Committee Vote Advances Mining Bill to Assembly
WUWM Milwaukee Public Radio, January 25, 2012 - An Assembly committee advanced a controversial mining bill Tuesday, as critics passionately tried to stop it.
As WUWM’s Ann-Elise Henzl reports, the bill now moves to the full Assembly, with supporters insisting the plan will create hundreds of much-needed jobs.
The proposal would ease the way for the company Gogebic Taconite to develop a huge iron ore mine in far northern Wisconsin.
In order for the firm to break ground, the Republican-led Legislature is pushing to speed the permitting process and change environmental protections for wetlands.
Critics have been vocal in their opposition, including Appleton Democrat Penny Bernard Schaber, during Tuesday’s debate.
“This is a great, big open pit, and I don’t see how we can not impact these rivers that are there that create a tremendously important area for our state, with Lake Superior, commercial fishing, the wild rice beds, and a wide variety of things that will be impacted because if this potential mine,” Bernard Schaber says.
Dozens of people in northern Wisconsin have been speaking out against the project, according to another committee Democrat, Louis Molepske of Stevens Point.
He says the line of people favoring the bill is short – consisting mainly of trade groups and Gogebic Taconite.
“I really think that we should have not just the applicant in support of the legislation, but those that have to live within the mining area for many, many years to come,” Molepske says.
Molepske says some residents have been lobbying to change the bill.
For example, a vocal contingent insists 100 percent of the tax revenue the project generates should remain in the region, to improve the infrastructure and schools.
The jobs committee voted Tuesday to increase local governments’ share from 50 to 60 percent, with the rest going into state coffers.
Project supporter, Delafield Republican Chris Kapenga says the mining company does plan to contribute to infrastructure costs, although the bill does not set out details.
“There’s going to have to be quite a bit of railroad building going on, I guess the tracks aren’t set up right. The mining company is going to be responsible for those costs. Also, there’s going to be a need for a road built to state Highway 77, from what I understand. And the cost of that is actually going to be covered by the mining company, as well,” Kapenga says.
Greendale Republican Jeff Stone says the overriding consideration is jobs.
He believes the bill provides the right balance between environmental protections and job creation.
“As we emerge from a very difficult economy, we need people in the state to have jobs, to work. We heard that overwhelmingly, that the people in Hurley said that they don’t have an economy any more. They need mining, because it will recreate the type of activity that that community has had in the past, that will lead them forward,” Stone says.
The committee approved the Republican proposal on a party-line vote of 9-5.
It’s expected to advance to the full Assembly for a vote Thursday.