#mining bill

fuck.

fuck them. fuck everything.

MARCH 16, 2012 by BARBARA WITH

According to the League of Conservation Voters, the controversial mining bill that passed through the Assembly but was stopped in the Senate is officially dead.

Often called the Everglades of the North, the Kakagon and Bad River Sloughs located at the base of the Penokee HIlls, a pristine wetland complex located in northern Wisconsin, was formally recognized as an international treasure. The area has been saved from a 22-mile open pit iron ore mine.

A “public” hearing had been scheduled for Monday, March 19 in the Judiciary committee to discuss the consideration of the bill during a possible special session. No public input was to be allowed at that meeting, however, the meeting has now been cancelled.

Opponents to a 22-mile open pit iron ore mine in the Penokee Hills fought the lack of democratic process involved in the passage of a bill written by mining company attorneys. Environmental groups, state citizens and the Wisconsin Indian Tribes have testified against the bill consistently throughout the process. Despite overwhelming opposition, the Wisconsin Assembly passed AB426 on January 26 after removing observers from the gallery and locking the doors to the public.

Sen. Bob Jauch (D) and Sen. Dale Schultz (R) authored their own version of a mining bill which did not pass through the Joint Finance Committee. Instead, AB426 was amended, but the amendments did not pass the Senate session, sending the bill back to committee.

Post by Reedsburg Indep... on 3/16/2012 10:14am

This article originally appeared in the Reedsburg Independent and was written by editor Jeff Seering. It is republished here with permission.

Dale Schultz has represented the Reedsburg area in the state legislature for close to 30 years, starting in the Assembly and then getting elected to the state Senate in 1991. At no time in his 30 years has he received more statewide attention than in the past 13 months, not even when he was elected Senate Majority Leader by his Republican colleagues in 2005.

Schultz has drawn the spotlight because he is one of the few state legislators on either side of the political aisle in Madison who has been willing to buck his own parties on issues, even though Schultz votes with Republicans on probably 90 percent of issues.

He first drew the spotlight last spring when he was the lone Republican Senator to vote against bill that stripped most collective bargaining rights away from public workers in Wisconsin. Last week he was the lone Republican voting against the iron mining bill strongly supported by Republican Governor Scott Walker, a bill that was defeated 17-16 in a straight party line vote, except for Schultz.

Since last summer's recalls, Republicans in the State Senate have a slim 17-16 majority, which means they need the support of every party member to pass bills without getting some Democratic support.

During last week’s mining bill debate, Schultz was one of three Senators to speak up during the hour long debate. He and Sen. Bob Jauch, a Senator who represents the part of the state where the Gogebic Taconite Company planned to build an iron mine, proposed their own amendment to the mining bill but it was never allowed to come to the Senate floor for a vote.

Schultz says he is still hopeful a mining bill can be passed. He objected to the bill that came through the Assembly and an amended verison by the Joint Finance Committee because they didn’t allow the general public to have any voice in the permit process until after a permit was issued, and he was concerned that it did not adequately protect the environment.

In an interview last week, he said a challenge during the mining bill process was that he heard the Gogebic objected to provisions in the Jauch-Schultz amendment but heard nothing specific until the very end when the contested hearing portion was brought up as an obstacle. After the mining bill was defeated, the Gogebic company president announced his company is no longer interested in mining in Wisconsin.

Schultz said about the mining bill compromise he proposed, “No one got up to refute anything we put in.” He said it was bizarre that no one from Gogebic or the other side of the issue ever contacted him to explain what provisions were unacceptable. He said at no time during the process did anyone say why the environmental changes in the Assembly bill and subsequent Joint Finance amendment that changed existing laws were essential.

While the mining bill changes came up because of Gogebic Taconite’s proposal to build a four and a half mile long open pit mine near Mellen in far northern Wisconsin, the bill would have changed iron mining laws in the entire state.

During the Senate debate, Schultz pointed out the bill being debated had a provision in it that said State Natural Areas would no longer be protected in areas where mining takes place. There are no State Natural Areas in the Penokee Range where the Gogebic mine was proposed, the Senator said. But there are plenty of them in the Baraboo Bluffs, where iron mining has taken place in the past. He questioned why that provision, which could affect his district, was included in the iron mining bill.

He told his Senate colleagues that provisions of the mining bill proposed “elevate iron mining over other potential uses as the highest and best use of land... It is full of subjective, squishy language on the issues of public health, safety and welfare.”

Talking about specific things in the rejected bill that concerned him, Schultz said the iron mining bill would have allowed the mining company to place fill in streams, rivers, ponds and lakes. That would conflict with the Public Waters Doctrine in the state’s constitution, which states open waters in the state belong to the public.

Schultz also questioned the legislative findings included with the bill that stated runoffs from tailings from the iron mine would not pollute water. It has been reported that there is pyrite in the ground above the Penokee iron deposit. That kind of material, when brought to the surface, can lead to acidic runoff. “The findings in the bill are not based on good science,” Schultz told his Senate colleagues in last week’s debate. Water from the mine would drain into the Bad River Watershed, which empties in Chequamegon Bay in Lake Superior. Schultz told the Senate that without proper testing of the overburden at the mine site, there is no way knowing what it is and what effects there will be if it is moved and disturbed. During the debate, Schultz noted that three experts from UW-Platteville spoke at a mining hearing held in that community. “Those three faculty members said, ‘Listen to the scientific experts.’ We haven’t done that.”

Schultz said that at a public forum he helped sponsor in Mellen, all of the speakers said they were concerned about the environmental effects the mine could have.

Schultz said his preference is to address and update the iron mining issues in open process in which mining experts and environmentalists are invited to come together in one room to express their concerns and work together on solutions. “We owe it to the people to let the light shine in,” he said. He supports a streamlined process for approving mining permits.

Acknowledging the political pressure he has been under regarding the mining issue, Schultz notes he has received support from the people he represents in the 17th Senate District, saying calls in favor of his position have been running six or seven to one ahead of those opposing it.

It's real simple.

The nonstop Capitol political beatings, and scar tissue from them, over the past year made it impossible to rewrite mining and environmental laws to let Gogebic Taconite LLC seek permits for a huge open-pit mine in Ashland and Iron counties.

There's enough blame to go around for the defeat - for now, at least - of what Republican Gov. Scott Walker and Republicans who control the Legislature said was the quickest way to create hundreds of jobs. Blame is the fertilizer of Capitol careers.

Walker could call a special session on a resurrected mining bill, but only if there is a real deal that can pass the Legislature. Otherwise, the governor would take a second embarrassing hit on creating jobs, his top priority.

A 17-16 Senate vote Tuesday shelved what Republicans leaders insisted was a fair compromise. Why did Republican Sen. Dale Schultz join the 16 Senate Democrats in killing the Joint Finance Committee's mining bill?

To pass a complex bill like that, there has to be trust on all sides.

But the events of the past year - Walker and Republican lawmakers divided the state by quickly moving to end the 50-year-old system of collective bargaining by most public employees, which touched off recall elections for nine state senators - has legislative leaders of both parties rarely talking to each other, let alone trusting.

Senate leaders have even stopped meeting in person to set the agenda for the next Senate workday. Instead, they circulate mail ballots.

This summer, Democrats are trying to recall Walker. So why would he bargain in good faith with those trying to throw him out of office?

But Walker also never did what Kathleen Falk, one Democrat who will oppose him in a recall election, said she would have done: Bring together everyone involved and announce, "We're not going to leave the room until we get it done."

Instead of negotiating, Walker played sideline cheerleader. He barnstormed the state, visiting construction companies that hoped to bid on Gogebic contracts and told everyone to "call your legislator" and demand passage of a mining bill.

Democrats also have targeted four of the 17 Republican senators with summer recall elections. Those four Republicans have little desire for a kumbaya moment with their sworn enemies. Recalls, after all, cost two Republican senators their jobs last year.

Democrats also said they were never consulted on the first versions of the mining bill: A first draft, selectively released last year, never even got formally introduced after Democrats and local officials insisted it was written in secret by Gogebic executives. Then came Assembly Bill 426, which Republicans passed in that house on Jan. 26.

Last weekend, Republican Rep. Robin Vos led negotiations that spawned a third bill, approved on Monday by the Finance Committee. It was that version that Schultz and Senate Democrats killed Tuesday.

Schultz and Democratic Sen. Bob Jauch insisted that the first three versions of the mining bill would have done so much environmental damage - including allowing waterways to be filled - that they were unconstitutional.

A Schultz/Jauch mining bill was unacceptable to Assembly Republicans.

They also said Wisconsin's brightest scientists, including those at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville who work near the huge M - for mining - splayed on hill outside Platteville, were never consulted.

There was irony in the Schultz/Jauch partnership: Both first came to the Legislature in 1983. Both once led their parties in the Senate. Both once hoped to serve in Congress. Both represent some of the lowest-income areas of Wisconsin but regions with rich iron deposits.

Gogebic's mine would have been in Jauch's district. Underground mines took iron out of the Baraboo Bluffs area, which Schultz represents, between 1904 and about 1925. Iron is still under those scenic bluffs.

It was Schultz's second vote against a top Walker priority. On March 9, 2011, Schultz was the only Republican to vote against the governor's plan to all but abolish collective bargaining for most public employees.

Schultz also took a backhand swipe at Walker, the leader of his party, when he praised Falk by name Monday for her environmental advocacy when she worked as a public intervenor in the Justice Department.

There's a new version of that old proverb: The enemy of my enemy is my fellow legislator.

Steven Walters is a senior producer for WisconsinEye. This column reflects his personal perspective. [email protected]