On Earth Day, more of Walker's environmental beat-down
[Updated Wednesday] Wisconsin's former Governor Gaylord Nelson - - following in the footsteps of the state's famous conservationists like Aldo Leopold and John Muir - - started Earth Day on April 22, 1970.
Yet forty-five years later, as global warming brings drought, violent storms and heightened appreciation for serious energy and water conservation, our current Gov. Scott Walker - - the favored 2016 presidential candidate of fossil-fuel and environmental de-regulation kingpins like the Koch brothers - - has already initiated or supported in Wisconsin many programs and policies which intentionally undermine Earth Day.
And...the land itself, including:
* Removal of data and focus from state web pages of crucial information about climate change.
* Cuts to recycling.
* New, costly fees and rules on wind and solar power.
* Accelerated tar sand pipeline construction.
* Termination of an Amtrak expansion from Milwaukee to Madison that was part of a federally-funded system to connect Midwest destinations with faster rail.
* Eased approvals for mega-dairies and aerial spraying of manure fertilizer despite downstream, downwind pollution consequences.
* Obstruction of a Milwaukee streetcar system, and heavier support for road-building as transit funding suffers.
* Faster filling of wetlands - - with a bill-signing in front of cheering Realtors.
* Reduction of scientific staffers and fewer pollution investigations and enforcement actions by the DNR.
* Cuts to University of Wisconsin research into renewable power.
* Elimination of citizen participation in certain DNR policy-making, research and permit reviews.
* Cancellation in forest-products rich Wisconsin of a biomass-powered electricity generating station in Madison.
I only embedded a few links above. Putting any of the key words into the blog's search box at the upper left will bring you multiple items from the past few years.
Many of these issues appear in one posting about Walker's record little-known outside of Wisconsin.
Yet forty-five years later, as global warming brings drought, violent storms and heightened appreciation for serious energy and water conservation, our current Gov. Scott Walker - - the favored 2016 presidential candidate of fossil-fuel and environmental de-regulation kingpins like the Koch brothers - - has already initiated or supported in Wisconsin many programs and policies which intentionally undermine Earth Day.
And...the land itself, including:
* Appointments of business-agenda-driven officials to top positions at the Public Service Commission and Department of Natural Resources.
* Cuts to state-managed energy conservation programs for homes and businesses.
* Environmentally-damaging frac sand and open-pit iron ore mining.
* Suspension through 2028 of further state acquisition of forests and open space for public use.
* Removal of data and focus from state web pages of crucial information about climate change.
* Cuts to recycling.
* New, costly fees and rules on wind and solar power.
* Accelerated tar sand pipeline construction.
* Termination of an Amtrak expansion from Milwaukee to Madison that was part of a federally-funded system to connect Midwest destinations with faster rail.
* Eased approvals for mega-dairies and aerial spraying of manure fertilizer despite downstream, downwind pollution consequences.
* Obstruction of a Milwaukee streetcar system, and heavier support for road-building as transit funding suffers.
* Faster filling of wetlands - - with a bill-signing in front of cheering Realtors.
* Reduction of scientific staffers and fewer pollution investigations and enforcement actions by the DNR.
* Cuts to University of Wisconsin research into renewable power.
* Elimination of citizen participation in certain DNR policy-making, research and permit reviews.
* Cancellation in forest-products rich Wisconsin of a biomass-powered electricity generating station in Madison.
I only embedded a few links above. Putting any of the key words into the blog's search box at the upper left will bring you multiple items from the past few years.
Many of these issues appear in one posting about Walker's record little-known outside of Wisconsin.
3 comments:
What good is the environment if out-of-state billionaires can't make billions of dollars off it. Poison, schmoison. The Koch's got a right to earn a profit and if that means the rest of us pay the cleanup, that's how free markets work.
At least Scotty gets it.
Sorry Anon...................that's not how government works and the reason for government is to protect the people from "free market" abuse at the hands of individuals and corporations who put profit before people We are a government of the people, by the people and FOR the people.....not for the free market profit of a few!
Somebody do a quick visual of a tear running down the Earth's cheek--right over Wisconsin.
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