“We hope to become the Silicon Valley of renewable energy.” - Chester Culver, governor of Iowa

Six Midwestern Governors, including Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle, signed the Midwestern Regional Greenhouse Gas Reduction Accord that will establish the region as leaders in the fight against global warming.

The accord, signed Thursday at the Midwestern Governor’s Energy Summit at the Pfister Hotel in Milwaukee, will greatly reduce emissions in the Midwest by emphasizing conservation, greater energy efficiency and development of alternative fuels.

The plan seeks to lower electricity demand 2 percent by 2015 and 2 percent annually thereafter. It also requires all coal-burning power plants to capture and store dangerous carbon dioxide underground by 2020, and it seeks to put a more environmentally friendly E85 ethanol gasoline in a third of gas stations by 2025.

Another element of the accord is the proposed cap and trade system involving emissions credits that will be instituted by the region in the next twelve months.

In addition to Wisconsin, the governors of Iowa, Kansas, Illinois, Michigan and Minnesota signed the accord along with the premier of Manitoba, Canada. South Dakota, Indiana and Ohio signed on as observers. Missouri, Nebraska and North Dakota did not sign the accord.

With the accord now in place, the governors hope the agreement will serve as an example for other regions of the country, and eventually the world to follow.

“We are proud of the leadership this group is providing,” said Gov. Doyle.

The hope is that the Midwest can lead the way in developing alternative fuels and capitalize on the economic advantages that would offer.

“We hope to become the Silicon Valley of renewable energy,” said Iowa Gov. Chester Culver.

With the region providing vast potential for hydroelectric, wind, and solar power, the Midwest appears to be in great position to capitalize on further development.

Members of the summit also stressed the need to be proactive in dealing with energy issues, and that the idea isn’t to stop doing things, but rather to change how things are done.

“The green world goes around telling people not to do things. Really, we just need to do things differently,” said Phil Woolas, minister of state for the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in the United Kingdom.

Woolas opened the event with a speech relating progress in England and the environmental efforts there, and what countries can learn from each other.

Conservation was also an emphasis during the forum, as it is key to any progress made in the fight against global warming.

“The cleanest and cheapest energy is the energy we don’t use,” said Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty. “We can’t undersell the importance of conservation.”

However, not everyone was pleased with the proceedings. A group of around 25, mostly University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee students, gathered outside of the Pfister Wednesday night to protest the continued usage of coal as a source of energy.

Protestors favored wind and solar energy sources, arguing their less harmful impact on the environment, and were skeptical of the ability to store coal emissions underground.

“We are looking for an eventual moratorium on coal usage. We need to make the ones (coal plants) we already have more efficient, but we shouldn’t be building any new ones,” said protest organizer Katie Walters.

The governors highlighted the need to clean up coal plants, but do not appear to have plans to devalue them as a viable energy source.

“We are working on sequestering the carbon and the physical infrastructure to deal with it, but we can’t turn around and just shut down coal plants,” said South Dakota Gov. Michael Rounds.

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