Defender Now that the 2015-‘16 legislative session has ended, it’s time to reflect on how THe environment fared in the state Legislature.
Spring 2016 join us:
While
it’s easy to focus on all the bad proposals offered and the hard-fought battles over what should be commonsense protections, it’s worth remembering how much has been accomplished thanks to the hard work and advocacy by Clean Wisconsin, our partners and our members.
The good
Microbeads ban signed into law
Wisconsin was the seventh state in the nation to pass a law phasing out the manufacture and sale of personal care products containing microbeads, small pieces of plastic added to products like body scrubs and toothpastes. These tiny particles end up in our Great Lakes and waterways where they can threaten ecosystem health and human health. Clean Wisconsin led the efforts in Wisconsin by bringing our scientific knowledge of emerging environmental issues and our policy experience to pass this bill. The multitude of state microbead bans ultimately led the federal government to enact a nationwide ban in late December.
Attempts to roll back groundwater protections fail again For the second session in a row, one of the last actions the Legislature took was to essentially kill a bill that would have rolled back protections for our groundwater resources from the impacts of high-capacity wells. With high-capacity wells causing lakes, rivers and streams to dry up in some areas of the state, this bill would have given “forever” permits for groundwater use to a small group of agricultural interests at the expense of the public’s right to adequate water. While we are pleased that groundwater protections weren’t rolled back further, we are extremely disappointed that the Legislature failed to act on any comprehensive efforts to solve this ongoing water problem, leaving no recourse but continued lawsuits to protect our water rights. We also expect groundwater will be a top focus for the next legislative session.
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Clean Power Plan
TIME TO MOVE FORWARD
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Despite challenges, state should be move ahead with planning By Tyson Cook, Katie Nekola, and Keith Reopelle
In the last Defender, we reported that the D.C. Circuit Court had decided not to stop the Clean Power Plan (CPP) from moving forward (a stay) while it considered the lawsuits challenging the rule. Since then, industries and some states, including Wisconsin, petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court for a stay of the rule until all legal challenges were resolved. In an unprecedented and highly unusual move, the Supreme Court overturned the circuit court ruling and granted the stay. Subsequently, Go. Walker issued an Executive Order prohibiting state employees from doing any compliance planning work related to the Clean Power Plan. Under the EPA rule, states were required to submit plans for
Also in this issue
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Community Solar | Kewaunee Update | Speaking Up for the Great Lakes