to decide you know, ‘do I pay my rent and my lights?’ or ‘do I just pay rent and get groceries?’ and we shouldn’t be having to make those decisions because we can’t afford the things that we need to actually thrive in our communities.”

I cannot stress enough how writhing in red-hot anger we should be after hearing these stories. Families have to decide between one basic living need and another because they can’t afford all of them at once. These organizations are going so far as to provide a list of compromises and alternative ways to assist residents in utility bill payments. Some of these include:

• Adjust rate classes so that the residential customers aren’t bearing the brunt of the increase.
• Review We Energies’ new generation proposal – especially polluting fossil fuels that negatively impact health and climate – with scrutiny.
• Reduce We Energies’ return on equity, and certainly do not let the utility raise their profit margin.
• Require We Energies to improve its Low Income Forgiveness Tool (LIFT) and establish a Percentage of Income Payment Program (PIPP) prior to granting any additional rate increases.
• Consider We Energies’ other PSC dockets, like either $2 billion methane gas proposals, and how these will impact rates in the years to come.

I spoke to another Milwaukee resident, 16-year-old Camilah Deleon, a student at Golda Meir High School and member of ACE, regarding her perspectives on the protests’ overall mission. Deleon is the “Green Team” president at her high school, a program that maintains sustainability initiatives on-campus like plastics re-pledge and community clean-ups.

“It’s for us. I mean, really, if we want change, it’s something that we as like a whole collective and as a group have to come to and protest these types of things,” Deleon said when discussing the importance of protesting. “Who better to share a message than us? We’re the people that its impacting and we’re the people that has to stand up to this and actually make a change, or else no one’s going to do it for us.”

The courage and resilience of these interviewees are nothing less than inspiring. These price hikes are going to disproportionately affect black and brown communities already facing financial burdens. Without these students and organizations, our people would have no voice, as corporations continuously prove their disinterest in families’ well-being.

Those who put together this rally and keep on with the fight would not be able to go on without the support of you and your communities. There are many ways to take part in their missions against social injustice and push for a clean future. Our fight in this is not a stand-alone project, it’s an all-hands-on-deck operation if we want to keep this planet alive for generations to come.

Check out any of these organizations websites to see how you can get involved in the climate fight:

1. Action for Climate Emergency
2. Healthy Climate Wisconsin
3. Metcalfe Park Community Bridges
4. 350 Wisconsin
5. North Side Rising Co-Op

To learn more about the logistics of the We Energies operation, check out this article written by Peyton Radloff and Cael Byrne, two other UWM Post writers who also attended the rally.