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lac megantic
Masters of Our Domain: Foxconn and State Minions Seize Land
Eminent domain is supposed to support projects for the public good. In Wisconsin, it’s been harnessed instead for private gain
Jan 15, 2019
A government's right of eminent domain is typically used to condemn and buy up property that stands in the way of projects purportedly serving direct public needs, such as roads or large-scale public transit. But in Wisconsin, the rationale has been harnessed at the expense of the public good.
The village of Mt. Pleasant, for example, is using Wisconsin's eminent domain laws to force out homeowners on land coveted by the Taiwanese manufacturer Foxconn for a television and computer-screen plant in southeastern Wisconsin, about twenty miles south of Milwaukee. The nearly four-square-mile project is already slated to receive up to $4.5 billion in state and local subsidies. It will also be exempt from paying taxes due to Wisconsin's existing laws, will benefit from an exemption to smog control regulations (thanks to former EPA chief Scott Pruitt), and the waiving of water quality protections for wetlands and Lake Michigan.
Homeowners in Mt. Pleasant have been forced to sell in heart-wrenching decisions. The home sales worked out particularly badly for Sean McFarlane, a disabled father of four whose story was shared on the podcast "Reply All." When he was forced to leave a home for people with disabilities that his mother had owned, he received a relocation fee of just $22,000. He ended up in temporary lodging with no provision for his wheelchair, and problems with heat and water.
"I told my kids that this would work out," he told the village board in a voice choked in emotion. "The village won't screw you." But McFarlane soon discovered that the village was playing by different rules.
Protections against the misuse of eminent domain are supported both by people on the left, who fear the extension and abuse of corporate power, and those on the right, who champion homeowner rights. In 2006, Wisconsin was one of many states that enacted protective legislation to ensure that eminent domain served the public interest, "prohibiting the use of eminent domain to condemn non-blighted properties to be transferred to another private entity."
Crucial protections against misuse of eminent domain were wiped out when Wisconsin's GOP-dominated legislature inserted an amendment to the 2015-17 state budget.
However, crucial protections were wiped out when Wisconsin's GOP-dominated legislature inserted an amendment to the 2015-17 state budget. The maneuver was expressly designed to give Enbridge Energy, a Canadian oil pipeline company, the power to condemn private property for oil pipeline operations and projects. This authority was previously granted only to private corporations licensed to do business in Wisconsin.
In the Foxconn case, the misuse of eminent domain has been coupled with designating the land surrounding property as a "tax incremental district." This will allow the village of Mount Pleasant and Racine County to dole out $764 million in bonds to aid the project. These will be "repaid" by tax revenue to the city from the project--which it would have had to pay anyway--over next twenty-five years.
The tax incremental district plan, like the distorted use of eminent domain, has spurred citizen outrage. Last summer, Kelly Gallaher, a long-time resident, challenged the village board at a rally last summer--just as a boastful President Trump was conducting a groundbreaking for Foxconn. "Please, do us a favor and spare us the baloney that 'I'm doing this is for the good of the county,'" Gallaher declared. "This is what's good for Foxconn and the $760-million-dollar hole you have dug for us."
The eminent domain doctrine, which some states have modified to protect property owners in recent years, has gained notoriety over the past several decades because of glaring abuses. General Motors and the city of Detroit successfully argued in the early 1980s that eminent domain could be used to justify a new plant that would require the destruction of the tightly-knit and historic Poletown community, inspiring strong resistance. In December 2018, GM announced the plant's permanent closing despite high profits and rising production in Mexico.
The potential abuse of eminent domain was widened by a 2005 U.S. Supreme Court ruling upholding its use for new development in New London, Connecticut, because it would generate new jobs and tax revenue. The chief beneficiary of the decision was the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer. As a result of the ruling, a neighborhood was razed--yet Pfizer closed the plant after just eight years, leaving behind a swath of barren land. Dozens of homes were razed to make room for a hotel, stores, and condominiums--none of which were ever built.
Meanwhile, at Foxconn, there are growing questions over how many production jobs will actually be created and what they will pay relative to those for engineers and other professionals. Also unknown is the planned degree of automation, the plant's product lines, and the actual size of the plant and workforce.
Wisconsin homeowners are also contending with a hazardous "Line 66" oil pipeline sought by Enbridge, which appears intent on using the new, corporate-friendly eminent domain law to expand a line running the length of the state. The pipeline will carry highly volatile oil drawn from Canadian tar sands. An exploding tar sands pipeline in Lac Megantic, Quebec, killed fifty people in a 2013 accident. Seven Wisconsin county boards have passed resolutions against Enbridge and other oil corporations using eminent domain to seize land for building pipelines.
These latest distortions of eminent domain serve as a reminder of the extent to which corporate power can so persuade local and state governments to bend the law to serve private profit over public good.
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More Oil Moving by Rail Now Than at Time of Megantic Disaster
How is it that a preventable tragedy of this magnitude has passed into media and political oblivion—even though the circumstances that led to the crash remain essentially unchanged?
Nov 23, 2018
With Donald Trump attacking the mainstream media, I find myself warming to it as never before -- and thereby losing sight of its many failings.
It gives abundant coverage to celebrities and powerful people, while giving short shrift to issues that threaten the planet, and dropping important stories after a short burst of attention.
I'm reminded of these serious failings after reading Bruce Campbell's magnificent new book, The Lac-Megantic Rail Disaster, which not only vividly captures the horror of the 2013 derailment inferno that killed 47 Quebecers, but also shows how little Ottawa has done to prevent a similar catastrophe from happening again.
"After the 2013 disaster, oil by rail declined for a while, but is now back with a fury -- and is projected to soon reach a level almost three times higher than 2013."
How is it that a preventable tragedy of this magnitude, which received huge coverage and political attention at the time, has passed into media and political oblivion -- even though the circumstances that led to the crash remain essentially unchanged?
As Campbell meticulously documents, the crash of that runaway train, with 72 cars carrying almost 10,000 tons of highly combustible oil, was rooted in dozens of decisions by Canadian political leaders that reduced Ottawa's role in overseeing rail safety -- all in the name of making things easier and more profitable for the rail industry.
Although deregulation mania reached a peak under Stephen Harper's Conservatives, Justin Trudeau's government remains committed to weakening, removing or blocking regulations that annoy business, despite signs of ongoing safety problems. Recent figures from the Transportation Safety Board, for instance, show a 21 per cent average annual increase in runaway trains in the years since the rail disaster.
And let's not forget that train sped through Toronto before crashing in Lac-Megantic. Similar kilometre-long trains, laden with oil, pass directly through the heart of Toronto daily.
The Lac-Megantic fire soared to 1,650 C; water streaming from fire hoses simply evaporated in the intense heat. There were no injured survivors; everyone engulfed in the flames in the little town died. If a derailment like that happened in Toronto, the toll would be in the thousands.
Another key factor leading to the disaster was the enormous boom in transporting oil by rail, which skyrocketed in Canada from 500 carloads in 2009 to an incredible 160,000 carloads in 2013 -- even as the rail safety budget was reduced, notes Campbell.
After the 2013 disaster, oil by rail declined for a while, but is now back with a fury -- and is projected to soon reach a level almost three times higher than 2013, says Campbell.
And, no, the answer isn't more pipelines. The answer, for God's sake, is proper regulation of our railways -- and every other aspect of our economy that requires government oversight to protect us from corporations whose only interest is bottom-line profits.
Above all, the Lac-Megantic tragedy is a story about increasingly aggressive corporations in the era of hedge funds and bare-knuckle profiteering, and about the supine governments that acquiesce to their demands.
We've allowed ourselves to be lulled into believing we're safe. After all, there are government agencies out there with reassuring names like the "Rail Safety Directorate" and the "Transportation of Dangerous Goods Directorate."
But these agencies have been largely stripped of their regulatory muscle, and now operate under political masters who've drunk the Kool-Aid of a new dogma: that corporations should regulate themselves, and that the proper role for government is to "get out of the way."
"Stephen Harper and his government were never held accountable for their reckless cuts and deregulation. Nor were the greedy rail barons who pushed -- and continue to push -- for relaxed safety laws."
That was the foolish thinking that led to the disaster in Walkerton, Ont. A judicial inquiry blamed cutbacks and lax oversight by Mike Harris' Conservative government for seven deaths and 2,300 illnesses from contaminated water. Shortly afterwards, Harris resigned.
In the more serious Lac-Megantic tragedy, there was no public inquiry. Three railway workers were tried for criminal negligence, and acquitted. Outside the courtroom, someone yelled: "It's not them we want."
Stephen Harper and his government were never held accountable for their reckless cuts and deregulation. Nor were the greedy rail barons who pushed -- and continue to push -- for relaxed safety laws.
Five years later, they're scot-free, while 27 children in Lac-Megantic are without parents due to the catastrophe.
Meanwhile, later today, a massive train loaded with highly flammable oil will be barrelling through Toronto. Let's hope our luck holds.
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'Shameless': Trump Repeals Rule Meant to Prevent Oil-Carrying 'Bomb Trains' From Derailing and Exploding
"Apparently there's no limit to the lengths the Trump administration will go to prioritize the desires of polluting industries over the health and safety of the American people."
Sep 25, 2018
In a move that outraged environmentalists and increased the chances of deadly and destructive accidents, the Trump administration's Department of Transportation (DOT) has repealed an Obama-era rule that mandated safety upgrades for "dangerous" oil tanker trains to reduce the possibility of derailments, explosions, and spills.
"This commonsense rule was put in place in response to a series of deadly accidents, and this shameless decision to repeal it will mean more workers and communities are put at risk."
--Kelly Martin, Sierra Club"This commonsense rule was put in place in response to a series of deadly accidents, and this shameless decision to repeal it will mean more workers and communities are put at risk," declared Sierra Club Beyond Dirty Fuels campaign director Kelly Martin.
The rule required trains carrying oil and other flammable materials--sometimes called "bomb trains"--to install electronically controlled pneumatic (ECP) brakes that decrease the likelihood of derailment by 2021.
While it was initially criticized by green groups that said it did not go far enough to protect communities, the Monday reversal was regarded as yet another move by the administration to appease polluters at the expense of the public.
"Apparently there's no limit to the lengths the Trump administration will go," Martin said, "to prioritize the desires of polluting industries over the health and safety of the American people."
The repeal was initially proposed in December of 2017, but finalized by the DOT's Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) on Monday. PHMSA claimed that a congressionally-mandated analysis concluded "that the expected costs of requiring ECP brakes would be significantly higher than the expected benefits of the requirement." The change does not prevent railroads from using ECP brakes but the safety upgrade is no longer mandated.
"The electronically controlled brakes would have been a long-awaited safety improvement," Fred Millar, an independent consultant specializing in chemical safety and transport, toldBuzzFeed News.
By repealing the safety requirement, Millar added, "the cost will be borne by the people who die or are injured or who have terrible property damage."
"About 20 derailments of trains carrying oil and ethanol that have led to spills, fires, and, in some cases, evacuations have occurred since 2010 in the U.S. and Canada," according toFortune.
Perhaps of the most high-profile derailment in recent years occurred in Quebec in 2013. A train carrying crude oil derailed and exploded, destroying the small downtown of Lac-Megantic and killing 47 people. Five years after the tragedy, CBC reported in July, rail safety advocates say the Canadian government also has not done enough to prevent future disasters.
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