We've been getting to know Kelly. The DCCC may know nothing about her but all of our friends in Wisconsin are very enthusiastic, especially Chris Larson, the crusading Democratic Minority Leader of the state Senate, who recommended her to us. She's probably getting best known because of her strong economic stands for working families. We were also impressed by her forthright stand on environmental issues. We asked her to introduce herself with a guest post on how environmental issues have impacted people in Ashland. This video from a couple years ago is from her first TV interview ever:
When Is Economic Development A Bad Deal?
-by Kelly Westlund
“Four generations ago, your people were miners and my people were farmers. I’m still working; how about you?”
Last spring at a hearing on a bill designed to diminish Wisconsin’s environmental protection laws, I heard a farmer ask that question, and it’s a good one. When is economic development a bad deal? I think it’s a bad deal when it can’t deliver jobs that will last, and when it’s not safe for people and the environment. It's a bad deal when it leaves communities with fewer resources than if the project had never happened.
Take the Keystone XL proposal. Its supporters call the massive export pipeline a job creator. But when all is said and done, this massive project will create only 35-50 permanent jobs. The point of the pipeline, after all, is automation, which results in a reduced need for workers.
At the same time, it will accelerate development of one of the dirtiest energy sources the fossil fuel industry has to offer. The tar sands oil that would be transported through the Keystone XL pipeline is more toxic and corrosive than standard crude-- it has far more nickel, lead, and sulfur. It’s also thicker than crude, and when it hits water, it sinks. People living on the Kalamazoo River are dealing with the aftermath of the faulty Enbridge pipeline rupture in 2010; it’s a very real danger that outpaces our ability to clean up the damage.
When Gogebic Taconite (G-Tac) came to my town on the south shore of Lake Superior three years ago, they made big promises: good union jobs with family-supporting wages and the assurance that they could operate under existing mining law. But it turned out that Wisconsin’s law incorporated too many environmental protections to make that promise a reality, so G-Tac made significant contributions to a number of Republican candidates who then re-wrote the state’s mining law to gut environmental protections. The new law is so lopsided in favor of the industry that Bill Williams, President of G-Tac (currently charged with environmental crimes in Spain) said that it was like having his Christmas wish list granted by the legislature. (Bonus: G-Tac didn't even bother to get permits for their armed guards.)
Meanwhile, the ore body in question lies at the headwaters of the most significant wetland ecosystem on Lake Superior, upstream from the Bad River Native American reservation. The hydrology of the region is extraordinarily complex, and extracting the low-grade iron ore would require a hole in the landscape over 1,000 feet deep. This is a region that relies on clean water for other economic opportunity-- tourism, outdoor recreation, fishing, agriculture-- and the risk of contaminating the watershed is high.
Our health, our safety, and our democracy are at risk when corporations can buy the laws they want and impose projects that will make huge profits at the expense of communities. Senator Paul Wellstone said “Politics is not just about power and money games. Politics is about the improvement of people’s lives, lessening human suffering, and advancing the cause of peace and justice in our own country and in the world.”
The best way to restore our faith in the political process is by empowering ourselves to change it for the better. That’s why I will fight risky short-sighted projects like the proposed G-Tac mine and the Keystone XL; we deserve real long-term job opportunities, not empty promises.
