Seeing Foxconn 'win,' WI GOP env. wrecking crew eyes mining favors

As predicted here, the Wisconsin Assembly Thursday evening passed a bill granting high-tech manufacturer Foxconn billions in precedent-setting taxpayer subsidies along with state exemptions from fundamental Wisconsin environmental protections and clean water guarantees.

So who is surprised that with a Governor who made wetland-filling a priority in his first days in office, and as the Foxconn package is being incautiously fast-tracked towards Walker's desk for a pre-election campaign boost, that the same GOP legislative wrecking crew which earlier had tried and failed to flatten, fill and pollute the Penokee Hills and Bad River watershed wetlands at the edge of lake Superior for an out-of-state coal mining magnate is returning to that template with a bill to overturn the state's mining moratorium.

Their bill is known as The Mining for America Act. The Mining for America Act will eliminate the nearly 20-year ban that the legislature placed on Wisconsin’s mining industry.

The moratorium sets strict conditions for mining to occur in Wisconsin, including proof that mines haven't polluted Wisconsin waters.

Want something like this in a watershed near you?

Aerial shot of landslide in Bingham Canyon copper-gold mine near Salty Lake City, Utah. Photo courtesy Kennecott Utah Copper via Facebook.