Wisconsin Resources Protection Council

September 11, 2015

Dear WRPC Member,

WRPC’s fundraiser was a partial success. Thanks to many generous contributors, we raised $16,000 toward our $20,000 debt from our Clean Water Act lawsuit against Rio Tinto. We still owe $4000 so if you missed our summer fundraiser, your contribution, in whatever amount, can still make a difference.

by Al Gedicks (originally published by Z Magazine)

Two years after Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker signed a controversial Iron Mining Law designed to speed up permitting for a giant open pit iron mine in the Penokee Hills above Lake Superior, Gogebic Taconite (GTac), president Bill Williams pulled the plug on the mine because the project was not feasible. He cited the unexpected extensive wetlands at the mine site and the uncertainty about whether the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) would veto the company’s mine plan, as the EPA had recommended in the case of the Pebble gold and copper mine in Alaska. The EPA said that mine would do irreversible damage to one of the world’s last intact salmon ecosystems of Bristol Bay, Alaska. However, a federal judge has temporarily halted any EPA action pending further legal argument (see “Militarized Mining in Wisconsin,” Z Magazine, October 2013).

Six Wisconsin Ojibwe tribes, led by the Bad River band, asked the EPA to conduct a similar independent review of the environmental effects of GTac’s proposed mine on federally-protected treaty rights and resources before the plan is reviewed by state regulators and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. But the EPA expressly stated that it would not be taking action on the GTac project as it had done in the case of the Pebble mine (“EPA disputes Gogebic fears about mine,” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel 3/7/2015).

Billionaire Chris Cline promises his mine won’t pollute Wisconsin. But his company’s track record mining coal raises doubts.

Life is good for Chris Cline. Forbes ranks him as the 339th wealthiest person in America, with a net worth of $1.9 billion. He owns a 150-acre estate in Beckley, West Virginia and a 34,000 square foot ocean front mansion in Palm Beach, Florida. He also owns the 164-foot luxury yacht he’s dubbed Mine Games, which has five staterooms and a two-person submarine. He dated his neighbor Elin Nordegren, the ex-wife of Tiger Woods, for a year until she called it off mid-2014.

August 13, 2014

Dear WRPC Member,

Six Ojibwe Indian bands, led by Bad River, have asked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to evaluate the environmental effects of Gogebic Taconite’s proposed iron ore mine in northern Wisconsin before the plan is reviewed by state regulators and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Under Section 404 (c) of the Clean Water Act the EPA can initiate a public process to protect treaty rights, aquatic resources, fisheries, wildlife, subsistence and public uses in the Bad River Watershed and western Lake Superior from metallic mining.

One year ago Monday, Gov. Scott Walker signed into law Act 1, the ferrous mining bill that was written by Gogebic Taconite (GTac) and aided by over $1 million in political contributions to Republican legislators.

September 3, 2013

Dear WRPC Member,

More than 100 people spoke out at the August 15, 2013 public hearing in Hurley, Wisconsin on Gogebic Taconite’s (GTac’s) proposed bulk sampling activity in the Penokee Hills. The overwhelming majority of the testimony was against the project, citing concerns about treaty rights, pollution of critical watersheds and GTac’s coverup of the health hazards from asbestiform minerals in the rock to be blasted.

July 3, 2013

Dear WRPC Member,

On June 11^th, Gogebic Taconite (GTac) started exploratory drilling at the first of eight sites in the Penokee Hills despite objections from the Bad River Tribe and local citizens that the impact of drilling was not fully considered before the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources issued a drilling license.

May 2, 2013

Dear WRPC Member,

Gogebic Taconite and their supporters in the legislature succeeded in passing the Bad River Watershed Destruction Act but they are losing the battle for public acceptance of mountaintop removal mining in the Penokee Hills. The financial interests behind the legislation, including the Cline Group and Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, contributed $15.6 million to the Republican-controlled legislature and GOP Governor Scott Walker between 2010 and June 2012, according to the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign. They also found that mining deregulation interests outspent opponents of mining deregulation by 610 to 1.

Tribal leaders, environmentalists and local officials have united to fight a massive mine which could be toxic to a water-rich area known as “Wisconsin’s Everglades.”