Michigan Senate cave dwellers vote to cripple Great Lakes protection, strip governor's powers

SB 272 sponsors

Back in the 1970s Lake Erie was dying and Michigan’s waterways were choked with weeks and algae. Phosphorus from laundry detergents was identified as a major culprit in the problems. But the state legislature and federal regulators – under intense industry pressure – were paralyzed with inaction.

Michigan Gov. William Milliken put on his big boy pants and took a stand in 1976, using his power to ban phosphorus. It was the beginning of a steep decline in Great Lakes phosphorus and the recovery of Lake Erie. Other states followed suit. It wasn’t until 2008 that Michigan’s legislature affirmed the Milliken-era ban.

Now Michigan Senate Republicans – under the treacherous guise of reducing regulatory burdens – want to strip Michigan’s governor of his power to protect the lakes and other natural resources. Senate Bill 272 was passed last week. It forbids the governor's environmental regulators to exceed any federal environmental standard. 

That means Republicans believe that water protection laws in places like Arizona and New Mexico are a good fit for Michigan, where we are stewards of the greatest freshwater resource on planet Earth. It means Republicans, erstwhile protectors of state’s rights, believe Washington bureaucrats know what’s best for Michigan. And it means they want to strip Michigan governors of a key power they’ve held for decades.

The bill is part of an onerous package of legislation that seeks to intimidate state regulators into tepid enforcement of environmental laws. 

Here’s hoping that – if these cavemen and women get their way in the State House of Representatives – Gov. Rick Snyder will veto the bills. If he cares about the lakes, he will. And if he’s offended that the legislature is seeking to strip him of the power to enforce the law, he will too.

You can help. Find your state representative and tell them a vote for SB 272 and the rest of this package ensures your vote will go to someone else in 2012.

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If eggs and meat are made in the supermarket, where does your tap water come from?

My drinking water source. Eat your heart out.

We’ve probably all heard stories about city kids who think eggs are made in the supermarket, or can’t identify where their meat comes from.  Eventually they learn – at least in a book-learnin’ kind of way – that eggs come from chickens and meat from dead animals.

But apparently most don’t ever learn where their water comes from. A Nature Conservancy survey released last month shows 77 percent of Americans who use municipal water can not identify the source of their tap water.

By itself, that lack of knowledge  probably isn’t a big deal. We pay taxes and pass laws to have other people make sure that safe water comes out when we open the spigots. 

But in a more global sense, our lack of connection with the natural world is symptomatic of larger problems. As the Nature Conservancy asks: “If we are less aware of our dependence on nature for our most essential needs, are we less inclined to get personally involved in protecting it?”

For the record, my tap water comes from the Detroit River, a majestic natural wonder which carries most of  the greatest freshwater system on planet earth on its journey to the Atlantic Ocean. Your water should be half as awesome!

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On holiday hiatus, and wishing all a prosperous New Year! (With something about our awesome Great Lakes to stick to an environmental theme!)

Mitten State is taking a holiday hiatus in a warmer climate until mid-January, and wishing all fine New Year. For Michiganders we share hope for a resurgent 2011 that sees economic recovery anchored by growing clean energy, tourism, rail transit, Smart Growth and other natural resource-based industries.

We will return in mid-January with new Governor Rick Snyder and his team, and a Republican legislature vowing serious financial restructuring. In the midst of 2010’s economic malaise and all the political changes one thing stays constant: We are the only state in the Union, no…..the only place on the planet …. blessed with primary stewardship for 18 percent of the world’s fresh surface water supply. No other state lies entirely within the basin of the world’s most tremendous freshwater resource. Let’s  say that again: Our Great Lakes -- connected to our rivers, inland lakes, ponds, creeks, streams, and wetlands -- are a world-class natural resource and our ace in the hole. Let’s protect them.

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Breaking News: Michigan Legislature passes restrictions on phosphorus in lawn fertilizer!

In the last lame duck legislative session of the year today, there was some good news for Michigan’s waters. The House and Senate passed restrictions on phosphorus in lawn fertilizer that will have direct, and significant impact on water quality in our lakes and streams.

Michigan joins several other Great Lakes states including Minnesota, New York, Wisconsin and Illinois in ensuring this largely unnecessary problem is no longer used indiscriminately on lawns that don’t need it.

Congrats to all those who worked, literally, for years to make this happen.

Your handy guide to translating the fringe arguments against offshore wind energy development in the Great Lakes

What turbines would look like, from left, at 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 miles

Michigan has vast potential to generate energy from wind. Most of that potential is in the offshore waters of the Great Lakes. Now, the state is poised to adopt the first comprehensive rules for wind development in the Lakes.

It won’t be easy. Not everyone likes the idea of altering the view of our spectacular Great Lakes with wind turbines. Others don’t mind the view, as long as it’s not in their back yard – or more accurately, in front of their pricey lakefront properties.

Now Michigan’s anti-government bloggers are also up in arms about wind turbines. Their reasons run the gamut. They include cost (a debate worth having). Details over how to regulate them (again, a worthwhile discussion). And environmental concerns (Fringe Right bloggers mourning for the environment? Sweet Jesus! Has that EVER happened before. OK, we’ll get to that in a moment!)

Honestly, those in the distant hinterlands of conservativism will never support offshore wind turbines for a variety of reasons that have nothing to do with cost or environmental concerns.

So, in order to prepare for the upcoming onslaught of doublespeak, I’m offering some translations for the arguments you will hear. But first, a note on costs.
  
Costs for wind energy keep going down while costs for conventional energy keep going up. In fact, Massachusetts regulators just OK’d a 15 year power purchase agreement for Cape Wind, the nation’s first offshore wind energy development.

The Massachusetts approval came after exhaustive review: 13 days of hearings, more than 1,300 exhibits and 3,000 pages of transcript. The conclusion: "[I]t is abundantly clear that the Cape Wind facility offers significant benefits that are not currently available from any other renewable resources. We find that these benefits outweigh the costs of the project." (and if you click on the link, don’t neglect to read the part about the 1,000 jobs created).

Now, the translations:
 

--- Wind energy shouldn't need taxpayer subsidies means (=) We have never raised a peep about the massive subsidies for conventional, polluting energy sources, but we’re mad as hell when it applies to something environmentalists support, Governor Granholm wants, or anything new and different.

--- Plans to regulate offshore wind are not up to par = Any regulation is bad. Any regulatory agency is evil. And anyone trying to enforce regulations is a jack booted thug.

--- The Great Lakes will be environmentally damaged by turbines = We don’t give a flying fruck about the environment when we support offshore oil drilling in the Great Lakes, oppose mercury emissions reductions, fight bans on water diversions, cheer more polluting coal power plants, oppose tougher vehicle emissions standards, fight against energy efficiency programs, encourage urban sprawl, urge lawmakers to bankrupt natural resource protection, or try to bury public transit initiatives. But, um, this time we do care. Really.

--- The wind doesn’t blow all the time, so it’s unreliable = This is an awesome sound bite. Game, set and match....beeeootch! We are betting nobody besides policy geeks goes to the trouble of exploring how decentralized power grids, demand load management and natural gas backup systems make this issue manageable.

 --- Coal power is tried and true, no reason to change = We talk a good game about embracing American ingenuity, cutting edge technology and striking out boldly for new frontiers like our manly heroes of the American Revolution. But when it comes down to it we're scared.

--- We don’t have faith in the leaders supporting wind energy = We despise Gov. Granholm and everything she stands for. We will despise Gov.-elect Snyder as well, should he dare cross us. The 2010 election was clearly a mandate against offshore wind.

--- It’s those pansy ass tree huggers who want wind energy = It’s those pansy ass tree huggers who want wind energy.

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DEBATE FAIL!: Great Lakes? Energy? Transportation? Rebuilding cities? IGNORED.

Michigan is smack in the middle of the world’s most astounding water system – 18 percent of the world’s fresh surface water surrounds us. It provides 40 million people with drinking water; fuels our water-intensive industrial economy and fertilizes our farmers’ bounty. It is threatened by sewage overflows, deposition of hazardous chemicals, and by Asian carp and other invasives.

We are on the cutting edge of advanced automotive batteries, have a burgeoning clean energy technology industrial sector and a vital tourism economy (all are growing – the only economic sectors in Michigan to do so recently).

We have world-class sand dunes, vast forests, fertile farmland and fantastic hunting, fishing, hiking, birdwatching, boating, mushroom picking, frog-spearing, cricket listening and Petoskey-stone hunting. Stone skipping, too. We also have a few cool cities where smart young college graduates want to live work and play. But not nearly enough.

So how did an hour-long gubernatorial debate take place tonight without any…ANY…mention of the role Michigan’s natural resources play in our economy and quality of life?

Not. a. single. one. Not in their opening or closing comments. Not in the questions from the moderators. The Center for Michigan says you can find the replay right here starting Monday, if you have trouble getting to sleep.

Thumbs down to moderators Stephen Henderson of the Detroit Free Press and Nolan Finley of the Detroit News for ignoring energy, transportation, vibrant cities, and the future of the Great Lakes in favor of queries like “would you forego your salary as governor?” (as if that would make a difference) or “are you tough enough” to play political hardball? (seriously Nolan, how could that question elicit anything other than a minute-long infomercial?)

And thumbs down to Virg Bernero and Rick Snyder for utterly failing to incorporate our state’s important natural assets into any of your answers.

Oh, wait. I rewound the DVR and did find that Bernero did mention “…the green automotive future, the green technology, wind turbines…” during a frenetic monologue about manufacturing. So…there you have it.

Should either candidate want to feign interest in Michigan’s water, land or air,here’s a start. Until then, the hell with it. If this is all you got, I’m leaving the governor’s ballot blank in November.

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Asian Carp's buffet may be bare, thanks to another invader who's devouring the base of the food chain like an NFL lineman at Ponderosa

Ok, so,…the good news is that when the Asian Carp begin multiplying in Lake Michigan, it may not be the Armageddon we’re fearing. The bad news is that’s only because the invasive quagga mussels have already eaten up most of the base of the food chain, leaving slim pickin’s. “Beaten the carp to the buffet table” as one researcher put it.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reports that drastic changes in the Great Lakes’ food chain over the last few decades due to invasive species means “trends for the food web are murky.” That’s researcher-speak for “We have no goddamn idea what’s going on right now, much less 5, 10, or 20 years from now. We can count quagga mussels and quantify the 80 percent loss of the phytoplankton at the base of the food chain. But please, for the love of God don’t ask us to predict what’s next.”


It’s a crap shoot, this business of hauling in exotic creatures from foreign lands in the ballast water of international freighters and releasing them into the world’s greatest freshwater ecosystem. There are almost 200 invaders, according to the latest count.

It’s a giant, uncontrolled, uncontrollable biology experiment in which random creatures are thrown into the Great Lakes without the slightest clue to their impact. Then we stand back and see what happens next. And our best hope is that the result is just sucky, and not catastrophic.

We could ban oceangoing ships from the Great Lakes – which accounts for an estimated 75 percent of the invasive species arrivals. It would even create new jobs and stimulate economic activity. But that’s not going to happen anytime soon.

In the meantime, we’ll just stand back and see what happens. Not much of a management plan.
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This Mother of all Engineering Reversals might help out our Great Lakes

Chicago River dyed green for St. Paddy's Day

Once upon a time in Chicago, human waste was piped directly into the Chicago River, which sluggishly moved the shit out into Lake Michigan. There it sat, stinking and rotting in the harbor and wrecking the city and contaminating its drinking water supply and killing people with typhoid fever and cholera. That really sucked.

So around the turn of the last century those cunning Chicagoans devised a plan to save the harbor from human feces.

Ah…you’re probably thinking “stop spewing toilet water into the river, I mean, what the hell were we thinking in the first place?”  Wrong.


"Drink like raging alcoholics from morning 'till dusk and pour green dye in the river on St. Patrick's Day"? Wrong again.

No, those clever folks re-engineered the entire river system so that the Chicago River now flows OUT of Lake Michigan instead of IN to the lake. All the feces now floats away from the lake, and issues with stinking human sewage are someone else’s problem. Not Chicago’s.

Well, as you might expect, tinkering with Mother Nature leads to unintended consequences. Connecting the river to the Gulf of Mexico-bound Mississippi River has provided a superhighway for invasive species. Wetlands and other natural features have been altered in myriad ways. And of course the Great Lakes is now losing, rather than gaining, water from the Chicago River – a significant issue in an era where global warming and poor water use practices threaten to permanently lower lake levels.

So when Chicago Mayor Richard Daley says he wants to restore the natural flow of the river it is a very interesting proposition. It would be a huge engineering feat, a great expense and would need to overcome numerous political hurdles over the next couple decades. But why not?



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It's official: Asian Carp have breached the last lock

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Asian Carp: Welcome to the neighborhood: I know better than to ask you not to **ck things up. At the risk of sounding biased against certain species (is it because they look different from me?) I wish you would have stayed in a neighborhood that's "more appropriate" for your type. I'm not very happy about your appearance here. Nor am I happy with the folks who could have tried harder to keep you out, including President Obama.

Sincerely, Hugh

Where the !@#%! is Stevens Point, WI and how did we lose a water tasting contest to them?

It should have been some consolation that this year’s winner of the “Best of the Best” water tasting competition comes from our Great Lakes neighbor, Wisconsin: http://bit.ly/by9TA1  But then I learned that the winner, the city of Stevens Point, actually draws its water from the Mississippi River watershed and not from the Great Lakes basin.

Seriously? A bunch of Brett Farve worshipping cheeseheads are celebrating while Great Lakes water gets shut out again? (“We put up a banner on Highway 51, by the fire station…” said the town’s 32-year old mayor. How quaint. Hey, Stevens Point: Detroit elected a 30-something mayor too. You wanna know how that turned out?)

Stevens Point brags that its water is used to brew Point Beer (creative name) referred to by locals as Blue Bullets. Big freakin’ deal. We have (or used to have) Stroh’s beer, referred to by locals as “Stroh’s Beer”. And we have breweries in Bellaire, Kalamazoo, Grand Rapids, Detroit, Webberville and on and on. 

This should be a call to arms for Michiganders, whose lone entry in the water tasting contest, the city of Allegan, was dissed by some backwater town that draws its water from the aquifers of the Muddy Missippi River (pictured).  What’s worse, not one of  Michigan’s candidates for governor seem to have the guts to address this issue head-on, as we have seen nary a word about this on Twitter or Facebook. Even the right wing attack dogs have yet to blame the water tasting loss on Gov. Granholm, the mainstream media and climate scientists.

Allegan wasn’t the only town to get dissed. Stevens Point beat out New York City’s water from the Catskill Mountains, and water from Silverdale, Washington which uses water from an underground well so pure it pumps it directly to homes without treating it. Now that’s cool. But I’m still pissed.

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Senate confirms Michigan environmental maverick (a real one, not the fake kind) Lana Pollack to International Joint Commission

The U.S. Senate today confirmed former Michigan Environmental Council President Lana Pollack to the International Joint Commission. Pollack, my boss for three years, is a great addition to the agency, which is designed to facilitate cooperation, resource protection, resolution of disputes and treaty enforcement over boundary waters and land borders between the two countries.

There will be no better advocate for the Great Lakes than Lana, a tireless, fierce, smart and forceful woman who has already ingrained a lasting legacy on environmental protection in Michigan. But, like many brilliant minds, she can never locate her keys or reading glasses. I hope they have someone at IJC to help her with that.

Lana will do what she thinks is right. Always. The last IJC commissioner from Michigan, Dennis Schornack, was fired when he did the right thing http://bit.ly/94t4S4 Schornack, a lifelong Republican from Williamston, was appointed by, then dumped by, the George W. Bush Administration after he ordered a couple in Washington State to remove a structure they had built illegally in a 10-foot-wide "clear boundary vista" maintained at the 5,000-mile-long border with Canada. Right wing groups took up the cause as a case of jackbooted government regulators run amok, and Bush officials ordered Schornack to back down. He didn't. So much for securing our borders.

Pollack also will sooner get fired then back down from doing the right thing -- both for border security and for the "resource protection" mandate in the IJC job description that is so vital to keeping our Great Lakes great. She is a former Michigan state senator and served as MEC president for 12 years through the end of 2008. Prior to her tenure at MEC, Pollack was elected three times to the Michigan Legislature, serving as a state senator from 1983–1994.

To learn more about the International Joint Commission, visit www.ijc.org.

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Environmental protection takes 72 percent budget hit in eight years. Who's going to be blamed when we can't adequately respond to a BP-style crisis?

The chart accompanying this Detroit News story http://bit.ly/cY6FcL illustrates exactly how drastically we've cut funding for environmental protection in Michigan during the last decade. The budget for these agencies has declined from $153 million in 2002 to $42 million proposed for 2010. That's a 72 percent cut.

If your household income was $60,000 in 2002 and you received the same cut, you'd be making  just shy of $17, 000 today.
 
We'll hear a lot about low taxes and limited government this election season. But given the choice, do Michiganders really want to see even more cuts to programs like deer check stations?  Monitoring of pollution flowing into the Great Lakes? Forest fire fighting personnel? Keeping state campgrounds open? Cleaning up contaminated industrial sites?

And when some BP-style disaster strikes and Michigan's environmental agencies do not have the resources to respond adequately, who's going to be blamed? 

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What the oil disaster would look like in Michigan

Want to know how large the plume of oil spreading from the BP oil gusher is, in relation to.....say, the Great Lakes? Or the Lower Peninsula of Michigan?

These clever folks have taken the NOAA oil spill map (updated daily) and superimposed it over wherever you want. Just type in the city and click "move the spill." http://bit.ly/9fNDcM

Asian Carp solution: More fishing!

Legislative hearings on the threat that Asian carp pose to the Great Lakes have been scheduled in Lansing.

http://www.mlive.com/mudpuppy/index.ssf/2010/02/asian_carp_hearing_in_lansing.html

The Frankenfish have devoured everything in their path on their way to Lake Michigan, now accounting for something like 90 percent of all biological life in the Illinois River.

Michigan and other states are trying to force a closure of the last locks standing between the carp and Lake Michigan http://www.stopasiancarp.com/. So far, President Barack Obama’s administration has been tone deaf to the appeal.

But maybe none of this is necessary.

The Mackinac Center for Public Policy’s reliable policy experts have unveiled a truly free market solution: “More fishing could help ensure that the non-native carp do not overcrowd the native fish of the Illinois and Mississippi rivers.”

You just can’t make this stuff up.

http://www.mackinac.org/10633

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Mike Cox: Crackpot hippie?

Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox has issued an analysis disputing Illinois’ claim that closing Chicago shipping canal locks to keep Asian Carp out of Lake Michigan would unleash economic Armageddon. Read it here: http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/83571672.html

Five years ago, Grand Valley State University researchers came to a strikingly similar conclusion regarding closing the other end of the Great Lakes to keep ocean-going vessels from spewing invasive species. Read it here: http://www.gvsu.edu/business/index.cfm?id=5A6CF558-075D-5695-1590A8CA5BA2F846

Cox says keeping the carp out would cost $70 million annually to protect a $7 billion annual sport fishing industry. GVSU said keeping the ocean ships out would cost $55 million to protect the same industry.

In 2005, those who publically called for closing the lakes to ocean ships were deemed crackpot, hippie wackos bent on destroying the economy. Government researchers who spoke out were muzzled and at least one was forced out of a job. No significant politician took up the cause.

But today those calling publically for closing the Chicago shipping locks include a bipartisan roster of lawmakers. Even WJR Radio talk show host Frank Beckmann and the Detroit News editorial board – neither of which had previously seen an environmental issue they didn’t consider a socialist plot to destroy America – are on board.

What’s the difference?

For one, the ugly, creepy, leaping Asian Carp is a visible and tangible villain that has fueled the public’s ire like no other.

Secondly, the leadership of Cox, a Republican and candidate for governor, has made it OK for other Republicans and conservatives to call for closing the Chicago shipping locks.

A cynic would say it is a naked populist ploy to capitalize on public outrage in an election year.

An optimist would say that maybe, just maybe, politicians of all stripes will recognize the power that Great Lakes protection has to mobilize Michigan citizens and voters.

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Yes and No aren't complete answers to question of wind turbines in Lake Michigan

Congressman Pete Hoeskstra, R-Holland, has launched on online “survey” to gauge public support or opposition to Scandia Wind Offshore’s plans to construct a wind farm in Lake Michigan offshore from the Pentwater/Ludington shoreline. http://hoekstra.house.gov/Forms/Form/?ID=639

The problem with Rep. Hoekstra’s survey is not that it has no statistical validity – it’s essentially a tool to let his constituents vent, and doesn’t purport to be anything more.

The problem is that there are nine potential selections we can choose, ranging from “There are no circumstances that can convince me to accept wind turbines in Lake Michigan” to “I would accept the proposal because we must move toward renewable energy at all costs”

Yet each of the nine answers naively presupposes that the choice is simply “yes” or “no.” The survey does not acknowledge that, if the turbines are not built, the electricity needs to come from somewhere else.

A more honest survey would ask Rep. Hoekstra’s constituents which energy option they favor. If not wind turbines, would they rather see a new coal-burning power plant in town? Or a nuclear facility on the shore of the lake? Or an aggressive energy efficiency program added their current utility bill to make the additional electricity use unnecessary.

As Michigan moves to build a new clean energy economy, there will be dozens more local discussions like the ones occurring on the Lake Michigan shoreline right now. Wind turbines offshore will surely be considered an eyesore to some. That’s no different from other public utilities. Overhead power lines, interstate highways and railroad crossings are not pretty, but we accept them as a tradeoff for the public service they provide.

Robust discussions on the pros and cons of each of our energy options are worth having. But let’s not let Rep. Hoekstra imply that “Just Say No” is an effective energy policy.

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