Wednesday, January 25th, 5:00p, – 7:00pm
BURY THE MINING BILL PROTEST RALLY: at Lady Forward, to of State Street / Capitol Square, Madison, WI — Protest AB-426 aka “The Mining Bill,” and Wetlands Deregulation Bill AB-463. These Bills will deregulate environmental protections and give immunity to mining operations. The bills are also in direct violation of the treaty rights of the tribes whose resources they affect. The bills are themselves illegal.
Details of the proposed Mining Bill: AB426 Summary CleanWisconsin 2011(1)
MADISON, Wis. — A Republican bill designed to kick-start an iron mine in far northwestern Wisconsin could mean additional costs for the state Department of Natural Resources ranging from $550,000 to $3.8 million per year, according to a DNR analysis.
The 183-page bill would make a number of broad changes, including placing time limits on the DNR to approve or deny an iron-mine application. It also caps at $1.1 million the amount that a mining company could be asked to reimburse the DNR for costs associated with the application approval process.
Those factors could lead to higher expenses and lower revenue, the agency found. Continue reading
| Today: Hearing Held on Assembly Mining Bill in Hurley | |
| The Assembly Jobs Committee just announced it will hold an official public hearing on the mining bill, AB 426, Wednesday, January 11th in Hurley at the Hurley Inn beginning at 10:00 AM. | |
| This will be an important opportunity for residents who live near the proposed Gogebic Taconite mine to voice their opposition to this disastrous legislation that would roll back commonsense environmental protections, silence the voice of the public, and eliminate accountability for mining corporations. Learn more about the bill here. Continue reading |
“Hello!
Roscoe and Evelyn Churchill were right. They said from the very beginning that the Flambeau Mine would pollute the water over there, and it has.Now we have a chance to do something about it, and WRPC is asking for your help. Please see the attached letter for details and submit your written comments to the Wisconsin DNR by February 20, 2012.
Taking inspiration from the Occupy Movement, last week a group of doctors and environmental groups in Salt Lake City, Utah announced a law suit against the third largest mining corporation in the world, Rio Tinto, for violating the Clean Air Act in Utah. This is likely the first time ever that physicians have sued industry for harming public health.
Air pollution causes between 1,000 and 2,000 premature deaths every year in Utah. Moreover, medical research in the last ten years has firmly established that air pollution causes the same broad array of diseases well known to result from first and second hand cigarette smoke–strokes, heart attacks, high blood pressure, virtually every kind of lung disease, neurologic diseases like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, loss of intelligence, chromosomal damage, higher rates of diabetes, obesity, adverse birth outcomes and various cancers such as lung cancer, breast cancer and leukemia. Continue reading
| 12/26/2011 12:10:00 PM http://elyecho.com/main.asp?SectionID=2&SubSectionID=2&ArticleID=11748&TM=63988.41 |
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Morse town hall overflows for county mining resolution debate by Tom Coombe & Nick Wognum After several hours of testimony Tuesday in a jam-packed Morse Town Hall, the St. Louis County Board went on record in support of copper-nickel mining in northeastern Minnesota. But the resolution ultimately approved on a 4-3 vote wasn’t as forceful as a measure originally presented the week before by Ely commissioner Mike Forsman. Commissioners instead resolved to support “the existing open, transparent and comprehensive environmental review and permitting process in place” for various copper-nickel mining projects proposed for the region and supports “the success of these projects,” contingent upon the approval of all federal and state environmental permits. A more strongly-worded resolution of support stalled at a Dec. 13 meeting in Duluth, and other county business was put aside for more than seven hours Tuesday, when both supporters and opponents of the measure turned out in full force. As many as 90 people crammed into the Morse Town Hall at times, and dozens more waited outside for a chance to speak or take in the proceedings. After hearing from more than 50 speakers, most from outside the Ely area, commissioners adopted a resolution that Forsman said was tweaked in part to gain the support of commissioner Steve Raukar of Hibbing. Raukar joined Forsman, Virginia area commissioner Steve Nelson and Chris Dalberg of Duluth to form a four-member majority. Continue reading |
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By Judy Fahys
The Salt Lake Tribune http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/mobile/53145614-90/kennecott-pollution-utah-groups.html.csp
First published Dec 19 2011 09:32AM
Environmental groups made good Monday on a promise to sue Kennecott Utah Copper over air pollution.
Utah Moms for Clean Air, Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment, the Sierra Club of Utah and WildEarth Guardians are demanding that the mining giant scale back its operations to pre-2007 levels and pay penalties of about $68 million for violating the Clean Air Act for nearly five years.
Groups Appeal Decision Allowing Dangerous Mine to Move Forward
http://www.yellowdogwatershed.org/blog/2011/12/12/petitioners-appeal-court-decision/
MARQUETTE, MICH. (December 12, 2011) – A coalition of groups is appealing a court decision that has allowed a dangerous mine to proceed in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula—despite the threat the mine poses to water quality, the Great Lakes and one of the region’s last spawning grounds for the coaster brook trout.
The Huron Mountain Club, Keweenaw Bay Indian Community, National Wildlife Federation and Yellow Dog Watershed Preserve filed the motion with the Michigan Court of Appeals over the weekend. The groups are opposing the mine on the grounds that it poses unacceptable risks to water and air quality—and that it could collapse, endangering workers and the river it is underneath.
“This mine is the first to be permitted under Michigan’s new mining law, and we must ensure that the law’s protections of human health and the environment are honored and applied,” said Michelle Halley, attorney for the National Wildlife Federation. “So far, they have not been and that is why we are seeking leave to appeal. Many more mines are in the queue and this is a precedent-setting case.”
The groups are appealing a decision by the Ingham County Circuit Court that allowed international mining company Rio Tinto to start mining activities on Eagle Rock—a site considered sacred to Native Americans.
“It is very important to the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community to protect Eagle Rock as a sacred place,” said Chris Swartz, President, Keweenaw Bay Indian Community, “and we are hopeful that this appeal will result in the Court of Appeals reversing the decisions of the circuit court.”
The type of mine being proposed—in which nickel and copper deposits are extracted from sulfide ores—poses severe risks to the environment. One byproduct of so-called “hard rock” or “sulfide ore” mining is sulfuric acid, which has proven deadly to rivers, streams and wildlife in other parts of the country. Rio Tinto, the company overseeing the project, has broken Clean Water Act laws dozens of times in mines they have controlled in other states.
Now, the Michigan Court of Appeals will decide whether to take the case. There is no date by which the court must make its decision.
“We will continue to put forth our concentrated efforts to ensure that this area remains unharmed and protected for everyone’s enjoyment, not just for special interests,” said Emily Whittaker, executive director of Yellow Dog Watershed Preserve.
Jogging down the stairs at Heathrow Airport to the underground train running to London, I carry in my overnight luggage a small container of wild rice, formal letters from the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community, and a document signed by a hundred faith leaders. My twenty-eight-year-old traveling companion, a local organic farmer, writer and activist, carries in his duffle bag—along with a newly purchased bargain-basement suit—a bottle of homemade maple syrup and seven packets of background information on a controversial proposed sulfide mining project near our homes in Northern Michigan.
It’s April 2008 and we travel with support from a number of Michigan-based nonprofit groups, arriving in England a couple of days early f
or the annual general meeting of one of the world’s largest multinational mining corporations. For twenty years Rio Tinto has been listed as a top choice for investors on the London Stock Exchange. The company also has been documented as being responsible for some of the worst environmental and human rights violations that exist in the modern mining industry. We’re here because they’ll soon be coming, dependent on final government permits, to our neighborhood.
The most important piece of news yesterday, this week, this month, and this year was a new set of statistics released yesterday by the Global Carbon Project. It showed that carbon emissions from our planet had increased 5.9 percent between 2009 and 2010. In fact, it was arguably among the most important pieces of data in the last, oh, three centuries, since according to the New York Times it represented “almost certainly the largest absolute jump in any year since the Industrial Revolution.”
What it means, in climate terms, is that we’ve all but lost the battle to reduce the damage from global warming. The planet has already warmed about a degree Celsius; it’s clearly going to go well past two degrees. It means, in political terms, that the fossil fuel industry has delayed effective action for the 12 years since the Kyoto treaty was signed. It means, in diplomatic terms, that the endless talks underway in Durban should be more important than ever–they should be the focus of a planetary population desperate to figure out how
it’s going to survive the century.
350.org
