Is Governor Doyle worse than a Republican when it comes to the environment?
Toxic Jim
By
Rebecca Katers
Many people who care about the environment assume that Governor Jim Doyle is pro-environment because he is a Democrat and Democrats tend to be stronger advocates for environmental protection. Similarly, many environmentalists assume they must “get along” with Doyle because “he’s better than the alternative.”
Are these assumptions accurate? Not in my opinion.
In Governor Doyle’s first year, he has made several environmental decisions that are as bad as, or worse than, those of his Republican predecessors. Indeed, many believe Doyle has seriously weakened Wisconsin’s environmental protections in several ways that Republicans might have dreamed of, but never dared.
Here are just a few examples:
Governor Doyle hired Scott Hassett, a little known lawyer, to head the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, instead of appointing an experienced DNR staffer from within. Hassett has given several speeches and interviews calling for “regulatory streamlining,” using the same inaccurate arguments for deregulation that have been used for years by business lobbyists such as Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC).
The so-called “Job Creation Act,” a drastic Republican bill reducing air pollution controls and deregulating shoreline development, was rushed through the Legislature with Doyle cracking the whip and setting arbitrary deadlines for passage this January. Doyle’s Secretary of Administration, Mark Marotta, a corporate attorney who has no environmental law background, was dispatched to negotiate details with business leaders and Republicans behind closed doors. Doyle deliberately stifled public input in the legislative process, and misled the public about the impact of the law, insisting repeatedly that, “Wisconsin’s standards would not be lowered.”
The truth is that the law lowers the environmental standards for 23 different activities. The very title of the bill is dishonest. The Act seriously damages the Wisconsin Public Trust Doctrine, and places impossible review responsibilities on a DNR already suffering from staff shortages.
In September 2003, Doyle grabbed headlines by pledging, along with Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager, to oppose President Bush's plan to weaken the Clean Air Act, specifically the rules for New Source Review (NSR). Doyle and Lautenschlager joined in a 13-state lawsuit to challenge Bush’s changes because they would weaken air pollution standards for 17,000 power plants and other industrial facilities nationwide. At the same time, however, Doyle directed the DNR to quietly rush forward in proposing and passing new Wisconsin administrative rules to incorporate Bush's NSR changes by May of this year, two years earlier than required by the Bush administration itself.
Doyle is undercutting Wisconsin's lawsuit, and wasting tax dollars and staff time on an effort that may be unnecessary if the lawsuit is successful. (On December 24, a federal appellate court put a stay on one of Bush's NSR rule changes, and other legal rulings are still pending.) According to a DNR analysis, the proposed Wisconsin rule changes sought by Doyle will result in an additional 3,000 tons of air pollution per year in Wisconsin, with each subsequent year adding another 3,000 tons as more permits are reviewed and altered. The cumulative result could be substantial.
Previous Republican administrations were criticized harshly because the DNR’s budget was slashed while other departments, such as Commerce and Transportation, grew. But under Doyle, the DNR budget has been cut severely again, while other programs such as transportation have still been largely untouched.
In 2003, several environmental groups notified Governor Doyle of severe staffing and budget shortfalls in the DNR’s air pollution control program, and in desperation went so far as to file a legal petition with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency charging that the state of Wisconsin was neglecting the program. Governor Doyle’s response was to further cut the air program by $1,085,100 and 11.5 staff positions. Wisconsin used to be a leader in air pollution control, but this has been destroyed with Doyle’s help. (The EPA has now agreed with environmentalists, and is forcing Doyle to improve the air program.)
Governor Doyle also gave strong support to his friends in the utility industry, helping to promote the plan for a gigantic, destructive transmission line across Northwest Wisconsin, against the wishes of thousands of local citizens, conservationists and local governments. He also promoted and signed legislation to “streamline” the permitting process to push through the construction of several new power plants in Wisconsin.
In Northeast Wisconsin we were appalled when, just seven days after taking office in 2003, Governor Doyle rubberstamped the weak Thompson/McCallum PCB “clean-up” plan for the Fox River and Green Bay. Scott Hassett had been appointed as DNR Secretary only a few days prior, but he gave glowing praise to a complex plan he could not yet have read, let alone understood.
The plan Doyle approved will allow the paper industry to use a weak PCB cleanup standard guaranteed to leave the river and bay system unhealthy for many decades into the future even though better technologies exist. At the same time, Governor Doyle is undercutting requirements for compensatory settlements for PCB damages by the paper industry, another continuation of Thompson’s policies. Public rights and public health be damned.
Jim Doyle is no friend of Wisconsin’s environment. He is just a politician. We must hold him accountable for his actions just as we would anyone else.
April 8, 2004
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Rebecca Katers is the executive director of Clean Water Action Council of Northeastern Wisconsin in Green Bay.
