Sen. Jauch Responds to Mining Bill

March 12, 2013   By Sen. Bob Jauch

[On March 11, 2013 Sen. Bob Jauch (D-Poplar) sent the following letter to his constituents. It is reproduced here in its entirety with permission from Sen. Bob Jauch. -Editors]

Dear Constituent:

November 2012 Senate Mining Committee: l to r: former Sen. Jim Holperin (D-Eagle River), Sen. Dale Schultz (R-Richland Center), Sen. Bob Jauch (D-Poplar), Sen. Tim Cullen (D-Janesville), Sen. Glenn Grothmann (R-West Bend, ALEC Education Task Force Member, International Relations Task Force Member)  Photo: Rebecca Kemble

As you are aware the Governor has signed the mining legislation (SB 1) into law following partisan passage in both houses of the legislature last week.

Throughout the process, Republican leaders along with the Governor have falsely claimed that the bill would not reduce environmental standards. However, the day following Senate deliberation of the bill, Senate author Tom Tiffany finally admitted the truth – that his bill would not only allow for “adverse environmental impacts” to occur during mining, but that the bill was written to protect the company in the case of an inevitable lawsuit.

The day the Assembly deliberated and passed the bill, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ran a story that Christopher Cline, the owner of Gogebic Taconite, is dragging his feet to clean up groundwater contamination as his mining operation in Illinois. The situation will soon be referred to the Illinois Attorney General.

As I said during Senate deliberation of this bill, this entire process is a poster child for how a bill should never become law. The bill was written by a West Virginia coal company and modified to please the company. It is a sad day when this company with no roots in Wisconsin can have the power to control Wisconsin Government in an effort to weaken environmental policy, mute the public voice, and shortchange Wisconsin taxpayers.

When it comes to our natural resources, Wisconsin citizens do not seek a Republican or a Democratic law.  They seek a cooperative process that ends up with a responsible law. The passage of this bill represents a major departure from our State’s long tradition of creating environmental policy through bi-partisan consensus. Republicans like former Governor Warren Knowles and Democrats like former Governor Gaylord Nelson understood that our state’s resources were simply too important to be left to partisan politics.

While mining is both controversial and complicated, the public expects their officials to pursue responsible and reasonable solutions that assure balance between job creation and protection of our public interests and to do so in an open and transparent way. In this case, the majority party in the legislature failed to live up to those expectations and the result is a deeply flawed law that will do little more than create jobs for lawyers.

For example, the provision allowing the mining company to fill in navigable streams (up to 2 miles long) and a navigable pond (up 2 acres in size) and mitigate the fill elsewhere is a blatant violation of the Wisconsin Constitution’s Public Trust Doctrine, which states that the waters of the state belong to the people of the state. As soon as a permit is issued that includes filling in navigable water and replacing it somewhere else there will be a constitutional challenge to the new law which could delay consideration of the project for at least 5-7 years.

One of the bill’s sponsors, Rep. Mark Honadel (R-South Milwaukee), a member of ALEC who co-authored 12 bills that reflect ALEC models according to an analysis by the Center for Media and Democracy, chats with Sen. Robert Cowles (R-Green Bay)    Photo: Rebecca Kemble

Even the authors admit that the law will be challenged in court, so it is hard to reconcile their stated goal to streamline a process with a bill loaded up with statutory changes that invite lengthy and costly court delays.

The company also cannot proceed with a project until they receive permits from Federal as well as state authorities. However, the timelines created in this bill are so rigid and unrealistic that it could actually increase the amount of time it takes for a mine to get federal permits. The authors failed to remember that federal agencies and Tribal governments are not bound by state law. So under the guise of establishing certainty, the permitting timelines in the bill will actually create uncertainty.  In fact, spokespersons for the US Army Corps of Engineers have already stated that it is highly doubtful the department can collaborate with the state under these new, rigid timelines.

Despite requests from citizens throughout the state, the authors of the bill refused to hold a hearing on this deeply flawed bill in Northern Wisconsin. It is no surprise that the Republican majority deliberately avoided public hearings in the north because they didn’t want to be publicly confronted by overwhelming opposition. The majority party was never interested in compromise or the common good but rather was intent on pursuing a policy subservient to corporate demands and oblivious to the public interest.

How can they defend new statutory language establishing that it is “absolutely necessary to fill wetlands” by claiming that it is not a change in environmental standards?  They can’t because everyone knows better.  It was just four years ago the Legislature adopted the Great Lakes Water Compact in order to protect our watersheds yet last week they eagerly adopted legislation that jeopardizes the Bad River Watershed.

Rep. Robin Vos (R-Burlington and ALEC State Co-Chair), Sen. Mike Ellis (R-Neenah), Rep. Bill Kramer (R-Waukesha)  Photo: Rebecca Kemble

The Legislature relied upon illusion and perpetuated myths to justify a wholesale weakening of the regulatory process. Publicly they claimed to trust the agency professionals but in reality they pushed for radical changes that prescribe the DNR decision making process, limits the discretion of these officials, and deprives them of the time and tools to make the best decisions.

The authors of the bill weren’t listening to the public, or to the experts on the subject, they were taking orders from the company. Last year Gogebic Taconite President Bill Williams affirmed the role of the company in drafting the bill. He said, “it was if they said, ‘there is a Santa here and it is a Christmas list—what is it you want for Christmas.”

This law offers a sweetheart deal for the mining company and shortchanges the taxpayers. At the request of the company the authors deleted $5 million in pre-payments that the company agreed to pay a year ago. As lawmakers our job is to serve the public. It is not to be Santa Claus to a private company and scrooge to the taxpayers.

Every step of the way the company has held the state hostage and Republican lawmakers have been sacrosanct to the wishes of the company while ignoring the will of a very skeptical public. The rush to push this controversial and poorly written bill has led to a growing public distrust of the company and the legislature. Recent public opinion polls show a dramatic shift in opposition to the bill from a year ago, when the same polls showed the state nearly split on the topic.

Opposition to the law has come in overwhelming numbers from Democrats as well as Republicans. They are not conservatives or liberals but Wisconsinites who are offended by this sell out of Wisconsin values and policies to protect those natural resources that define us and sustain our quality of life.

Water defines our boarders and describes the character of our people. As Gaylord Nelson so eloquently said, “Our economy is a wholly owned subsidiary of the land we walk on, the air we breathe, and the water we drink.”

Soon the company will apply for drilling permits to conduct hydrological tests. Most experts believe that these tests will take at least two years. This is a highly controversial project that will require significant baseline testing to be part of any permit application.

Even though most taconite mine projects take 5 to 7 years or longer to permit, the authors pretend that the new law will lead to construction within three years. While our state regulatory agency will be stifled by this unworkable and irresponsible law, I remain confident that the Federal agencies will assert the proper adult supervision that is necessary to protect our resources and will take much, much longer before making any decisions. Then, the inevitable lawsuits will extend the process for years.

This company must not only comply with federal standards it must find a way to convince investors that this is a viable project on which to spend $16 billion. There are many unanswered questions that have been avoided during the past two years and just as the public recently learned of Mr. Kline’s poor environmental record in Illinois, I expect that there will be many more revelations that may heighten public concern about this project.

I appreciate your interest and intend on keeping in touch with the company, regulatory officials, and local community leaders regarding the process. I will keep you informed.

Thanks again.

Bob Jauch
State Senator

Photo: © Joel Austin