State Assembly, after dark

The Assembly again helps a proposed sand plant with a late-night move.

For a second time in the past month, the Assembly approved a measure in an end-of-the-night vote to give environmental exemptions for a controversial $70 million sand processing development in western Wisconsin under challenge by environmental groups.

The Assembly added an amendment to a bill at the end of Thursday night’s session to benefit Meteor Timber, an Atlanta-based company that is planning to build a sand-processing plant and rail spur near I-94 in Monroe County catering to the frac sand industry.

On Friday, Sen. Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau) said his house might take up the measure to help Meteor when the Senate returns to Madison for floor action, likely the week of April 2.

Meteor, and its plans to develop a sand facility, have divided environmentalists and business groups since 2016.

The plant would be built near I-94 and would ship sand to Texas and other oil-producing states.

Supporters have touted the economic benefits, including the creation of 100 jobs. But environmental groups have challenged a key permit to fill about 16 acres of wetlands.

The legal challenge with the Department of Natural Resources is largely over the impact of filling a rare woodland swamp.

An administrative law judge is reviewing the challenge, which included testimony from a retired employee of the DNR who worked on the case who said staff were ready to dismiss the project but were directed by higherups at the agency to approve it.

Thursday’s amendment — added immediately before a vote on a bill not related to Meteor — would allow the company to move ahead with filling wetlands at the same time the permit is being challenged in a contested case proceeding.

Democrats said they were not made aware of the details of the amendment, and on Friday some began contacting the Assembly clerk to record their vote as no.

“It was a bush league move by Robin Vos and Assembly Republicans,” Minority Leader Rep. Gordon Hintz (DOshkosh) said Friday. Vos is the Assembly speaker.

“It’s incredible how little respect the speaker has for the institution, the legislative process and, really, the people of Wisconsin,” Hintz said.

A spokesman for Vos did not respond to a request to explain Republicans’ action.

Earlier this week, it appeared help for Meteor was dead after the Senate balked at taking up the measure.

On Feb. 22, on the last day the Assembly had been scheduled to be in session, Republicans added the amendment to a different bill.

“This is the worst kind of specialinterest giveaway,” Amber Meyer Smith of Clean Wisconsin said on the most recent vote.

But Nathan Conrad, communications director for the Natural Resource Development Association, a pro-business group, said he was pleased with the Assembly action.

In a statement, he called the move a “great step forward,” aimed at allowing the company to start the project.

“It was a bush league move by Robin Vos and Assembly Republicans. It’s incredible how little respect the speaker has for the institution, the legislative process and, really, the people of Wisconsin.”

Minority Leader Rep. Gordon Hintz (D-Oshkosh)