The intended removal of environmental protections for the Foxconn site is discharging some predictable spin. I call it "murky," though "sudsy" might be more applicable. Read on.
The Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce's Tim Sheehy tried hard in remarks to the Journal Sentinel to downplay concerns about the company's adherence to environmental law even though much Wisconsin environmental policy has been waived for Foxconn:
Moreover, it's something of a word game to say that federal rules offer an environmental backup because everyone knows that the federal government under President Trump and his anti-EPA/current EPA administrator Scott Pruitt is suspending or sinking many programs, policies, rules and staff positions meant to manage and enforce long-standing federal standards.
Looking to Team Trump to guarantee environmental compliance at the Foxconn site is like bringing in Experian to handle Internet security, or handing over employee relations to Scott (Act 10) Walker.
And look at the increase in already-impaired waterways in Wisconsin, like the Little Plover River, below. How have the rules that are fast-disappearing protected Wisconsin waters and the land they flow through?
Does that look like a fishable, swimmable, drinkable body of water to you?
The Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce's Tim Sheehy tried hard in remarks to the Journal Sentinel to downplay concerns about the company's adherence to environmental law even though much Wisconsin environmental policy has been waived for Foxconn:
Sheehy said as an international company that supplies electronic giants such as Apple, Foxconn has management systems and standards in place that include substantial environmental controls.
“They want to go far beyond command and control,” he said. “In other words ‘here’s your law, we have to comply with it.’But already ignored by Scott Walker and his team of Foxconn enablers are published reports showing Foxconn's disdain for rules on the books:
Chinese electronics suppliers FoxconnTechnology Group and UniMicron Technology Corp. have been criticized by Chinese environmental activist Ma Jun and five nonprofit environmental organizations for polluting nearby rivers with factory chemicals.According to the environmental groups, water with a black-green color and a chemical odor have been dumped from both Foxconn and UniMicron plants into the Huangcangjing and Hanputang rivers -- which feed into the Yangtze and Huangpu rivers. “Sudsy” water is dumped from Foxconn twice a day...Foxconn said that it is complying with emissions standards and that other companies within the same industrial park are dumping water into the rivers as well...The groups pointed out that the dumping of polluted wastewater into the rivers is contributing the China’s heavy-metal pollution problem. Currently, about 25 to 60 million acres of China’s arable land is polluted with heavy metals due to electronics factories.
I cited this information in an August 18 posting that is among 70 posts wrapped into a summary archive, here, which includes multiple environmental, legal and political commentaries and reports.Source: The Wall Street Journal
Moreover, it's something of a word game to say that federal rules offer an environmental backup because everyone knows that the federal government under President Trump and his anti-EPA/current EPA administrator Scott Pruitt is suspending or sinking many programs, policies, rules and staff positions meant to manage and enforce long-standing federal standards.
Looking to Team Trump to guarantee environmental compliance at the Foxconn site is like bringing in Experian to handle Internet security, or handing over employee relations to Scott (Act 10) Walker.
And look at the increase in already-impaired waterways in Wisconsin, like the Little Plover River, below. How have the rules that are fast-disappearing protected Wisconsin waters and the land they flow through?
Does that look like a fishable, swimmable, drinkable body of water to you?
Finally - - the State Legislature is moving quickly to make Foxconn exemptions the norm - - so bring on bigger CAFOs and deregulated metals mining - - so why should Foxconn go out of its way to be a good corporate citizen when the corporate citizens already here are lining up to get Foxconn's nine yards and the full implementation of Walker's 'chamber of commerce mentality' governance that has stripped the DNR of much of its research, science, inspection and public-interest enforcement mission.