Oil Companies Support Anti-Climate Research, Documents Show

Oil companies have spent at least $16 million on anti-climate change publications that muddy the scientific and public relations' waters, documents show.

Think Tank Offered $10,000 Fee For Climate Change Debunking

The American Enterprise Institute, a conservative Washington, DC think-tank heavily financed by major US oil companies and other businesses, offered a $10,000 honorarium for publication of a climate change debunking report.

The AEI letter with the offer is here.

In a related development, tobacco companies have been funding anti-climate change materials.

Details collected here.

Stop Buying That Expensive And Wasteful Bottled Water

The New York Times provided an excellent editorial a few days ago that laid out the case against our national obsession with bottled drinking water.

For those of you who missed it, or need a few facts to convince your friends to go back to tap water, here it is.

And Wisconsin legislators need to insert strong language into the state's version of the Great Lakes Compact, which allows unlimited diversion of water out of the region in bottles smaller than 5.7 gallons, to close the bottled water loophole.

That loophole allows Nestle to export millions of gallons of water from the Lake Michigan watershed away from the Great Lakes while leaving behind empty Ice Mountain plastic bottles for communities across the country to landfill.

Newsweek Traces Big Corporate Money Behind Anti-Climate Change 'Science'

Exxon and other big companies have been coordinating a self-serving and deceitful movement to create doubt about climate change and global warming.

Newsweek published a cover story to unmask the effort.

See the most recent post's anonymous comment, below, for the effects of that industry-sponsored movement.

Six Miners Trapped In His Utah Mine: Owner Rips Environmentalists Over Global Warming

The Utah coal mine owner who's got six of his employees trapped 1,500 feet underground in a cave-in uses a news conference at the site to go off on environmentalists concerned about global warming.

I figure this "first-things-first" performance - - and a separate denunciation of AP and Fox News for false reporting - - will win him the 2007 Coal Operator of The Year award, for sure.

SEWRPC Backs Away From Power Grab

This blog reported Monday that the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission had sent state officials a proposal to essentially assume all water policy planning power in the region - - and have the Wisconsin Department of natural Resources pay SEWRPC $1.5-$2 million annually to manage the planning and cut other agencies and groups out of the process.

Sunlight and objections from some other parties hurt, apparently:

On Tuesday, SEWRPC sent around a notice that withdrew what is called the "governance" piece of this policy-making approach - - the piece that would have put SEWRPC in charge, even though others want policy-making in the region to be a shared responsibility by a wide group of public, private, and non-profit groups, as endorsed on May 11th by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

With SEWRPC's track record of enabling sprawl, water over-consumption, freeway expansion and farmland conversion, it's the wrong agency to be allowed to assume water management policy in the watersheds in and near Milwaukee, and across southeastern Wisconsin.

By withdrawing the part of the proposal that deals with whom will be in charge, the region buys time to make better decisions, and to be more inclusive in this fundamental planning environment.

Here is the text of the SEWRPC notice sent to the other parties, and internally at SEWRPC:

"MEMORANDUM

TO: SEWRPC Technical Advisory Committee for the Regional Water Quality Management Plan Update for the Greater Milwaukee Watersheds
FROM: SEWRPC Staff

DATE: August 3, 2007

SUBJECT: CONSIDERATION OF PRELIMINARY DRAFT CHAPTER XI, “PLAN IMPLEMENTATION ,” of SEWRPC Planning Report No. 50 (PR No. 50),A Regional Water Quality Management Plan Update for the Greater Milwaukee Watersheds

We have been asked by the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District (MMSD), one of our partner agencies in this planning effort, to withdraw the subsection of Chapter XI entitled Institutional Frameworks for Implementation of the SEWRPC Regional Water Quality Management Plan Update for the Greater Milwaukee Watersheds and Appendix XI-2 “Consideration of Alternatives to the Recommended Plan Implementation Structure,” from consideration by the Advisory Committee at its meeting on August 7, 2007.

The MMSD has suggested, and the SEWRPC staff agrees, that a thorough discussion of the issues raised in that subsection and appendix should be undertaken by the Oversight Committee which was established to review and coordinate issues related to the SEWRPC regional water quality management plan update (208 plan) and the MMSD 2020 facilities plan (201 plan). That Committee includes representatives from the MMSD staff, the WDNR, the 201/208 plan consultant team, and the SEWRPC staff.

Therefore the subject chapter subsection and appendix will not be considered at the August 7, 2007, Advisory Committee meeting. Those documents will be brought back to the Advisory Committee at a later date after the issues are addressed by the Oversight Committee. The other portions of Chapter XI, which can be considered independently of the subject subsection, will be reviewed at the August 7th meeting.

* * *

#129966 V1 - RWQMPU PR-50 CH-11 MEMO TO SEWRPC TAC
300-4001
PCE/MGH/pk."

While Lake Superior Falls, Some Smaller Wisconsin Lakes Disappear

Long Lake in Waushara County is pretty much Gone Lake, reports the Journal Sentinel's Meg Jones, as spring-fed lakes dry up in a continuing drought.

Part of the inland lakes' problem, as also noted in news about Lake Superior's falling levels, is that the air temperatures have trended higher, and that leads to later and thinner winter ice.

So more and more water evaporates.

Which is not good for Long Lake, Lake Superior, or the economies that these bodies of water support.

Maybe it will begin to rain and snow more regularly.

Maybe there will be more planning around conservation and less towards building and consumption statewide.

Maybe the blue-ribbon committees meeting in the State Capitol will get overcome short-sighted business and rightist ideological objections and recommend the adoption of a strong Wisconsin bill to endorse and implement the pending Great Lakes Compact.

That eight-state agreement would set up rules and standards to manage the Great Lakes precisely because the entire Great Lakes watershed is under growing and negative pressures.

We'll see if the politicians in our state can connect the dots.

Or are they comfortable reading about dwindling water resources in a state literally created because of its proximity to the Great Lakes and to land naturally-enriched by streams, rivers, lakes and underground supplies left behind by melting glaciers?

Oy, Vey! Tommy Thompson To Visit Jon Stewart!

Save the date: August 20, 2007:

That's the day that Tommy Thompson, presidential candidate and professed admirer of Jewish money-making, meets Comedy Channel's Jon Stewart, a proud Jewish-American who probably earns more money than our former Governor.

Perhaps Tommy will come away with a few stock tips? Or at least not behave like a schmo.

Highway Lobby Seizing Control Of Highway Spending Issue After I-35W Tragedy

Wisconsin activists are allowing the highway lobby to grab the initiative in the wake of the I-35W bridge collapse in Minneapolis, using it as an excuse to call for even bigger transportation budgets rather than pressuring the state to make bridge safety, not new highways, the higher priority.

The issue isn't that a relatively small amount of state transportation funding is now moved from its bloated, major-highway intensive building program to other uses.

It's that the major highway building program is already over funded, starving transit, repairs and maintenance.

Activists groups need to be more outspoken, re-emphasizing the "fix-it-first" philosophy.

Gretchen Schuldt at Milwaukee Rising has the analysis and the data to back it up, and Paul Soglin at Waxing America hasn't missed a beat, but where are the state's progressive, grassroots organizations on these issues?

Tracking AirTran's Promises

I was working on this very sort of compilation, but Steve Jagler at the Small Business Times beat me to it with a better piece than I'd have done.

I still think that wiping out a solid brand name and genuinely special air service so shareholders can become instant investors in generic airline is a loss for Milwaukee.

And renaming the Midwest Convention Center the AirTran Center will demote our downtown's meeting and exhibition facility with the fake-named Petco Parks and Safeco Fields of the country.

Not everyone will know what an AirTran is, or why you'd go to a meeting there unless your air-conditioner went on the fritz.

Four Decades After the Urban Riots: Let's Grow The Suburbs Faster?

The Journal Sentinel's retrospective on the '67 riots and what has followed was well-done. I didn't live in Milwaukee 40 years ago, so I found the reporting valuable.

I wonder if the solution to the poverty that has persisted since then is best found in moving more jobs, housing, highway systems and Lake Michigan water to the suburbs and neighboring cities, villages and towns?

Tommy Thompson Home Page Photos

Maybe it's the lighting, but in some of these pictures and videos, Tommy looks like he's got some kind of 'dark hair on top, white sidewalls/near-Mohawk' hairstyle going.

Here's the full picture album.

Lake Superior's Problems Underscore Need For Great Lakes Stewardship

I used my slot on the Madison Capital Times op-ed pages to describe some of the problems facing Lake Superior.

My goal goes beyond helping to get the word out about Lake Superior's troubles.

I'm arguing that Lake Superior's historic decline should stop those (State Sen. Mary Lazich (R-New Berlin, the Waukesha Chamber of Commerce, the Metropolitan Builders Association, et al) who support eased Lake Michigan diversions before standards and proven conservation policies in the Great Lakes Compact are put in place by the Wisconsin legislature.

Check Great Lakes Water Levels On This Website

More and more stories are cropping up about the drop in Lake Superior's water level.

This US Army Corps of Engineers website allows you to type in several variables, including the year and the lake, among the Great Lakes, to see the patterns for yourself.

Minneapolis Star-Tribune Writer Offers Powerful Bridge Collapse Column

Nick Coleman's piece after the I-35W bridge collapsed speaks many truths, especially to the "no-new-taxes" crowd.

Charlie Sykes Rips County Officials in Pension Scandal, Overlooks The County Executive

Charlie Sykes, the lead conservative AM radio talker at 620 WTMJ - - and, not coincidentally, also the major media creator and protector of County Executive Scott Walker - - has managed to scold all the parties involved in the ongoing county pension scandals - - except Scott Walker, county exec since 2002.

How convenient.

Imagine the coordinated GOP/rightwing radio and blog blitz that would have been launched against Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett - - a Democrat - - if a potential $50 million liability were discovered having festered on his watch.

Nothing could have contained the outrage.

But Walker is a Republican, and the Right does not hold its own accountable, whether it's Scott Walker on the local level, or George Bush nationally.

The Right only has one standard of judgement - - the double standard: Democrats can do nothing right and Republicans can do nothing wrong.

Here's One Really Insightful Comment On The I-35W Bridge Collapse

I excerpted this from a comment on an earlier post of mine about the Minnesota bridge collapse.

"Next to 35W is the 10th Avenue bridge, completed in 1929. On the other side is a railroad bridge completed in 1887. Both are still standing while the collapsed 35W barely lasted 40 years. The Romans invented the keystone arch 2000 years ago and many of their bridges are still standing."

As the commentor asks: why can't an Interstate Highway bridge last more than 40 years?

New SEWRPC Power Grab For Even Wider Regional Water Management

The Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission is at it again.

The result is going to be more sprawl - - endorsed and directed by non-elected officials who spend taxpayers money with virtually no oversight.

If SEWRPC is allowed to seize control of water management policy in southeastern Wisconsin, the taxation without representation that finances and operates SEWRPC will guarantee that sprawl and resource waste will become the region's signature planning outcome.

And efforts at the State Capitol by two working committees to draft comprehensive water policy planning for the state, then codify it in the Great Lakes Compact, will be skewed towards diversions of Lake Michigan water throughout southeastern Wisconsin - - away from water conservation and management - - arranged or blessed by SEWRPC.

That's too much power for a regional planning commission made up of 21 appointed commissioners, none of which represent the City of Milwaukee, which is also the largest municipality in the region and the most likely sought-after source of Lake Michigan water by suburban communities.

What is this all about, this inside baseball being conducted by inter-agency memo?

Read on:

Not content with guiding a regional water supply study that points to an inevitable recommendation to create a new regional, SEWRPC-defined authority that could distribute Lake Michigan water to sprawl-driven communities - - details here - - SEWRPC is now pushing to be in charge of who gets to implement a coordinated water management plan for the Milwaukee-area watersheds - - an area that extends beyond SEWRPC's seven-county region (Milwaukee, Waukesha, Washington, Ozaukee, Kenosha, Racine and Walworth).

The Journal Sentinel had editorially endorsed enthusiastically in May an inclusive planning effort for the watersheds' water quality and treatment plan that involved representatives from several community groups, business leaders, and University scientists.

The Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage Commission, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and SEWRPC would play prominent roles in support of the effort with technical staff and resources from their respective agencies.

And that could work together to meet the goal of better, coordinated water quality management for polluted runoff and traditional, so-called "point" sources, like wastewater runoff in the region.

Not so fast to such an alternative, inclusive planning process, SEWRPC documents show.

SEWRPC has told state officials in a draft document - - SEWRPC Planning Report No. 50, A REGIONAL WATER QUALITY MANAGEMENT PLAN UPDATE FOR THE GREATER MILWAUKEE WATERSHEDS, Chapter XI PLAN IMPLEMENTATION - - that it wants control over the process.

Why:

In part, I am told, because SEWRPC is fed up with public criticism and the involvement of other organizations that the agency feels are on its regional planning turf.

So the import of the recommendation to DNR is:

We're in charge; everyone else can buzz off - - but SEWRPC expects the DNR to get state law changed to get SEWRPC broadened powers, and to pay SEWRPC to do the work, the SEWRPC proposal says, to the tune of $1.5-$2 million annually.

A revenue stream, which, by the way, would cover many SEWRPC operating expenses as the water supply funding dollars wind down.

(The funding proposal comes at p. 138 of the draft document, below:

"Accordingly, it is recommended that the WDNR [Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources] seek increased direct State funding of all continuing area-wide water quality management planning efforts in the State. The amount to be secured for each designated management agency should be based upon an agreed-upon overall work program prepared and approved annually, and should be related to the budget cycle currently followed by the State. Based on recent SEWRPC budgets for water quality planning, the great majority of which has come from the seven-county property tax levy and service contracts, it is estimated that about $1.5 to $2 million would be required to adequately fund continuation of the ongoing SEWRPC water quality planning work along with the expanded program envisioned under the regional water quality plan update implementation recommendation. " )

If approved by the DNR, to which SEWRPC recently delivered it, the same old-boy network of behind-the-scenes SEWRPC planners and their favored consultants - - the same crew that has given the region sprawl, farmland eradication, water over-consumption and overbuilt freeways - - will ultimately control water delivery and treatment options in a huge portion of southern and eastern Wisconsin.

Because whomever controls the water (both supply and treatment) controls development - - much the way railroad control guided development in an earlier era.

From the report's final index is this summary of the powerful, SEWRPC-created agency it envisions:

"A regional water quality authority would be an umbrella organization established to oversee all significant water quality-related activities in a watershed or group of watersheds. Such an authority could raise revenue through taxation, special assessments, sewerage service charges, and issuance of revenue and/or general obligation bonds, or could be funded by the State or the municipalities in the watershed(s)...in addition, the authority could have the power to enact ordinances to control nonpoint sources of water pollution that are generally not currently directly regulated by ordinance, including agricultural sources."

A short Q and A.:

Q. What do you think will be the outcome of that kind of 'planning,' and implementation.

A. More sprawl, and less public input, with the shots being called from SEWRPC's inaccessible Pewaukee headquarters - - an office building, by the way, that it bought in a no-bid purchase from one of its favored contractors, Ruekert & Mielke, the same firm that is managing the ongoing water supply study, and which wrote the New Berlin application for diverted Great Lakes water.

All in all: The DNR and the public is looking at a SEWRPC-power grab, funded by state taxpayers, contained in an obscure SEWRPC planning document, that cuts most groups out of what could and should be a very public and inclusive process.

You gotta admit it: SEWRPC does have nerve, but it has shown that it knows how to work the system to get what it wants.

In order to fully fund the three-year, million-dollar water supply study, it pulled $260,000 in Milwaukee County funds in 2004 out of an obscure, public-private mapping committee's account that is gathered from county deed registration fees.

Kurt Bauer, SEWRPC emeritus director, contractor and chairman of the SEWRPC water supply advisory committee also chaired the mapping committee and supported moving the money to SEWRPC, records show.

So don't underestimate SEWRPC's ability to play the inside, bureaucratic game, especially if funding and budgets are involved.

Final thoughts:

1. The DNR would be crazy to endorse the SEWRPC power play, and if does, the DNR would sacrifice what remains of its credibility in southeastern Wisconsin. The DNR's indifference to air pollution and suburban diversions of Lake Michigan water have left the agency on the thinnest public relations and policy-making ice possible in southeastern Wisconsin.

2. Instead of letting SEWRPC take charge of all water planning in the region, the DNR and regional officials should advise SEWRPC that it needs to better coordinate transportation, land-use, and housing recommendations (SEWRPC has not written a housing plan for the region since 1975).

3. The DNR and all the other organizations with an interest in these issues should work on water management matters together.

Conclusion:

SEWRPC can be at the table, but they should not be put in charge, and the DNR needs to make that crystal-clear.

Bush May Veto Great Lakes Cleanup Funding

Media are reporting that President Bush may veto funding for Great Lakes cleanup and related water quality projects.

Hey, why bother with any domestic spending?

But there's money enough for $12 billion a month for the Iraq and Ahghanistan wars - - which means the Great Lakes and its neighbors can continue to fend off Asian carp and literally eat mercury, ammonia and every other pollutant dumped into the lakes by Bush's corporate allies.

New Progressive Blogger/Veteran Labor Voice Joins The Fray

Check out Roger Bybee's Bread and Roses blog, here.