Democratic Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin wants an earmark of more than $1 million to facilitate a solar project in one of the country’s least-sunny regions.
Baldwin requested the earmark to the fiscal year 2024 energy appropriations bill that would send more than $1.4 million to help a solar panel and battery storage project in Viola, Wisconsin. The village has a population of less than 1,000 people, and the region in which it is located gets less sunlight than the vast majority of the U.S., according to data compiled by The Washington Post.
The project that the funding would support is intended to bolster Viola’s “energy resilience,” according to the text of Baldwin’s earmark request. (RELATED: Liz Warren Wants A $3 Million Earmark To Bring The Green New Deal To A Police Station)
NEW: Two Dem lawmakers want to earmark $1m to help an activist org build an “environmental justice” center in NYC that is expected to mobilize thousands of voters annually via “non-partisan get-out-the-vote efforts.”@DailyCaller News Foundationhttps://t.co/ntkvFyt1f3
— Nick Pope (@realnickpope) December 21, 2023
The village is located to the northwest of Milwaukee and Madison, two of Wisconsin’s major cities.
Viola gets comparable levels of sunlight to northern Minnesota, upstate New York, Vermont and northwestern Montana, according to the Post’s data. Places like Iowa, South Dakota and most of North Dakota tend to get more sunlight each year than Viola.
Baldwin also requested a $2 million earmark to provide the Dairyland Power Cooperative with “funding for electric vehicle charging station with solar battery and storage” and a $5 million earmark for the University of Wisconsin, Madison, for a “BioDesign Laboratory” that would “support development of the biotechnology and biomanufacturing sector that produces compounds needed by resilient energy, agriculture, and health supply chains,” according to the summary of her requests.
“We should be desperately looking for reforms to make the government more efficient and more responsive to the public, but also so we don’t go bankrupt as a country,” David Ditch, a senior policy analyst for the Heritage Foundation, told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Baldwin’s office did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
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