CA levies clean air forfeitures against Kohler

Did you see the penalties slapped on the Wisconsin company?

Kohler to Pay $20M Penalty for California Engine Emissions

Kohler Co. has agreed to pay a $20 million civil penalty to resolve allegations that emissions from its small spark-ignition engines violated the Clean Air Act and California law...  

In a separate agreement resolving California-only claims, Kohler will pay an additional $200,000 civil penalty and fund a program that will supply $1.8 million worth of solar-battery generators to low-income residents of California who live in areas where power is shut off to lessen wildfire risk.

This reminds me of something else I'd read recently about the company, information, adverse environmental impacts

Land inside Kohler Andrae State Park the company is seeking to complete a privately-owned planned golf course facility.

and data supplied to the government: 

State judge rejects DNR approval of environmental permit for luxurious Kohler golf course

[But] Administrative Law Judge Mark F. Kaiser said the agency failed to follow state requirements for projects involving wetlands loss, and that the steps taken by Kohler to assuage the losses were inadequate.

The judge also found that in some cases the DNR lacked adequate information involving hydrology and pesticides to grant the permit on the 247-acre parcel. 

WI DNR moving clean water rule packages to the Legislature

We'll see how the GOP-run Wisconsin Legislature and committees reacts to these initiatives which the DNR disclosed by email on Friday:

The Department of Natural Resources has submitted four Administrative Rule packages related to water quality standards to the State Legislature for their review.  The Assembly and Senate committees that each rule was assigned to are shown at the bottom of the rule’s webpage under the “History” section.  If public hearings are scheduled, they will be posted on the Legislature’s calendar at: https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/calendar/rules

• CR 19-014: Bacteria surface water quality criteria relating to updating Wisconsin’s water quality criteria for pathogens, specifically bacteria, to protect recreational uses; and updating related WPDES permit implementation procedures for the revised water quality standards to be consistent with EPA’s recreational water quality criteria.
  https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/code/chr/all/cr_19_014

•  CR 19-094: Waterbody assessments using biological metrics relating to processes for waterbody assessments and impaired waters listing, biological criteria for water quality standards, and biological confirmation of phosphorus impairments.
  https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/code/chr/all/cr_19_094

•  CR 19-093: Establishing a general process for developing site-specific criteria for phosphorus relating to the development of site-specific numeric phosphorus water quality criteria for surface waters. (Note: This rule is separate from the one for the Wisconsin River Basin below.)https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/code/chr/all/cr_19_093

•  CR 19-083: Wisconsin River Basin site-specific criteria for phosphorus relating to site-specific phosphorus water quality criteria for Petenwell Lake located in Wood, Juneau, and Adams counties, Castle Rock Lake located in Adams and Juneau counties, and Lake Wisconsin located in Columbia and Sauk counties.
  https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/code/chr/all/cr_19_083

---------------------------------------------

Dead Brookie, Little Plover River, River Alliance of Wisconsin photo

Evers' DNR revising climate change web pages which Team Walker scrubbed

There is good news to report about the WI DNR and its improving approach to climate change.

You may remember that in December, 2016 I'd noticed that Walker's DNR had stripped data, links and science from the agency's principle climate change page. 

The story went national.

Under Wisconsin’s Walker, a Climate Website Scrubbed of Climate Science

I will post the original web page text, and what Team Walker had replaced it with, below.

But now, progress.

Not long ago, Gov. Evers and the DNR under Secetary Preston Cole announced a climate change task force, and I can report today that Sarah Hoye, a DNR spokeswoman, provided me with this response by email after I noticed the Walker-era sham climate change page was no longer on the agency server:

"We are currently undergoing a major website re-design that will include the roll out of new, easily accessible climate webpages that is coming soon (tentatively set for spring)." 

This upgrade by a more involved and science-based DNR is certainly a timely development, as the planet is warming, the GOP-led legislature and Walker had cut the DNR's budgets and staffing, the state was hit repeatedly in 2017 and '18 with severe flooding, and recent gales pushed an already-rising Lake Michigan - - 

That tree and the shoreline north of Bradford Beach are not supposed to be underwater on a calm Thursday, 1/30

- - and led to this mess on the lakefront this week:

Several miles of the Lake Michigan shoreline in Milwaukee are still littered with downed trees and other debris from violent storms earlier in January. There are numerous downed trees and massive logs washed ashore north from Bradford Beach, above, to the Linnwood Water Treatment Plant, while there was extensive damage in the opposite direction at the South Shore Marina in Bay View.

- - leaving behind sights like this:

All of which makes this language which Team Walker deleted from the DNR's once-informative web page more than merely ironic:

Changes in rain and snowfall patterns (including more frequent and severe storms) could change water flow in streams and rivers and increase stream bank erosion and runoff pollution. 

------------------
In this December, 2016 posting I'd laid out what Walker's DNR staff had done to the climate change information and data which had been on its website for some years:

Here are the full edits the DNR is sneaking through without fanfare to unsuspecting readers on that webpage - - changes caught by a webpage monitoring service.

[12/22 Update. In my haste to write the original post, I left out the obvious: that the changes remove the words "climate and "climate change."] 

Deletions are shown with a black line through them, words which were untouched remain in normal print, and the highlighted wording becomes part of the new text sandwiched together into what appears on what is a heavily-censored page, but without any way for the reader to spot the edits and altered meaning.

The Great Lakes and a changing world Earth´s climate As it has done throughout the centuries, the earth is changinggoing through a change. Human activities that increase heat–trapping ("green house") gases The reasons for this change at this particular time in the earth's long history are the main cause. Earth´s average temperature has increased 1.4 °F since 1850 being debated and researched by academic entities outside the eight warmest years on record have occurred since 1998Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.  

Increasing temperatures have led to changes in rainfall patterns and snow and ice cover. These changes could have severe The effects on of such a change are also being debated but whatever the Great Lakes causes and effects, the plants, wildlife and people who depend on them. While no one can predict exactly what climate change will mean for DNR's responsibility is to manage our Great Lakesstate's natural resources through whatever event presents itself; flood, scientists agree that the following changes are likely if climate change patterns continue. Increased summer and winter temperatures will cause increased evaporationdrought, lower lake water levels and warmer watertornadoes, resulting in reduced habitat for cold water species and a loss of critical wetland areasice/snow or severe heat. Decreased winter ice cover will also contribute  

The DNR staff stands ready to increased evaporation and lower lake water levels which could have severe economic consequences for adapt our valuable shipping industrymanagement strategies in an effort to protect our lakes, lakeshore recreationwaterways, plants, wildlife and coastal businessespeople who depend on them. Changes in rain and snowfall patterns (including more frequent and severe storms) could change water flow in streams and rivers and increase stream bank erosion and runoff pollution. The good news is that we can all work to slow climate change and lessen its effects. To find out For more about climate change and how we can all help, please visit the following links. Wisconsin DNR Climate Change information Global Climate Change Climate Change Wildlife and Wildlands Toolkit [exit DNR] Climate change is mainly on the result research conducted by the University of rising CO 2 levels in Earth´s atmosphere. Check out the most current CO 2 level and what it means: Wisconsin-Madison CO 2 Now [exit DNR] General climate change information and actions we can all take to help (includes a special section for teachers and students): EPA Climate Change [exit DNR] Climate Change and the Great Lakes International Assn. for Great Lakes Research Climate Change The Nelson Institute [exit DNR] Union of Concerned Scientists [exit DNR] Water Sustainability and Climate Change in the Great Lakes Region [exit DNR] (Sea Grant materials) National Wildlife Federation – Great Lakes Report [PDF exit DNR] 

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Readers were left with these insubstantial and obfuscatory few words instead on the page which the Evers' DNR now has under construction:

The Great Lakes and a changing world 

As it has done throughout the centuries, the earth is going through a change. The reasons for this change at this particular time in the earth's long history are being debated and researched by academic entities outside the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. 

The effects of such a change are also being debated but whatever the causes and effects, the DNR's responsibility is to manage our state's natural resources through whatever event presents itself; flood, drought, tornadoes, ice/snow or severe heat. The DNR staff stands ready to adapt our management strategies in an effort to protect our lakes, waterways, plants, wildlife and people who depend on them.

--------------------------------------------------
Missing were references to:known "human activities contributing to a warming planet; warming's contributions to changes in rainfall and snowfall patterns; extreme weather events, drought, species and economic losses as a result - -  among other truths whitewashed off this official, taxpayer-financed website.

Chillingly, this entire line - - with its positive message and a call to action - - was deleted:

The good news is that we can all work to slow climate change and lessen its effects. As are multiple links to climate change resources, many specific to the Great Lakes materials - - despite the title of the page - -

"The Great Lakes and a changing world."

Patagonia joins battle to preserve rare wetlands, habitat, Kohler Andrae State Park

I've been following since 2014 the David vs. Goliath grassroots battle to preserve unique acreage along Lake Michigan in Sheboygan County 

and keep the adjoining Kohler Andrae State Park intact.

The Sierra Club had recently joined the battle.

And I'd put up this post which excerpted the DNR's environmental review which catalogued the project's on-site and extensive damage to the tree canopy, and other harm to wetlands, dunes, bird habitat and other inter-connected resources.

So note and celebrate this good news:

Friends of the Black River Forest, Inc.

P.O. Box 804

Sheboygan, Wisconsin 53082-0804

920-457-0525

www.friendsblackriverforest.org

www.savekohlerandrae.com

501(c)(3) 47-1558895

The Friends of the Black River Forest has received a grant from Patagonia, the outdoor apparel company recognized internationally for its authentic commitment to quality, corporate responsibility, and environmental activism.

The Patagonia grant supports a suite of legal actions

to ensure that the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources applies Wisconsin conservation

law fairly and consistently.

The Friends is a grassroots nonprofit organization created in 2013 after billionaire Herbert Kohler

Jr. announced plans to construct a luxury golf course on 247 acres of Lake Michigan shoreline

north of Kohler-Andrea State Park, one of Wisconsin's most popular state parks. 

The site is characterized by rare intact shoreland forest, threatened and endangered species, and rare

interdunal and ridge and swale wetlands. The development would also eliminate what the Audubon

Society has designated a Tier 4 Important Bird Area and migratory route.

The Kohler Company plans to appropriate an additional 4.7 acres of adjacent state park land for

golf course parking, equipment maintenance sheds, and to store pesticides, herbicides, and fuel.

Along with a separate road easement, 6.47 acres of valuable state park land would be removed

from conservation and recreational use for the public in order to build a private, luxury golf course.

The Friends was founded by Mary Faydash, a retired counselor, and Claudia Bricks, a retired special education teacher.

"Patagonia's support is multiplied because they are bringing our cause to the attention of a

national audience of environmental activists and allies," said Faydash. "At the same time, we're

humbled by the tremendous amount of financial and other support we continue to receive from

our neighbors right here in Wisconsin and particularly in Sheboygan County. Wisconsin residents

are avid outdoor enthusiasts and conservationists, and their support for this cause and for our state

park is stronger than ever."

"To have a company like Patagonia take our side is so affirming," said Bricks. "Our legal challenge to the golf course is exactly the sort of grassroots activism that Patagoniachampions around the world."

The Friends are represented by Christa Westerberg, a partner with Pines Bach LLP in Madison.

Westerberg concentrates her practice on environmental and land use law and open governmental

law.

The main legal cases are as follows:

FBRF January 28, 2020: 

1. The Friends have been able to overturn an improperly issued wetland permit. The Wisconsin

Department of Natural Resources had granted a wetland permit to Kohler to fill and cause

other disturbances to wetlands on both Kohler and state park property on January 17, 2018.

The DNR acknowledged the wetlands are globally rare, are of exceptional quality, and host

rare plants and plant communities. It also acknowledged that the loss of these wetlands would

be irreversible and have high significance, as would other impacts like loss of migratory bird

habitat due to partial deforestation of the site. 

Contrary to state law and, seemingly, DNRs

own findings, the permit was granted. In a first, the DNR said it would accept a $200,000

donation to a wetland program as a condition of the permit. In March 2019, an

Administrative Law Judge agreed with FBRF and reversed the DNR's permit (Case number

DNR 18-0002). Kohler has since challenged that decision in court.

2. The Friends are challenging the transfer and privatization of 6.7 acres of state park land from

DNR to Kohler. Historically, much of the land at issue was appropriated for conservation

purposes by the state under Eminent Domain in the 1960s from the Smyth family. That case

is currently before the Wisconsin Court of Appeals.

3. A number of other legal challenges are keyed to the protection of the groundwater, the

wetlands, and the shores of Lake Michigan as well as the biodiversity of these ecosystems. In

particular, the Friends are challenging the golf course project's incomplete Environmental

Impact Statement and the project's poorly conceived Stormwater Management Plan.

The "Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law, and Order" for Wisconsin Case Number

DNR-18-0002 is available online at

https://doa-dha.wisconsin.gov/Pages/DNRDecisions.aspx

Additional background may be found at http://friendsblackriverforest.org/documents.html

The Friends of the Black River Forest welcomes questions from the media.

Mary Faydash may be contacted at mary.faydash@gmail.com, 708-567-8419.

Claudia Bricks may be contacted at cjbricks@outlook.com, 920-457-0525

FBRF

Let's acknowledge WI GOP leaders' climate change record

The always-readable website Axios on Monday notes the shift in 'thinking' on climate change being forced by events upon Republicans: 

If the world’s political and business leaders are going to seriously move to cut heat-trapping emissions, they first need to pay attention to it. They are starting to now, fueled by unrest from the world’s youth, cheaper renewable energy, more bouts of extreme weather and other evidence of global warming itself....In Washington, congressional Republicans and even President Trump are scrambling to acknowledge the problem after years of denying it — and in some cases mocking it outright.

* GOP Senator Ron Johnson has a long record of science-based precision on the issue. And he points to more than sunspots being the cause of our warning climate. Consider this synthesis of world history, botany and chemistry: 

You may remember that when Johnson attributed a changing climate to sunspots - - memorialized in this post with links to Johnson's comparison of environmental activists to followers of dictators and mass murders like Joseph Stalin - - he also  showed off a deep understanding of botany, chemistry mobility and world history:

"Excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere "gets sucked down by trees and helps the trees grow," said Johnson. Average Earth temperatures were relatively warm during the Middle Ages, Johnson said, and "it's not like there were tons of cars on the road."

And give Johnson credit, again, for the consistency summed up in this 2016 PolitiFact analysis - -

Johnson said: "The climate hasn't warmed in quite a few years. That is proven scientifically." 

He argues that temperatures rose sharply from the 1950s to the 1990s, then leveled off, but it’s wrong to say there hasn’t been warming in many years. In fact, 15 of the 16 warmest years on record have occurred since 2001, with the two highest years being 2014 and 2015. 

We rate Johnson’s statement False.

and in his more recent, bold clarity:

And while young people in Wisconsin and worldwide were demanding climate change action - - and as I noted earlier today - - Wisconsin GOP Senator and Oshkosh plastics magnate Ron "Sunspots" Johnson had a few words of encouragement for people fearing or already experiencing climate change in, say Houston or the Florida Keys: 

* Given that people are telling media that a warming, wetter climate is making it impossible to live in Texas and Florida, Johnson may want to rephrase this glib talking point:

However, elected officials such as Sen. Ron Johnson question climate change fears. 

"The world isn't going to end in a dozen years," Johnson said. "I'm not an alarmist. I would much rather spend our dollars adapting to something that I don't think we can prevent anyway....what can you really do about it?"

Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson Downplays Climate Change

Says ‘mankind has actually flourished in warmer temperatures’

“How many people are moving up toward the Antarctica, or the Arctic?” he asked. “Most people move down to Texas and Florida, where it’s a little bit warmer.”

* And speaking of climate clarity born of confidence, look no farther than the big-picture words and action plan discussed earlier in January, 2020 by Wisconsin GOP Assembly Leader Robin Vos: 

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said Wednesday that climate change is “probably” real but that he’s not sure. 

There is nearly universal consensus among scientists and the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that global warming is real and man-made. 

In addition to questioning whether global warming is happening, Vos, R-Rochester, also denigrated a climate change task force created by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers earlier this month. Vos told WisconsinEye that he believes it was created for political purposes. And he said that if the goal of the group is to “make people on the left feel better about themselves, that’s a nonstarter.”

* But Vos and Johnson are only following in the footsteps of former WI GOP Governor Scott Walker who must be given full credit for setting the Republican leadership's action standard on so many interrelated climate and environmental issues.

For example, while I did pick on him a bit for putting in place a DNR Secretary who scrubbed science and facts from the agency's principal climate change webpage, it's also important to remember that years earlier, Walker had tied together his understanding of environmentalism and climate change so succinctly that even a child could understand it.

Captured in a short video.

And in another short video which has not one, but two shoulder shrugs.

Fast forward to the summer of 2018, when Madison joined other Midwestern communities hit repeatedly by a changing climate's severe flooding.

Props to the weekly newspaper Isthmus for capturing in words and images Walker's passionate and non-partisan commitment to addressing climate change duly noted by citizens and passersby: 

JUDITH DAVIDOFF
Gov. Scott Walker fills a sandbag held by his wife, Tonette, while Tom Kasper holds a sign urging more drastic action. 

Gov. Scott Walker called in the National Guard on Aug. 24 to help Madison and Monona with flood prep. The governor and First Lady Tonette Walker made a rare appearance in Madison the following day to help fill sandbags at Tenney Park....

Tom Kasper, a resident of Elizabeth Street, held a sign behind Walker that accused the governor of staging a photo op while ignoring climate change. 

Another man biked up to Walker to confront him: “Gov. Walker, I want to say that your time and energy would be much better spent enacting policies to counteract climate change rather than shoveling sand into bags. Would you agree?” 

“Glad you’re here. Thanks for watching,” replied Walker. “You can say what you want. You can call me a F-word if you want.” 

“I’m not doing that,” the man countered. “I’m just saying climate change policy would be more effective than shoveling sand. Otherwise, you’ll be out here next year, too.”

Trump lifts wetland protections; Walker, WI GOP got there first

It would be understandable if you've been focused on Trump's threats to our Ukrainian Ambassador whom he demeaned and fired, the Congressman leading the post-impeachment prosecution and the evaporating sanctity of the Constitution to have absorbed his threat to clean water and vital wetlands:

The Trump administration on Thursday signed its long-promised regulation to remove millions of miles of streams and roughly half the country’s wetlands from federal protection, the largest rollback of the Clean Water Act since the modern law was passed in 1972. 

The move delivers a major win for the agriculture, homebuilding, mining, and oil and gas industries, which have for decades sought to shrink the scope of the water law that requires them to obtain permits to discharge pollution into waterways or fill in wetlands, and imposes fines for oil spills into protected waterways.

One of the fictions being promoted by Team Trump is that the environmental impact of the change will be inconsequential because states have their own, separate wetland protection laws.

But some states limit protection to whatever is the federal standard, and in Wisconsin, the environmental vandals whom Trump is modeling with the help of a raft of Walker environmental degraders had already removed some of the barriers protecting state-designated wetlands:

WI GOP legislator touts massive wetland destruction 'reform'

And who might that legislator be?

“This bill is a modest change,” [Tom] Tiffany said.

Three things to keep in mind.

1. Beware Republicans hiding their intentionally-disruptive agendas inside that word "modest." Remember that's what Walker called his little ole "modest" Act 10.

"...these are modest, modest requests," Walker asserted, of proposals that would completely strip public employees of their right to collectively bargain for anything except salaries (and to severely limit their ability to do even this), along with sweeping new rules that will make it difficult for their unions to survive.

2. "Modest" is also how the Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce framed what it hoped [unsuccessfuly, so far] would be the statewide reach of weakened wetland protections it successfully argued for inclusion in the Favors for Foxconn bill.

WMC’s Scott Manley said he hopes the Foxconn exemptions will eventually be applied to all businesses in Wisconsin because current state regulations are unnecessary and burdensome.... 

Manley called the Foxconn exemptions “modest” because they don’t eliminate federal scrutiny. 

* And does this sound modest, or rational to you?

Originally, Republicans had pulled the figure of a million de-regulated state wetlands acres out of their Make Wisconsin Weaker Again hat, so you can see just how arbitrary and science-free is their enabling of the very flooding which realists know - - and which I've been tracking - - is becoming more frequent, intense and dangerous:

Wisconsin landscape flooded with water, dismissal of science, too.

The rains in SE Wisconsin did stop and the flooding from Dane County to Ixonia to Watertown to I-43 in Milwaukee County is receding, but water levels will continue to rise and more rain is in the forecast.

So I wonder: is there a bigger picture to this?, since parts of Wisconsin - - Watertown, 2016, Racine County, 2017, Racine County, 2008, Madison, 2018, historic flooding in NW Wisconsin in 2018 and 2016

 etc.  - - have been hit by rains routinely labeled heavy, historic, worst ever., and so on.

And, yes, it's summer and we get storms, but you're also reading about record-breaking heat and climate change near and far, so you ask, what can the Wisconsin experts tell us?

A lot, as they had said on the Wisconsin DNR's Great Lakes and Climate Change page before Walker's corporate-friendly DNR managers deleted the language: 

Climate Change and Wisconsin´s Great Lakes 

Earth's climate is changing. Human activities that increase heat–trapping ("green house") gases are the main cause. Earth´s average temperature has increased 1.4 °F since 1850 and the eight warmest years on record have occurred since 1998. 

Increasing temperatures have led to changes in rainfall patterns and snow and ice cover. These changes could have severe effects on the Great Lakes and the plants, wildlife and people who depend on them. 

While no one can predict exactly what climate change will mean for our Great Lakes, scientists agree that the following changes are likely if climate change patterns continue. 

• Increased summer and winter temperatures will cause increased evaporation, lower lake water levels and warmer water, resulting in reduced habitat for cold water species and a loss of critical wetland areas.

• Decreased winter ice cover will also contribute to increased evaporation and lower lake water levels which could have severe economic consequences for our valuable shipping industry, lakeshore recreation, and coastal businesses.

• Changes in rain and snowfall patterns (including more frequent and severe storms) could change water flow in streams and rivers and increase stream bank erosion and runoff pollution.

Vos lauds workload for constituents. His numbers; decide for yourself.

Having noted that GOP Assembly Speaker Robin Vos greatly increased his staff at taxpayer expense last year, I'm trying to figure out just what they do.

Look at the numbers Vos just touted: 

However, the most important part of my job is responding to my constituents. In the past year, we’ve had nearly 3,000 constituent contacts, written more than 1,200 direct emails, and awarded 46 legislative citations. I’ve personally made more than 400 phone calls to constituents and welcomed nearly 300 new businesses and more than 500 new families to the area. These are exciting times for Racine County and I couldn’t be more proud to serve as your state representative. I look forward to another productive year ahead and will continue to update you on our progress in moving Wisconsin forward.

* "Nearly 3,000 constituents contacts." That's about eight per day.

* "Written more than 1,200 direct emails." That's less than four per day. (And are there indirect emails? Huh?)

* "I've personally made more than 400 phone calls to constituents...." About one per day.

Please don't quibble with me about the math and that I'm including weekends and holidays as if they were work days. I worked for years in political offices. A lot of work was done on weekends and holidays. Not to mention evenings.

* And "the most important part of my job is responding to constituents."

C'mon, man. Don't you mean this stuff?

...the Capitol staffers Vos added to Republican payrolls after the 2018 elections are now being used at his direction to keep tabs on Evers' appointees and other public employees.

Wisconsin state Assembly Speaker Robin Vos is deploying staffers to closely monitor Gov. Tony Evers’ administration, including the social media accounts of agencies and top appointees, as part of a continued push to counterbalance the Democratic executive. 

Or this January 14th commitment of time?

The really big box that won't build really big screens nearly complete

Props to Bruce Murphy for asking just what's to be built in Foxconn's Mt. Pleasant plant.

Foxconn’s 1 Million Square Feet; Of What?
Despite media claims, new facility unlikely to be a Gen 6 manufacturer. So what will it be?

Well, for one thing: It may occupy a million square feet, and be topped with massive roofing held up by walls perhaps measurable in city blocks - - but it won't have an old-timey sprinking system. 

And, mind you, the Gen 6 plant is already a reduction in scope from the cutting-edge Gen 10.5 plant hyped when the Walker-promoted Foxconn /subsidy/wetland-filling/litigation-shortcutting GOP hoopla and handouts were rolled out.

Perhaps best to consult Don Rumsfeld and his infamously distracting riff about known unknowns, etc., to avoid giving a straight answer during an Iraq War news conference.

I'm on record with a prediction: 

I have long-believed that Foxconn's buildings will be eventually sold and re-purposed for cookie-cutter production and assembly work in the industrial park corridor along I-94 North/South served by overbuilt new interchanges pushed through the Legislature by hometown party Boss Vos, as I wrote in February:

Even if Foxconn disappears, Sprawl King Vos is a winner

WI GOP Assembly Speaker Robin Vos managed in a state without two spare potholes-filling nickels to rub together to steer to and through his district a quarter of a billion federal and state road-and-interchange widening dollars that will trigger sprawl beyond bulldozed Mount Pleasant farms even if Foxconn never diverts a gallon of Lake Michigan water to produce a single big screen LCD TV.

I've been following the Foxconn story for more than 34 months. 

Here is one summary post with more than 370 Foxconn items and many more references and links:

From NBC Nightly News, 7/21/19