Louisiana Lawsuit Echoes Penokee Hills Crisis

Louisiana officials are going to Federal court - - and yes, soak up the Red State vs. Big Guvmint ironies - - to force energy corporations to pay many billions of dollars for destruction of wetlands.

The “unnatural threat” caused by exploration, the lawsuit states, “imperils the region’s ecology and its people’s way of life – in short, its very existence.”

Substitute Northern Wisconsin for Southern Louisiana, iron ore for fossil fuels, the Bad River/Lake Superior watershed for the Mississippi River/Gulf Coast, and barrier island vegetation for wild rice - - and the similarities are to be appreciated, not nit-picked or shelved.

Louisiana officials may be criticized for waiting so long to act, but at least they are doing something affirmative for legacy, land and water preservation - - which is where the official connections to Wisconsin end abruptly.

With new laws, and a disregard for the environment and indigenous culture, Wisconsin officials are now 'imperiling a region's ecology and its people's way of life,' with tribal leaders, activists and their attorneys filling the breech.

Let's hope that years from now, tribal leaders, activists and attorneys do not have to file a last-ditch, Louisiana-style lawsuit to stem the damage and rescue what's left of the Penokee Hills that were excavated, poisoned, filled and abandoned by the mining company and its government enablers.