Midwest Climate Accord Abandoned

Four years ago Wisconsin, along with five other Midwestern states, signed The Midwestern Greenhouse Gas Reduction Accord. Although moving forward on other fronts, Wisconsin has all but abandoned efforts to work with other states in the Accord to reduce greenhouse gases, preferring to go it alone.

The Accord was adopted by the Midwestern Governaors Association in 2007. The Accord called for member states to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 20 percent below 2005 levels by 2020 and 80 percent below 2005 levels by 2050 through regulation of electricity generation and other sources.

The Accord was put on hold in 2009 when it appeared that Congress was going to supersede state actions on this front, but did not regain steam when Congress failed to act. Now, most of the governors who signed the Accord have left office, or are on their way out the door, so it seems unlikely that the Accord will ever move forward.

As discussed in an earlier post, the natural resource departments of Michigan and Wisconsin have separately agreed to coordinate their strategies for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, effectively ditching the Accord.

This post was authored by Hamilton Consulting Group's intern, Emily Kelchen, a third year law student at the University of Wisconsin Law School.