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The Assembly's Natural Resources Committee is expected to approve a measure today to ease the regulatory burden on an estimated 1,500 Wisconsin companies, but the bill has been assailed by environmentalists for potentially harming air quality.
Environmentalists also criticized Republicans for pushing through the legislation without adequate public review.
The bill, which proponents say cleans up air regulations from a major 2003 deregulation bill, surfaced late on March 28 and received its only public hearing less than two days later.
The quickness of the legislation caught the Department of Natural Resources by surprise as well. But despite criticism that companies would be freer to pollute, both the DNR and the Doyle administration said they favored the bill.
The air legislation is the latest fight over making pollution regulation more flexible.
Republicans and the Doyle administration say the changes have been made to make it easier on companies to meet pollution standards without compromising air and water quality. But environmentalists say many of the changes go too far and will cut the public out of commenting on expansions or relocations that could bring jobs, but more pollution, too.
Assembly Bill 277 could exempt some companies from obtaining a construction permit, and thus a review of the project by the DNR. The bill also removes the five-year time limit within which some companies with air pollution permits must come back to the DNR for a review.
Another change: If a company challenges a limit on emissions, it doesn't need to comply with the limit until the matter has been resolved.
The changes would not harm air emissions in Wisconsin and would affect about 1,500 companies that are responsible for only about 6% of the state's air emissions, said Mary Jo Kopecky, a deputy administrator for the DNR.
But Melissa Scanlan, an attorney with Midwest Environmental Advocates, said the bill has no language that limits the flexibility to smaller polluters.
Scanlan is also concerned that once an industry receives a blanket permit to upgrade or expand facilities, there will be no chance for the public to comment on a specific project.
Anne Sayers of the Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters complained that the bill is being put to a vote too quickly that only a handful of citizens were able to comment.
But the sponsor of the bill, Rep. Jean L. Hundertmark (R-Town of Clintonville), said the changes are relatively minor and complaints about them ignore the advantages.
"I think what this is going to do is help the DNR streamline its regulatory process," she said. "And it will help business expand and create jobs."