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The recently formed Wisconsin Senate Select Committee on Mining held three hearings on current mining law. Much of the focus, as Rebecca Kemble reports for the Progressive, was on timelines for the permitting process.
"Republican legislators pushing AB 426 last session claimed that mining companies needed better timelines and more certainty in the permitting process in order to invest in mining activities in Wisconsin," writes Kemble.
Our friends at the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign have been looking into the Cline Group, Florida billionaire Chris Cline's coal mining company that owns Gogebic Taconite and wants to put an open-pit iron mine in northern Wisconsin. Tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions to Scott Walker, Mark Honadel, and other public officials are only part of the story.
Should a Milwaukee mining company be able to sue the government of El Salvador for enforcing its environmental policies and protecting the health of its people? The Midwest Coalition against Lethal Mineral Mining (MCALM) says no! Join their call-in to Milwaukee-based Commerce Group :
Please call the Commerce Group's Milwaukee office phone (414) 462-5310 and tell them to drop the lawsuit against the government of El Salvador. If you can't get through, send them an email at info@commercegroupcorp.com. Contact Al Gedicks - for more information - 608-784-4399.
The Swiss Cabinet announced today a plan to completely phase out the country's use of nuclear power in favor of wind, solar and other renewables. The announcement comes days after an estimated 20,000 people took part in the biggest anti-nuclear protest in Switzerland in 25 years. The recommendation will be debated in parliament, which is expected to make a final decision next month. If approved, Switzerland's five nuclear reactors would go offline between 2019 and 2034 after they reach their average lifespan of 50 years. Switzerland now gets about 40% of its electricity from nuclear power. Full story here...
Former WNPJ Chair Bill Christofferson's article Re-evaluate nuclear energy policy was published in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinal's opinion section on November 16. In the article, he focuses on the current political climate and the push to build new nuclear reactors in Wisconsin, which would require repealing a 25 year old law.
Supporters of new nuclear reactors consider them "a clean alternative," glossing over the concerns associated with storing large amounts of highly dangerous radioactive waste. However, Christofferson argues, "[r]ather than take it on faith that technology will solve the seemingly insoluble problem of waste disposal, leaving the current law in place will provide an incentive to find a solution before new reactors are built to produce more of the high-level waste without knowing how to dispose of it."
How serious is the nuclear disaster in Japan? What do we know about the long-term health impacts of nuclear accidents, from the Chernobyl meltdown? Can nuclear power ever be "safe"? What are the implications for energy policies in Wisconsin and nationally?
On the anniversary of the Three Mile Island disaster, we came together for a discussion with local experts at a Forum in Madison:
Shahla Werner, Ph.D, Director of the Sierra Club - John Muir Chapter
Robert Schuettpelz, Executive Director of Friends of Chernobyl Centers, U.S.
Jo Oyama-Miller, Board President of Madison-Obihiro Sister Cities (Obihiro, Japan)
On Monday, October 1, more than 50 protesters gathered to greet attendees to a Frac Sand conference in Brooklyn Park, MN, a Twin Cities suburb. They included 35 from Winona, right across the Mississippi from Wisconsin, which has had an active frac sand protest movement. Seven protesters were arrested for climbing on top of a charter bus designated to transport conference attendees.
Tornadoes swept through Alabama and put the southeastern United States in a state of emergency last week. Another potential threat from nuclear plants is looming over the area.
A new mining bill very similar to 2012's AB426 was introduced to the state legislature on January 16. This bill, the Penokee Hills Destruction Act, poses a significant threat to Wisconsin's environmental protections and public input for iron mining. A separate mining bill sponsored by Sen. Tim Cullen (D-Janesville) will be introduced next week.
Pam Kleiss, executive director of Physicians for Social Responsibility Wisconsin, a WNPJ member group, writes in the Wisconsin State Journal of her experience as a teacher in Japan. After imagining what life is like there in the wake of an earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster, she concludes:
"Current Wisconsin law contains important safeguards to Wisconsin's public health and ratepayers. We must continue to oppose repeal of these important protections. Concerned citizens must work to improve the safety of the radioactive waste storage pools and operation practices at our Wisconsin reactors.
"Let's hope that key United States policymakers and Wisconsin legislators are paying attention to Fukushima. It is a lesson we don't want to be forced to live through again."
608-250-9240, Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice, 122 State Street, Suite 405A, Madison, WI 53703, Send an email to the office diane@wnpj.org.
WNPJ is a member of the Community Shares of Wisconsin.
