Private & Corporate Greed vs Public Good & Neighbors - Why Regulation? Perfect Poster Child

Out-of-sight leads to "out-of-mind" irony!  How has this come to be?  Campaign money in their pocket and a tilted WI Legislature dominated by the GOP clothed in "all regulation (hence government)  is bad" - and bad for business.  As a significant agricultural state more analogies seem appropriate ... "We have had the GOP guarding the chicken coop" far too long.

I have an engineering friend who deals with zoning and regulation all the time.  He is glad to have some government "rules" or he would be building high rises without sprinkler systems - because the customer would want it that way in order to compete with other builders.

These "literal downstream consequences" are so easy to overlook until the stream becomes muddy or the trout disappear.

Perhaps even more ironic ... is the "groundwater" treated as a "free good" ... I only have to pay for the high-capacity well and electricity to operate it ... the water is free even it comes unwillingly from my neighbor. Remember water flows downhill even groundwater ... and campaign money is perhaps more important than the "public good".

 Assembly Lawmakers Debate High Capacity Wells 
"These are not our resources to give," says Representative Chris Taylor while speaking on the Assembly floor on the subject of high capacity wells. "They are our resources to protect for the people of our state and for their children and for their children." On May 2, 2017, author of the bill, Gary Tauchen, explains, "We need to recognize, too, that manufacturing and agriculture are the big job drivers in the state of Wisconsin."

As global groundwater disappears, rice, wheat and other international crops may start to vanish

... and in Wisconsin

WATER usage | HIGH-CAPACITY WELLS

State OKs pumping of 1 billion gallons from vulnerable aquifers

• STEVEN VERBURG sverburg@madison.com
• 
  

Since October, Wisconsin has approved requests from businesses for a billion gallons per month in new groundwater withdrawals from locations where the state’s own experts warned that higher pumping levels could be expected to harm vulnerable lakes, streams and drinking water supplies.

The increase was added by revising dozens of permits for high-capacity wells after regulations were relaxed in June at the urging of business groups and Republicans who control state government.

Meanwhile, the state Assembly is poised for a final vote on removing yet another layer of groundwater protection next month by ending the limited environmental reviews still allowed for certain existing wells. ...

"The Politics of Resentment" = Scott Walker's political rise == rural resentment against the "liberal elite"

WI 1848 Forward: Private & Corporate #Greed vs Public Good & Neighbors - Why #Regulation ? Perfect #GOP #PosterChild

WI 1848 Forward: #GroundWater #Greed vs Public Good & Neighbors - Why #Regulation ? Perfect #GOP #PosterChild

WI 1848 Forward: #GroundWater #Greed vs Public Good & Neighbors - Why #Regulation is needed - kids!