About six weeks ago, President George W. Bush created yet another Great Lakes task force charged with coordinating federal Great Lakes programs and boosting the cause of Great Lakes restoration. The task force won cautious praise from observers like longtime Detroit News columnist George Weeks:
http://www.detnews.com/2004/editorial/0405/23/a21-160521.htm
Sounds nice, until you realize that what the Great Lakes community was hoping for from Mr. Bush was a commitment to proposed legislation in Congress that would earmark $4-6 billion to restore the Lakes. Task forces are a lot cheaper.
As someone who once served in Michigan state government, and helped set up a few task forces, I understand why this happens. It shows concern without commitment. And in this case it overlooks the fact that there is already a U.S. government coordinating panel and a binational executive committee charged with Great Lakes issues.
Let's call a moratorium on new Great Lakes task forces for a while. And if the President wants to do something cheap that will help the lakes, why not support regulating ballast water containing alien species as a pollutant under the Clean Water Act? Shutting off the invasion of aliens wouldn't cost government much, and would protect the biological integrity of the Lakes.
Posted by Dave at July 9, 2004 03:18 PM