Environmental protection racket

Environmentalist groups demonstrate that sometimes its not the principle, but the shakedown. From the Wisconsin Club for Growth newsletter:

Environmental Extortion

Last week, two environmental advocacy groups, Clean Wisconsin and the Sierra Club, dropped lawsuits they had filed against three gas and electric utilities when the companies agreed to $105 million in improvements to Lake Michigan. The environmental groups had filed lawsuits challenging the utilities’ water cooling system on a new coal-fired plant being built by WE energies, but decided to use the threat of more costly litigation to extort money for costly environmental upgrades instead.

Naturally, the utilities will pass the costs of these improvements on to their rate payers.

Thus, the mob-style extortion is complete – bully someone with a costly nuisance lawsuit, then make them pay up for an unrelated project, all the while sticking it to their customers. And as politicians and businesses continue to capitulate to the environmental movement, the cost of heating and cooling our homes and powering what’s left of Wisconsin’s manufacturing base will continue to increase.

Some people thought the Sopranos ended last year – but it appears their tactics are still alive and well in Wisconsin’s environmental community.