Jobs Plan Failure again: Walker's big bet on Mining...Gone!!!

One of Scott Walker's major jobs plans hinged on the iron Ore mine in northern Wisconsin. The debate was brutal:

jsonoline: The Wisconsin Club for Growth, a conservative advocacy organization, (said this about) Sen. Dale Schultz (R-Richland Center) for his efforts to alter proposed mining regulations: "Let’s get straight to the point: If the opportunity for iron mining, more than a billion dollars in private-sector investment, and thousands of quality jobs in mining, manufacturing, and ancillary businesses that would last for decades, go swirling down the drain in Wisconsin, you can chalk up the entire fiasco to the efforts of one man: State Senator Dale W. Schultz, R (for RINO), Richland Center."Schultz retired, and can't be blamed this time, or anytime. 

But like everything else Walker touches, those jobs never materialized either. Excuse my mixed metaphors, but Walker's pathetic batting average has resulted in a few Hail Mary passes that include right-to-work and doing away with prevailing wages.

And when Gogebic Taconite mining lobbyist Bob Seitz left to become executive assistant on the Public Service Commission, we kind of knew something was terribly wrong.

Gogebic Taconite said Friday afternoon that it was closing its office in Hurley after concluding that the expanse of wetlands at the site made the prospects of constructing a massive iron ore mine unfeasible. "We are not pounding the final nail in the coffin," said Bill Williams, president of the company. "But we don't want to leave false hopes with people up here."

Goodbye to those wildly inaccurate predictions... 

...700 mining jobs ... spinoff employment of more than 2,800, according to the company's economic estimates. 

Even G-Tac couldn't ignore the obvious:

Williams said the forested hillside that runs along Highway 77 contained far more wetlands than the company had anticipated. That posed major problems because wetlands generally must be avoided. 

"But there is probably still a subculture at the DNR, for lack of a better word, that is green," Williams said.

Yuck, "green." Or at least that's the impression I got from the governors office:

Walker's spokeswoman, Laurel Patrick, said in a statement: "It's unfortunate that the federal requirements for mitigating wetlands make it cost-prohibitive for Gogebic.

Yea, too bad Walker isn't president...uh oh.