At the second and final hearing of the Assembly Green Energy Jobs Committee on Governor Doyle’s Glboal Warming Bill this week, the businesses who will collect the $16 billion of subsidies for renewable energy projects urged the bill’s passage.  The employers, both large and small, who will pay those subsidies via their electric bills pleaded with the committee to save the jobs and manufacturing operations the legislation will drive to other states.  Three days later, the Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC) released a petition signed by more than 3,000 top business and opinion leaders urging defeat of the bill and the energy price hikes it contains.

For weeks, I’ve explored the bills provisions and how its flawed assumptions will cost our state jobs, but this overwhelming response from Wisconsin’s business community confirms the economic devastation that the governor’s bill will cause.

According to a press release issued by WMC President James Haney “as energy prices go up, we lose manufacturing jobs that provide the highest wages and best benefits.”    Indeed, manufacturing jobs pay $62,959 on average, 37% higher than our state’s average annual salary of $45,905.  Unfortunately, we’ve already lost far too many of these family supporting jobs—63,200 since the recession began.

Mr. Haney added that “we all support clean energy, but employers need to be able to get energy at an affordable price in order for Wisconsin to create jobs for our families. Wisconsin has lost 160,000 manufacturing jobs since 2000, and in 2009 the state had more government workers than manufacturing workers.”

Manufacturing accounts for a 20.3% share of Wisconsin’s economy, making us the most manufacturing-intensive economy in the nation.  Of the 176,000 Wisconsin jobs lost since the recession began, more than 1/3 were manufacturing jobs.  As bad as those numbers are, they will be far worse if the governor’s bill becomes law.  Because manufacturing is energy intensive, the price hikes under the bill mean this sector will bear the brunt of the 43,000 jobs that are lost.  According to estimates, the paper industry alone will lose 1,934 jobs.

The fragile Wisconsin economy simply won’t survive the consequences of the governor’s bill.  This week, the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance released results of a study that concludes Wisconsin has lost 4.3% of its business establishments from 2006-2009.

In just three short years, 6,700 private firms disappeared from our state, that’s about 6 per day.  Already with over 4% fewer private businesses than 4 years ago, our families cannot risk further restricting Wisconsin’s commerce, especially when our neighbors have successfully attracted new employers.  According the WisTax report, Illinois’ private firms increased by 7.8%, Iowa’s by 2.2% and Minnesota’s by 0.4%, while the national average was up 6.1%.  Surprisingly, even Michigan which is the home to the struggling auto industry faired better than Wisconsin, losing 1.7% of its private businesses.

Absent the governor’s bill, Wisconsin clearly has work to do if we are going to keep employers here.  If the governor’s bill becomes law, our task becomes nearly impossible.  While the energy intensive manufacturing industry will be hit hardest by the legislation, small businesses will be defenseless against the massive rate increases.