Sham Lead Paint Rules Allow Sales of Lead-Soaked Fake Halloween Teeth

Think of the millions of dollars being spent in Milwaukee and other cities to get lead paint out of homes, or the millions or billions spent to remove lead from gasoline.

Yet the outrages continue over lead contained in or painted onto children's toys, not just because of unscrupulous manufacturers in China and their colluding, profit-driven US importing partners, but because the US has allowable levels of lead in these products and looks the other way on import inspections.

This is the latest disgusting example - - 100 times the allowable (that should read "criminal") level of lead in fake Halloween teeth, a product designed to be put in people's mouths.

Scandalous.

Clean Wisconsin Hosts Superior Meeting On Murphy Oil Issues

Madison-based Clean Wisconsin hosted a community meeting in Superior on Monday, October 29th, to shed more light on the proposed Murphy Oil refinery expansion on up to 500 acres of wetlands near Lake Superior.

Media reports, here, and some earlier blog items are here.

Wisconsin State Senate Committee Adopts Climate Change Resolution

Some progress in the Wisconsin legislature on national and global environmental issues, as a State Senate Committee adopts a climate change resolution and plan, according to Wisconsin Environment.

If the full Senate and Assembly concur, and the Governor executes, state actions would occur to lower greenhouse gas emissions and further conservation in the state.

Local Officials Endorse Strong Great Lakes Compact - - Major Media Blackout

More than a dozen local officials on Tuesday morning publicly endorsed Wisconsin's adoption of a strong Great Lakes Compact implementing bill for the state, but you'd have to read the speciality media to get the details because the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has had no story about it online or in print for more than 24 hours.

Too bad: it was a significant event, organized by the Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters and held at Pier Wisconsin on the shores of Lake Michigan.

It proved, that despite pockets of ideological narrow-mindedness centered among some corporate interests in the sprawl areas of Waukesha County, there is growing regional agreement on the need for getting a strong Great Lakes Compact bill adopted now.

The Mayors of Milwaukee, West Allis, Cudahy, Franklin and New Berlin were in attendance, and were joined by several area county board and city councils' members.

Milwaukee Alderman Michael Murphy reported that a Common Council resolution supporting a strong Compact had unanimously passed its first committee vote earlier that morning.

The Small Business Times has a comprehensive article, here, as does the Daily Reporter, here.

The Waukesha Freeman carried a story, with a truncated version available to online readers here.

And the Door County Advocate has run a comprehensive summary of the issues in the wake of the news conferences.

All in all, there was a keen awareness in the room that the Great Lakes are under stress, and that drought and a warming climate will make these international waters a target for diversion and depletion if the Compact's safeguards are not approved.

More than a dozen Wisconsin environmental, civic and outdoors organizations have endorsed the state's adoption of a strong, pro-conservation version of the Great Lakes Compact.

The Daily Reporter piece includes the predictable negative reaction from Compact-basher State Sen. Mary Lazich, (R-New Berlin), who is dedicated to stalling the Compact by re-opening the negotiations among the Great Lakes states and Canadian provinces that produced the draft Compact - - after those discussions began nearly seven years ago.

Lazich is incensed that New Berlin's Mayor Jack Chiovatero is working with Milwaukee to move the Compact forward in the legislature.

Chiovatero understands that getting the Compact approved makes it more likely that his community can successfully apply for and win a diversion of water from Lake Michigan.

The Compact establishes first-ever rules, standards and procedures for such diversions, with conservation and planning among key requirements.

Lazich's opposition continues to make it hard-to-impossible for New Berlin to win such a diversion, but there the Senator is, working against the interests of her own community.

And also against Wisconsin's standing with the other Great Lakes states as the only one without a Compact ratification bill adopted or under discussion.

Is that the way to win the other states' approval for a diversion to New Berlin, and down the road, for the additional diversion applications that will come from the City of Waukesha and throughout the area if a new regional water authority is recommended, as expected, by the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission?

A similar gathering of public officials was held the same morning in Green Bay, with good media there.

Now 48 hours later and counting, still nothing in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the state's larget paper, with more readers effected by Great Lakes water issues than in any other market.

Remember - - The Bush Administration Chooses These People For Leadership

The administration could have picked anyone in the country for key positions, and intentionally chose people like Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez, or Michael Brown to run FEMA, or various insider lobbyists to manage regulatory agencies.

It wasn't that long ago that US climate change policy, with a noticeable tilt towards Big Oil and away from renewables, was line-edited by a former Exxon lobbyist, Philip Cooney.

But the recent outrage over John Tanner's supervision of the Justice Department's Voting Rights section takes the cake.

Tanner is the guy who recently said that obstructions. such as voter ID requirements, faced by elderly white voters was a more serious problem than it was for elderly minority voters because whites tended to live longer and minorities died earlier.

Don't believe that a Justice Department official could hold that sort of view, and verbalize it?

Here is the Washington Post story.

Pabst Farms Slow Down...So Why Go Forward With The I-Interchange?

More evidence that housing construction is being delayed at Pabst Farms...but the state still wants to spend $23 in tax money to build the Interstate interchange to NoWhere serving the cancelled Pabst Farms upscale shopping mall.

Why The Murphy Oil Refinery Expansion In Superior Will Be "The Biggest"

So let's define our terms when it comes to the planned expansion of the Murphy Oil refinery in Superior, and why you will see the word "biggest" describing the project.

Wetlands Costs:

State Capitol sources report that building a refinery expansion at the Superior site will require the largest filling of Wisconsin wetlands since the adoption of wetlands filling rules and procedures contained in the 1972 US Clean Water Act.

According to briefing materials obtained under the State Open Records Statute, incoming Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Secretary Matt Frank was told that the potential impact is 300-400 acres.

The figure of "up to 500 acres" has been mentioned by state officials, sources report.

To put that into perspective, the contentious battle last year over the location of a proposed Menards warehouse in Eau Claire involved about two-thirds of one acre.

After an uproar over the possibility that there would be that small wetlands filling, the company cancelled the multi- million project and said it would distribute the warehouse's 900 potential jobs elsewhere.

Because in Wisconsin, wetlands loss is considered a very bad thing, and saving even small parcels of the state's dwindling wetlands legacy has widespread support from constituencies as varied as urban environmentalists, small-town anglers, and farmers.

One reason for why the substantial impact to wetlands at the refinery site is so huge is that much of the City of Superior, WI is wetlands, given its proximity to Lake Superior.

The briefing document captures the significance of the wetlands filling issue in one simple, understated bureaucratic sentence under "related information:

"Wetlands impacts are a major issue and will likely dictate the scope and direction of the project."

Financial Costs:

A number of documents indicate that the potential cost of the expansion is $6 billion, and that while preliminary scoping and planning is underway with the involvement of several local state and federal agencies, Murphy is still searching for a partner to handle some of the investment cost.

When it happens, the project will be big, actually "the biggest."

"The economic impacts of this project are such that it will likely be the largest project in the history of the state of Wisconsin," says the DNR briefing report to Frank.

So the expansion may end up being framed as environment vs. jobs.

That's an unfortunate construct for debate because recent studies have shown a $50 billion payoff for Great Lakes cleanup (oil refineries have a way of leaking and discharging pollutants), and sustainable employment, in cleaner jobs, through alternative energy development.

(A good piece about these issues, by Clean Wisconsin attorney Melissa Malott, is here.)

And It's More Than A Refinery Project:

The DNR/Frank briefing documents also indicate that while the Murphy Oil refinery would process crude oil coming south from Canada's tar sands regions (this is what the earlier fight over the Enbridge Pipeline was all about), another pipeline will be needed to move refined products out of Superior.

"A products pipeline to the Chicago area and points south will also need to be constructed as part of this expansion project," the briefing document says.

The Enbridge pipeline moves from Superior south to the St. Louis area, and has been plagued by construction permitting violations, including illegal damage to wetlands.

So get ready for another pipeline siting and routing struggle, because there are a lot of wetlands, rivers, streams, farms and additional valuable properties between Superior and Chicago.

Broad Scope To The Study Of Falling Great Lake Levels

A major study is about to be launched to discover why water levels are falling in Lake Michigan, and elsewhere in the Great Lakes system, including whether Army Corps of Engineers' dredging in the St. Clair river has caused unexpected outflows of water to the Atlantic Ocean.

The river is part of the Ontario/Michigan boundary.

While the five-year study horizon is flawed, the study's scope is comprehensive and could lead to some solid findings, according to a decent summary of the issues in the Detroit Free Press.

The piece is worth saving.

Business Experts Predict Boom In US, Other Water Sales

According to one business writer, large-scale water sales from our region to Texas and beyond are predictable and calculable - - just a matter of time and economics.

And water sales that dwarf the exploding market in plastic water bottles that people carry around like security blankets these days, filled with Michigan wetlands water branded as Ice Mountain, or other similar fake names and designer labels.

Bad enough as these bottle-by-bottle diversions of water from our region have become, corporate America has something even more troublesome in mind.

The Chief Executive of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange thinks there could soon be a lucrative market in trading water futures contracts, much the way wheat, copper, coffee and pork bellies are bought and sold.

With billions of dollars to be made from very willing (parched) buyers - - tomorrow Atlanta, next decade China? - - is the relatively weak US Water Resources Development Act effective enough to prevent such sales?

Probably not.

Democratic presidential candidate Bill Richardson said a few weeks ago that Wisconsin is "awash in water," so why wouldn't business begin to invest in marketing, pipelines and other delivery mechanisms to move Great Lakes and other fresh water reserves around the country and globe?

For the Great Lakes, and Wisconsin, it's a genuine threat, but still the Wisconsin legislature can't even debate a bill to adopt a pending agreement among the Great Lakes states and Canada to improve on the existing federal law by adding diversion standards and procedures.

The agreement, known as the Great Lakes Compact, would apply standards to restrict bottled water sales and wholesale diversions away from the Great Lakes basin.

Will the Wisconsin legislature move forward and ratify the Great Lakes Compact, or will it continue to be cowed by anti-regionalists like State Sen. Mary Lazich (R-New Berlin), who, along with states' rights allies in Ohio, want to torpedo the Compact and make the Great Lakes even easier to divert?

Wisconsin is the only Great Lakes state that has neither approved the Compact or debated such a bill.

Without the Compact, life-supporting, economy-dependent water will become another commodity sold for profit to the highest bidder without regard to local needs or the public interest.

That would leave the Great Lakes - - the world's largest concentration of fresh surface water - - vulnerable to disasterous depletion.

Madison Blogger "Forward Our Motto" Returns Home To Pabst Farms, Oconomowoc...

And finds the 'development, ' which I call The Capitol of Sprawlville, living up to its reviews.

Franklin Wants To Dissolve Its Environmental Commission: The Road To Sprawlville, Chapter V

The Road To Sprawlville, this blog's continuing series of posts about careless 'development' of land and water resources in the region, heads away from Pabst Farms and Waukesha County this week to the City of Franklin (pop. 34,000), our Milwaukee County neighbor to the south.

This small and growing community (Northwestern Mutual Insurance has opened a glitzy new campus there: don't you just love the language...campus?) has been spared some of the worst aspects of environmental degradation, in part through the actions of a strong, and at times, outspoken city Environmental Commission.

How is the government there responding now, as more and more development battles heat up in Franklin?

And where the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources seems to have set the tone for officialdom by declining to stop recent wetlands fillings so developers can keep right on building?

Mayor Tom Taylor, perhaps taking a cue from the DNR's passivity, has gone one step further by proposing, in his 2008 budget, the elimination of the environmental commission.

Now there's a novel approach: it you have watchdogs right in city hall, and they are serious about their role, and they rub some VIP's the wrong way - - well: just throw those environmentalists out.

That'll take care of those pesky problem people who want ridiculous things, like clean air, managed traffic, wetlands preservation and some balance between construction, business expansion and nature's peace and quiet.

Right?

I doubt it.

You can check on Franklin issues at one local blogger, Sprawled Out.

Scientists Point To Climate Change, Greater Fire Danger

In the wake of California's devastating fires, scientists are reminding us that there were findings published last year indicating that forest fires have been on the increase in the US and Canada for many years, with a longer "fire season" due to persistently dry conditions.

UN Reports On Environmentalal Tipping Points

These reports are piling up, but the questions are:
Will government and industry follow through, and will people demand that they do?

Shippers Losing Millions As Great Lakes Water Levels Drop

Shallower Great Lakes mean multi-million dollar losses for shipping companies whose more profitable, fully-loaded cargo freighters run the risk of running aground.

The New York Times of October 22nd and other media have provided useful formulas to translate the falling water levels in the Great Lakes to economic losses suffered by cargo shippers - - which is also bad news for the buyers and users of the goods moving on those ships, too.

The Great Lakes are under great stress from warming temperatures that have led to water loss through evaporation, and also from leakage from channels, through to the St. Lawrence Seaway to the Atlantic Ocean, from suspect dredging by the US Army Corps of Engineers.

Studies are underway to ascertain the extent of the dredging damage and costs to repair it, though that remediation does not address other causes of falling levels.

As as you read about the Great Lakes falling an inch or more, remember the formulas below and don't get fooled into thinking that an inch here and there is insignificant:

For every one-inch drop in water levels:

• A Great Lakes freighter leaves 540,000 pounds (270 tons per shipload) of cargo on the docks.


• And costs that ship's owners between $35,000-$45,000.

Here are relevant paragraphs from the Times story.

"Water levels in the Great Lakes are falling; Lake Ontario, for example, is about seven inches below where it was a year ago. And for every inch of water that the lakes lose, the ships that ferry bulk materials across them must lighten their loads by 270 tons — or 540,000 pounds — or risk running aground, according to the Lake Carriers’ Association, a trade group for United States-flag cargo companies.

"As a result, more ships are needed, adding millions of dollars to shipping companies’ operating costs, experts in maritime commerce estimate."

A separate report by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, citing US shipping sources, comes up with the dollar figure.

This problem has become acute on Lake Superior, where new rock islands are protruding near the shoreline and freighters have to ride higher in the water to avoid striking them.

The full Times story is here, which focused on Oswego, New York, where water level declines have not been as dramatic as they are on Lake Superior, where levels have fallen more than three feet since 1999 and are at historic, measurable lows.

Coal shippers carrying supplies to power plants have also indicated that their Great Lakes loads are running lighter: a workable analogy is the inefficiency of flying airplanes with empty seats, something the airlines are loathe to do.

So it's hardly smart policy and good economics to add new large users to the lakes - - such as an expanded Murphy oil refinery in Superior, or out-of-basin communities looking to divert water - - as water levels are on the decline.

All the more reason to press the Wisconsin legislature to adopt a strong Great Lakes Compact because the eight-state agreement establishes first-even rules and standards for diversions and water conservation planning - - all designed to minimize more water losses in the Great Lakes basin.

Patrick McIlheran's Wrong Turn On Traffic Data

Patrick McIlheran, the Journal Sentinel's in-house conservative columnist and blogger, says Milwaukee rates extremely high on one survey of easy commutes.

He uses the findings to buttress his argument that commuting by train is inefficient.

Isn't the best use of the data to suggest that with such relatively short commuting times, the state and regional planning commission are wrong to shove a fresh $6.5 billion into rebuilding and adding more lanes on the 127-mile regional freeway system?

Rough News About Hales Corners Village President Jim Ryan

The news circulating recently in political circles about Jim Ryan's struggle with cancer produced a nice feature story about the long-time Milwaukee County and Hales Corners leader in today's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

We all wish Jim and his family the best: he is an uncommonly wise and gracious elected official - - a true public servant and citizen - - and we sure could use more just like him.

Cities Putting Hybrid Cabs On The Road: What Is Your City Doing?

New York City is putting fuel-saving hybrid cabs on city streets: cabbies are making more money and the air is getting cleaner, too.

So why not Madison, Milwaukee, Green Bay, Racine, Kenosha and so on?

Are there proposals before Common Councils? Cab Commissions? Licensing boards?

James Kuntsler 101

If you've never had the pleasure of reading a James Kuntsler essay on cities, sprawl and energy policies, have a look.

The eventual topic in the sample linked is Peak Oil, after a long digression about what it feels like on a hot day in Houston.

Punches are not pulled.

CNN Must-See TV Tonight

Good reviews for CNN's two-part series on our endangered planet that runs tonight and Wednesday. Either DVR/Tivo it, or watch it live, as The Daily Show is in reruns this week.

Waukesha County Board Pledges $1.75 Million To The Interchange To Nowhere

Looks like Waukesha County has officially joined the Tax-and-Spend crowd, voting this afternoon 21-12 in favor of throwing $1.75 million in local dollars at the I-94 interchange serving the cancelled Pabst Farms mall.

I still think the way that the state Department of Transportation pulled $23.1 million share out of the regional freeway budget after a couple of meetings with local politicos and business leaders should be investigated by the State Audit Bureau.

If that's legal, why have a legislative Joint Committee on Finance, or a state budgetary process - - albeit the sluggish one that may have finally spit out a 2007-09 state spending plan.

Michigan Paper Suggests "Lake Looters" May Be In Communities Just Outside The Great Lakes Basin

Though the Ann Arbor News takes New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson to task for his suggestion that the Great Lakes states should ship water out to the dry (but water-wasting) southwest, the paper also suggests that the real threat to Great Lakes supplies could come from communities that sit just outside the Great Lakes basin.

That's often code for communities in Waukesha County - - from which some leaders have lobbied Michigan leaders to look favorably on potential diversion applications.

Could be that the message from just west of the basin is not getting through.

Murphy Oil Expansion "Ready To Be Called A Project," DNR Official Says

There's less mystery about whether there will be a giant oil refinery expansion just a stone's throw from Lake Superior, the Greatest of the Great Lakes.

While no permit applications have been received, both technical and senior regulators have met and communicated frequently with Murphy Oil representatives since 2006 regarding the company's efforts to expand refining capacity at its Superior, WI, facility from 35,000 barrels daily to 235,000 daily, according to records obtained from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources under the Wisconsin Open Records law.

The $6 billion expansion would process Alberta, Canadian tar sand crude oil, as exploitation of that vast resource is expanding and North American refineries are needed to process and ship it.

"As you recall, at the kick-off meeting with the Secretary's Office on 10/23/06," said DNR Energy Office Director David Siebert in an April 9, 2007 email to fifteen DNR colleagues, "Murphy said they were seeking a partner before publicly announcing a project. At a meeting with Murphy last week, they indicated the project was ready to be called a project."

Continued Siebert: "While Murphy still says they are developing a "potential project," they also felt comfortable with us moving forward on bringing in key staff to get ready for review."

"Because the project would involve impacts to 300-400 acres of wetlands," Siebert said, there would be involvement with the US Army Corps of Engineers, other federal agencies, company consultants, and that federal and state reviews would occur.

The documents indicate that:

• a federal environmental impact statement will be required as well as permits from the federal and state government.


• bird and plant field surveys on the proposed 425-acre Superior site have already begun;


• federal officials in Illinois and Minnesota have joined in the discussions;


• Army Corps of Engineers regulators outlined the applicable federal processes to Murphy and DNR representatives as early as May 18, 2006.

I'll post additional details later.

Budget Compromise Disses Rail

It's telling that the compromised proposed state budget omitted funding for the Kenosha-Racine-Milwaukee (KRM) commuter rail project.

The Daily Reporter offers good background, here.

WisPolitics reports that a move by State Rep. Jim Kreuser, (D-Kenosha) to restore the project to the draft budget in the conference committee was defeated in a party line vote, 4-4, with all Democrats supporting it and all Republicans opposed.

One vote against came from Republican Senate leader Scott Fitzgerald, (R-Juneau), whose district represents a portion of Waukesha County in southeastern Wisconsin.

The same region that would have been the primary beneficiary of the KRM.

So much for regional cooperation, and Republicans who allegedly support economic development and job growth that would occur along the KRM's three-county regional corridor.

Once again, rail falls away as a priority in our highway-happy state, where $23 million in state funding is still committed for an interchange in Western Waukesha County to service a cancelled upscale shopping mall at Pabst Farms.

So a special-interest shopping destination that may or may not get built, in some incarnation of stores or businesses still remains funded - - and got into planners' hands out of sequence in the larger scheme of $6.5 billion in regional highway "improvements"and outright added-lane expansion.

But a regional rail system that has taken years to get on track to serve commuters in three counties that would spur sustainable development and help get congestion and air pollution off the I-94 corridor - - well, that can wait for another budget cycle.

There's only word for this continual distortion, this one-dimensional addiction to highway spending in a region where the air quality fails to meet clean air standards, and job development is a widely-acknowledged problem.

Pathetic

Another Day, Another Report On The Falling Great Lakes

Monday's New York Times keeps the story going.

Wisconsinites, readers of this blog, and activists trying to press our legislature to endorse the pending Great Lakes Compact, know this story well.

Media Discovering Water Issues: An Indifferent Wisconsin Dawdles

It's hard to escape the sudden focus on water and drought.

Atlanta's reservoirs are disappearing. Lake Superior is falling. The Arctic is melting, as is the snow pack in the Rockies, the Andes and the Alps.

A warming earth, along with growing and demanding populations, suggests water shortages with profound consequences around the globe, and certainly in the US West - - summed up in a long magazine story in the Sunday (10/21) New York Times - - that will make the Great Lakes even more tempting to redistribute.

And despite the controversial remarks a few weeks ago by New Mexico's Gov. Bill Richardson that Wisconsin was "awash" in water to send to the parched West, our state's leaders can't muster the will to adopt a modest compact among the eight Great Lakes states to rationally manage the region's water and produce conservation programs.

Having worked in government, I understand that policy-makers focus on one thing at a time, and that the state budget, or lack of one, has consumed our leaders for much of the summer and early fall.

But the pending Great Lakes Compact was created for the region's legislatures to consider in December, 2005, and was four years in the making: Wisconsin, as 2007 ends, is the only Great Lakes state without a Great Lakes Compact implementing bill either adopted or under discussion.

This is primarily because a handful of legislators from Waukesha County have placed shortsightedly what they perceive as their communities' development interests ahead of other considerations - - while encouraging water-dependent sprawl, or "progress," as they like to call it, as normal, even virtuous.

Now it appears that there is an emergent state budget, so one leading justification for delaying action on approving the Great Lakes Compact for Wisconsin can be put aside.

So let the work begin, and end, quickly to adopt a strong, relevant and productive Great Lakes Compact.

We don't need to repeat the lost 2006-07 year at the Capitol when a study committee charged with drafting Wisconsin's Great Lakes implementing bill disbanded due to flawed leadership, phony property-rights' concerns and a host of other diversions thrown into the process by people more interested in watering down the Great Lakes Compact than in approving and implementing it.

Too many people on the committee shared the Rush Limbaugh vision of government and the environment.

We live in Wisconsin. We border two of the five Great Lakes. They drive our economy and define our history. We need policy inspired by Aldo Leopold, John Muir, and Gaylord Nelson.

As it exists now, the pending Compact is too loose on bottled water exports from the region.

And it is not strong enough on conservation performance and citizen inputs to guarantee that public interests are served first.

Another weakness: it's too permissive on diversions of water that can be piped out of the Great Lakes basin.

The bar needs to be raised so that diversions and other new losses of water from the Great Lakes are truly the exception and not won as easily sending in a coupon and a UPC label for a free prize.

Wisconsin needs a solid implementing bill that protects the state and region's water, and leads the other states to do the same.

Right now, Wisconsin is not a leader on the field. It is not even a follower. It is something of a spectator, and given our history and responsibilities, that is not acceptable.

The times are a-changin': legislation and practices for our communities and state must reflect the urgency demanded by what Nobel Peace Laureate Al Gore rightly calls a global emergency.

And if our elected officials refuse to keep pace with public opinion and modern science, then we need to replace them (Thomas Friedman makes much the same point in the Sunday Times about elections and energy policy, too) with people who will act as the stewards of the water we have, not as placeholders of the offices occupied.

Short Documentary On Lake Superior's Falling Levels

The Canadian Broadcasting Company has produced a nice 15-minute documentary about the decline in Lake Superior, here.

Minnesotans Define Great Lakes Leadership

Our neighbors to the northwest have a clearer role of mission when it comes to the Great Lakes than our leaders here in Wisconsin.

Speak Up About The Pabst Farms Interchange Boondoggle

So you think it's crazy that the state wants to spend more than $20 million of your tax dollars to build an interstate highway interchange to service the cancelled Pabst Farms shopping mall?

(Background here.)

You think the state needs to focus transportation spending on transit improvements?

You want state and local planners to stop accelerating sprawl and inducing more traffic in Waukesha County?

You know that ripping up the landscape to build roads to nowhere, without an authentic environmental impact statement, should be blocked before a bulldozer is allowed to scoop up a single cubic yard of what remains of prime Waukesha County agricultural lands?

Then do something: get your comments into the interchange review process, through a comment link, here, before October 29th.

Get your friends to participate. Send them the link. Call your alderman and county board supervisor and state legislator and urge them to do the same.

We don't have to settle for the status quo, allowing state transportation planners and local politicos to decide behind closed doors that highway expansion schedules and public budgets can be altered for a special interest on whims and spin and the thinnest of motives.

Maybe this is the tipping point, the moment at which people decided enough was enough, that we want genuine planning and democratic decision-making and have to approach these issues with real urgency and intention.

Or we will look back and say it was an opportunity missed.

Budget Deal Could Trim Highway Spending, Aid Transit - - If There Is The Will To Change

If the proposed state budget deal removes Gov.Doyle's oil company tax, it could force a serious review of highway spending in the state.

Because there could be less money for WisDOT to spend.

The major highway account is already overcommitted to the tune of $4-5 billion; the southeastern wisconsin freeway plan could be substantially trimmed, as it's $5.5 billion in commitments is based on gasoline and vehicle usage at $2.30-a-gallon - - preposterously unrealistic.

Fewer billions on highways - - targeted investments in rail and bus improvements - - and the state can easily adjust to lower transportation revenues.

Faster Fix For Great Lakes Leakage

It's good to see that the pace is accelerating to probe why the Great Lakes are losing so much water daily.

Wisconsin legislators should take their cues from this new sense of urgency and tackle the Great Lakes Compact, adding more conservation planning to Wisconsin's water usage and policy-making.

Looks Like There's Plenty of Water in Las Vegas

Presidential candidate Bill Richardson made waves a while ago by suggesting that Wisconsin export Great Lakes water to Nevada.

He was in Nevada when he made his remarks.

Looks like Las Vegas has plenty of water already: maybe it's just a matter of how it uses it?

Bottled Water Sales Can Be Slowed Further If Wisconsin Approves A Strong Great Lakes Compact

Bottled water sales are still rising, but at a slower pace, The Detroit News tells us.

But it still takes millions of barrels of oil (at 42 gallons a barrel) to produce the plastic in the water bottles that do not get recycled, while tap water, certainly from municipal water treatment systems, is a perfectly acceptable and far cheaper alternative.

That message is getting wider distribution.

The good news also is that bottlers are scrambling to deal with the negative publicity that has begun to seep into the issue and has figured out a way to use less petroleum-derived plastic in their bottles.

The issue is particularly relevant in the Great Lakes region, where bottlers like Nestle will be allowed under the draft Great Lakes Compact to continue to export bottled water from the Great Lakes watershed in containers smaller than 5.7 gallons (20 liters).

Wisconsin activists are pushing to close that loophole; unfortunately, the Wisconsin legislature has no bill before it that would implement the Compact.

Business interests and their political allies in Waukesha County, wanting diversion standards in the draft Compact watered-down or eliminated, kept a legislative study committee from earlier this year from drafting a proposed bill.

Nestle's "Ice Mountain" brand uses water from a Michigan wetlands stream as the supply it bottles in the Great Lakes area, and the bottles can be shipped far from the Great Lakes.

That means water from the Lake Michigan basin is lost permanently to a bottle-by-bottle diversion - - which is why that loophole needs to be closed.

That will happen only if the legislature adopts a strong Compact that closes the loophole - - an outcome that will require the legislature to put regional water conservation at the top of its priorities.

Whitney Gould's Prescience On Pabst Farms

More than four-and-a-half years ago, when Pabst Farms was being converted from farm land to subdivisions, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Columnist Whitney Gould predicted the project would add to the automobile-induced degradation of Western Waukesha County's landscape.

As local and state governments continue to pledge millions for a new interchange into Pabst Farms for an upscale mall project the developers have abandoned, you have to hand it Gould for foresight.

"The development may not be textbook sprawl, since Oconomowoc will provide sewer and water, thanks to $24 million in tax-incremental financing," she wrote in January, 2003.

"But it will almost certainly encourage sprawl nearby, dumping thousands of additional cars onto I-94 and fueling the push for freeway expansion." [Emphasis added.]

Gould said the project was going to teach us all some lessons about land use, preservation, tax policy and transportation.

Here's a political lesson: Governments with too much tax money to spend will throw it at developments that are not sustainable on their own, even in purportedly conservative Waukesha County.

Another Day, Another Climate Change Warning

And as these stories go, this one is alarming.

Building Green Homes In Milwaukee

Julilly Kohler is putting her principles into practice by designing a small grouping of green homes in the heart of Milwaukee.

The Daily Reporter has nice story about it, here.

A Commentary On Scott Walker

From today's Capital Times.

No Big Box Stores, No Mall, "We Can Just Wait," Says The Mayor - - So Why Rush The Interchange?

City of Oconomowoc Mayor Maury Sullivan tells the Journal Sentinel that the Pabst Farm site from which a mall developer pulled out will not be converted to a big box center, despite speculation to the contrary earlier this week.

"'That ground has been idle for years. We can just wait and see what comes along," Sullivan said.'"

Empty? Remember: this was farm land.

Also empty: some projected Pabst Farms' subdivision developments, now postponed due to the diving housing market.

So why is a $25 million interstate interchange - - actually a complex of interchange ramps and roundabouts, some of which is a considerable distance from the former mall location - - still moving forward?

4th St. Forum Thursday at Turner Hall Deals With Local, World Environment

Get there early for a good seat. Lunch is optional. Hear local, state and international experts, or watch the program on television.

Details below:

"OUR GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT AND WISCONSIN."

There's no hiding from worldwide environmental issues. Will we work locally toward global solutions? Could the today's problems become tomorrow's opportunities?

Each forum is taped in front of a live audience for later broadcast on Milwaukee Public Television, Channels 10/36. The forums are free and open to the public.

Come and be a part of the discussion. Participate by asking questions of the panelists. Bring your lunch or purchase it from Historic Turner Restaurant.

OCTOBER 11, at Noon: Milwaukee Turner Hall, 2nd Floor, 1034 N. 4th Street (4th and Highland),

WATCH: Milwaukee Public Television will broadcast this forum on Friday, OCTOBER 12 , Channel 10, 10:00 PM and Sunday, OCTOBER 14, Channel 36, 3:00 PM.

It will also run on Time Warner's, "Wisconsin on Demand," (WIOD), Channel 1111. Podcasts of the programs will be posted two weeks after broadcast at http://www.4thstreetforum.org/. Some of the programs will webcast at http://www.wispolitics.com/. All programs will be available for checkout from your local public library.

MODERATOR DENISE CALLAWAY, director of communications, Greater Milwaukee Foundation

GUEST PANELIST:

SUDO SIMONIS is a professor and researcher of global environment and international environment policy. His appointment is at the Social Science Research Center of Berlin, Germany. For the past three years, Professor Simonis has co-chaired the Task Force on Environmental Governance for China. For almost a decade, he was a member of the United Nations' Committee for Development Policy, which included working on development and the effects of climate change. Professor Simonis' visit is sponsored by the Goethe House.

MEL BROMBERG has worked on global and national water issues for twenty years. She is the coordinator of a large grant awarded to the Institute of Environmental Health at UW-Milwaukee. The goal of the grant is to educate science teachers and their students on the effect toxins have on the environment and, in turn, on the health of the community. Ms. Bromberg works with the Milwaukee United Nations Association to help determine the environmental and water goals for the next millennium.

KARYN ROTKER is a senior staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Wisconsin, where she directs the Poverty, Race and Civil Liberties Project. In her work, Ms. Rotker applies environmental justice to important regional issues to protect low income and minority people.

MICHAEL HOWARD began working on environmental issues after reading a City of Chicago report that described his neighborhood, Fuller Park, as the most lead contaminated area in the city. He founded Eden Place Nature Center, which is dedicated to educating children and their parents about how to better protect themselves from environmental pollutants and hazards. A Clean Wisconsin activist described Mr. Howard's center as a "good example of how an urban neighborhood, stuck between rail lines and a highway, can make a difference for ecology and the world environment."

How Will Climate Change Deniers Deal With An Historic Acid Rain Admission?

It wasn't so long ago that some people called acid rain a hoax.

Now a huge settlement on the eve of a trial delayed for eight years has been agreed to by the plaintiff - - one of the nation's largest acid rain polluters.

Will this $4.6 billion admission help the climate change deniers grasp that human activity does influence what goes on in the atmosphere?

City Spends To Repair City Hall: Walker Lets County Courthouse Fall Apart

Call it emblematic of the differences between the way that the City of Milwaukee goes about its basic business, and Milwaukee County lets it slide.

The city has ponied up the money that has to be spent to repair and preserve its historic City Hall.

The County is letting its historic courthouse disintegrate, evidence here.

Scott Walker will no doubt claim that Tom Ament was spotted in the rafters with wire cutters and a hacksaw.

Ethanol, Corn and Corn Candy

The air is leaking from the ethanol bubble, but Monsanto is forging ahead with seed production, Forbes magazine tells us.

OK, I hear you: can't you lighten up this blog?

Well, how about this segue way?

Q. How many actual corn kernels does it take to make the corn syrup in a single kernel of candy corn.

A. Three.

Q. What is the ratio of the calories in that candy-corn kernel to the calories in a real corn kernel?

A. 8:1.

Happy early Halloween.

(Diet crushing information courtesy of the Harper's Index, October, 2007)