Wisconsin’s Board of Commissioners of Public Lands enacted a staff climate change ban on Tuesday.
They will not be allowed to respond to emails on the topic or engage in any work associated with climate change according to Bloomberg.
The Public Land’s Commission manages the sale of public land to fund libraries, grant community loans, and fund other projects related to public education.
State Treasurer Matt Adamczyk said, “It’s not a part of our sole mission, which is to make money for our beneficiaries," he said: “That’s what I want our employees working on. That’s it. Managing our trust funds.”
The reasoning for this specific ban may be in part due to the board's Executive Secretary, Tia Nelson, who had spent on-the-job time working on global warming issues. She had been appointed by governor Jim Doyle to the global warming task force in Wisconsin's Department of Natural Recourses.
Nelson is the daughter of Gaylord Nelson, the U.S. Senator from Wisconsin who established Earth Day in 1970.
In a board meeting on April 7, Commissioner Adamczyk called Ms. Nelson's participation on the Global Warming Task Force, "a waste of time."
Commissioner La Follette said he was opposed to the discussion. He thought it bordered on the “edge of an irresponsible witch hunt,” which he did not want to be a part of.