Things Are Breaking Bad For GTAC Mining
You won't find too many people who want their air, water and land filled with cancer-inducing asbestos, but asbestos is what's on people's minds now that the carcinogen has been found on the site GTAC wants to dynamite, excavate, truck and mill in the Bad River watershed for 35 years.
The Bad River Band Chairman says the mining company withheld information.
Local government officials are looking to ban dynamiting there.
To date, the pro-asbestos lobby has yet to weigh in, and we're waiting for Gov. Walker to explain how asbestos will bring jobs and prosperity to Northern Wisconsin.
6 comments:
I anticipate someone saying "I don't mind a little asbestosis if it means I can have a job."
People like the Kochs and Walker LOVE higher unemployment numbers, because it creates an environment where people are desperate enough to feel that way.
Don't forget, if you blow up rock containing asbestos as part of your job, you may be inflicting asbestosis on the neighbors as well as yourself.
Perhaps the presence of asbestos at the Gogebic site explains the State Republican's rush to advance Senate Bill 13 (which limits asbestos victim's rights) out of committee, making it eligible for a vote.
In addition to the release of asbestiform during blasting, you can almost ensure more will be released during the pelletizing process.
I'm sure Anon 6.56am got it right when they said it explains the rush to advance Senate Bill 13.
These are sad days in WI.
From mining to wolf hunting, science is trashed. Setting the table for special interest primacy.
Senate Bill 13 is also a payoff to Republican Sugar-Daddies, the Koch brothers:
"When Koch Industries purchased Georgia-Pacific, it inherited a titanic liability regarding asbestos. Georgia-Pacific had used asbestos to make gypsum-based drywall products, and starting in the 1980s the firm became a target for more than 340,000 claims by plaintiffs who said they suffered lung and other diseases, including mesothelioma, a deadly cancer. By 2005, the company was spending $200 million a year and had to build a $1.5 billion reserve fund for asbestos liabilities and defense costs.
In a 2008 Koch Industries publication, General Counsel Mark Holden griped that “many of those claims are an outright abuse of the legal system … that often involve people who are not sick … all because of over-zealous litigators and a legal system that gives them perverse incentives.”
The number of new claims has dropped with tougher federal safety standards. But in the 110th Congress Koch lobbyists still sought to sway members on legislative proposals intending to restrict the use of asbestos and improve public knowledge, even Senate Resolution 462, which called for a “National Asbestos Awareness Week.”"
http://www.publicintegrity.org/2011/04/06/3936/kochs-web-influence
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