No Federal $ For Bush-Proposed Great Lakes Rescue Plan - ENN

[hatrack]

Gee, there's a surprise . . .

Federal officials say they won't pay for the $20-billion plan President George W. Bush sought last year to improve the health of the Great Lakes by restoring coastal wetlands and keeping out sewage and invaders like zebra mussels. A bipartisan coalition of elected leaders says it was stunned when an Environmental Protection Agency report recommended that Bush focus on "improving the efficiency and effectiveness of existing programs" instead of launching expensive new efforts.

EDIT

Last year, in a ballyhooed announcement, Bush called the lakes a "national treasure" and ordered a task force to spell out a plan to restore them. More than 1,000 leaders and experts subsequently recommended in July that up to $20 billion in federal funding go to the lakes over 5 years to address crucial issues such as sewage overflows, invader species and wetlands destruction.

But the restoration shouldn't get 1 cent until an analysis of existing programs is undertaken, the EPA's administrator, Stephen Johnson, said in a report to Bush last month. Bush's initiative gave Great Lakes leaders and advocates hope for a comprehensive effort along the lines of the $8.3-billion Florida Everglades rescue, approved in 2000. The federal government is paying for half of that plan.

The July proposal cited the importance of the Great Lakes to the Midwest economy and lifestyle. The lakes provide drinking water for 35 million people; are the linchpin of a multibillion-dollar tourism economy; serve as highways for a robust international shipping trade, and are the bedrock of outdoors pursuits like fishing, hunting, bird-watching, diving and boating. Thomas Skinner, chief of the EPA's Great Lakes region, said the agency's report that Great Lakes projects need no additional funding shouldn't be a surprise. "Everybody knows there are substantial needs ... but no one realistically expected at the end of 12 months that we would be ready to put down x-billion dollars toward this," Skinner said in an interview Wednesday. "This was always intended to be a step-by-step process. The money comes later."

EDIT

Yes, with President Chimp, the money for the environment always comes later - much, much later.

http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=9294

[Dead_Parrot]

1. Well, I'm amazed...

:eyes:

[whoretaculture]

2. IN and OH don't have the juice

Most GL states blue.