Wisconsin Republicans are gearing up to scrap the regulations that protect the state’s air quality—all of them.
Two days before Thanksgiving, the GOP-controlled state Assembly quietly held a public hearing on a bill that would eliminate all of Wisconsin’s air quality regulations, leaving in place only existing federal rules.
Perhaps Republican lawmakers acquired a taste for gutting the state’s environmental protections back in September, when they passed a massive $3 billion incentive package to lure electronics manufacturer Foxconn to Wisconsin. In addition to giving the corporation taxpayer dollars, the package essentially created a separate judicial system for Foxconn alone that’s engineered to hasten and result in pro-business rulings, and it exempted the company from state rules that protect wetlands and waterways.
While Republicans predictably insist that federal air regulations provide sufficient protections for Wisconsinites, environmental advocates in the state point out that federal rules often only apply to extremely large facilities, while state-level regulations are designed to mitigate smaller sources of air pollution. Additionally, these smaller facilities are more likely to be located closer to residential areas than their larger, federally-regulated counterparts.
Unsurprisingly, the bill eliminating state air quality protections is backed by the American Petroleum Institute and the Wisconsin Paper Council, lobbying groups who represent some of the most notorious polluters.
The legislature has yet to vote on the measure, but considering that the GOP majorities in both the Assembly and the Senate have shown no reticence in gutting environmental protections to benefit large corporations under the guise of facilitating “growth,” there’s every reason to expect this bill to become law—and Wisconsinites will suffer for it.