Wisconsin GOP Gov. and big business bellhop Scott Walker's 'chamber of commerce' style of governing just got another rousing endorsement from his Capitol sidekick GOP AG Brad Schimel:
What makes this stinky tale even more foul is that this key environmental oversight job in the AG's office was available because David Ross, Schimel's previous lead pro-business 'environmental watchdog,' had been called to Washington, DC to help US EPA wrecker Scott Pruitt apply Trump's deregulating, polluting reach.
Not long ago, the key environmental oversight job in the AG's office had been held by Tom Dawson, a career environmental civil service attorney - - whom Schimel needed to push aside, then out, to get the AG's office better aligned with Walker's manure-flowing, wetland-filling, Foxconn-exempting, mine waste leaching, algae-blooming, donor-serving agenda.
For the record, Dawson had been one of the lawyers who had staffed the state's now-dismantled Public Intervenor's Office.
It was a small but effective group of attorneys who represented the Wisconsin public interest in environmental cases against the private sector's always-available battery of lawyers and trade associations and lobbyists - - until it was trashed budgetarily by then-Gov. Tommy Thompson to assuage his business community base and, for good measure, to also stick it to his then-nemesis, Attorney General Jim Doyle, (D).
That outrageous power play which in large measure laid the groundwork for the pollution and privatization agenda Walker, Schimel and GOP legislators now tag team against the public interest on a regular basis was explored in depth by veteran environmental attorney Jodi Habush Sinykin.
Know your history. It's a must-read.
Final thought:
As hundreds more Wisconsin waterways end up on the polluted list and wetlands are targeted for filling and wells in Kewaunee County test positive for dairy and feedlot contaminants, Thompson's role in weakening clean air and water protections could be explored by that new center on the UW Madison campus which bears his name.
As I said, know your history.
Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel’s appointment of a lawyer and former dairy industry lobbyist to lead the environmental protection unit of the Justice Department has drawn objections from the leader of a public interest law firm and concerns from a former secretary of the Department of Natural Resources.
What makes this stinky tale even more foul is that this key environmental oversight job in the AG's office was available because David Ross, Schimel's previous lead pro-business 'environmental watchdog,' had been called to Washington, DC to help US EPA wrecker Scott Pruitt apply Trump's deregulating, polluting reach.
Not long ago, the key environmental oversight job in the AG's office had been held by Tom Dawson, a career environmental civil service attorney - - whom Schimel needed to push aside, then out, to get the AG's office better aligned with Walker's manure-flowing, wetland-filling, Foxconn-exempting, mine waste leaching, algae-blooming, donor-serving agenda.
For the record, Dawson had been one of the lawyers who had staffed the state's now-dismantled Public Intervenor's Office.
It was a small but effective group of attorneys who represented the Wisconsin public interest in environmental cases against the private sector's always-available battery of lawyers and trade associations and lobbyists - - until it was trashed budgetarily by then-Gov. Tommy Thompson to assuage his business community base and, for good measure, to also stick it to his then-nemesis, Attorney General Jim Doyle, (D).
That outrageous power play which in large measure laid the groundwork for the pollution and privatization agenda Walker, Schimel and GOP legislators now tag team against the public interest on a regular basis was explored in depth by veteran environmental attorney Jodi Habush Sinykin.
Know your history. It's a must-read.
Final thought:
As hundreds more Wisconsin waterways end up on the polluted list and wetlands are targeted for filling and wells in Kewaunee County test positive for dairy and feedlot contaminants, Thompson's role in weakening clean air and water protections could be explored by that new center on the UW Madison campus which bears his name.
As I said, know your history.