Legislative Republicans introduced “Wisconsin Energy Reform Act”

Legislative Republicans introduced sweeping energy reform legislation known as the 2025 “Wisconsin Energy Reform Act”, or WERA, after announcing last week that a less competitive piece of legislation would die in the Assembly Energy and Utilities Committee. The intent of the legislation is to secure a more competitive landscape for energy companies and ratepayers in Wisconsin. WERA will include bidding controls for interstate and intrastate electrical transmission lines and also addresses farmland preservation. WERA will require that for each acre of high productivity farmland that is used for renewable energy projects, multiple acres of farmland will be protected for future agricultural use. The bill will be heard in the Energy and Utilities Committee in the coming days. Speaker Robin Vos says he hopes to be able to bring this to the Assembly floor in April.