Before the Breathing Air Is Gone ...

Wisconsin politicians continue their crusade to endanger your family's health and safety. In October, we reported on the GOP legislators' push to slash training and educational requirements for state-issued professional licenses. In August, Walker signed the so-called REINS Act into law, which allows corrupt politicians to kill critically-needed environmental, safety, and health regulations.

Now, in their latest attempt to make you sicker, Republican legislators are taking a meat cleaver to state air pollution rules. Assembly Bill 587 will repeal any state air pollution standards that go beyond Federal EPA rules.

The Federal standards cover 188 pollutants. That sounds like a lot, but it is only a small fraction of the tens of thousands of hazardous chemicals used or produced in America every day. According to a 2004 Legislative Audit Report, the Wisconsin DNR monitors an additional 293 hazardous air pollutants. If all enforcement of state standards ends, this will constitute a 61% reduction in the number of toxic pollutants monitored in the air you breathe.

The noxious bill has widespread support among the GOP majority. Thirteen Republican Representatives and four State Senators are listed as sponsors. A brief hearing by the Assembly Committee on Federalism and Interstate Relations was held on the bill on November 21. The hearing lasted about an hour and forty-five minutes, with a handful of people testifying. The entire proceedings can be seen on WisconsinEye.

During the hearing, the bill's primary authors, Duey Stroebel (R-Wheezetown) and Jesse Kremer (R-Gasp City), kept repeating that if regulation of a hazardous air pollutant is deemed necessary by DNR scientists, then they could conduct the studies to re-regulate that pollutant. There are three problems with this idea.

First of all, the bill would instantly end state regulation of many state-monitored air pollutants. In order to reinstate a toxic compound on their list, the DNR staff would need to conduct an entirely new set of studies and hearings. This would take a great deal of time, possibly years. During this lengthy process, there would be no monitoring of that air toxin. In the meantime, you might just have to live with the emissions of o-chlorotoluene, dioxins, or hydrogen cyanide in your town.

Secondly, recent budget maneuvering by Walker has led to a much smaller DNR. Department scientists have been especially hard-hit by the staff reductions. A decreased scientific staff will lead to unacceptably long wait periods for reinstatement of noxious compounds on the monitoring list.

Finally, it may simply be politically impossible to reinstate a bad-actor compound on the monitoring list. With the Wisconsin REINS Act now in place, any regulation deemed to cost businesses at least ten million dollars over the entire state must pass through the legislature. If legislative leaders or committee chairs refuse to bring up the regulation for a vote, it will die. Big industry polluters need only "convince" one leadership politician of the righteousness of their cause to kill the DNR monitoring of a hazardous compound.

Wisconsin has long been on the forefront of environmental protection policy. It is sad that our state legislators now want to roll back state rules to the much weaker Federal ones. At the same time, the US EPA is being destroyed from within. The current EPA Administrator, Scott Pruitt, is a man on a mission to weaken the organization. For example, while Oklahoma Attorney General, Pruitt sued the EPA fourteen times.

The organizations that have come-out against AB587 include environmental groups like the Sierra Club, Clean Wisconsin, Inc, and the Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters. As a defender of public health, the American Lung Association is also against the bill.

Who is for the bill? A pack of polluters and polluting-industry advocates, such as the American Petroleum Institute, Wisconsin Energy Group, Inc., Wisconsin Paper Council, and Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC). WMC is certainly getting their money's worth with this legislation. On their website, the business lobbying group states as one of their goals -"...conforming Wisconsin regulations to those of corresponding federal laws like the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act. "

AB 587 is a brazen GOP attempt to roll-back the quality of Wisconsin's air. Anyone who lives, works, or breathes in our state should be angry about this bill. If we permit it to become law, AB587 will allow more air pollution, thereby endangering our health, and lowering our quality of life.

GOP Doesn't Want Qualified Professionals

Republicans have been steadfast in pushing a handful of important agenda items. They want to take healthcare away from Americans. They want to give huge tax breaks to the ultra-rich. They want to lower the income of working-class Americans. They want to slash the environmental and workplace regulations that keep us healthier and safer.

Wisconsin Republicans have been especially effective in achieving the latter two goals. When it comes to slashing people's wages, they succeeded in spades. Act 10, Right-to-Freeload, the end of prevailing wage, and a refusal to increase the minimum wage combined to drastically lower the salaries of Wisconsinites.

State Republicans have also been adept at slashing important regulations that make us safer. They gutted the DNR and killed crucial environmental protections. They made the workplace more dangerous. They axed consumer protections.

A bill relating to the licensing of professional workers is currently being jammed through our state legislature. In a remarkable two-fer, this bill will slash workplace safety protections at the same time that it drives down wages. It's no wonder that GOP politicians are all-in on this dream opportunity.

Senate Bill 288-Assembly Bill 369 authorizes a new, partisan Licensing Review Board charged with examining current requirements for all of the 166 professions that require a license to practice in Wisconsin. The Board will report back to the legislature on which professions they feel a license should no longer be required, and on which ones the requirements should be relaxed.

The professions affected run a broad gamut. Skilled tradesmen such as plumbers, electricians, and elevator inspectors are covered. Health professional such as nurses, radiological technicians, and doctors are covered. Business professional such as architects, accountants, and funeral directors are covered. The complete list can be found on the WI Department of Safety and Professional Services website.

Licensing requirements give us some assurance that people we hire are competent. They let us know that professionals have been trained. They let us know that workers are aware of job-related safety standards. Obtaining a license requires some basic coursework. Maintaining a license requires continuing education and on-the-job experience. Cutting or eliminating license requirements will result in increased danger to workers and consumers.

Cutting or eliminating license requirements will also lower the entry barriers to those fields. Any quack who can afford a website could claim to be an elevator inspector, an acupuncturist, or a dietician. This will both depress the quality of services that we purchase and drop the salaries of people in the affected fields.

Far-right Wisconsin politicians have jumped on the national bandwagon for lower professional licensing standards. Our legislature's bill is almost a word-for-word copy of a model bill from the right-wing ALEC organization.

The list of supporters at an August hearing on the bill reads like a Who's Who of extreme right policy groups. Testifying in support of the bill were two Bradley Foundation-funded organizations, the Wisconsin Institute for Liberty and Law, and the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute. The Koch-funded groups Mercatus Center, the Institute for Justice, and Americans for Prosperity all came-out in support of the bill.

There is absolutely no Democratic support on these radical bills to weaken professional licensing. The Senate bill (SB288) is sponsored by Republican Senators Kapenga, Darling, Tiffany, Nass, Stroebel, and Wanggaard. The Assembly bill (AB369) is sponsored by a cast of 21 Republicans.

A national initiative is underway to slash the licensing requirements for a broad range of professions. The far-right policy groups behind this effort are driven by a blind worship of decreased regulation and lower wages for American workers. The Wisconsin GOP has jumped on the bandwagon and has introduced SB288/AB369 to bring about this radical change in Wisconsin.

If this bill becomes law, Wisconsin residents will see poorer professional workmanship, weakened consumer and worker safety, and lower wages. For the good of the state, we cannot allow that to happen.