Scott Walker Wants To Stop Funding Renewable Energy Research Center
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) wants to end funding to a university renewable energy program that works to find ways to convert wood chips and grasses grown in Wisconsin into sources of energy.
Walker is proposing to cut $8.1 million over two years from the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center, a move that would cut a total of 35 jobs from the center, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports. Along with working to develop new sources of energy in Wisconsin, including native grasses and corn stalks, the research center helps fund research in fields such as energy efficiency and power generation.
State funding of a research institution can help the institution get federal grants, Tom Still, president of the Wisconsin Technology Council, told the Journal Sentinel. He didn’t say, however, whether or not he thought Walker’s defunding would impact Wisconsin’s ability to get federal energy grants.
“It is common practice that federal agencies handing out grants expect a state or private match,” Still said. “They are looking for skin in the game.”
Companies have also used the research center for better lab equipment. GluCan, a company based in St. Louis, didn’t have the money to buy the equipment it needed for a project involving using a biologically-based chemical instead of a petroleum-based one in papermaking, and was able to receive lab equipment and space as well as research funding from the research center.
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http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/03/02/3628442/scott-walker-bioenergy-defunding/
Vermin. Koch Vermin.
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