If the devil is in the details, then a panel of water experts brought along their horns and pointed tails Friday and took on the task of educating a group of Wisconsin mayors about the progress and sticking points of getting draft legislation on the Great Lakes Water Compact to state legislators.
And if bad journalism metaphors are cash, then I've just become wealthy.
Here's one big "misperception" on the part of a gentleman presumably accurately paraphrased in the article:
Moroney stressed that Wisconsin competes economically with the states that would have veto power over a diversion project here.
"It's the politics that we're worried about," Moroney said. "I don't know if it's wise for our long term," he said of the required unanimous approval.
First, unanimous approval for any new diversion within Wisconsin is already required under federal law. Second, the compact actually defines a process (for better or worse) that could enable such a diversion -- currently that doesn't exist.
But the most fundamental mistake is to think Wisconsin is really competing economically with the other Great Lakes states. We're all in this together. When New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson said recently that states like Wisconsin are "awash in water," he meant the Great Lakes states, not Wisconsin alone. The competition for water is among regions of the U.S.
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