I can only imagine the conversation that must have privately occurred between State Senators Bob Jauch, Tim Cullen and Dale Schultz as they composed their recent letter to republican colleagues regarding the Army Corps of Engineers refusal to work with the WDNR on a joint environmental impact statement for GTAC’s proposed Penokee Hills iron mine.
It wouldn’t be any surprise to me if phrases/words such as ” dumbasses ” ” idiots ” and ” for Chrissakes we tried to tell them this would happen ” were peppered throughout the discussion.
But ever the statesmen, the three senators have written a polite letter explaining to their cognitively challenged GOP colleagues that the new ferrous mining law, Act 1, is simply unworkable and essentially meaningless in that it cedes control over the permitting process entirely to the federal government. They go on to say, basically, that it’s back to the drawing board.
So there you have it, your Wisconsin Republican Party in action. Three years of legislative controversy, threats of lawsuits and general uproar in overturning Wisconsin’s mining laws for a single corporation ………………….for nothing.
PS. Happy New Year, Senator Tom Tiffany! ( R-GTAC)
While I appreciate the Dem. Senators’ scolding of their GOP colleagues, I remain concerned that a call for “workable” mining legislation is misguided and short-sighted if “workable” means an empty hole, a back-filled ditch, an artificial lake or any such remnant in the Penokees. Neither this region, the state or the nation needs anymore of this kind of exploitation and the concomitant carbon footprint. Get the iron from junkyards and landfills if you must build more stuff. There’s plenty of each above ground already.
Workable should also mean taking control, limiting and more strictly regulating frac sand mining. Water used in the process is also a related threat to that resource and regulation regarding it as a public trust. Anyone who has not seen the Woods Person diary comment from Anthony Stella, who explains propane pricing, do it and read who is paying and who is benefiting from the destruction of Wisconsin’s sand counties. The profiteers have no concern about the aftermath in the state.
http://woodsperson.blogspot.com/2014/01/32-degrees-wheres-global-warming.html
Those with further interest shouldn’t miss the article from Madison based Steve Horn on your Democratic POTUS and the US congressionals, in regard to hastening the destruction of our state for his sponsor’s profits.
http://www.desmogblog.com/2014/01/07/days-before-casselton-oil-train-explosion-president-obama-signed-bill-hastening-fracking-permitting-nd-public-lands