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...
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."
Yep, after tax cuts for the rich.
http://freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051118/NEWS06/511180443
Posted by Dave at November 18, 2005 10:29 AM