It was a cliffhanger, but Wisconsin legislators finally passed the Sulfide Mining Moratorium Bill largely intact. The Governor may sign the bill any day now, especially if citizens continue their broad support for the bill. The truth is that, in the first round, the Assembly Republicans gutted the bill with an amendment saying an example mine would be environmentally acceptable if it hadn't been penalized for violating an environmental law. The original bill was much stronger, prohibiting mining in sulfide rocks until a similar mine operated elsewhere for at least 10 years without significant environmental damage. It didn't require that laws be broken to prove damage.
Many states have weak regulations and even weaker enforcement.
And in the past there were no laws at all. With this amendment, mining companies needed to find only one old mine not prosecuted for environmental damage, in order to bypass the moratorium and build their Crandon Mine in Wisconsin. The Assembly had been urged not to amend the bill, because that forced it back to the Senate, which had passed the bill overwhelmingly last spring. It was feared Senators would change their minds, since Republicans and Democrats are tied in the Senate again. As expected, it was close.