GOP Senator admits it. New Wisconsin bill exempts mining companies from environmental standards
http://www.bluecheddar.net/?p=27756
GOP Senator Tom Tiffany admits it. New Wisconsin bill exempts mining companies from environmental standards.
Madison – The 2013 version of the open-pit mining bill released today is strikingly similar to last session’s AB 426 that was defeated. The new Open-Pit Mining Bill is a flawed, extreme, one-sided bill that will subject our waters to contamination from toxins like arsenic, lead and mercury.
The bill exempts mining companies from following environmental standards, a fact that the main bill author validated (See
http://www.wiseye.org/Programming/Mining.aspx, 30:01).
When a reporter asked, “Is it fair to say that the bill does allow the DNR to exempt companies from environmental standards?” Senator Tom Tiffany, lead bill author, replied, “Yep, that is accurate.”
“The bill exempts mining polluters from following the laws that every other Wisconsin business, local government, and resident must follow. In a single bill, our hunting and fishing traditions, our tourism economy, and the health of our citizens are placed in jeopardy,” said Anne Sayers, Program Director for Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters.
Despite repeated claims by bill authors at the press conference that the bill does not weaken environmental standards, it absolutely does. The bill memo released by the neutral Legislative Council outlines 4 important areas where state natural resource laws will be weakened under this new bill:
Public rights and interest in navigable water.
Flood flow capacity of a stream.
The rights of riparian owners.
Degradation of water quality.
Last time around the Repukes testified that the mining bill did NOT relax any environmental standards. They failed to mention that it exempted the Geobic mine from those standards.
You just can't trust those fuckers.
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