Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumPetty, Fanatical And Vicious - Scott Walker & Company On Environmental Policy & Science
When Wisconsins new state treasurer Matt Adamczyk took office in January, his first act was to order a highly symbolic change in stationery. Adamczyk, a Republican and one of three members of the board that oversees a small public lands agency, felt passionately that Tia Nelson, the agencys executive secretary, should be struck from the letterhead. As soon became clear, his principal objection to Nelson, daughter of former Wisconsin governor and environmentalist-hero Gaylord Nelson, was that in 200708 she had co-chaired a state task force on climate change at the then-governors request. Adamczyk insisted that climate change is not germane to the agencys task of managing timber assets, and that Nelsons activities thus constituted time theft. When he couldnt convince the two other members of the agencys board to remove Nelson from the letterhead, he tried to get her fired. When that motion failed, he moved to silence her. In April the board voted 21 to ban agency staff from working on or discussing climate change while on the clock. The climate censorship at the public lands agency made national headlines.
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has kept his distance from Adamczyk. It is easy to see why: Walker is widely expected to announce a bid for the Republican presidential nomination. And his environmental legacywhich so far has gone largely unexamined in the national presshas reached much farther than anything the board of a tiny public lands agency could accomplish.
Since taking office in 2011 Walker has moved to reduce the role of science in environmental policymaking and to silence discussion of controversial subjects, including climate change, by state employees. And he has presided over a series of controversial rollbacks in environmental protection, including relaxing laws governing iron mining and building on wetlands, in both cases to help specific companies avoid regulatory roadblocks. Among other policy changes, he has also loosened restrictions on phosphorus pollution in state waterways, tried to restrict wind energy development and proposed ending funding for a major renewable energy research program housed at the University of WisconsinMadison.
Most recently Walker has targeted the science and educational corps at the states Department of Natural Resources (DNR), which has responsibility for protecting and managing forests and wildlife, along with air and water quality. In his 201517 budget, released in February, he proposed eliminating a third of the DNRs 58 scientist positions and 60 percent of its 18 environmental educator positions. (The cuts were approved by the state legislatures budget committee in May, and the budget is currently making its way through the legislature.) Walker also attempted to convert the citizen board that sets policy for the DNR to a purely advisory body and proposed a 13-year freeze on the states popular land conservation fundboth changes that lawmakers rejected in the face of intense public objections. Walkers office did not respond to repeated requests for comments for this article. But he and his allies in the Republican-controlled legislature have said that such policy shifts will streamline regulations that they say interfere with business development. Many scientists and environmental advocates as well as some conservative political and business leaders say Walkers actions diminish the role of science in policy decisions and undermine key environmental protections that have long distinguished Wisconsin as a conservation leader.
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Ed. - Much, much more at the link.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-scott-walker-dismantled-wisconsin-s-environmental-legacy/
StevieM
(10,500 posts)The thought of that man in the White House is terrifying.
Ironically, he has been such a bad governor that even if he manages to win the presidency, I still think he will lose Wisconsin.
Bill USA
(6,436 posts)great post! Walker is a real slime-ball.