Diamond Jim Doyle, Pay For Play? or Don't Look AT Me?

From the Appleton PC.

"Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle's air pollution cleanup policies under scrutiny

By Ryan J. Foley • Associated Press writer • August 24, 2009

MADISON — Weeks after Gov. Jim Doyle won re-election, two top state air regulators discussed how to give "payback" to environmentalists who supported him during the 2006 campaign, according to notes of the conversation." Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle's air pollution cleanup policies under scrutiny | Postcrescent.com | Appleton Post-Crescent

Come on, A little "PAYBACK"?

Department of Natural Resources Air and Waste Division Administrator Al Shea told a colleague the governor "has got to deliver" by reducing pollution at four coal-fired power plants that were a priority of the Sierra Club, according to the notes, which were obtained through an open records request.

Nearly three years later, all four plants are moving to reduce pollution with projects costing more than $400 million in response to state air rules and actions. The governor, the DNR and the Sierra Club all denied those actions were politically motivated and said they were sound public policy.

Doyle spokesman Lee Sensenbrenner said the governor, who decided last week not to run for a third term, had no knowledge of Shea's conversation.

Where was the Appleton PC on this before?

Update; didn't know there was page two. Wow! Lok what I missed.

In a Dec. 11, 2006, conversation, the endorsement was apparently not lost on Shea. He told Eileen Pierce, another DNR air official, that the "environmental community believes they earned something" and "expect payback" with Doyle's re-election, according to her notes.

Shea said the governor could deliver by cutting pollution at Alliant Energy's Edgewater plant in Sheboygan, We Energies Valley plant in Milwaukee and two state-run plants in Madison that power the University of Wisconsin and the Capitol. He later testified he knew that cutting air emissions at those four plants was an "organizational objective" of the Sierra Club.

Wow! You sure this isn't from the onion?