WI mining lobby bulking up

The GOP may come out of the November elections in Wisconsin with less influence and control, but one corporate lobby is strengthening its bench and reach right now.

Look for changes to the political landscape, and the land and water, too.

The WI GOP/Walker/Legislative/bulldozer that is enabling wetland gouging, polluting waterways and systematically rolling back environmental rules and protections has added a powerful piece of political machinery promoting high-profile sand mining and potentially-toxifying sulfide metal-mining operations greenlit by Walker and the Legislature last year.

 The Journal Sentinel's Lee Bergquist discloses Monday in a must-read-and-bookmark piece some details about the mining association's goals and structure, including: 

Aquila Resources Inc., of Toronto, is a mining development company with projects in Wisconsin. Aquila supported last year’s law that overturned a moratorium on sulfide mining. The company’s projects include a gold mine in Marathon County now in the exploration stage.

Meteor Timber is a company that needs state approval to build a $70 million sand processing plant and rail spur in western Wisconsin... 

In recent weeks, Meteor has created a stir over of a pair of last-minute amendments by Republicans in the Assembly to exempt the company from requirements in a state wetland permit needed for its project...    

The registered lobbyists for the parent company of Meteor include former Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald, the brother of Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau)...

Aquila Resources is also applying for a permit from Michigan authorities to mine for copper and gold along the Menominee River which forms the border between the two states in the Upper Peninsula.

More information, later.

More of this, too.