Despite the withdrawal of a $1.5 billion northern Wisconsin iron mine proposal after Democrats in the state Senate blocked a mining reform a week ago, Gov. Scott Walker vowed he would “not give up” on mining in Wisconsin in a Tuesday morning radio show appearance.
The governor began his hour-long interview on WTMJ’s “Insight 2012 with Charlie Sykes” Tuesday morning by claiming Democrats sacrificed potential mining jobs to deny Republicans an economy-boosting measure ahead of recall elections.
“This was raw politics,” Walker said. “People were misled … into thinking…[Democrats] really wanted a mine.”
Among other changes to current mining law, the bill would streamline the mining permit application process by lifting some environmental protection laws on mining sites.
While Democrats favored the potential jobs the mine would have created, they blocked the bill because they worried it contained excessive environmental deregulation.
This run-around, according to Walker, sent the wrong signals to mining company Gogebic Taconite, who withdrew their proposal to create the mine last week.
“If you’re the mining company, they’ve [seen] compromise after compromise after compromise,” Walker said. “There’s not a mining company out there in the world that will come into this state…unless the Senate reverses its course, and I hope enough people in the Senate wake up to that realization.”
Walker also expressed his willingness to extend conversations on mining reform at the Capitol with a special session.
“I’ll call a special session, but I’m not doing it for people to do a dog-and-pony show,” Walker said. “I’m doing it if there [are] jobs on the table.”
Sen. Rich Zipperer, R-Pewaukee, scheduled a public hearing Tuesday for both the mining bill and its proposed amendments. The meeting will be held on Monday, March 19.
Gogebic Taconite and Arrowhead Strategies, LLC, their Wisconsin government relations representatives, did not respond to calls made after regular business hours by the time of publication.
