Wisconsin Must Stop Muzzling Its Taxpayers

Wisconsin citizens are losing their right to participate in major decisions - - and it is our state government that is shutting them up.

This is a bad development, and getting worse.

It has taken the intervention of a federal agency to force Wisconsin officials to conduct a legitimate public comment period on the plan to spend nearly $2 billion to rebuild and expand I-94 from Milwaukee to Illinois without a penny for a train component.

Before the Federal Highway Administration told the state to add 25 days to the comment period, the Wisconsin Department of Transportation had scheduled the comment period to run from mid-November to December 31, right in the middle of a busy holiday and vacation season.

(Comments can be sent by email: dotsefreeways94nsc@dot.state.wi.us)

Why should Wisconsinites have to beseech a federal agency to get Wisconsin officials to play fair and stand behind open, participatory government?

This is the second time in recent memory that a Wisconsin state agency has stifled public participation in an important policy discussion.

In the fall of 2006, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources received, then forwarded to the seven other Great Lakes states, an application from the City of New Berlin for a diversion of water from Lake Michigan.

The DNR did not disclose the existence or transmission of the application. That was done by one of the other states - - Michigan - - because it has a statute requiring such applications be disclosed.

Wisconsin has no such law, but the DNR certainly could have done so had it trusted the people with the information.

When New Berlin submitted an updated application earlier this year - - Michigan and some of the other states having trashed the initial application as inaccurate and inadequate, despite the DNR having touted it to the other states - - the DNR grudgingly scheduled a comment period, but didn't go out its way to publicize it, and didn't schedule a public hearing on either the first New Berlin application, or the second.

It put notices on its website, and let it go at that.

Granting New Berlin's diversion request could set a precedent across the Great Lakes region, destroy efforts to have all eight Great Lakes states approve a water supply and conservation Compact and adopt state laws to bring about common standards and diversion procedures.

Despite these valid concerns, the DNR is keeping public input into the diversion issue at a minimum, much the way that WisDOT is trying to shut the public out of a meaningful role in what will be the largest publicly-funded project in state history.

And one that, if handled differently, could finally integrate commuter rail and highway improvements at a time when fuel prices are rising and awareness of air pollution, climate change and disgust with dependence on foreign oil and fossil fuels is peaking.

WisDOT should be encouraging this exact public debate - - not setting up comment periods that coincide with the time of the year when people are most distracted.

And the DNR needs more public participation in its policy-making, not less, as it subjects its reputation to slow-but-steady self-destruction.

Just a few days ago, the Superior Daily Telegram took a heavy shot at the DNR and Matt Frank, the agency secretary, over the release of a questionable study crucial to the prosperity of a port city on one of the Great Lakes.

Without full disclosure and public participation, good government in Wisconsin is threatened by the very agencies spending our money to preserve and protect the public interest.

That contradiction is absolutely not sustainable.

In the state that has enshrined "sifting and winnowing" in its teaching traditions, codified Open Meetings and Open Records access, given birth to the Progressive Party, and approved a constitution that requires all the state's waters held in permanent public trust, there is only one word for this trend towards governance by bureaucratic fiat:

Unacceptable.

Another Dangerous, Dirty Air Alert For Wisconsin

More bad air in Wisconsin. Per the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, for Sunday night through Monday evening (and don't be surprised if this is extended to other counties for Monday or Tuesday):

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources is issuing an Air Quality Advisory for Particle Pollution (Orange) effective Sunday, December 30, 2007 9:27:21 PM through Monday, December 31, 2007 7:59:59 PM for:

Barron, Brown, Chippewa, Clark, Dunn, Eau Claire, Outagamie, Pepin, Pierce, Polk, Rusk, St. Croix and Taylor counties .

The advisory is being issued because of persistent elevated levels of fine particles in the air.

These fine particles come primarily from combustion sources, such as power plants, factories and other industrial sources, vehicle exhaust, and wood fires.

The Air Quality Index is currently in the orange level, which is considered unhealthy for people in sensitive groups. People in those sensitive groups include those with heart or lung disease, asthma, older adults and children. When an orange advisory for particle pollution is issued, people in those groups are advised to reschedule or cut back on strenuous activities.

People with lung diseases such as asthma and bronchitis, and heart disease should pay attention to cardiac symptoms like chest pain and shortness of breath or respiratory symptoms like coughing, wheezing and discomfort when taking a breath, and consult with their physician if they have concerns or are experiencing symptoms.

Fine particle pollution deposits itself deep into the lungs and cannot easily be exhaled. People who are at risk are particularly vulnerable after several days of high particle pollution exposure.

To receive air quality advisories by e-mail, visit http://dnr.wi.gov/air/newsletters/.
There are several actions the public can take to reduce their contributions to this regional air quality problem.

Reduce driving when possible and don't leave vehicle engines idling.
Postpone activities that use small gasoline and diesel engines.
Minimize outdoor wood fires.
Conserve electricity.
For more ideas on how you can reduce your emissions today and every day visit: Do a little, save a lot!

For more information:
Federal interagency air quality web site, for information on the Air Quality Index and nationwide air quality forecasts and air quality conditions, http://airnow.gov/
DNR's state wide air quality monitoring web page, http://dnrmaps.wisconsin.gov/wisards
For local DNR air management program contacts, http://dnr.wi.gov/air/about/regions.htm

The Road To Sprawlville Detours, Chapter VIII

The Road To Sprawlville in Southeastern Wisconsin, usually running straight and true with the help of surveyors and engineers, will have to detour in south western Waukesha County, thanks to one couple's legacy donation of 374 acres to the Nature Conservancy that adjoin the Kettle Moraine State Forest's southern unit.

When Republicans Go Bad

Name-calling. Accusations. Personal insults, all in the last days of a frenetic campaign.

And no, it's not your typical Democratic slugfest: it's leading GOP presidential hopefuls, down-and-dirty in the Iowa muck, sinning politically by breaking Ronald Reagan's Eleventh Commandment - - "Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican" - - as they serve up one-liners sure to show up in Democratic attack ads in the general election.

Presidential Punditry

Since my vote in Iowa is worth as much as yours:

Don't count out John McCain.

For some Republicans, he ain't perfect since he doesn't believe in torture, deportation of undocumented workers and is something of an environmentalist - - but listen, you political purists:

No candidate is, and his flaws, real and perceived, should be less worrisome on election than, say, Guiliani or Romney's.

Besides: people like a comeback: it'd be a nice political story - - McCain, down and out and broke and dissed as old and irrelevant and too grouchy for the once worshipful Jon Stewart - - now a force again.

That could happen on the other side, with John Edwards, too.

Perhaps like McCain, Edwards is true enough to enough basic party principles, and familiar enough to enough party regulars to be, well, a decent and pragmatic, lower-risk choice - - with all things considered, or at least rationalized.

Campaigns rise and fall somewhat cyclically. Front-runners become targets, fall back, get lost in the pack as others become the Flavor Of The Day - - Fred Thompson, Mike Huckabee, - - but in a long race, you can go from first to last to first, or close to it.

It's all about timing in a fluid process, which is why you shouldn't count out either New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg or Ralph Nader as third-party or independent hopefuls.

I still think the Dems strongest candidate is Barack Obama because he brings in independents, youth, and some GOP-crossovers.

And I don't think Iowa or New Hampshire wraps it up for anyone, but it could be a done deal after the first wave of big-state, TV-based primaries.

Right-Wing Wisconsin Blog Thinks Selling Great Lakes Water Is A Great Idea

Hard to know where to begin responding to Boots and Sabers, where the fellas think selling Great Lakes water to dryer, fast-growing states is a good idea obstructed by "environmental goofs."

Maybe it's a waste of time, but I left a comment. Others may care to weigh in.

WisDOT Coming Under Increasing Fire Over One-Sided Highway Spending

The refusal of the Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT) to consider transit services in its $1.9 billion plan to rebuild and widen I-94 from Milwaukee to Illinois has led to detailed, written objections from the City of Milwaukee Department of Public Works.

Since this is agency-to-agency, engineer-to-engineer, bureaucrat-to-bureaucrat disagreement over a major state project, the DPW letter has genuine significance.

Excellent posts on the subject are here, by Citizens Allied for Sane Highways, and also here by Michael Horne - - and the matter will continue to fester, as WisDOT wants to shut down the public comment period so it doesn't have to listen to anymore criticism.

(UPDATE: Federal officials have directed WisDOT to extend the public comment through January 25, 2008, after critics said that WisDOT had chosen a holiday-heavy comment period from mid-November through December 31 that discouraged broad participation.

Comments can be sent by email to: dotsefreeways94nsc@dot.state.wi.us)

The DPW letter comes on the heels of the adoption of a Milwaukee Common Council resolution, sponsored by downtown Ald. Bob Bauman, that called on WisDOT to reduce the cost of the I-94 project by roughly 10%, or $200 million, with those funds transferred to the Kenosha-Racine-Milwaukee commuter train line.

The KRM could provide a permanent alternative mode of transportation from Milwaukee to Illinois, as well as supplying crucial mitigation during the years of construction sure to tie up that portion of the I-94 corridor.

The starving of transit initiatives in the greater Milwaukee by the state has been demonstrated again and again, certainly dating back at least ten years, when it pulled the plug on its own light rail planning and moved full-steam-ahead with its $6.5 billion, zero-transit freeway expansion and rebuilding plan.

Light rail was primarily envisioned for Milwaukee, but the state backed away from a plan its consultants had produced after the predictable political objections from Waukesha County and area right-wing talk radio.

I enumerate a few other examples here, including the state's refusal to provide $100,000 to save a critical Milwaukee-to-Waukesha bus line for workers while at the same time continuing to offer $21.9 million for a highway interchange to serve a proposed, upscale shopping mall at Pabst Farms in Western Waukesha County.

Milwaukee-area legislators could do the taxpayers throughout the region a big favor if they would tell WisDOT, their colleagues and the Governor that WisDOT is overspending wildly on highways in southeastern Wisconsin.

And by taking transit options off the board, WisDOT is sending low-income workers, seniors, youngsters and people without easy access to cars literally to the back of the bus.

Elderly Woman Shafted By Big Bank: Let's Submit It To The Empathy Test

A Milwaukee woman recounts how a bank took her long-dormant check from her safety deposit box - - her relatively minimal life savings of about $19,000, actually - - because banking rules said it had been there too long.

Marie Rohde tells the compelling story in The Journal Sentinel.

So where do you come down on this story? Is the bank in the right, or should it return the woman's money.

And you might want to read up on Empathy Deficit Disorder before you leave you leave a comment.

Put another way...suppose it was your grandmother?

France Joins Ireland, Italy And Other Nations That Ban Smoking

Even in the cafes.

Sacre bleu!

It's an amazing step, right up there with Irish culture surviving the ban in its pubs.

Of course, it would never work here.

Superior, WI Newspaper Editorially Slams The DNR

Given that the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources will soon decide whether to permit a $6 billion expansion of the Murphy Oil Co. refinery in Superior, you'd think the local paper was the last institution on earth that the DNR would possibly tick off.

But the DNR has managed to do it over a ballast water study that the Superior Daily Telegram says the DNR has misinterpreted and mis-communicated.

"DNR misled public about ballast study" is a pretty rough headline.
Ballast water treatment, rules and costs are important economic and political issues to a port city like Superior, where freighters can release harmful invasive species from their ballast water storage tanks into Lake Superior.

The DNR is going to need local support for the refinery approvals, and that won't be easy, as up to 500 acres of wetlands will be filled in and a seven-fold increase in oil refining capacity raises the risk of spills, air pollution and other problems at the bigger operation.

The last thing the DNR needs in Superior are shots at its credibility, but the Telegram aims directly at Secretary Matt Frank and what it calls "discrepancies" in the DNR's conclusions about its own departmental study of the ballast issues..

Says the editorial:

"It’s apparent Frank didn't thoroughly read the report or intentionally ignored the numerous uncertainties. His announcement was premature and clearly based on untested data.'

More tough language.

It's odd that the DNR can be its own worse enemy, mishandling public information and processes, creating ill will where none was needed.

It did this when New Berlin applied for a diversion of water from Lake Michigan, first not disclosing that an application had been made, then failing to hold a hearing, and only reluctantly sponsoring an under-publicized comment period.

And for more than a year, it continues to argue that it is not bound by an Attorney General opinion that says a 1986 federal law prohibits the DNR from approving a diversion of water away from the Great Lakes to a city like New Berlin or Waukesha without the approval of the other seven Great Lakes states' governors.

Instead, the DNR is urging New Berlin to negotiate a water sale from Milwaukee - - with several caveats - - but not the big one laid out in the AG opinion or the federal law.

When the public believes that the DNR or any public agency is not playing straight, or is above the law, it loses credibility - - but it seems that within the DNR, there is a culture that believes that it can operate as it sees fit, with less regard for public opinion and the views and mandates laid down by others.

That's a very risky strategy, especially when all the Great Lakes states are currently trying to adopt a single Compact to manage the Great Lakes, and if any one state balks, the entire agreement and its conservation standards and procedures are lost.

We already have bureaucratic insularity and narcissism institutionalized at the state Department of Transportation.

Wisconsin does not need WisDOT II.

Ed Garvey On Privatizing Milwaukee's Airport

Madison attorney and blogger Ed Garvey reads about Scott Walker's interest in turning Mitchell International Airport over to the private sector, and calls it for what it is.

Knee-Jerk Jerks Have Empathy Deficiency Disorder

I think when right-wingers post or leave their self-absorbed, often anger-fueled comments about any suggestion that our culture preserve shared resources (water) or should provide shared services (transit), I think I'll just repeat this link about empathy deficit disorder (EDD), and how to deal with it.

All This Snow Is Good For The Great Lakes

Hey - - I've with you: I'm not looking forward to more shoveling tomorrow, either - - but if you live in the Great Lakes basin (Milwaukee, Racine, Kenosha, but no, not you, Waukesha) I know that most of that snow is going to make its way into Lake Michigan, and that'll help restore its now-very low level.

December 26th A Grim Anniversary In American History

On December 26th, 1862, under orders from President Abraham Lincoln, 38 Dakota Indian men were hung at the same time in the main square in Mankato, Minnesota.

Christmas that year came and went, and the next day there was the largest mass execution in US history.

The account of the hangings carried in the St. Paul Pioneer Press, here, is definitely worth a read.

Big number, 38. Count off 38 people the next time you are walking down the street.

A website constructed by the University of Missouri, Kansas City, has a pretty complete account of the issues, which began with broken treaties, mass Indian expulsions, then armed conflict between Dakota Indians native to Minnesota and white settlers, and ended with the Battles of The Little Bighorn and Wounded Knee that eventually brought these conflicts to a conclusion in South Dakota 28 years later.

It's a completely sordid chapter in our history.

A Minnesota commanding general, Robert Pope, having been exiled to the west after losing the Battle of Bull Run to the Confederate Army had wanted Lincoln to hang 303 Indians.

Trials that led to the hangings were conducted in minutes, without translation, let alone attorneys.

After the hangings, pieces of hung Indians' skin were said to have been sold, and grave-robbers took cadavers.

Dr. William Mayo, co-founder of the Mayo Clinic, took the body of an Indian with whom he had had a prior confrontation, used it to teach anatomy, then kept the skeleton in an iron pot in his office for years.

What's relevant about reviewing the history of the Mankato hangings, other than the anniversary date, is that capital punishment seems on the decline in the US - - one of its last bastions on earth.

New Jersey recently abolished it, and the US Supreme Court, in striking down cases and issuing delays, has signaled that perhaps it will rule lethal injection a cruel and unusual punishment nationally.

Were that to happen, it would signal the beginning of the end of the death penalty in America.

In 1995 I spent months at the Milwaukee Journal writing about capital punishment. I learned that in the US, the death penalty had its origins in southern slavery and the lawless US west - - areas as distant from Wisconsin as their culture and history.

Texas comes to mind, as it is still the execution capital of the USA.

I came to believe that the death penalty served no useful purpose, but did waste enormous sums of money on costly trials, appeals and lengthy incarcerations that could have been better spent on crime-fighting and other related expenses.

Today, December 26th, is a better day than most to meditate on the history of the death penalty in our country, and to all its costs, then and now.

State Highway Binging Hurting Milwaukee Transit Needs

An op-ed for The Capital Times enumerates how Milwaukee and transit are taking a backseat to the state's highway-building binge.

Oh, No: Light Rail Is Creating Development In Norfolk, VA

You know...light rail...can't work...isn't a development tool...no one will ride it...especially in Milwaukee (City, with about 625,000 residents, and the County with about 950,000) which doesn't have the requisite population density...

So surely it'll be a disaster in little ol' Norfolk, VA, a small conservative city of 230,000.

Nope: In advance of the ground-breaking, $220 million in residential and commercial development is taking place along the 7.5 mile starter system's routing, according to news reports.

Nah...that light rail...no one will ride it...no one will invest along its route...I know, because Mark Belling tells me so.

Gov. Doyle Needs To Save County Bus Line No. 9

With billions in transportation funding available for state projects, Gov. Jim Doyle needs to tell WisDOT Secretary Frank Busalacchi to find $100,000 to keep Route No. 9 operating in 2008.

The department's 2007-09 budget is $5.9 billion, records show. Somewhere in that document there is a discretionary $100,000. There has to be. There's no budget that big that's that tight.

Or he needs to jawbone and force the bone-headed county executives - - Scott Walker in Milwaukee and Dan Vrakas in Waukesha - - who, along with the businesses that employ the bus riding workers declined to work out a cost-sharing agreement to keep this bus route operating.

How many of those businesses have received public subsidies, cheap government revenue bonds, taxpayer-paid amenities, like streets, lights and sewer, or other public payments?

And I'm not suggesting received them inappropriately.

It's just time to give something back.

In actuality, whether it's the M-7, or candidates' promises, or lofty editorials wish-lists, when you measure true regionalism in hard dollars, there's precious little behind all the rhetoric and gratuitous back-slapping that masquerades for regional policy-making if in actuality, $100,000 is too much to identify and commit to support 70 wage-earners.

Seventy workers and their families depend on this bus route that begins on the Northwest side of Milwaukee and delivers workers into Waukesha County, and is now scheduled to shut down January 1, 2008.

Happy New Year, you modestly-paid Milwaukee workers!

If WisDOT could find $21.9 million to commit to build an interchange to serve shoppers heading to an as-yet-to-be-approved upscale shopping mall at Pabst Farms in Western Waukesha County, the state can certainly find less than one-half of one percent of that amount in the same regional transportation budgeting for a bus line to keep these everyday Milwaukeans working in eastern Waukesha County.

$100,000.

For at least seventy jobs.

At a time when the state is well into a $6.5 billion dollar freeway expansion and rebuilding plan, with no transit improvements, in the same overall region.

Whether you're talking about the $6.5 billion for bigger and better highways, or the $5.9 billion for state transportation spending statewide in the next two years, $100,000 amounts to mere pennies in comparison to save Route No. 9.

It's within the Governor's power to do it. From an economic and workforce retention perspective, it's the right thing to do.

Everybody wins and nobody loses.

And there is only a week left to get it done.

State Transportation Spending Harms Milwaukee, Repeatedly

There is an increasing number of state highway projects that are damaging Milwaukee and benefiting the suburbs, explains Gretchen Schuldt on the Citizens Allied For Sane Highways (CASH) blog.

I've argued here that because transportation spending and regional water planning are intertwined - - with both subsidizing job creation and overall growth - - there should be no water diverted to Sprawlville until transit receives transportation investments in the region that equals highway spending.

Without parity, the region's suburbs and more rural counties are using state subsidies in transportation budgets to diminish and wall off the cities.

No region can succeed if it is guided by something resembling economic apartheid, and that is planned and paid for with transportation dollars belonging to all the citizens of the state.

Bottom line:

No transit...no equal access to jobs and housing...no water.

Local Holiday Shopping Touted On Campaign Blog

Urban Outfitters has opened in Milwaukee's Third Aldermanic District.

I confess that this went right past me, but then I read about it, along with a timely holiday pitch for East side shoppers to think local in the face of major-chain competition, on Sam McGovern-Rowen's campaign website, http://www.votesam08.org/.

The shopping links are part of his blog on the website. Modern-day campaigns: quite amazing.

Local shopping has any number of benefits: supporting near-by merchants and your common tax base, keeping your car and pollution off the freeway, connecting with your community.

It's the same reason that people are making an effort to buy food from local growers, linking urban folk with country neighbors.

See all the things you can learn and think about and toss out for discussion if you have a smart son running for Milwaukee's Third District Alderman?

Capital Times Endorses Strong Great Lakes Compact, Praises Legislative Initiative

State Sen. Bob Jauch, (D-Poplar), and State Rep. Cory Mason, (D-Racine), are circulating a letter among their colleagues urging action on the stalled Great Lakes Compact - - and the Madison Capital Times in a Saturday editorial praises them for their leadership.

Media and political figures in Wisconsin need to follow this lead, as the longer this crucial Great Lakes protective agreement goes without implementation by all eight of the Great Lakes states (Minnesota and Illinois have already approved it), the easier it will be for water-loss through-diversions to occur without standards or a fair, legal process.

Implementing legislation for the Compact in Wisconsin has been blocked for two years, principally by business and political interests in Waukesha County who mistakenly argue that an agreement with the other states to manage cooperatively what is a shared US-Canadian resource - - and 95% of the fresh surface water in the US - - might impede some development activities in Waukesha County.

There is a similar, narrow-minded obstructionist attitude in one far-right corner of the Ohio legislature: the other states have either adopted the Compact or are making solid progress.

This means that without strong bi-partisan leadership and alliances among conservationists and businesses in the manufacturing, shipping, food-processing and tourism sectors, our state - - even with its great legacy of resource protection, from John Muir to Aldo Leopold to Gaylord Nelson, could be the state that fails to seal Great Lakes protection across the region.

This blog was created in February to carry a pro-Compact message, with more than 200 postings to date on the Compact or related water conservation and management topics.

I'm happy to help anyone find information about the Great Lakes Compact on the Internet, or elsewhere.

I'm happy to help anyone use this blog's posted archives, as many items contain links to documents that show how the Compact has been stalled in Wisconsin, or connections to useful resources and activists in other states.

One posting with an index to resources is here, and is updated often.

Suggestions? Send comments, or email me at jer45y@gmail.com

City Of Milwaukee Pension System Is A Star

When I worked in Milwaukee City Hall (1996-2004), the conventional wisdom there was that city services and managers outshone their county counterparts.

Sure, there was some hubris involved, but you will remember that as the County's pension system was sinking into a swamp of debt, insider-dealing and other fiscal and political miseries, the city's pension system was buffeted only by disagreements about much of a growing surplus it could prudently distribute without destabilizing the balance sheets.

The Journal Sentinel carried an editorial brief Friday that indicated by at least one professional measurement, Milwaukee's pension fund is the best publicly-run retirement system in America.

That's good news for both beneficiaries (yes, that includes me) and for city taxpayers, who should be spared the need to contribute tax money to keep the fund solvent and productive.

It's all a tribute to the fund's board and philosophies, led by an exceedingly committed Alderman, Michael Murphy, plus a low-key staff who work efficiently for the fund's employee-owners and city taxpayers.

The next time your hear that government can't get anything right, and can't manage money, remember what you read or heard about Milwaukee's pension fund.

Here's what the paper had to say:

"The City of Milwaukee got a well-deserved early Christmas present this week when the investment advising firm of R.V. Kuhns & Associates said the city had the best-funded public retirement in the nation.

"The firm studied 83 of the nation's largest retirement systems. City Comptroller W. Martin Morics noted that the city had an annualized five-year return of 12.7%, compared to the median of 11.7%.

"Morics and Ald. Michael Murphy, chairman of the Annuity and Pension Board's Investment Committee, said the city outperformed the likes of the state systems in New York, Illinois and, yes, Wisconsin. Take a bow, Milwaukee."

Poisons Dumped Into Milwaukee Sewers: MMSD Cannot Remove Them

Friends of Milwaukee's Rivers, through Midwest Environmental Advocates, is indicating its intent to sue a Milwaukee firm alleged to be dumping toxins and carcinogens into the sewer system, but the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District cannot remove these chemicals in its treatment facilities.

Details here.

And how often does this sort of thing take place?

Chinese Air Pollution Raises Huge Questions, Contradictions

The New York Times long series on China's booming economy and its impact on the world's air, water, and natural resources adds another fascinating chapter in what will surely be an award-winning 2007 effort.

Today's Times' installment here traces the outsourcing of entire industries from former manufacturing centers in the German Ruhr Valley to China, removing jobs and wealth from Europe - - but also the pollution that once made for dirty air, too.

So German citizens have cleaner air, and are leading the fight for global warming and climate change solutions, while buying imported goods being produced in now heavily-polluted China.

And these trends are going to accelerate, even as China makes some strides towards environmental protection, because China will soon be churning out mass-produced automobiles for both the domestic and international market, and because other countries, like India, are going through similar industrial revolutions.

Pretty heady and complex stuff. And not easily resolvable, but resolving to buy compact fluorescent bulbs as stocking-stuffers means you can make your own small contribution going forward.

It has been estimated that each compact fluorescent bulb, over its lifetime, requires so little electricity generation that it keeps 1,000 pounds of cardon dioxide from entering the atmosphere.

Another website estimates that over the life of one typical compact fluorescent, a consumer saves more than $80, though obviously the bulb's cost and varying electric rates influence total savings.

More information about these bulbs, is here, though a Google search on the subject will produce long lists of similar sites.

There are 300 million of us in this country, so scores of millions of consumers making smart, painless choices can add up.

The alternative is somewhere between hopelessness - - "Nothing I can do will make a difference," to misplaced optimism - - "Everything will be OK: the planet will take care of itself."

Making small personal choices is a reasonable alternative, especially since many environmentally-friendly actions also save money.

What's not to like?

What Are We? Los Angeles East?

Another day, another air quality alert about unhealthy conditions for much of the state.

If you're asthmatic, have other health problems or expect to take yourself or the kids outside, think twice.

This from the Wisconsin DNR for Friday:

"The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources is issuing an Air Quality Advisory for Particle Pollution (Orange) effective Friday, December 21, 2007 1:05:31 PM through Saturday, December 22, 2007 11:59:59 AM for 51 counties:

"Adams, Brown, Buffalo, Calumet, Chippewa, Clark, Columbia, Crawford, Dane, Dodge, Dunn, Eau Claire, Fond Du Lac, Grant, Green, Green Lake, Iowa, Jackson, Jefferson, Juneau, Kenosha, Kewaunee, La Crosse, Lafayette, Manitowoc, Marathon, Marquette, Milwaukee, Monroe, Outagamie, Ozaukee, Pepin, Pierce, Portage, Racine, Richland, Rock, St. Croix, Sauk, Shawano, Sheboygan, Taylor, Trempealeau, Vernon, Walworth, Washington, Waukesha, Waupaca, Waushara, Winnebago and Wood.

"The advisory is being issued because of persistent elevated levels of fine particles in the air. These fine particles come primarily from combustion sources, such as power plants, factories and other industrial sources, vehicle exhaust, and wood fires."

For more information (and this is the third time this week), go here:

Federal interagency air quality web site, for information on the Air Quality Index and nationwide air quality forecasts and air quality conditions, http://airnow.gov

DNR's statewide air quality monitoring web page, http://dnrmaps.wisconsin.gov/wisards

For local DNR air management program contacts, http://dnr.wi.gov/air/about/regions.htm

New Urbanism Touted In TIME Feature

New Urbanism, a model for urban revival used by former Mayor John Norquist to guide city spending and projects that continue to add value in Milwaukee from Riverwest through the downtown to the near South Side, gets good ink in TIME.

My former boss at City Hall, Norquist is now CEO of the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU), in Chicago.

Dropping A Workers' Bus Route Is Fail-Fail-Fail: No Transit - - No Water, Period.

Milwaukee County Public Works boss George Torres tells the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that the inability of Waukesha and Milwaukee Counties to figure out how to share the $100,000 annual cost of a bus line that gets workers to jobs in Waukesha County is "lose-lose."

With the counties dropping the ball and killing Route 9, "fail-fail" is closer to the truth.

And since employers along the route apparently declined to kick in with an assist to the very workers coming into their plants, it's really fail-fail...and-fail.

These employers and inept county officials on both sides of the county line have proven that when it comes to actually doing something about jobs for the region- - and in this case, something relatively inexpensive - - the nicely-paid public officials and their counterparts in the private sector showed their true colors.

Miwaukee County, Waukesha County, major employers: the We Don't-Give-A-Damn Trifecta.

Especially about working people - - everyday men and women who are nowhere near the top of the hourly-wage scale, and who are blocked from living closer to Waukesha County and suburban jobs by clever zoning, big-lot expensive housing and a willful shortage of affordable apartments in Waukesha County.

Here's how one leading Waukesha County official put it to the Journal Sentinel:

'Waukesha County Public Works Director Richard Bolte said he also did not sense any strong sentiment for maintaining the service when County Board members debated and approved the 2008 budget with no money for Route No. 9.

'The route's low ridership makes it a logical candidate for elimination, Bolte said.

"I didn't push the route real hard," he said, "because I didn't think it was worth saving."

Of course, public officials in both counties want the next $1.9 billion portion of the $6.5 billion (that's before interest costs are added in, and originally calculated using 2003 dollars, too) regional freeway plan locked down, guaranteed, since highway upgrades and tax dollars for expansions are treated as the counties and business interests' entitlements.

When it comes to more highways, the debate is not about whether. It's about how soon can we get them.

Note that Waukesha County, for whom the afore-mentioned Richard Bolte works, and directs its transportation planning, managed to find $1.75 million in unexpended funds for its pledged share of the quickie-planned $25 million 'interchange to nowhere' to serve an upscale mall at Pabst Farms.

Bolte was among the Waukesha County officials touting the mall to the Journal Sentinel as the interchange funding package got put together in a bureaucratic nano-second.

Big bucks for shoppers in Western Waukesha County, thanks to the good folks out their running the government, but nothing in the cookie jar for a bus line for working people.

This is what passes for balanced publicly-funded transportation policy and spending in southeastern Wisconsin: billions for highways, millions for drivers and shoppers in upper-income, predominantly white suburbs- - and zero for transit for working people.

Hell, let 'em walk. Maybe they can pull themselves up by their bootstraps at the same time.

If this isn't discrimination against lower-income taxpayers (and I'm betting a disproportionately minority population, too) then you tell me what it is.

And remind me again why Milwaukee should make itself subservient to some perverse definition of regional cooperation and cross-border neighborliness and divert one droplet of Lake Michigan water across Sunny Slope Rd.

I hope Milwaukee officials don't lift a finger to help a hostile, walled-off, nest of discrimination in Waukesha County, because diversions of Lake Michigan water would only reinforce transportation and housing patters to keep outsiders of modest means at a distance.

Intentionally.

If Route 9 is ended - - and this all began when Waukesha County Executive Dan Vrakas pulled the plug on the bus service in his 2008 budget - - then those water diversion plans should get Route Nined, too.

End of the line.

Three Presidential Candidates Call For Great Lakes Priority

It's about time.

No Republicans, so far, since their turf is the sunbelt and west, where some policy-makers in both parties would like to send Great Lakes water.

In Our "Bad-For-Business" State, Three Major US Companies Paid No Income Tax in Wisconsin

Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce continues to say that Wisconsin has a negative tax climate, but a new report shows that Microsoft, Sears and Merck, with total US sales of $18 billion in 2005, were among thousands of businesses paying no corporate income tax in Wisconsin at all.

Remember that when you send in your 2007 Wisconsin state income tax payment.

Many businesses say they pay plenty of other taxes - - property and sales, for example (and so do we)- - but the WMC has a better idea:

Eliminate the corporate income tax altogether.

Related information on this blog, here.

On Campaign Fluidity

So Guiliani is down and Huckabee is up and Romney - - well, where is he headed, really?

On the other side, Hillary Clinton is down and Obama is up.

McCain, with Des Moines, Iowa and Boston, Massachusetts newspaper endorsements in hand, is resurrected. John Edwards makes Newsweek's cover.

So if you're down, does that mean you automatically defy political gravity and head up?

Is this a surprise, as Iowa's wacky caucuses loom and the big states' primaries are still many weeks away?

Not really. Voters and writers and activists fall in and out love with candidates faster than 10th graders logging onto Facebook.

It's a long, long campaign. Candidates declare, look sharp, stumble, disappear, find new life, bust out, wobble, fall back.

Imagine if there were Mayoral campaigns that ran close to two years, with 15 or 20 candidates at the beginning, and even instant contenders like Alan Keyes were beamed in to make cameos at debates.

In addition to the sheer confusion and complete fatigue that would set in after about six-to-eight weeks, there'd be no way to predict the winners.

And it'd be a certain impossibility to guess who might be crafty or lucky enough to peak at just the right time, or better yet, find the right chords to connect with voters who had actually managed to hear them, then freed themselves from the repetitious, daily horse-race-and-poll-stories to cast a thoughtful, consequential ballot.

When the primaries are over, two (ideally) candidates with some blend of money, charisma, experience and, for want of a better word, balance, should find themselves standing, maybe in bewilderment, that they are the winners and now have to campaign some more.

On the Democratic side, and yes, it's stupid doing this kind of prognostification, I know - - I think Obama offers Democrats, dare I say, the country, the best, most exciting option?

And on the Republican side, maybe it's Huckabee after all, because, like Obama, he's a relatively fresh face. (Put another way, he's no Fred Thompson.)

And he's got the right religious base that the right's base in the GOP needs its candidate to have.

Both of the major parties would embrace their candidates, and a relatively unexpected battle would be on - - but Obama and Huckabee wouldn't be out there as the first choices of many party regulars, donors, insiders and other king-makers.

That's not half bad, you know.

Could have the makings of a big turnout - - Democracy in action, if the voting machines are rigged.

And an election that would prove this tired old double-negative to be absolutely true:

You couldn't say when it was over that "they" didn't give you a choice.

A Guide To Some Compact Fluorescent Bulb Specs

At the risk of becoming a nanny blog - - here is one published guide to compact fluorescent light bulb costs, warranties, specs, etc.

New Energy Bill, Watered-Down, Is A Positive Step

For the first time in decades, the country has new energy conservation legislation, passed as a compromised package by such large, bi-partisan majorities that Pres. George W. Bush had little choice but to sign it.

I say, fine. The cliche about politics being the arts and crafts of compromise is true. This bill does some good things and leaves other issues on the table. So it goes.

There will be increases in vehicle fuel economies, phased in. The phase-out of the incandescent light bulb will take place over ten years, time enough for the price of replacement, energy-saving compact fluorescent bulbs to come down (rebates and life-cost savings already make them attractive) and for disposal technologies to be perfected.

And if we're lucky, light emitting diode (LED) bulbs will be improved in the next few years, especially on true white lighting, and price, and compact flourescents will become antiquated, too.

Where the right and left can agree on energy issues is that technology and innovation are tremendously promising.

One political note to put the soon-to-disappear incandescent bulb into a truer light:

The country's leadership has taken other products off the market when their value has been exceeded by all their costs - - lead paint, lead hunting shot and lead-added motor fuels, for example - - and required other products, too, after the same sort of economic/broad public interest 'holistic' evaluation, such seat belts, air bags, and car seats for infants.

Sometimes regulation of what is permitted in the market is needed, and that doesn't turn us into what some call the nanny state.

The geopolitical realities of world energy demand, along with climate concerns, defines a new era.

Both the executive and legislative branch are saying that the true total costs of certain energy-consuming items, such as incandescent bulbs, outweigh their supposed value.

Don't be surprised if the same calculus gets focused on plastic shopping bags, as San Francisco is going, for example, as well as the plastic bottling industry - - certainly when it comes to bottling drinking water, as fresh water is becoming another resource to better manage.

You add up the petroleum used in bottle production, throw in the transportation ( I mean, really: Fiji water?) and land-fill or other disposal costs, and you've got a product just waiting to get the incandescent light bulb boot.

Grumpy, hyper-libertarians will try to turn this into a scare story about whether the cheeseburger or State Fair Cream Puff is next, but let's all relax: the slope is probably not that slippery.

Let's agree that saving oil (and water, too) is a smart thing, and move on.

Congress and the next President need to address gaps in the bill, notably the lack of strong requirements that utilities make faster progress on utilizing renewable energy sources.

But we finally have contemporary national policies that will reduce the power that hostile governments exert over our economy and energy usage, and maybe we can get a handle on the transfer of dollars for oil that is leaving them flush with cash and influence.

I'd say that's a good thing, so let's get to the business of problem-solving and policy implementation, so that a solid start gets even even better.

Milwaukee County Board To Consider "Strong" Great Lakes Compact Support

Momentum is growing among elected officials in southeastern Wisconsin in favor of a "strong" Great Lakes Compact.

In addition to a group of elected officials signing on to such a position countywide, the County Board will receive a resolution pushed by Supv. John Weishan, Jr., along the same lines, too.

These are good signs, as it indicates growing awareness that water conservation and diversion minimization are basic to protecting the Great Lakes.

Even On A Clear, Sunny Wintery Day, Our Air Quality Is Unhealthy

The Wisconsin DNR has issued a dirty air alert for much of state, (details below), because so-called "fine particulates" from industrial and other emissions are stuck in the atmosphere, even on a cold clear day like today, Wednesday.

UPDATE: For Thursday, too, Columbia, Dane, Dodge, Dunn, Jefferson, Kenosha, Milwaukee, Ozaukee, Pepin, Pierce, Racine, Rock, Sauk, St. Croix, Walworth, Washington and Waukesha counties.

Despite this reality, the WMC wants clean air regulations relaxed in southeastern Wisconsin, meaning it thinks we should tolerate more dirty air.

From the DNR:

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources is issuing an Air Quality Advisory for Particle Pollution (Orange) effective Wednesday, December 19, 2007 11:20:49 AM through Wednesday, December 19, 2007 8:00:00 PM for Columbia, Dane, Dodge, Dunn, Jefferson, Kenosha, Milwaukee, Ozaukee, Pepin, Pierce, Racine, Rock, St. Croix, Walworth, Washington and Waukesha counties.

The advisory is being issued because of persistent elevated levels of fine particles in the air. These fine particles come primarily from combustion sources, such as power plants, factories and other industrial sources, vehicle exhaust, and wood fires.

The Air Quality Index is currently in the orange level, which is considered unhealthy for people in sensitive groups. People in those sensitive groups include those with heart or lung disease, asthma, older adults and children. When an orange advisory for particle pollution is issued, people in those groups are advised to reschedule or cut back on strenuous activities.

People with lung diseases such as asthma and bronchitis, and heart disease should pay attention to cardiac symptoms like chest pain and shortness of breath or respiratory symptoms like coughing, wheezing and discomfort when taking a breath, and consult with their physician if they have concerns or are experiencing symptoms. Fine particle pollution deposits itself deep into the lungs and cannot easily be exhaled. People who are at risk are particularly vulnerable after several days of high particle pollution exposure.

To receive air quality advisories by e-mail, visit http://dnr.wi.gov/air/newsletters/.

There are several actions the public can take to reduce their contributions to this regional air quality problem.
Reduce driving when possible and don't leave vehicle engines idling.
Postpone activities that use small gasoline and diesel engines.
Minimize outdoor wood fires.
Conserve electricity.

For more ideas on how you can reduce your emissions today and every day visit: Do a little, save a lot!

For more information:
Federal interagency air quality web site, for information on the Air Quality Index and nationwide air quality forecasts and air quality conditions, http://airnow.gov/

DNR's statewide air quality monitoring web page, http://dnrmaps.wisconsin.gov/wisards
For local DNR air management program contacts, http://dnr.wi.gov/air/about/regions.htm

Sen. Mary Lazich Helps Us Through The Bewildering Gift-Giving Season With Insightful Shopping, Spending Tips

Conservative Republicans are fond of bashing what they call "The Nanny State" - - usually out of anti-governmental, ideological spite.

But I agree that there are times when the amount of intrusive advice about commonsense behaviors flowing too often from government fax machines and proclamations can reach silly proportions.

Surely you have heard the term, "nanny state," used to protest a government program or suggestion that rugged individualists find patronizing, or infantalizing.

The characterization is a staple of conservative talk radio, and news releases from righty politicians, like State Sen. Mary Lazich, (R-New Berlin), who began a recent column about mandatory cars seats for children, with this line:

"I do not like the nanny state."

Or this Lazich 2004 news release that accused Gov. Jim Doyle of "creating the nanny state" with a range of social program proposals.

Or fatty food bans in other states that spread the "nanny state" mentality that she complained about on her blog on August 19th this summer.

Yeah, enough, already, with government sticking its nose in our business. We can make our own decisions. We can take responsibility for our lives without some government official acting or preaching to us like...well...a nanny!

So imagine my disappointment when I saw that Lazich had used some of that same blog space on December 8th to pass along some advice - - about how to use - - even handle - - gift cards.

Talk about creeping nannyism:

Do we really need an online column that begins this way - - from a State Senator?

"Gift cards are extremely popular. People like to buy gift cards because they are convenient. People love to get them, too. And merchants love to sell them because they take up little shelf space and are easy to stock and display."

Drops this observation in, near the middle:

"As convenient as gift cards are, they can also be frustrating."

And ends with this strong summation:

"And whether you get or give a gift card, good advice is to spend it as quickly as possibly because the value may decrease in time. Keep it in your wallet to remind yourself to use the card."

Big Victory For Doyle, Wisconsin Education

Remember when conservative legislators bashed Gov. Jim Doyle for proposing a scholarship program designed to guarantee financial aid for successful Wisconsin students to attend colleges and universities in the Badger state.

If the first $40 million private fund didn't shut those critics up, news of this $175 million pledge reported by The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel pretty much does the trick:

"MONDAY, Dec. 17, 2007, 7:52 p.m.

"By Alan J. Borsuk

"$175 million donation to fund scholarships

"John P. and Tashia F. Morgridge, two of the leading philanthropists in Wisconsin history, are scheduled to announce in Green Bay on Tuesday morning that they are donating $175 million to create a permanent endowment to fund scholarships for Wisconsin high school graduates to attend colleges in the state.

"The Fund for Wisconsin Scholars will award close to 2,000 grants of $1,000 to $5,000 for the 2008-'09 school year and more than 3,000 grants annually after that, according to information released by the fund."

And, You Know, Rush Limbaugh Can Ask The Question Because He's So Doggone Good-Looking

Rush Limbaugh exceeds his usual misogynist's self when he wonders about Hillary Clinton's looks.

With Checkered History of Reassurance, Bush Reassures On The Economy

When the guy who told us "Mission Accomplished," and "the end of major combat," and FEMA's boss was doing "a heckuva job" now says the economy is going to be OK, I get worried.

Especially when he delivers this important talk at the Yak-A-Doo restaurant in a hotel in Fredericksburg, MD.

I was raised in Maryland, and I've been to Fredericksburg, and though I cannot claim to have eaten at the Yak-A-Doo, I'm afraid it won't lend much credibility to the story, let alone to Pres. Bush's image as The Prognosticator.

Waukesha Again, And Again, Forms Its Water Policies In Secret

When it comes to water policy-making, Waukesha is about as transparent as the Kremlin.

Last year, I discovered, through an open records request, two confidential applications to Gov. Jim Doyle for permission to divert up to 24 million gallons daily from Lake Michigan to Waukesha, without any requirement to return the water to the lake.

I published my findings on WisPolitics.com, with a link to the applications in pdf format. You can access the column and file, here.

The Governor did not approve the requests, which would have constituted an end-run around a 1986 federal law and a US-Canada agreement which Doyle had signed, but which Wisconsin has yet to implement.

Waukesha governmental bodies routinely go into closed session to discuss water planning - - its Water Utility did it again at its November meeting - - agenda here - - and tomorrow night, its Common Council is set to do the same thing, according to today's Waukesha Freeman:

"The common council, which will meet at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall, will be dealing with water issues, the proposed expansion of the Waukesha Public Library and looking for a better way to run its annual budget meeting.

"The council will go into closed session, Mayor Larry Nelson said, to discuss with legal counsel the radium compliance order by the state Department of Natural Resources.

"Dan Duchniak, general manager of the Waukesha Water Utility, said the city met last week with the DNR and the closed session will serve as an update for the council members on the progress the city is making to comply with radium standards."

Waukesha has spent, and continues to pay out, hundreds of thousands of dollars on consultants to craft water policy planning, including a likely application for Lake Michigan water.

Sources indicate that Waukesha's thinking, shared with and vetted by the DNR, involves some return of diverted water to Lake Michigan down the Root River, and some permanent water discharge away from Lake Michigan to the Fox River and Mississippi River water shed.

It is unclear whether such a plan would win the mandatory approval of all eight Great Lakes Governors - - the procedure that the utility's confidential applications in 2005 tried to skirt.

Waukesha's stable of consultants include lawyers, scientists, and the public relations form of Martin J. Schreiber & Associates, not to mention recent contracts with a professional fundraiser to shake the Congressional money tree, and a PR firm in Washington, DC, created by by former Republican Party Chairman Haley Barbour.

A lot of public money goes into this planning, and federal funds flow back into the utility's budgets, but when it comes to telling the public what's going on, the council and utility prefer closed sessions.

Waukesha leaders have complained about what they perceive is unfair criticism in some quarters for their water planning practices and intentions, but their methods and penchant for closed-door meetings and back-door tactics raise more questions than answers.

Paul Soglin Unmasks The WMC

For years, Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, representing many large Wisconsin businesses, has had a free pass to bash government and cry crocodile tears over how allegedly unfriendly is the state's attitude towards the private sector.

The WMC has had it both ways, whining about the 'bad' business climate, yet watching its massive lobbying presence in Madison win and protect sweet tax breaks.

These include exempting manufacturing and computer equipment from taxation, while promoting tax incremental financing and industrial revenue bonding used routinely to bring government subsidies to private sector projects.

All adding free money to their bottom lines.

Besides higher profits, these government welfare programs have transferred much of the state tax burden in Wisconsin from businesses to individual taxpayers and property owners.

This trend has been documented by Jack Norman, Ph.D, a former colleague of mine at The Milwaukee Journal, and who is now with the Institute for Wisconsin's Future.

Former Madison Mayor Paul Soglin (full disclosure: I worked for him in what seems a lifetime ago in the 1970's) has emerged as a credible spokesman telling the truth about Wisconsin's economy and unmasking the WMC's counter-productive and very partisan propaganda.

A recent sample of Soglin's exposure of the WMC in the Madison Capital Times is here, another was in this Sunday Crossroads section of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, here, and more is on Soglin's Waxing America blog.

Soglin knows of what he speaks, as he has watched the WMC expand its influence from its Madison bunker just blocks from the Capitol.

And he's got the financial and political experience to unravel the truth from the WMC's increasingly partisan fulminations and communicate that knowledge to a broad audience.

One Wisconsin Now has been increasingly effective in outing WMC's partisan political work: wonder how the group feels playing on a leveling field?

Madison Blogger Includes Useful Graphics, Data, About Murphy Oil's Superior, WI Plan

Good information with graphics from Energetich20, a Madison environmental blogger, here, adding to the growing archive about Murphy Oil's Superior, WI refinery expansion.

All you wetlands and Lake Superior advocates, take note.

Noted Wisconsin Activist Dale Olen Summarizes Key Compact issues

We need more of these succinct analysts taking to the Internet and explaining the Great Lakes Compact and regional environmental issues to the broadest audience.

Thanks to Dale Olen for this posting.

Olen was also recently cited for his effective environmental activism with the prestigious Lindner Prize.

Olen has begun a separate blog here, which I have added to my blogroll, and to an index of Great Lakes blogs that I am updating and will repost soon.

UW Chancellor Pay Is Nothing To Be Ashamed Of

With a main campus Chancellor salary of $267,000, plus an $55,000 additional, along with a car, new house and other benefits, the UW system reinforces an elitist reputation by complaining that the out-going Madison Chancellor's salary is a problem.

What bunk.

And by the way, when did the job morph into a CEO position, propagandizing that the position is defined in private sector terms, with a commensurate salary.

A UW Foundation official is quoted at the end of this piece that he is embarrassed at the low salary.

The rest of us are embarrassed at the distortion in her head.

Water Park Approved For Drought-Ravaged Lake Lanier in Georgia

We've all read that Lake Lanier is drying up, threatening Atlanta's water supply. Some information and photos are here.

But the US Army Corp of Engineers has green-lighted a Wisconsin Dells company's plan for a new resort and water park there.

I know, I know, it all reads like news from The Onion, but I'm not making any of this up.

Before you think the water shortage must not be that acute after all, read this account of the area residents who are picking garbage off the drought-exposed lakebed.

Concealed Carry, Shots Of Liquor, Do Not Mix

Advocates of concealed carry (a/k/a The Gun Lobby) were lucky that the only shots involved in this dangerous case from Waukesha County involved Jagermeister, not bullets.

Noted Great Lakes Environmentalist Blogs To DNR: You Could Get Sued

Dave Dempsey, author, Great Lakes environmentalist and former Michigan gubernatorial advisor, has this message for Wisconsin's Department of Natural Resources, should it ignore the 2006 advice of then-Wisconsin's Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager and unilaterally approve New Berlin's Lake Michigan diversion:

"Is Wisconsin DNR about to defy federal law and divert water?
It would be wrong. The law is clear. And if they go ahead, they should be sued."

The full text of Dempsey's blog item is here.

Dempsey was reacting to commentary I posted recently, detailing the dismissive approach the DNR is taking with regard to federal law - - the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) that prohibits any state unilaterally from diverting Great Lakes water.

Under WRDA, diversions must have the approval of all eight US Great Lakes states. The law provides no exceptions.

I have written extensively about the dangerous game that the DNR is playing, as it suggests, hints, even claims, as this post again reprises, that the agency might indeed have the ability to divert water to communities outside of the Great Lakes basin without the approval of all the eight Great Lakes states governors.

I am reprinting here a few paragraphs from my admittedly lengthy post of December 10th to help explain Dempsey's blog posting.

What I've reprinted in italics are comments by Todd Ambs, a senior DNR official:

"Todd Ambs, the DNR's Water Division administrator, sent me this explanation when I asked by email if the Department was addressing Lautenschlager's opinion, and he said on July 17, 2007, referring to the opinion as a letter:

"...we did have a couple of conversations about this letter from Attorney General Lautenschlager but that we never actually produced any on paper legal analysis."

As you might imagine, it would be safe to say that in a letter of this length that there are parts of the letter that we agree with and parts that we don't agree with. The letter attempts to define what constitutes a diversion under the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA). While the Department disagrees with parts of Ms. Lautenschlager’s analysis, and with the conclusion drawn from the analysis, we do agree with her that nothing in state or federal law comes close to definitively establishing what is or is not a diversion under WRDA. Whatever interpretation is chosen runs the risk of later being found to be legally incorrect. In such a context, decisions on how to proceed are essentially decisions of policy with legal vulnerability being only one of the factors that need to be taken into consideration. Consequently, an agency like the Department, in the absence of anything resembling a definitive legal characterization of what is or is not a diversion, must focus on the larger issue of what is in the best interests of the citizens of the state.'"

"I repeat: Lautenschlager's opinion says a diversion is a diversion is a diversion, without caveats, under WRDA. Ambs ended his email by saying he considers New Berlin's case unique, its application good for the Great Lakes, and describes a communications procedure with the other states that meets the spirit of the prospective Compact standard, but falls short of the WRDA/approval standard:

"By the way, the fact sheet [DNR posted about the application] was shared with representatives of all of the other state and provincial jurisdictions in May. Each jurisdiction was also urged to review the final application on our website and to submit any comments if they would like. To date we have received no written communications from those jurisdictions."

Dempsey's opinion, like Lautenschlager's noted in the above links (and here also in complete pdf format, for your convenience), should be respected.

Dempsey, (bio here), is the author of three books about the Great Lakes, Michigan environmental history, and the life and administration of former Michigan Gov. William Milliken, an iconic progressive Midwestern Republican.

Milliken, in office as Michigan's longest-serving Governor between 1969 and 1983, is the recognized founder of the Council of Great Lakes Governors, the group that created the Great Lakes Compact and pending amendments to it that would establish, for the first time, standards and procedures for Great Lakes water conservation and some diversion applications.

Milliken is still active in Michigan affairs, penning a recent op-ed on the need for greater citizen participation to bring about water preservation policies.

US Shifts Tactics At Global Climate Change Summit, Bush Off The Hook

The World summit on Climate Change in Bali has come to a conclusion with some progress towards an international agreement to curb greenhouse emissions - - but the timetable to formulate the plan puts the nitty-gritty work on the agenda of whomever succeeds Pres. George W. Bush.

So it's a mixed conclusion, politically.

For the 187 countries that agreed to the timetable and a 2009 deadline for drafting the plan, the victory is that a timetable of any kind was established. It's less than a plan itself, but its a step forward.

For Bush, he can can claim he agreed to a timetable, but can reassure his pals in the fossil fuel industry and the Dick Cheney wing of the White House that no serious effort to abate global warming will have happened on his eight-year watch.

State Legislators Promise Great Lakes Compact Action

A group of Wisconsin legislators wrote an op-ed in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel pledging to draft a bill to implement the Great Lakes Compact.

The Compact would establish first-ever standards and rules for water conservation in the Great Lakes states, along with procedures to approve diversions of water beyond the Great Lakes basin boundaries in some limited circumstances.

The legislators op-ed ran on the eve of the two-year anniversary of the signing of the Compact by the Great Lakes governors and Canadian provincial premiers - - and while the states of Illinois and Minnesota went ahead and passed legislation to implement it, Wisconsin has been unable in those two years to move a draft bill into the legislature for debate.

It appears that a draft bill will be introduced in early 2008: its prospects in the Assembly appear troubled, as opponents led by Waukesha County business interests have stalled earlier efforts by a joint legislators/public members' committee to draft a compromise proposal.

Milwaukee County Elected Officials, Including Scott Walker, Endorse Strong Great Lakes Compact

In a little-noticed action on November 12th, a group of Milwaukee County elected officials comprised of the mayors, village presidents and the County Executive unanimously approved a resolution in favor of Wisconsin's approval of "a strong Great Lakes Compact."

The Compact's adoption by Wisconsin has been stalled at the State Capitol by Waukesha County business and political interests who don't want an eight-state management agreement to restrict diversions from the Great Lakes.

Scott Walker's approval of the resolution is noteworthy, as Walker often sides with Waukesha County on regional issues, such as freeway expansion.

The resolution, with very tough language on the diversion question, was adopted by the Milwaukee County Intergovernmental Cooperation Council (ICC), and addressed to the Wisconsin Governor and Legislature - - reading, in part:

"Be it known with one united voice that the mayors, village presidents and the County Executive of Milwaukee County collectively representing approximately 900,000 citizens insist that every effort be exerted to protect our Great Lakes from any attempt to divert, siphon off, ship or otherwise cause harm to the Great Lakes, and...

"Let it be known that we strongly request that these legislators use their good office to put in place strict laws that will forever keep others from diverting or in any other manner making our Great Lakes' water less in volume by the diversion of such water or would make them less clean...

"...by means of the passage of a strong water resources compact immediately and move to persuade the United States Federal Government to pass laws that will protect the Great Lakes from diversion as well as from efforts to make these waters less clean..."

The chairman of the ICC is Franklin Mayor Thomas Taylor. The Vice-Chairman is Michael Neitzke, Mayor of Greenfield.

The resolution is another signal to editorial writers, policy-makers at the Capitol and especially in Waukesha County that it is more than City of Milwaukee office-holders or the area's environmentalists who are uniting around the theme of a "strong Compact."

It should also be as clear a message as is possible to deliver to Waukesha political and business interests that opinion across Milwaukee County's diverse municipalities - - where several potential water-sellers are located - - agrees that diverting water to Waukesha County is not in the public interest.

Local Issues Blog Changes Name...Now Is http://www.milwaukeerising.net/

It used to be http://www.storyhill.net/, but now it's:
http://www.milwaukeerising.net/
Same manager/editor, Gretchen Schuldt, and same focus - - so change yer bookmarks and carry on.

New Jersey Leads The Way, Rejecting Capital Punishment

Congratulations to the State of New Jersey for eliminating the death penalty.

It's a barbaric, wasteful practice.

The US Supreme Court has been inching closer to declaring lethal injection a cruel and unusual punishment banned by the US Constitution, leading to a de facto moratorium on executions in many states.

New Jersey's leadership should embolden other states to end the death penalty, freeing up resources to fight crime without committing state-sponsored homicides in the process.

When I was at the Milwaukee Journal in 1995, I wrote a long series on capital punishment, and witnessed what was the first execution in Texas under the new administration of then-Gov. George W. Bush.

I came away from the experience convinced that it served no good purpose other than achieving a long-delayed measure of vengeance - - hardly the sign of a modern state.

Most countries around the world have ended capital punishment, and Wisconsin's long history of banning executions is a solid piece of the state's progressive tradition.

Selig Vows To Punish Wrongdoers - - So He'll Suspend Himself?

I don't usually blog about sports, but since I am a lifelong fan, and have followed things as they led up to this public airing of Major League Baseball's bad news, I'll offer this:

Baseball drug investigator George Mitchell's report is in, and along with dozens of named players, the former US Senator and federal judge also included unnamed "commissioners" among those responsible for baseball's worst drug-abuse scandal.

Good for you, Senator. No names were needed. It was a diplomatic way to out the guy who hired you.

Interestingly, too, was that Mitchell, having negotiated peace and forgiveness among warring Irish factions a few years ago, took a similar approach with Major League Baseball's troubles by recommending against player punishment for past misdeeds - - except for egregious violators.

Yet Comish Bud Selig, always ready to sound an off-note when the conductor was orchestrating harmony, vowed publicly, after Mitchell had delivered his report, to punish wrongdoers, which, as Bud reminded us, is in his purview.

And which Selig could have been doing for some time had he not been oh-so reluctant to do much until an authority figure like Mitchell assembled facts that supported the true, conventional, denial-free wisdom.

So taken together - - Mitchell's findings, Selig's remarks - - it seems to me that Selig, boss during the Steroid Era, should exercise the disciplinary powers he said he's got - - and suspend himself for being The Number One Guy who looked the other way in the name of the almighty dollar.

As they say, in the best interests of the game.

The US Will Not Cooperate On Global Warming Initiatives

The Bush administration continues to do with proposed global warming remedies what it has done on so many international fronts:

Obstructionism.

It will take decades for the next several administrations to undo - - if we are lucky - - the damage that George W. Bush has inflicted on the environment and our stature in the world.

Michael Horne Gives Ald. Bauman His Due

Horne is right: Ald. Robert Bauman has crafted a strong Milwaukee Common Council majority against the state's plan to commit $1.9 billion to rebuild and widen I-94 from Milwaukee to the Illinois without its adding a penny to help the pending Kenosha-Racine-Milwaukee commuter rail project get started.

I weighed in on this a couple of weeks ago, here.

Look to Aldermanic leaders like Bauman, Michael D'Amato, Michael Murphy and the all-important Common Council President Willie Hines to continue to connect transportation planning with water planning, too, since both heavily influence in the region where private development, public resources and residents are located.

Also note that a leading highway advocate predicts stalemate in the legislature if there is a rail vs. road-building battle.

That's meant to scare people into thinking that their highway projects are jeopardized by the push for a modicum of equity for rail transportation in Wisconsin.

We're not there yet, but if gas prices stay high, more travelers will demand alternatives, and commuter rail would provide a significant option in a growing market - - SE Wisconsin to the Illinois line.

You'd need a substantial makeover from the top down into lower-management at WisDOT to engineer the shift in thinking that would begin to provide transit-starved planning and implementation with real dollars to achieve real results.

That's not why Frank Busalacchi was put in charge at WisDOT.

1,001...1,002...

I noticed this morning that today's posting about Wisconsin's inertia on the Great Lakes Compact - - an eight-state water conservation and management agreement - - was also the 1,000th posting on this blog since I began it on February 2nd.

A nice bit of symmetry, as posting number one called attention to New Berlin's effort to get a Lake Michigan diversion - - before the Compact's implementation in Wisconsin - - for an under-developed portion of its city that will include a water park.

As the blog developed, I began to call postings along those lines part of an occasional series, The Road To Sprawlville, as my subjects evolved into a water/land-use/transportation focus.

I will be a guest on WTDY-AM 1670 tomorrow morning at 10 AM to discuss the Compact and related issues, as my blog and persona approach multi-media status.

Anyway: enough about me. I'm bored with it, too.

Tune it, and thanks for reading/listening.

jim

After Two Years, Wisconsin Has Not Ratified The Great Lakes Compact

Readers of this blog know that a frequent theme is the need for Wisconsin and the rest of the eight Great Lakes states to sign and implement the Great Lakes Compact.

That is an agreement among the states, with advisory partners in the two Canadian Great Lakes provinces, to create a first-ever legal framework for the approval of diversions of water from the Great Lakes - - making up 95% of the country's fresh surface water supply.

Given a warming climate, falling lake levels, damaging pressures from invasive species, pollution and development, preserving all the waters in the Great Lakes basin is an absolute necessity.

So when the Great Lakes governors and premiers signed the draft Compact in Milwaukee on December 13, 2005, there was real hope that the states would adopt and implement it so there could be a rational process for deciding if, when and where to move Great Lakes water.

Without the Compact in place, the only legal framework is a federal law that says all the eight Great Lakes states must unanimously approve a diversion, or it cannot happen - - while the Compact sets up rules, standards, conservation measures and even a lower threshold of diversion approval for a community (the home state only, not all eight) like the City of New Berlin, whose boundaries "straddle" the Great Lakes basin boundary.

In the two years since the Governors' signing, several demoralizing things have happened to stall the Compact's approval an diminish its prospects.

1. Only Illinois and Minnesota have approved it.

2. Ohio is resisting mightily.

3. Wisconsin doesn't even have a draft bill under consideration, with a state legislative study committee closing up shop this fall after property-rights' and development interests centered in Waukesha County sand-bagged the committee's consensus planning effort.

4. New Berlin's State Senator, Mary Lazich, (R), led the opposition on the study committee, along with allies in the business community and Waukesha County legislative delegation - - even though the Compact would make the diversion that New Berlin is seeking more likely to get approval.

5. Lazich and opponents in Ohio have joined forces: Lazich has said she wants to return the Compact for more negotiations (it took almost five years to produce the draft agreed to by the governors) - - a scheme that would lead the Compact to wither and die.

6. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources is edging towards approving New Berlin's diversion application, undercutting the spirit of cooperation among the states upon which the pending Compact is based.

All in all, Wisconsin leaders have dropped the ball when it comes to getting the Compact legitimized, and approved.

More delay weakens the document's intent, discourages the other states from moving forward with it, undermines Wisconsin's long water conservation history, and puts the Great Lakes more and more at risk.

Two years, and we have little to show for it, except Lake Michigan and Superior hitting record lows, making diversions without justification somewhere between political folly and scientific, public-policy insanity.

Hardly the Wisconsin way.

More details here.

George Bush Again Vetoes Childen's Health Insurance, Promotes Democratic Sweep in '08

Lame duck President George Bush's plan to drive the GOP off a cliff in the '08 elections is gaining momentum: Wednesday, Bush vetoed, for a second time, a popular and bi-partisan bill to extend health insurance coverage to more American children.

More money for an unpopular war. But not for American kids. So this is what compassionate conservatism is all about!

State Supreme Court Increasingly Dysfunctional Over Donations

In what is likely to be a routine event, State Supreme Court Justice Annette Ziegler recused herself from a case in which her big-money business donors had potentially-conflicting connections - - and the remaining justices deadlocked 3-3.

As a result, the case gets bumped down to an appellate panel, so it's not justice denied or derailed, but it is justice shunted to something of a spur.
The appellate court is certainly qualified, but it ain't the Supremes.

It was an important case - - whether Wisconsin towns can impose moratoriums on development while writing Smart Growth plans.

My esteemed colleague from the WMCS-AM 1290 "Backstory" media panel, Rick Esenberg, tells the Journal Sentinel that Ziegler's recusal and the resulting no-decision-decision illustrates that justices should hesitate from stepping away from cases.

I think that's missing the point.

Ziegler's really didn't have any choice.

She removed herself at the request of one of the parties, and given the ethical cloud she's under for failing to disclose conflicts-of-interest while on the Washington County circuit court bench, or to voluntarily remove herself from a large number of such cases, she did what she had to do.

And since she's awaiting a disciplinary slap, or worse, from the other justices for those earlier transgressions, Ziegler, for some time, will have to step aside, voluntarily or upon request, if she's taken as much as an after-dinner mint from a donor or party to any case coming before her.

She probably doesn't think this fair, but she's the poster person for lapses in judicial ethics, and since her major donors, like the Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, are often in court, it may be in the interest of the justice system for Ziegler to step down from court.

And I don't say that lightly. I know she was elected statewide.

But if she's considered radioactive, the entire system is going to suffer. We can't have a Supreme Court of six full-time voting members, and one part-timer who is often conflicted-out.

And the public should use this high court dysfunctionality to demand that the legislature put Supreme Court races on a public-funding diet only.

Esenberg doesn't like that, either, and I cordially suggest that as is often the case, he needs to give it some more thought.

Ziegler is exhibit "A" for the need to drastically limit, or entirely wring the money out of Supreme Court campaigns - - but she will probably not be the only one as time goes by and other justices are held to the same standard.

You could argue that Ziegler has become a change agent for a less-conflicted court.

Maybe.

But instead of policy-making by unintended consequences and cascading embarrassments, how about some intentional ethical decision-making, both by Ziegler about her increasingly untenable situation, and by the legislature on the matter of urgent campaign finance reform.

Yes, It's Cold Outside...And Yes, It's Warmer In The Arctic

Climate change deniers from Rush Limbaugh to Mark Belling will never be persuaded, and around here the snowy December makes it hard to keep the big picture in mind - - but hard data indicate Arctic ice is melting at a ferocious pace and the consequences for the rest of the planet are not going to be pretty.

Besides keeping sea levels relatively constant - - meaning shorelines more or less intact - - the Arctic ice reflects sunlight that, if absorbed, make the oceans and the the air a lot warmer.

More drought, anyone, combined with shorter, heavier rainy downbursts that farmland and city storm sewer systems cannot efficiently absorb?

I'm dealing with snow and ice and shoveling like the rest of us - - but it's not distracting me from absorbing and accepting what the best scientific minds and climatological measuring devices are telling me.

I note that a group of scientists has traveled all the way to Bali to debunk global warming and the United Nations teams that have put together many recent studies.

This blog: fair and balanced.

A Few More Thoughts About Huckabee

So his rivals batter him and he seems to be still standing. OK, I know it's early, but for me, the parallel is Lee Sherman Dreyfus.

Seemed to come out of nowhere. Resonated with people. Didn't get elected because voters liked his ideology, knew or cared about the fine print in his white papers. If he even had them.

He won the Governor's race in '78 because people just liked the guy. They found him authentic in a profession congested with phonies.

I'm not saying Huckabee can or should win the nomination, or the Presidency. I'm not voting for him.

I'm saying experts who are baffled by his success in this excruciatingly-long, ever-shifting campaign should not be surprised that he's rising to the top of the charts, at least this week.

Put next to a professional-grade flip-flopper like Romney, a sleepy, out-classed Ed ("Bring Back Tommy") Thompson, an over-the-hill McCain, an irrelevant Tancredo, a quirky non-factor like Ron Paul and the purported front-runner, Rudy Guiliani, a guy who seems to be treading water and who cannot possibly stay afloat on the campaign trail for another year clinging to so much scandalous personal baggage - - Mike Huckabee is beginning to look good to Republicans, by comparison.

I used to think his name hurt him. Now I think, like his mythic weight-loss, that it works to his advantage, adding homey charm to his story.

I could be wrong about all this. I observe Republicans more than I hang out with them, but I think I've seen this dynamic at play before...a phenom appears, and all the shots that the opponents take just don't seem to land because the regular laws of political physics somehow get suspended.

Which is also why Barack Obama could win the Democratic nomination.

Maybe I'll get back to that later.

CBS News Asks The Presidential Candidates About Global Warming

The answers are here.
Thanks to CBS News and Katie Couric for a coordinated discussion of an important issue.

Remember: Guns Don't Hurt People: People Hurt People

Guns had nothing to do with six people being shot at a schoolbus stop in Las Vegas.

Same for the victims in Colorado. The guns were, what...incidental?

Tim Cuprisin, Journal's Media Critic, Has A Little Fun With TV Weather 'News' Drama

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's Official Weather and Barbeque Deck, Tim Curprisin braves the elements to show us the elements. Pretty funny sendup of standard weather reporting.

AIR Quality Alert...On Top Of Ice and Snow

It's a version of 'when it rains...it pours.'

This from the DNR today:

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources is issuing an Air Quality Advisory for Particle Pollution (Orange) effective Tuesday, December 11, 2007 10:21:17 AM through Tuesday, December 11, 2007 6:00:00 PM for Kenosha, Milwaukee, Racine and Waukesha counties.

The advisory is being issued because of persistent elevated levels of fine particles in the air. These fine particles come primarily from combustion sources, such as power plants, factories and other industrial sources, vehicle exhaust, and wood fires.

The Air Quality Index is currently in the orange level, which is considered unhealthy for people in sensitive groups. People in those sensitive groups include those with heart or lung disease, asthma, older adults and children. When an orange advisory for particle pollution is issued, people in those groups are advised to reschedule or cut back on strenuous activities.

People with lung diseases such as asthma and bronchitis, and heart disease should pay attention to cardiac symptom s like chest pain and shortness of breath or respiratory symptoms like coughing, wheezing and discomfort when taking a breath, and consult with their physician if they have concerns or are experiencing symptoms.

Fine particle pollution deposits itself deep into the lungs and cannot easily be exhaled. People who are at risk are particularly vulnerable after several days of high particle pollution exposure.

To receive air quality advisories by e-mail, visit http://dnr.wi.gov/air/newsletters/.

There are several actions the public can take to reduce their contributions to this regional air quality problem.

Reduce driving when possible and don't leave vehicle engines idling.
Postpone activities that use small gasoline and diesel engines.

Minimize outdoor wood fires.
Conserve electricity.
For more ideas on how you can reduce your emissions today and every day visit: Do a little, save a lot!

For more information:
Federal interagency air quality web site, for information on the Air Quality Index and nationwide air quality forecasts and air quality conditions, http://airnow.gov/

DNR's statewide air quality monitoring web page, http://dnrmaps.wisconsin.gov/wisards
For local DNR air management program contacts, http://dnr.wi.gov/air/about/regions.htm

Constitutional Scholar Stanley Kutler Illuminates Mitt Romney

Constitutional expert Stanley Kutler gives us on the Fighting Bob blog the background to understand where Mitt Romney was trying to take us with his much-publicized speech on religion and politics.

And it isn't to John F. Kennedy's high ground on the separation of church and state.

Kutler's essay is even more timely now that Mike Huckabee wants to turn that 1st amendment wall separating church and state into something with the strength of a bead curtain.

Murphy Oil, With Probable Wetlands Filling Looming, Helps Preserve Recreational Area

Murphy Oil is expected to formally approach the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources in the coming weeks with a plan to fill between 300-500 wetland acres to accommodate a six-fold capacity increase in its Superior, WI refinery.

In what is both a boon for Northern Wisconsin, and a smart public relations move, too, Murphy announced a $40,000 grant that completes a deal to expand an important regional recreational area.

Probably not a coincidence.

Texas Pollutes More Than Most Countries

Like everything else in Texas, pollution is big there, too.

The DNR Wants To Be A Law Unto Itself

What is the public to do if a major state regulatory agency arrogates power, and the media do not address the situation?

That's the question of the day to be dissected - - at length here at The Political Environment - - because that's the point we have reached with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, its interest in moving water out of Lake Michigan on its self-defined terms, and worse - - while major media watchdogs are not raising an alarm.

I wrote an op-ed for the Madison Capital Times on December 7th about some of this, and this posting is a continuation, but thanks to the Cap Times for helping initiate this discussion.

In the Cap Times piece, I argued the DNR has a dismissive, indifferent attitude about major water issues in the state and region - - particularly on one key point:

Whether the DNR, as the state's leading water regulator, intends to follow a 21-year-old federal law, with tremendous regional, and arguably national and international implications.

That law - - the Water Resources Development Act of 1986, or WRDA - - says no state may divert water out of the Great Lakes basin without the approvals of all eight of the Great Lakes states governors.

There seems to be a belief at the DNR that it can follow its own drummer, that it does not have to follow the unanimous approval procedure for water diversions from the Great Lakes - - and that's a problem.

So let's take a look at what the DNR and others are saying about the federal unanimous approval requirement, and the law's applicability.

One more thing at the outset:

It's now a doubly-important question, because the eight-state approval procedure is also incorporated for most diversions in a second legal and updated framework that extends and refines WRDA - - the pending and controversial agreement known as the Great Lakes Compact - - which is intended to conserve Great Lakes water and control diversions of water piped outside of the Great Lakes basin.

Adoption of a state law to implement the Compact in Wisconsin has been stalled by staunch opposition in Waukesha County, and in major state and local business associations.

Now to WRDA: Public Law 99-662, Section 1109 (one citation, and description is here) which says the following:

"No water shall be diverted from any portion of the Great Lakes within the United States, from any tributary within the United States of any of the Great Lakes, for use outside the Great Lakes basin unless such diversion is approved by the Governor of each of the Great Lakes states."

That's pretty clear, yet the DNR has suggested for some time that it has the authority - - on its own - - to approve moving Great Lakes water out of the Great Lakes basin.

If the DNR were to actually approve such a transfer despite WRDA's prohibition, litigation from the other Great Lakes states or conservation groups, or perhaps from Canadians who manage and 'own' half the waters, would flow faster than the diversion.

And depending on the outcome, other Great Lakes states, or some farther away, might go off unilaterally and do the same, harming the Great Lakes even more, and perhaps permanently.

Though the DNR is the state agency charged with protecting the state's natural resources, it continues to play a dangerous game with Great Lakes diversion planning.

A story in the June 27th, 2007 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel said, for instance, that the DNR believed it "has the authority under existing water laws to approve out-of-basin diversions."

And that wasn't the first time that the DNR had taken that position, as we shall see.

After I had sent the Capital Times what became the December 7th op-ed column, an open records request I had filed weeks earlier with the DNR produced about 500 pages that made up the agency's internal briefing book prepared this fall for Matt Frank, who became the DNR secretary in September.

In the Water section of the "Transition Briefing Book," a two-page, undated document about the "Great Lakes Compact" contains this telling sentence about obstacles facing Wisconsin communities that want Great Lakes diversions:

"This difficulty is due to a federal law, in existence now, which seems to some to require the approval of the other Great Lakes states governors prior to state approval for water use across the drainage divide."

The words "seems to some" (my emphasis) just jump off the page.

Is that the interpretation of the law, and Wisconsin's relationship to the environment and to the other Great States, that is floating around the DNR's offices in Madison?

As I said, that's been an articulated DNR position for some time.

Back on December 10th, 2006, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel had said that the DNR didn't necessarily feel constrained by WRDA's eight-state approval process, reporting:

"But the DNR may not wait on the Legislature to give New Berlin a green light to pursue a Lake Michigan solution," wrote the paper's Dan Egan, "and it may not wait for what many believe is the requisite approval from the other seven Great Lakes states.

"That clearly is an option," said Bruce Baker, the DNR's deputy water administrator." (Full story here.)

And who might these ill-informed, misguided "some" people be who think the federal law - - WRDA - - applies to the DNR?

Here's a short list, working backwards, beginning with the person who was the state's top lawyer while the DNR was articulating its exceptionalistic status:

1. Peg Lautenschlager, the Democratic Wisconsin Attorney General, issued a lengthy advisory opinion on the diversion powers' question on December 27, 2006, just 17 days after the Journal Sentinel story appeared with the DNR's separatist position. On p. 18 of the opinion, she concluded with this key sentence.

"Therefore, under the Water Resources Development Act of 1986, such diversions require the approval of all Great Lakes governors, and the proposals by the cities of New Berlin and Waukesha require such approvals by the Great Lakes governors as well as by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources to be allowed."

Interestingly, Lautenschlager's opinion notes on pps. 2-3 that Bruce Baker, the previously-mentioned DNR official, had suggested that the DNR had the authority to approve certain diversions on its own.

Lautenschlager cited a November 3, 2006 story by the Journal Sentinel's Darryl Enriquez about the DNR and its view of federal water diversion law:

Here is the important quote:"Baker stressed that the DNR has yet to decide its own stand on the New Berlin issue, and it's undecided if using the interpretation of existing federal law would be the proper policy to follow."

And just so everyone reading the Lautenschlager opinion could easily access WRDA's language, it is appended to the opinion, which, again is here. Just scroll to the end.

2. Mike Cox, the Republican Michigan Attorney General, who wrote this reply to then-DNR Secretary Scott Hassett on October 21, 2006, when Hassett sent New Berlin's first application to the other states for their review:

"The Water Resources Development Act of 1986 (WRDA) requires approval from all Great Lakes states before Great Lakes water may be diverted in this manner...By federal law, New Berlin cannot proceed with the diversion without obtaining approval from each of the Governors and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources cannot authorize the diversion by granting New Berlin's "application.'"

Lautenschlager incorporated Cox's language into her opinion to support her argument, on p. 2.

3. Carol Lombardi, at the time the non-partisan Mayor of the City of Waukesha, wrote to Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle on August 18, 2003, seeking help for Waukesha to obtain a diversion of "20 million gallons of water per day from Lake Michigan."

Continued Lombardi:

"We are seeking the support of the Department of Natural Resources in developing the proposal and seeking the approval of the Great Lakes Governors to protect the public health for the citizens of Waukesha. Under U.S. federal law, this proposal requires the approval of the eight Governors of the Great Lakes states."

Maybe Lombardi said "approval" because she had seen an August 26, 1999 report entitled "Diversions and Bulk Removals of Great Lakes Water."

I say "maybe" because my copy of the report, written by an organization called The International Joint Commission, came in documents located in the files of the Waukesha Water Utility, and was obtained through the open records law.

4. The International Joint Commission, which deals with boundary issues between the US and Canada, commissioned the report, a 43-page "fact-finding" document, where the authors stated on p. 10:

"The WRDA requires that all Great Lakes Governors approve any proposal to divert water from the Great Lakes or their tributaries...to protect the Great Lakes from the development of uncoordinated, ill-conceived diversions that would have harmful effects on the Great Lakes ecosystem."

5. Former Republican Wisconsin Governor Tommy G. Thompson, who was Governor when an out-of-basin diversions was approved in the 1980's

On March 29, 1989 (this information is taken from a document obtained from the DNR in a previous open records request), Thompson indicated by letter that it was not the first time that he had sought the approval of the other seven Great Lakes Governors for a diversion to the Wisconsin Town of Pleasant Prairie - - an application that was eventually allowed.

6. Democratic Ohio Governor Richard Celeste, then chairman at the time of the Great Lakes Council of Governors - - the governing board for diversion approvals - - received Thompson's letter that said, in part:

"I am writing to ask you to initiate the prior notice and consultation process as provided under the Great Lakes Charter for an interbasin diversion from Lake Michigan," Thompson wrote Celeste,"...to portions of the Town of Pleasant Prairie, Kenosha County...."

Thompson had earlier sought the "approval" of the other Governors, as Wisconsin's governor reminded Celeste with this language. "As you may recall, on September 2, 1987, I sent a letter to you requesting your approval of this same interbasin diversion...," but Thompson tells Celeste that it was withdrawn due to "uncertainties regarding the volume of the diversion needed."

It's interesting to note that Thompson's letter is cited in the bibliography of the International Joint Commission's fact-finding report that I mentioned earlier.

About six weeks later, Celeste forwarded Thompson's request to each of the other governors, and noted "Pursuant to Section 1109 of P.L. 99-662 [the controlling federal law, WRDA] this proposal requires the consent of the eight Great Lakes Governors." (Emphasis added.)

Some of the Governors responded that the relatively small size of the proposed Pleasant Prairie diversion might not have required the approval of the governors under a separate agreement among the states - - the Great Lakes Charter.

Never the less, Thompson and Celeste were using WRDA as their process to win approval for the Pleasant Prairie. The understood the primacy of federal water law.

The Charter was a 1985 voluntary agreement among the Great Lakes states and Canadian provinces that predates the now-pending, more enforceable Compact.

I know it's confusing, but this is the key point:

The Charter, a voluntary agreement, with its cooperative spirit and goals, will be strengthened if the states adopt the rules, standards and procedures to rationalize diversions that make up the heart of the pending Compact, that was negotiated from 2001-2005 as an extension of, or annex to, the Charter.

The Compact will firm up WRDA, in other words.

The Compact was signed by all the Great Lakes Governors and Canadian provincial premiers in 2005, and has been approved so far by two of eight US states - - and the Canadians have only an advisory role in any US diversion application submitted for approval.

The Compact includes the eight-state approval process for most diversion requests - - with first-time standards and procedures - - but until it is approved by all the states, the federal law remains the controlling law.

That is what Lautenschlager was telling the DNR and anyone else reading her 2006 opinion - - written years after the Thompson-Celeste-Great Lakes governors'-Lombardi et al, correspondence had built a long record of following the federal law, that:

"...any new diversions...are diversions under the meaning of WRDA..." wrote Lautenschlager in the conclusion of her opinion, (p.18) thus have to meet the eight-state approval process spelled out in WRDA - - the federal law - - until the Compact, with its exceptions laid out, is approved by all eight Great Lakes states.

Todd Ambs, the DNR's Water Division administrator, sent me this explanation when I asked by email if the Department was addressing Lautenschlager's opinion, and he said on July 17, 2007, referring to the opinion as a letter:

"...we did have a couple of conversations about this letter from Attorney General Lautenschlager but that we never actually produced any on paper legal analysis.

"As you might imagine, it would be safe to say that in a letter of this length that there are parts of the letter that we agree with and parts that we don't agree with. The letter attempts to define what constitutes a diversion under the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA). While the Department disagrees with parts of Ms. Lautenschlager’s analysis, and with the conclusion drawn from the analysis, we do agree with her that nothing in state or federal law comes close to definitively establishing what is or is not a diversion under WRDA. Whatever interpretation is chosen runs the risk of later being found to be legally incorrect. In such a context, decisions on how to proceed are essentially decisions of policy with legal vulnerability being only one of the factors that need to be taken into consideration. Consequently, an agency like the Department, in the absence of anything resembling a definitive legal characterization of what is or is not a diversion, must focus on the larger issue of what is in the best interests of the citizens of the state. "

I repeat: Lautenschlager's opinion says a diversion is a diversion is a diversion, without caveats, under WRDA.

Ambs ended his email by saying he considers New Berlin's case unique, its application good for the Great Lakes, and describes a communications procedure with the other states that meets the spirit of the prospective Compact standard, but falls short of the WRDA/approval standard:

"By the way, the fact sheet [DNR posted about the application] was shared with representatives of all of the other state and provincial jurisdictions in May. Each jurisdiction was also urged to review the final application on our website and to submit any comments if they would like. To date we have received no written communications from those jurisdictions."

As I said in the Capital Times op-ed, major media in this state have not reported the existence and substance of Lautenschlager's opinion, let alone all the records supporting the federal diversion law in Wisconsin practice.

Half a dozen posts on this blog about Lautenschlager's opinion - - a recent example is here - - can't compensate for a media blackout- - but as I have said before, I will continue to publicize Lautenschlager's heavily-researched and annotated opinion.

The media unwillingness to report on and explain the Lautenschalger opinion withholds from the public an important, researched official document about how to legally manage 95% of the fresh surface water in the US, and certainly the key to Wisconsin's economy.

And the briefing documents for Frank do not show anyone saying, in effect: 'Secretary Frank: here's what Wisconsin's bi-partisan leaders and officials from across the Great Lakes have been saying and doing with regard to WRDA since 1987. It's right here in our files, so let's follow our record and these officials' lead.'

Maybe I am wrong to call that indifference.

A better word is arrogance.

Citizens Allied for Sane Highways (CASH) Now Has Its Own Blog

Transportation expert Gretchen Schuldt, co-founder of Citizens Allied for Sane Highways (CASH) now has its own blog.

You want to know how the state transportation department is spending you money (and your children's, and grandchildren's), then you gotta check this new, newsy site at least daily.

Another Mass Shooting, And The Country Will Shrug It Off

This time in a religious training center.

But the country is so in the grip of the gun lobby that nothing remedial will come if it, just as other mass shootings - - in a mall, in an Amish school, on a playground, on a University campus, in a McDonalds...the list is endless and bloody- - roll right off our collective back.

Madness.

And updating - - a second fatal shooting at a church, 60 miles from the site of the first.

No doubt the gun movement will say this is an argument for concealed carry in the pews.

Madness II.

Riverwest Neighborhoods Network Delves Into A City-Supported Military Contract For Known Polluter

It's rare that someone delves so deeply into a single item and unearths so many interesting angles - - and can communicate them - - but Dan Knauss at Riverwest Neighborhoods Network has done just that with his investigation into a city plan to subsidize a battery-maker with a bad environmental record.

Coming Monday...Stay Tuned

I'm going to to put up a post Monday, based in large part on the results of several open records requests, to address, in some detail, this question:

"What is the public to do if a major state regulatory agency arrogates power, and the media do not address the situation?"

Wisconsin Could Lead The Economy Away From Expensive Corn Ethanol

Interesting story in the Sunday Journal Sentinel about Wisconsin's possible role in advancing the use of so-called cellulosic ethanol - - derived from wood chips or grasses instead of corn.

Ethanol produced from corn requires too much water, petroleum and energy to generate much real savings.

This blog has posted a number of commentaries on this issue, going back to March.

And Denny Caneff, executive director of the River Alliance of Wisconsin, has been hammering home this point since January.

UN Predicts Major Job Growth In "Green" Industries

Technological changes to combat or react to climate change will produce millions of new jobs worldwide, according to a new United Nations report.

Put that up against this report about the environmental damage looming in Alberta, Canada, as oil companies tear apart the landscape to extract thick crude oil from tar sand.

That's the very oil to be piped to the expanding refineries on the Great Lakes - - to the British Petroleum facility on Lake Michigan at Whiting, Indiana, and the Murphy Oil Co. refinery at Superior, Wisconsin.

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources expects to receive preliminary permitting applications from Murphy by the end of December, including a plan to fill between 300-500 acres of wetlands for the expanded plant.

That would constitute the largest wetlands filling in Wisconsin since the adoption of the US Clean Water Act in 1972.

Conservationists Want a More Activist DNR Board

Ballast water routinely used by cargo ships is a known source of invasive species that is harming the Great Lakes, and with Congress unable to put ballast water controls on the books, conservationists in Wisconsin want the Natural Resources Board to act on its own.

The Department of Natural Resources, governed to some degree by the Board, fears that a state-only initiative might put Wisconsin shippers at a competitive disadvantage: the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation is leading a coalition that is applying the pressure.

More and more, the DNR behaves like an arm of the Wisconsin Department of Commerce: the wildlife federation is reminding the Board and the DNR that its first job is environment and resources protection, and the Great Lakes are certainly at the heart of that mission.

The Federation is also at the forefront of an effort to return the appointment of the DNR Secretary to the Board.

Under former Gov. Tommy Thompson, the secretarial appointment authority was removed from the Board to the Governor.

A Few Words About Romney And His Religion

I'm increasingly concerned about the attention being paid to GOP Presidential candidate Mitt Romney's Mormonism.

I figure it's his business alone.

Same for the other candidates' faiths, or if one or more of them said they had none, or wanted to keep it all private.

We're electing a President, not anointing a national High Priest.

We're choosing someone to govern, not to pastor us, or prophesize for us.
The winner will swear to uphold The Constitution, and that's good enough for me.

I'd be more comfortable if candidates could keep their relationships with their Higher Power and/or deity as they define them/it to themselves.

I go back to the uproar over the Coexist bumper sticker.

Stop taking potshots at, or obsessing about, other people's faiths. Behave tolerantly. We're a pluralistic society, so let's try and behave that way.

December Anniversaries Underscore Failure To Protect Great Lakes

T.S. Eliot told us that April is the cruelest month, but for people hoping to protect the Great Lakes, December contains some pretty harsh markers, too.

I sum it up in a column in today's Madison Capital Times.

Power Company, Stray Voltage, Liable For Dairy Cows' Death - - Annette Zeilger Blames The Farmers

Wisconsin is the dairy state, so when the local power company's transmission wires help kill or injure your herd, the State Supreme Court will rule in your favor.

That's the good news.

The troubling, but not-so-surprising sidebar, is that newly-minted Justice Annette Ziegler wrote a dissent that suggested the dairy farmers working the family homestead were also somehow at fault.

Nice try, though at 4-3 in favor of the farmers, it was close.

I guess big business can't win everything that comes before the Supreme Court - - yet - - but Ziegler is doing her bit, and that's exactly why the WMC wanted her there.

If the WMC can get a Ziegler clone on the Court next year, the next such case might go 4-3 the other way.

Look for that majority to say that cows who live near powerlines have to take personal responsibility, walk off to another farm if they feel threatened, and basically should stop mooing about it and pull themselves up by their hoofs.

Lake Michigan Water Levels Hitting Historic Lows - - Diversion Discussions Hitting Historic Highs

Lake Michigan continues to fall.

That's not stopping City of Waukesha officials from continuing their discussions with a compliant Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources to sketch out potential ways to divert Lake Michigan water - - probably with less than a guaranteed-100% return flow 12 months a year, sources say.

The DNR is also encouraging New Berlin to discuss a diversion deal with the City of Milwaukee, even though Milwaukee's position is that there should be no deals until the state legislature approves the pending Great Lakes Compact, with its first-ever standardized diversion rules and water conservation standards.

Not to mention that the Wisconsin Attorney General has said, in writing, that under federal law, Wisconsin cannot unilaterally approve any diversions without the approval of all eight Great Lakes governors - - an opinion that the DNR and major Wisconsin media are pretending wasn't written.

I've written about and cited that opinion six times since May:

It's a sad state of affairs that some of our more powerful media and governmental officials are in a mutually denial pact over the opinion, and are overlooking its conclusion, that:

A 21-year-old federal statute forbids New Berlin, Waukesha or any other Wisconsin community receiving a Great Lakes diversion without all eight Great Lakes governors giving their OK.

No unilateral action by Wisconsin, according to the opinion.

And the regional planning commission, (SEWEPC), continues to discuss possible future regional water supply plans that could include diversions of Lake Michigan water to communities like Waukesha that are beyond the boundaries of the Great Lakes basin.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in August of this year noted the expanding list of communities in several counties that SEWRPC was adding to its list of potential Lake Michigan diversion recipients - - for discussion purposes.

Yes, you read that right: expanding list.

I've been predicting that SEWRPC will probably endorse this kind of approach through a regional water authority - - in part because it is recommending sprawl-inducing highway expansion beyond the Great Lakes basin, and because it hired a leading Wisconsin legal expert on regional water matters to assist the commission's ongoing water supply study.

Anyone see a contradiction to this media disinterest and parallel government planning and momentum taking place while levels in Lake Michigan and Lake Superior continue to fall so dramatically?

MMSD Continues Its Environmental Initiatives

The Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District will always have its PR problems because of occasional overflows - - and it is spending hundreds of millions of dollars to continue to minimize them - - but there is less notice for its forward-looking stormwater mitigation and environmental initiatives that help the region's ecosystem

This small item from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel deserves wider distribution:

"MMSD donates land to DNR for wildlife area

"The Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District has donated 63.7 acres of wetland, grassland and woods along Ryan Creek in Franklin to the state Department of Natural Resources.

"The property, which extends from S. 116th St. west to the north shore of a 30-acre body of water known locally as Dumke's Pond, will become part of the DNR's Big Muskego Lake Wildlife Area in Waukesha and Milwaukee counties.

"MMSD acquired the parcel this year at a cost of $434,273 for its Greenseams flood control program.

"The district will retain a conservation easement on the property to ensure future state land management activities are compatible with regional flood management goals.

"The DNR had awarded MMSD a $197,500 grant from the state stewardship fund in July to help pay the purchase price."

Midwest Cities Banding Together - - Will Milwaukee Be Invited?

Detroit, Chicago, Pittsburgh and Toledo, OH are working with the Brookings Institution to organize a regional partnership of chambers of commerce.

The goal is to exploit the region's economic advantages, among them being proximity to Great Lakes water.

It's by invitation only: I wonder if the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce will get the call?

Those folks running the Waukesha County Chamber of Commerce can pretty much figure on reading about it in the newspapers, as they oppose adopting the Great Lakes Compact, a water conservation partnership, because it is too much of a cooperative, regional agreement.

Righty Talkers Miss The Point When Sniping at Huckabee

Some of our local talkers are lining up against former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, the blended pro-life, sorta populist Republican who has sinned against GOP doctrine by raising some taxes.

The talkers are slamming Huckabee's rise in some Iowa polls, and believe that when real Republicans find out Huckabee isn't a real Republican, they'll turn to a real Republican - - Romney, perhaps, or Guiliani, neither of whom, to the talkers secret dismay, are really real Republicans.

Like George W. Bush, or Ronald Reagan.

Here's what our talkers don't understand, because they spend too much time in locked studios, away from real people.

Huckabee strikes people as authentic. He's not a stiff. He doesn't appear scripted. He seems likable.

He's being read as genuine, relative to other candidates, so his numbers are up.

It's similar to Barack Obama's popularity. Even Ron Paul's.

People like fresh faces. It's more than being, as one of the talkers said, "the flavor of the week."

Not every voter is obsessed as are some of the talkers with the microscopic details of tax policy, or their version of Conservative Truth, or the other deadly vagaries of Republican doctrine.

Thank goodness.

Mayhem In Omaha: No Doubt It's The Shooter, Not The Gun, To Blame

Or something like that, which inevitably will be the right-wing gun fanatics' copping-out denial in the wake of the Omaha massacre.

We in the US of A have these nuts going ballistic, literally, a heckuva lot more frequently than anywhere else on earth, because in America, you can get your hands on heavy-duty firepower quicker and cheaper than anywhere else on the planet.

So when a deranged person goes off the medication, or otherwise breaks completely, the means of mass murder is much more available.

Don't talk to me about baseball bats, or steak knives. That's not what happens.

The killer does his (yes, pretty much always "his") greater damage - - whether in the high school hallway, on playgrounds, in restaurants, on the highway, or on a college classroom - - because the gun is available.

Those poor people in Nebraska. Out Christmas shopping, and gunned down.

Just ridiculous.

I note in updates from the Omaha World Herald that the killer used an SKS rifle.

The SKS is a military weapon that is often called an assault rifle, though because it's not manufactured to fire selectively in single or automatic bursts, it's just a plain old vicious, terribly deadly, non-assault rifle.

A carbine. To the general public, it's an assault rifle because it's military and devastating, and to the dead Nebraskans, it's of no consequence.

Anyway...

There are many SKS variants, having metastasized from the Soviet Union to China and throughout other former Eastern bloc countries, as a cheap, durable deadly, mass-produced and exportable military weapon - - a staple of the world arms trade.

Not with the ugly cachet of the true assault rifle, like an AK-47, but available from Africa to Asia...to southeastern Wisconsin, aina!

When I was a reporter for the old Milwaukee Journal, I remember covering a gun show in Elkhorn, where a dealer had three tables filled with new Chinese SKS rifles, with polished blond-wood stocks, fresh from wooden shipping containers.

$200 a pop.

Some people swear by them as hunting rifles.

Chai Vang, the Hmong hunter from Minnesota who killed six hunters in northern Wisconsin, used an SKS.

In the hands of a deranged citizen, whether during the deer hunting or Christmas shopping season, an SKS becomes the killing machine that it was intended to be.

We make it far too easy for people to own something on the order of an SKS. Is that what the 2nd amendment was really designed to guarantee:

That a 19-year-old kid could take one over to the mall and hunt people to go out in his blaze of glory.

As Murphy Oil Expands at Superior...Suppose it Becomes ExxonMobil, or Foreign-Owned?

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources is awaiting Murphy Oil's first expansion permitting paperwork before the end of the year, leading to what could become the biggest wetlands filling and construction project in Wisconsin history.

So along with all the environmental and commercial questions that this project will raise for northern Wisconsin, and for Lake Superior - - here's another:

What if Murphy is bought out by a foreign, state-run company, or a larger conglomerate? Do we care? Is anybody tracking the ramifications?

One expert says Murphy is a takeover target.

Will the state ask the company about its financial plans, as it assesses its capability to pull off a $6 billion expansion safely and sanely?

Waukesha Blogger Asks The Right Questions About the Pabst Farm Mall

James Widgerson, a generally-conservative blogger from Waukesha County, asks the right questions about a new developer's proposal to build some sort of shopping mall at Pabst Farm.

The earlier proposal for a high-end mall was withdrawn by a previous developer - - the same one that is responsible for the Mayfair Mall - - suggesting that the retail market is not there in Western Waukesha County for a regional shopping center.

And despite previous TIF subsidies from the City of Oconomowoc, and another $25 million gob of money aimed the mall's way for a brand new interstate interchange.

So Widgerson asks: is this the best use of 184 acres of land?

In a County where many of the big questions are not been raised until after the land has been subdivided or paved, (Pabst Farms' acreage was rated prime ag land and recommended to remain as such by the Southeastern Regional Planning Commission, SEWRPC), Widgerson's posting is a breath of fresh air.

So much so that I am publicly forgiving him for his support of the Dallas Cowboys.

Soglin Sees The Light

I find this posting by my old pal Paul Soglin too funny to describe, so I will let it speak for itself.

Will New Pabst Farm Developer, Local Governments, Pay Fair Shares of Interchange Cost?

Pabst Farms has a new developer lined up to build a mall for the planned community in Oconomowoc: the question is - - will it, and its local government partners, be asked by the state to cover more of the projected $25 million price tag to construct an interchange off I-94 in exurban Western Waukesha County to service it?

And will the mall even meet the City of Oconomowoc's demand for the upscale project long-promised for the site, as The Journal Sentinel reports that the new developer is known as a strip mall builder.

The previous developer had pulled out, but along with Waukesha County and the City of Oconomowoc, the local shares of the cost were announced at about 15% total, even though Wisconsin Department of Transportation guidelines put the local share for this type of project at between 25-100%.
You can read about the WisDOT local share costs guidelines on this blog, here.

Maybe other media will publish the WisDOT information, which is readily available?

Urbanist Spokesman Helps McIlheran Understand Our Freeways

Steve Filmanowicz, communications director for the Congress for the New Urbanism, is trying to talk sense about our freeways to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's Patrick McIlheran.

McIlheran is the paper's in-house conservative columnist who recently said the $1.9 billion price tag projected for the 35-mile improvement along I-94 from Milwaukee to Illinois, at $54 million a mile, seemed like a bargain.

Filmanowicz, a former colleague of mine in former Milwaukee Mayor John Norquist's office (both Norquist and Filmanowicz work at CNU's Chicago office) made his arguments against the wasteful highway plan in a letter to the editor - - and through the miracle of The Internets - - the letter has reappeared on a Franklin, Wisconsin blog, "Sprawled Out."

Check it out.

(I posted an item sometime ago about the relative lack of congestion on Milwaukee's freeways - - but only because Steve wrote it. So kudos to him, again, and to CNU, where he and Norquist, the organization's President and CEO, are setting a national standard for research and action on transit and other urban design components.)

State Transportation Department Is Fueling Its Opponents

Wisconsin Transportation Secretary Frank Busalacchi seems hell-bent to provoke a sustained fight with people who make up the core of the administration's Democratic/environmental, pro-transit constituency.

And as someone who has worked in and around government decision-making for many years, I can state with total certainty that the transportation department's (WisDOT) heavy-handed, highway-happy spending agenda is no accident.

Nor are the consequences, one of which will be helping critics of the agency find allies and organize more effectively, because the more that WisDOT runs roughshod - - blowing budgets, filling wetlands, dissing its transit mission, the greater will be the political rebound.

It's a curious dynamic: WisDOT has always had a culture of independence, and at times arrogance - - former Secretary Chuck Thompson's famous dictum that the agency's mission was "to let contracts" being one good example - - enabled by the agency separate budget from gas taxes and vehicle fees to spend.

But even WisDOT can go too far, and I think that is happening.

The ink wasn't dry on the Midwest Governors' agreement to curb greenhouse gas emissions last month when WisDOT announced its plan for the rebuilding and expansion of the 35-mile stretch of I-94 from Milwaukee to the Illinois state line.

Busalacchi said the projected price had more than doubled to $1.9 billion, and would be started two years early.

Gretchen Schuldt of Citizens Allied for Sane Highways (CASH) has catalogued the complete and destructive joke that passes for planning for this project - - now more than twice the cost of the Marquette Interchange, with all its expensive bridge-work.

And because WisDOT is not budgeting a penny of that $1.9 billion for the Kenosha-Racine-Milwaukee commuter line.

It is a project endorsed by governments all along the line because it would mitigate the I-94 construction congestion, and offer travelers an environmentally-friendly, fuel-conserving option.

There is even $91 million of ear-marked federal start-up funding available for the project, and still WisDOT will not schedule it - - which is fine with apologists for the road-builders, like Patrick McIlheran, who thinks sinking $54 million a mile into move pavement is a bargain, and suggests some of the cost can be recovered through toll collections.

There are more creative forces at work.

Fed-up Milwaukee aldermen, seeing one transit plan after another killed because there is allegedly no available funding are moving formally to see if there is a way to force WisDOT to amend the plan.

Finally, some political push-back to WisDOT's tone-deaf style of pronouncing and announcing, not discussing, listening and negotiating.

Like many Wisconsinites, the Milwaukee aldermen are sick of WisDOT's one-dimensional love affair with road-building, and its routine transfer of public funds to entitled, enabled road-builders, at the expense of modern transit alternatives, even as a supplement, not replacement, for highway spending.

Another example is the quietly-constructed sweetheart deal to rush an interchange to the Pabst Farm shopping mall, charging the local government a mere 1.6% share ($400,000 of $25 million) - - and again, without a dime for a transit connection to what is supposed to be a regional mall.

WisDOT can charge local governments and private developers up to 100% of the cost of a project like this, but assigned the developer and Waukesha County only 7% each, sticking state taxpayers with more than 84%.

James Widgerson, a prominent conservative Waukesha blogger, is now wondering whether the mall is a positive development for the area.

If the mall is a bad idea, what does that make a $25 million interchange to access it?

Will WisDOT listen to anyone on this matter other than people with a vested interest?

There is no way that WisDOT's District Two senior officials in the Waukesha office would have dipped into the regional freeway expansion plan's projected budget - - tapping money that isn't even there or borrowed, yet - - and reached that soft local share formula without the approval of the central office - - Busalacchi's domain - - in Madison.

WisDOT is a top-down agency: that arrangement had to pass muster in Madison, if it didn't originate there.

So WisDOT continues to dismiss transit while going about what it thinks is its normal, Chuck Thompson-practice - - boosting spending on highways, even as gas prices rise, to induce driving, and burning up money and land, to keep the entire WisDOT/road-builder machine in high gear.

These practices are not sustainable - - environmentally, fiscally, and politically.

US Knew Iran Halted Weapons of Mass Destruction Work - - So Our Attack is Probably Imminent

Sounds familiar, doesn't it?

Echoes of post-invasion Iraq, 2003.

And it turns out Pres. George W. Bush knew while he was whipping up anti-Iranian sentiment to rally his fading base that Iran had shut down its nuclear arms project..

So...no WMD, some fake pronouncements from the President - - must mean shock and awe is just around the corner.

Local Activist Dale Olen Wins Lindner Prize

Dale Olen, a well-known environmental activist on behalf of the Great Lakes, was awarded the Fred Lindner prize for exceptional public service.

Details here, hearty congratulations to Dale, and further congratulations also to Friends of Milwaukee's Rivers, which Dale designated as the organization to receive related recognition and an award.

Top Canadian Scientist Calls For Halt To Tar Sand Extraction

Canada's leading environmental scientist, citing damage to a key river, has called for a moratorium on extracting oil from Alberta's tar sands.

That oil is the resource to be piped in, refined at and shipped from the expanded Murphy Oil refinery at Superior, WI, and at British Petroleum's also-expanding facility at Whiting, IN.

State Transportation Manual Suggests Pabst Farm Interchange Local Shares Too Low

When a cost-sharing plan for the $25 million I-94 interchange for the now-cancelled Pabst Farms shopping mall was announced, the local governments and the developer were assigned very small shares.

This was the breakdown - - State, $21.9 million (84.4%); Waukesha County, $1.75 million (7%); developer, also $1.75 million (7%); City of Oconomowoc, $400,000 (1.6%).

At the time, with the three local shares totalling about 15%, I called for an investigation by the Wisconsin Audit Bureau, and the legislative Joint Audit Committee.

A new mall developer is said to be close to announcing a construction plan, though it is not clear if the reconstituted mall will be same size and scale of the now-cancelled "upscale mall" previously planned by the same company that pulled out. That company also owns Mayfair Mall in Wauwatosa.

Government officials have denied that big-box stores would replace the mall concept planned as an anchor for the Pabst Farms.

To determine if the interchange proposal came with normal local cost shares, I obtained a copy of the applicable Wisconsin Department of Transportation's Division of Investment Management "Program Management Manual," Document No. 03-25-01.

It's the document that tells local governments and developers if and why they have to bear a share of road projects that are "not local highway, bridge or multi-modal projects," the manual says in bold-face.

The manual suggests that the "local cost sharing" assignment in highway expansion or interchange projects is often in the range of 25%-100%, with the degree of "local benefit" and "significant local traffic" being heavy determinants.

It is not clear what WisDOT language from the manual has been applied to fit the Pabst Farms interchange, and there is wiggle room in some of the criteria, but it looks like the shares announced give the developer and the local governments multi-million breaks:

Section "4.4.2 Modified or Upgraded Access," (section numbers are bold-faced throughout) says this:

"Modified or upgraded access, either intersections or interchanges, are 100 percent funded by the developer if the need for the access being changed serves a local development only."

Sounds like the proposed Pabst Farms mall interchange to me, as the plan all along was to add an interchange off I-94 to serve the so-far non-existent shopping mall.

The interchange construction plan calls for replacing a nearby off-ramp that does not provide service in both directions, and which certainly does not serve the mall property, with a full "diamond-interchange" that will provide access to the mall from both directions off I-94.

The mall site at the so-called Pabst Farms Town Centre takes up 184 acres of a total of 1,600 in the overall development - - so big, that when finished, and its 1,500 units of housing are built-out, it could double the population of Oconomowoc.

Other criteria in the transportation project manual call for different cost distribution percentages - - a local share of 25%, according to Section 4.3.1 Add Additional Travel Lanes, for example, "if the project adds additional travel lanes and meets the "significant local traffic criteria" - - and WisDOT has the authority to negotiate the shares, manual section says.

Is the new interchange, and pavement from the interstate to the parking lots for shoppers, a travel lane?

Essentially the interchange is being rushed into planning because the mall, if one is to be built, can't open without access off I-94, and no one budgeted for the interchange until some crisis meetings earlier in the fall.

So much for coordinating use planning with transportation decisions - - a stated goal of the local cost sharing process in the WisDot manual, by the way.

So someone or a group did address and answer some of the these questions when it was decided that a local share of about 84%-7%-7%-1.6 %were required - - but by whom, and why, and how was the decision made to keep the local shares so low - - in Oconomowoc's case, 1.6%, though the mall goes in the heart of that city's largest development ever?

Is it that fair to state taxpayers in Ashland, or Boscobel, or Racine, for whom the benefits of the mall are much farther from the developer's bottom line, the City of Oconomowoc, and other parts of Waukesha County?

How about some sunlight on the process and decision-making that gave the locals such a sweetheart deal.

How about someone looking out for the taxpayers?

Again, let's bring in the investigators.

And let's have the answers out on the table before the next, rumored developer waltzes in and picks off such a preferential arrangement.

CASH Update On Freeways Is So Newsy That I'm Posting The Entire Thing

Where else but from CASH, Citizens Allied For Sane Highways, will you read a complete analysis of the outrage that is unfolding in what is called the North-South I-94 leg of the regional freeway system's rebuilding and expansion project?

The North-South project, from Milwaukee to the Illinois line, will eat up $1.9 billion of unfunded obligations...cause losses of homes and wetlands...pollute the air close to schools...using incomplete analyses, and well...you name it, the transportation department wants to do it.

Here is the CASH analysis, and the details about how to comment or attend a hearing:

CASH update for November 2007

Keep up with the news at our new blog: http://citizensalliedforsanehighways.blogspot.com/

Dear CASH members and friends,
The Wisconsin Department of Transportation is accepting comments on its unfunded $1.9 billion proposal to rebuild and expand North-South I-94 from the Illinois/Wisconsin state line to about Holt Ave. and I-894 from I-94 to about 35th St.

There will be public hearings and meetings as listed below, or you can send written comments by calling the project hotline at (262) 548-8721; e-mailing WisDOT at dotsefreeways94nsc@dot.state.wi.us; faxing letters to 262-548-5662; or sending them to WisDOT: Attention Bob Gutierrez at PO Box 798 Waukesha, WI 53187-0798.

Hearing schedule:

Oak Creek/Franklin Dec. 3, 4 p.m. - 8 p.m. West Middle School 8401 13th St. Oak Creek Bus Routes: #15, #48
Kenosha Area Dec. 6, 5 p.m. -8 p.m. Mahone Middle School 6900 60th St. Kenosha Bus Routes: #6, #3 North, #3 West, #5 South
Racine Area Dec. 11, 5 p.m. -8 p.m. CATI Center 2320 Renaissance Blvd. Sturtevant Bus Route: #27
Milwaukee Dec. 12, 4 p.m. - 8 p.m. Best Western Airport 5105 S. Howell Ave. Milwaukee Bus Routes: #80, #11

The 367-page draft environmental impact statement was released on Nov. 16, the same day the public comment period opened. That also happened to be the Friday before Thanksgiving week, the kickoff to the holiday season.

The public comment period closes on Dec. 31, New Year's Eve, the close to the holiday season. It is unfortunate that the beginning and the end of the comment period coincides precisely with the beginning and end of the busy, distracting holiday season. It would be nice to believe that is just a coincidence.

In announcing that WisDOT was indeed going to propose to expand the freeway, Secretary Frank Busalacchi also said that construction on the Mitchell Interchange would begin in 2009, rather than in 2011 or 2012 as agency representatives repeatedly assured area residents during numerous public meetings.

Busalacchi said he wanted to be sure that Mitchell Interchange reconstruction and the rebuilding and possible expansion of the Zoo Interchange (another project for which the state does not have the money) did not occur at the same time.

It is not surprising, but it is disappointing, that Busalacchi was more concerned with politically-driven construction schedules than with keeping faith with Milwaukee residents.

There are many reasons to oppose the North-South I-94 WisDOT expansion proposal.
We've compiled some of them for you.

WisDOT’s $1.9 billion cost estimate for the project includes a 3% annual inflation adjustment. Based on recent history, this is unrealistically low. The American Road & Transportation Builders Association reported in October that the cost of highway and street construction materials was up 6% from September 2006 to September 2007.

"Over the last three years, annual highway and street construction material prices have increased nearly 32 percent," the association said.
The environmental justice analysis is inadequate at best.

The study suggests that minorities would benefit from the project because “the study-area freeway system connects Chicago to Milwaukee, both of which are ‘minority majority’ communities.”

The reader can only guess at the supposed relevance of that.

The study does not discuss how many minorities actually travel between those cities using the freeway, nor does it mention the scores of majority-white communities connected by North-South I-94. The EIS does not include available documentation regarding work commuting patterns, which would shed substantial light on the issues of who benefits from the expansion proposal and who does not.

There is no funding plan for the project.

Busalacchi said in announcing the plan that work will continue “to identify the funds needed to complete the project." The source of funds needs to be identified before the state commits to such enormous expenditures.

State residents have a right to know how this will affect their taxes and transportation fees and the state’s financial outlook. They also have a right to know how a project that will absorb so many resources will affect other needed road and highway projects in the state.

While state officials have said publicly several times that the Federal Highway Trust Fund could provide a significant share of the money for the project, that fund is projected to have a negative balance by 2009. We reported on this in March.

http://www.storyhill.net/IssuesFreeway65.htm and in June http://www.storyhill.net/IssuesFreeway67.htm

The project would drain money desperately needed for mass transit in the Milwaukee region. The EIS discusses the state’s past contributions to transit systems, but does not directly address how this massive project would affect future transit funding.

The EIS does not include adequate protections for students and staff at schools near the Interstate. Numerous studies show that traffic-generated particulates and pollution have adverse affects on health, particularly among children.

A recent study shows that students attending schools within 500 meters of a freeway can suffer permanent lung damage.

In Milwaukee, schools within 500 meters of the North-South freeway within the project area include Cooper, Garland, Lowell and Whittier elementary schools; Ronald Wilson Reagan College Preparatory High School, IDEAL Charter School and Professional Learning Institute at the Sholes Educational Complex; St. Roman Parish; and Salam School.

While WisDOT projects decreased pollution, the EIS does not consider the effects of any level of pollution on children’s health. WisDOT maintains only that it is not legally obligated to mitigate air pollution from the freeway.

The project would have negative impacts on many threatened and endangered plant and animal species, including:

Butler’s garter snake
Eastern massasauga rattlesnake
Blanding’s turtle
Bluestem goldenrod
Seaside crowfoot
Reflexed trillium
Smooth black-haw
Alkali bulrush

53 to 56 acres of wetlands would be affected. Of the 128 wetlands that would be affected, 53 are in Milwaukee County, 28 are in Racine County, 39 are in Kenosha County and eight are in Lake County.

The loss of an additional 26 acres is anticipated to accommodate reconstruction of I-94 interchanges in Racine and Kenosha counties. Mitigation plans are insufficiently addressed in the EIS.

The EIS does not analyze or discuss potential light pollution from the project.

This is a significant omission because homes and businesses – particularly those in Milwaukee -- would be nearer to the freeway.


The EIS states that the preferred expansion alternative would increase impermeable surface associated with the freeway by 25% throughout the project area and about 50% in Milwaukee County.

The EIS does not include plans to mitigate potential flooding and includes insufficient information about planned efforts to reduce polluted runoff from the freeway.

The document suggests that WisDOT will rely on grass ditches in Milwaukee County to cleanse the runoff. (We do wonder how large a grassy ditch would have to be to cleanse the runoff from an expanded Mitchell interchange.)

The EIS is silent on the impact of oil prices on construction costs, and is silent on the impact of oil prices on how much people drive.
You can read the EIS for yourself. It is at:

http://www.dot.wisconsin.gov/projects/d2/i94/eis.htm

Milwaukee Ald. Robert Bauman is pushing for an alternative to freeway expansion. He introduced a resolution that calling for the state, instead of spending $200 million or more on making North-South I-94 wider, to use that money to fund the Kenosha-Racine-Milwaukee commuter rail extension and high-speed rail.

The Common Council’s Public Works Committee and the Council itself are expected to vote on the resolution in December. There is a story posted on the proposal at:

http://www.storyhill.net/Printer%20Friendly/PrinterI94BaumanResolution11_26_07.htm

The Public Works Committee held a hearing on the matter in November and representatives of CASH, the ACLU, the Good Jobs and Livable Neighborhoods Coalition, the Sierra Club and others spoke in support of the proposal.

Bauman’s proposal is picking up sponsors. Originally, Ald. Michael D'Amato asked to be a cosponsor. He has since been joined by Aldermen Robert Donovan, Willie Wade and Michael Murphy. Mayor Tom Barrett's administration also supports the proposal.

While the state charges ahead with plans to expand the freeway, County Public Works Director George Torres warned that the Milwaukee County Transit System needs a lot of help immediately.

“We are on life support right now and we have to find a solution sooner rather than later," he said during a recent Regional Transit Authority meeting. “Two years out might be too late." (See a posting at:

http://citizensalliedforsanehighways.blogspot.com/2007/11/rtas-funding-delay-and-life-support-for.html)

The good news is that the RTA decided by consensus of its members that it must pay more attention to the issue of transit support instead of simply concerning itself with funding for the KRM commuter rail extension.

As always, we are sending this update to one person in each member group, and relying on that person to pass it on. If other members of any group would like to be included on our mailing list, we will be happy to do that. Just let us know.

We are more than willing to talk to any group interested. Please feel free to request an in-person update or to ask us to speak with your group. You can contact me at 414-331-0724; CASH co-chair Bob Trimmier 414-232-6317; or both of us at noexpansion@yahoo.com.

Thanks.
Gretchen Schuldt
Co-chair
Citizens Allied for Sane Highways

Fatal Pipeline Explosion, Oil Spills, Raise Questions About Murphy Oil's Superior, WI Expansion

As Murphy Oil Co. inches closer to submitting permit applications to add a pipeline and multiply its refining capacity at its Superior, WI refinery more than six-fold, accidents in the region's growing supply chain raise fresh questions about the wisdom of the Superior plan.

The Murphy Oil complex will be expanded on wetlands that drain into nearby Lake Superior - - to date, the cleanest of the five Great Lakes.

State Capitol sources have said the projected wetlands filling sought by the company will be, at between 400-500 acres, the largest in Wisconsin since the 1972 adoption of the US Clean Water Act.

There is also a Great Lakes basin refining expansion by British Petroleum on the books in Northern Indiana, so it seems but a matter of time before oil spills pollute what is the largest supply of fresh surface water on the planet.

The Murphy and BP refinery expansions will handle Canadian crude oil from tar sands - - an extremely expensive, water-dependent and environmentally-destructive oil recovery process.

New MPG Standards Will Save Huge Amounts Of Oil

New vehicle fuel efficiency standards agreed to by Congress will help conserve oil, though the US will still lag behind many other industrialized nations.

Congress can also ease the sting if new technologies raise vehicle costs by extending tax credits, though I suspect that competition will help lower potential price increases.

So Congress is actually poised to do something. A good sign.

Progressive County Board Candidate Launches Website Early

Nice use of them Internets, Jason Haas!

TV 'News' Broadcasts Panic Viewers Over Normal Winter Weather

So the stores are swamped today, with people buying provisions as if The Storm Of The Century is arriving.

I blame local television so-called news shows, which yesterday delivered ominous weather warnings every few minutes during their programming.

It's December. We live in Wisconsin. Snow and sleet are normal elements of winter weather here, and the amounts being forecast are modest.

And the stations will do this all winter long, switching to World-Ending thunderstorm hype in the spring and summer.

It's another reason to drop away from local television broadcasting, and utilize the Internet. And your commonsense.

McIlheran Endorses I-94 Tolls - - And Notice They Aren't Called Taxes

When conservatives accuse government of taking money out of our pockets, every fee is called a tax, with fees and taxes being pretty much a bad thing, especially if the fees and taxes are being expanded or are altogether new.

But Patrick McIlheran can endorse putting first-ever Wisconsin tolls on an express lane from Milwaukee to Chicago, and that's not a tax increase.
In fact, it's downright virtuous, he tells us.

Set aside the fact that you can't take federal gas tax money and use it to build a toll road.

Tolls roads in Wisconsin have no political support here because they are too much an Illinois way of doing things.

And because people correctly know that tolls only go up, enriching the builders or lessors - - which more and more - - from Texas to Indiana to the Chicago Skyway - - are foreign-owned.

What's surprising to me in the debate about transportation spending in Wisconsin is how little support there is from conservatives who usually want choices in all things - - goods through free trade, charter and choice schools, open shops without unions, and so forth.

Except when it comes to transportation.

Then it's roads, and more roads and now even toll roads.

So even a conservative like McIheran can dismiss the Milwaukee-Illinois I-94 project costs - - "I'm not complaining about the price, much," he tells us. "It's a huge sum, though at $54 million a mile, it's a bit below what observers say is the going rate," while noting that the federal government, as if it spends free money, is picking up most of the cost of the $810 million Marquette Interchange.

But still - - no trains.

Same for the conservative Deb Jordahl. No trains!

It's an odd thing, this fear of rail on the right - - light rail, commuter rail - - and it's so strong that conservative thinkers are willing to line up with the agendas of the road-builders, a lobby that continues to commandeer a giant share of one-dimensional, government spending that keeps going up and up and up.

For expensive major highways that need maintenance, cleaning, plowing, patrolling and always, inflation-accelerated replacement.

This is the policy in Wisconsin, not suprisingly, a high-tax-and-spending state, but a rail poor one.

Even progressive Indiana is way ahead of us.

Interesting that McInheran has touted building more lanes to Chicago, and opposed adding commuter rail, twice in three days.

Maybe he and others sense that the I-94 project, without the complementary commuter rail line, is losing its appeal.

Maybe $54 million a mile is nothing to sneeze at after all.

And installing commuter rail as a real choice makes sense across political and ideological lines.