Reopelle: Clean Wisconsin leader shocked by Walker agenda

[undeterred]

3/21/2011 •WisBusiness inteview with Keith Reopelle

Keith Reopelle, senior policy director of Clean Wisconsin, has seen a lot of environmental politics over the years and thought he had prepared himself for GOP Gov. Scott Walker's budget. But Reopelle says he was blindsided by the environmental roll-backs Walker included in his two-year budget plan unveiled on March 1. Walker proposed an end to recycling mandates, reduced phosphorus regulations and the easing of other rules.

“Certainly he is not friendly to the environment, there is no question about that,” Reopelle told WisBusiness.com in a recent interview. “But we didn’t expect this kind of attack on our environmental protections in this state. We didn’t expect that at all.” The budget came after other signals from the Walker administration. Reopelle called Walker’s pre-budget efforts to slow the move to using more renewable energy short-sighted.

“That’s of great concern to us because of his wind-energy moves and also the bio-fuels project at the Charter Street Plant in Madison at the University of Wisconsin,'' Reopelle said. Walker said he wanted more citizen protections in wind-siting rules and that the Charter Street biomass project was too expensive.

The Walker administration also says it supports a clean environment but also says it's necessary to reduce mandates on local governments so they can cope with big revenue sharing cuts. Reopelle says Walker appears to believe he can promote economic growth by trimming environmental rules. But Reopelle said most Wisconsin residents support protecting the state’s resources. “Unfortunately, the governor doesn’t seem to understand that we can have strong environmental protections in place and have a strong economy at the same time. In our mind, those two things go hand in hand. Wisconsin has proved that over the years.

more at: http://www.wispolitics.com/index.iml?Article=230708