Federal and state GOP officials are playing a shell game with public waters - - pretending that Federal law will protect wetlands being deregulated in Wisconsin while working to block or end Federal water protections and much of what remains on the books in Wisconsin, too.
It's a classic case of saying one thing while doing the opposite.
Begin with the law Walker signed to subsidize Foxconn construction on several thousand acres of rural Racine County land, as new law predictably exempted the company from routine Wisconsin protections for wetlands, streams and even lake beds.
(Full Foxconn archive, here.)
Look past the purely propagandistic assurances offered by Foxconn proponents that the company would be a good steward of the land, and pay attention to the how back-up federal waterway protections are alleged to be there to compensate for what the state just Foxconn is not and will not be required to do.
Except that Wisconsin officials are working overtime to remove federal protections while they are also aiming to extend the Foxconn exemptions to any business what wants them:
* Brad Schimel, Wisconsin's pro-business GOP Attorney General, is leading the effort by numerous state attorneys general - - and note they just paid political and literal tribute to Trump at Mar-a-Lago - - to remove federal protections from waterways and wetlands nationwide.
* Scott Pruitt, Trump's pro-business EPA administrator, is trying to tie-up Obama-era wetland and waterway protections for at least two more years.
* And Wisconsin GOP legislators are out to further shrink Wisconsin wetland and waterway protections statewide, while citing with a straight face the very federal back-up protections that Trump, Pruitt and Schimel are working hard to block, then end:
What do you think will happen to Wisconsin waterways as wetlands and other bodies of water are filled by Foxconn, and if Pruitt wins the waterways blockage he and Trump are seeking, and if Schimel's band of wetland fillers win the permanent federal waterway rollbacks they want when the case reaches the US Supreme Court?
It's a classic case of saying one thing while doing the opposite.
Begin with the law Walker signed to subsidize Foxconn construction on several thousand acres of rural Racine County land, as new law predictably exempted the company from routine Wisconsin protections for wetlands, streams and even lake beds.
(Full Foxconn archive, here.)
Look past the purely propagandistic assurances offered by Foxconn proponents that the company would be a good steward of the land, and pay attention to the how back-up federal waterway protections are alleged to be there to compensate for what the state just Foxconn is not and will not be required to do.
Except that Wisconsin officials are working overtime to remove federal protections while they are also aiming to extend the Foxconn exemptions to any business what wants them:
* Brad Schimel, Wisconsin's pro-business GOP Attorney General, is leading the effort by numerous state attorneys general - - and note they just paid political and literal tribute to Trump at Mar-a-Lago - - to remove federal protections from waterways and wetlands nationwide.
* Scott Pruitt, Trump's pro-business EPA administrator, is trying to tie-up Obama-era wetland and waterway protections for at least two more years.
* And Wisconsin GOP legislators are out to further shrink Wisconsin wetland and waterway protections statewide, while citing with a straight face the very federal back-up protections that Trump, Pruitt and Schimel are working hard to block, then end:
Republicans in the Wisconsin Legislature want to eliminate state protections for wetlands and air quality except when mandated by the federal government, saying they are costly for businesses.
About a million acres of wetlands could be left vulnerable and as many as 300 hazardous air pollutants could become unregulated under a pair of proposals circulating among lawmakers.* All this while the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources has gusted added another 240 Wisconsin waterways to the federal impairment list.
What do you think will happen to Wisconsin waterways as wetlands and other bodies of water are filled by Foxconn, and if Pruitt wins the waterways blockage he and Trump are seeking, and if Schimel's band of wetland fillers win the permanent federal waterway rollbacks they want when the case reaches the US Supreme Court?