Mar 25, 2017
You’re something, Lake Huron. You have proven the most surprising of all the Great Lakes. When I became your neighbor in August 2015, I was indifferent to you. You were the Great Lake I liked least. We were an arranged marriage. You were the forgotten Great Lake. You were the dog kept in a crate out back, an object of pity among the neighbors at first, then forgotten. You were the undistinguished Great Lake. Not the largest, not the warmest or coldest, not the most populated, not the prettiest. Just an average Great Lake. You had one thing going for you: water. I adore water. But this did not come to me right away. Months had to pass. And now I get it. Living with you, I’ve learned your moods, your changing hues, the sound of your breath. It adds up to wonder. You are real. And you are...
Mar 20, 2017
William G. Milliken, Michigan’s longest serving governor, turns 95 on March 26. His career as a Republican championing the environment is a sharp rebuke of the Trump Administration’s vicious attack on Great Lakes protection. Unsurprisingly, Milliken’s local Republican party has essentially excommunicated him. But the right wing of the Republican Party never appreciated Milliken’s pragmatism — he was always willing to cut deals if the public benefited — or his values on equal rights for women, supporting Detroit, and of course the environment. The scoreboard reads 95 years of environmental stewardship for Milliken, 0 dollars of Great Lakes restoration from...
Mar 18, 2017
The Trump Administration’s proposed slashing of funding for EPA is a good test of public sentiment. It’s been pretty clear for a while that environmental issues determine very few votes for President or Congress, but polls also show that large majorities of the American support policies that protect clean air and water. Given all the other astonishing proposals in the Trump budget — like zeroing out of Meals and Wheels (taking food and company from Grandma!) — how much attention will EPA get and how will it fare in Congressional budget decisions? Stepping back from my environmental perspective, I’ve been watching the generalized media coverage. With the exception of the proposed elimination of funding for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, the headlines feature “EPA cuts.” And the question is how agitated the public can be about even a staggering loss (3200) of agency staff. These cuts need to be explained as affecting health and quality of life — especially water — to be reversed. And much as environmental groups need resources to carry on the fight, their action emails would do better if they didn’t contain heavy-handed pitches for donations out of the gate — unless a clear plan, including a communications plan, is...
Mar 12, 2017
Last September, the Healing Our Waters Coalition hosted representatives of candidates Trump and Clinton at HOW’s annual Great Lakes restoration conference. They shouldn’t have bothered. Each representative professed his candidate’s ardent support for the Great Lakes. But since Trump won, let’s focus on his surrogate. HOW construed the presentation by Mike Budzik as signaling Trump’s support for the $300 million a year Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. Then, in late February, reports circulated that Trump’s budget will propose a 97% cut in the Initiative. In fairness, neither surrogate committed to a dollar figure. But it’s safe to say a 97% cut is not support. Now the fight begins. Politicians of both parties have vowed to restore the $300 million. They’ll get some of it back. Maybe half. One thing we can learn from this history is to stop inviting candidates or their representatives to speak about their fondness for the Great Lakes. It’s like accepting counterfeit money. Save everyone’s time and send the candidates a one paragraph letter asking them to say yea or nay to supporting $300 million or more per year for the Great Lakes. Odds are, they won’t commit but will offer cheap rhetoric and then the headline will be accurate: “candidate refuses to support Great Lakes Initiative.” ...
Mar 6, 2017
As objectionable as the Trump Administration’s rumored 97% cut in Great Lake restoration is, lovers of the Great Lakes may be missing a bigger story that is difficult to tell. In the long run, the President’s policies denying the existence of climate change, undoing two Obama initiatives that reduce mercury entering the Great Lakes, repealing the clean water rule and deferring a control plan for Asian carp could lead to the collapse of the Great Lakes as we know them. And that should get more attention. Taken together, the impacts of these other policies may cost 100 times more to rectify than is being cut from restoration...
