"One challenge Davis will face is making sure the federal money is used effectively - particularly when the government already has about 140 programs dealing with the Great Lakes environment." This quote, from an article on Davis by John Flesher of the AP, pretty much sums up my argument...this position is absolutely rediculous.
WHO- Cameron Davis is a 23 year veteran of environmental activism. He is the current President of Alliance for the Great Lakes, a Chicago-based environmental group.
WHAT- Davis will coordinate with 12 or so other federal agencies already dealing with the Obama administrations Great Lakes project. These agencies deal with things like invasive species, harbor pollution, overflow from sewage, and the destruction of wild life habitats.
HOW- Alliance for the Great Lakes, along with other environmental groups in the region, are pushing for a $20+ billion restoration program for the area.
- President Obama has currently pledged $5 billion over the next 10 years for the plan.
- His current 2010 budget waste no time in making good on his pledge, adding an additional $475 million in NEW spending for the Great Lakes.
- This $475 million will push federal spending on the Great Lakes to MORE than $1 billion a year.
"Other spending would include $105 million for habitat and wildlife protection and restoration; $97 million for prevention of near-shore pollution such as farm runoff and erosion; $60 million to battle and prevent invasive species; and $65 million to evaluate and monitor the initiative's progress."
"Some of the specific goals include: restoring 23,000 acres of coastal, wetland, shoreline and upland habitat for wildlife and 1,000 miles of streams for fish passage; removing up to 1 million cubic yards of contaminated sediments; and cleaning up sources of contaminants at over 100 beaches that were closed five or more days in 2007."
WHY NOT- This quote from George Kuper, Council of Great Lakes Industries director, makes you wonder if he knows his foot is in his mouth. "It may not be obvious, but what is good for the ecosystem is also good for the economy." Really? If you actually believed that you would not have had to preface it with "It may not be obvious." I'm not even going to waste my time looking up the countless policies that are "good for the ecosystem" that would absolutely wreck the economy. Ok, I'll give you one. Cap and trade. Ok, that doesn't count, because we really have no idea what impact greenhouse gases have on the environment. Not to mention the hundreds of billions of dollars a year in "revenue" it is expected to generate. That "revenue" is also called "your tax dollars," because the federal government can only get revenue from tax dollars. I also won't waste my time wondering whether or not he is going to balace environmental issues with business issues, because I think we already know the answer to that.
We are giving a life long environmental activist free reign to inact his agenda on other government agencies. Because of course, those 140 government programs that ALREADY exist, and the 12 that he will be directly overseeing, couldn't possibly function without MORE oversight. And I'm sure he knows best how to run each one of those programs better than their acting directors. I don't even know what to say about the numbers above regarding money spent for certain things.
$65 MILLION to "EVALUATE" the program to make sure it's useful?! If it's not, please lie to me Mr. Davis! Because then I would know you wasted even more money to tell me something I already knew.
Source: http://www.newsvine.com/_news/2009/05/15/2820301-obama-wants-to-pump-475m-into-great-lakes-cleanup
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