Fresh power grant to gerrymandered GOP legislators threatens WI waters

This predictable decision - 

Wisconsin Supreme Court Says Lawmakers Can Intervene In 2 Cases Involving DNR's Authority

- puts the state's water supplies purportedly protected in the constitutionally-created Public Trust Doctrine at grave risk. 

The anti-science Walker and his equally rightist Attorney General Brad Schimel have been voted out of office, but their big business agendas at the people's expense - examples here and here (among many) - are getting fresh life served on a silver platter to gerrymandered and corporately-obeisant GOP legislators by the State Supreme Court.

And because we have known for a long time where those legislators stand, er, bow, I think we can see where this grant of legislative power over water management is likely to lead:

Corporate WI hand-delivers to legislators its water control demands

A pretty stunning memo was sent [in October, 2015] by multiple trade groups and corporate special interests to the State Legislature in advance of today's hearing about the fast-tracked Wisconsin water giveaway bill I wrote about yesterday that puts groundwater and downstream users' access in private hands.

(Hap tip to the Malcontends blog for pulling back the curtain on how bills become law and pointing readers to the memo.)

The bold, hand-delivered memo, its bold-faced language and the weighty array of powerful logos at the top tell the story:

An urgent communication to all Wisconsin legislators 

We are at a crossroads. It is imperative that the legislature assert its authority and bring certainty and sanity to the regulation of new and existing high capacity wells in Wisconsin. 

And..

However, we cannot accept any legislation that would create new, stifling regulations or establish regulatory uncertainty as to how DNR and the state will approach new well applications moving forward. 

Among the coalition's "solutions" - - 

Clarification of the public trust doctrine consistent with the Supreme Court's Rock- Koshkonong decision 

More about that here, but it's clear that what industry wants is primacy over state waters and decisions about who gets it.