FitzWalkerstan Democracy at Work -- Mining Bill Testimony at Hearing Yesterday [View all]

[mojowork_n]

Last edited Thu Jan 24, 2013, 04:21 PM - Edit history (1)

From the Wisconsin Citizens Media Co-op. They've been very diligent in researching and following up on the Mining Bill:

http://wcmcoop.com/2013/01/24/the-million-dollar-bill/

[div class="excerpt" style="margin-left: 1em; border: 2px solid #6600cc; border-radius: 0.4615em; box-shadow: 6px 6px 6px #999999;"]The corporate influence and biased nature of the proceedings were evident throughout the day. According to Williams’ rules, the bill’s sponsors would be given 10 minutes to speak, and the Department of Natural Resources would be given 5. Everybody else was supposed to restrict their remarks to 2 minutes, with time allowed for committee members to ask a maximum of two questions.

But it was no surprise when the CEO, Chief Engineer and lobbyist for Gogebic Taconite – the company that is proposing to blast a 1,000 foot deep open pit mine 21 miles long and half a mile across at the headwaters of the Bad River near the shores of Lake Superior – took up nearly an hour of the committee’s time. GTac was also allowed to show pictures and graphs – something others were prohibited from doing.

Several hundreds of people had traveled to Madison – many from the extreme northwest part of the state – in order to have their say on the bill, but fewer than 60 got the chance. Advocates for the bill were given pride of place at the beginning of the day... ...Even though this was the only hearing on the bill, two organizations that are major stakeholders in mining permitting processes in Wisconsin were not formally invited to testify. They had to sign up and wait for their two minutes just like everybody else. When her turn came, Rebecca Grasser of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said, “I don’t know if there was some mix up, but we weren’t invited to testify.”

Showing up in support of the bill, The Usual Suspects (AFP, or AFP-affiliates) paid for buses and free lunch (and who knows, maybe pony rides and ice cream) so tensions, crowd levels and police presence were all at unnaturally elevated levels.

...Among the groups supporting the mining bill was the National Rifle Association. The lobbyist for the N.R.A. revealed that the mining company, Gogebic Taconite, had approached the National Rifle Association two years ago with "plans to turn the reclaimed mine site into a long-range shooting facility."

Great.

At least it's refreshing to know that when the mining company's done with scraping off the top soil and turning all the water in the geographic central basin into one humungous vat of battery acid -- creating a post-apocalyptic waste land, in short -- they're acknowledging that all it's going to be good for is a place for gun nuts to go out and play Mad Max shoot-'em-up games. (Extra points for picking off any unwary hikers, or remaining reservation residents.)






Or who knows, maybe by 2018 or 2022, or whenever it is that the mine site begins to be "reclaimed," there will be organized helicopter hunting tours. Donate enough money and you can go on flying/shooting adventures of the North Woods. With Sarah Palin or Ted Nugent or other wonderful folks like that.......