Reduce. Reuse. Recycle.

Those are words my kids hear a lot. We think about what we buy, opting for recyclable materials or recycled content instead. We think about what we throw away, opting instead to find someone who can use it or a place to recycle it. And we think about the energy we use. In our home you don’t get air conditioning 24/7 during the summer — even when it’s 98 degrees outside — and you don’t get to jack up the heat to 80 because you’re cold during the winter.

So it frustrates me a great deal when I hear about things that show our state legislature isn’t taking conservation efforts as seriously as it should.

Take for instance the fact that in the past six months, three wind farm developers with a combined investment of more than $600 million, have stopped operations in Wisconsin. The developers cited regulatory uncertainty and a perception that Wisconsin offers a hostile business environment for “green” energy as the reasons why.

And while Gov. Scott Walker’s effort to end Wisconsin’s recycling as we know it was denied by the state Legislature, the budget bill did cut funding for local recycling by 40 percent, which will result in communities making cuts to their services or charging fees to make up the lost revenue.

In June a coalition of 124 businesses signed a letter asking the governor to veto the portion of the state budget that rolled back funding to Focus on Energy, a statewide energy efficiency and renewable energy program. In spite of this grassroots effort, that claimed the focus also created jobs for the state, the cuts remained in the state budget.

Ironically, these things came to fruition around the same time that a report issued by The Brookings Institution reported Wisconsin’s clean energy jobs at nearly 77,000. Among the clean energy jobs categorized in the report were those in energy efficiency, renewable energy, and recycling and reuse. The report also cited Focus on Energy for the attractive buyback rates offered by utilities for renewable energy and the innovative incentives that encourage customer installation of renewables.

In addition, Wisconsin’s adoption of a 10-percent renewable energy standard back in 2006 spurred new utility-scale installations built by skilled tradesmen employed by local contractors. During the study period, the number of wind-related jobs in Wisconsin doubled from less than 450 to 900.

The Public Service Commission also recently reported that the state’s new wind farms enabled electric utilities to comply with the first phase of the state’s renewable energy standard. The study found renewable energy sales increased 93 percent between 2006 and 2010, and that green power accounted for more than 7 percent of electricity sales by utilities and cooperatives last year.

These reports beg the question: Where will the state be in 10 years if we start cutting back on these initiatives now? Have we taken one step forward only to take 10 steps back?

It’s great that families like mine are taking steps to reduce their environmental footprints. But to really make a difference, reduce, reuse, recycle needs to be on a much larger scale.

By Ronnie Garrett

Ronnie Garrett owns and operates Garrett & Co. Studios, a Fort Atkinson company providing editorial, photography and graphic design services.