Let's get this straight: a PR event, reported in all the local and national media, claiming that a new, almost liberal-sounding program is going to be initiated, but in the fine print, we find that it is already underfunded, and the active participants aren't sure how to pay for any of it. Hmmm, sounds like the Bush Administration strikes again. Lets see what actually gets accomplished.
Mars, biatches!
Officials Lay Groundwork for Cleanup of Great Lakes:
The United States and Canada signed a declaration on Friday that outlines a plan to clean up the Great Lakes and the major waterways that feed them.
... The collaboration sets forth a framework for establishing committees, lines of communication and overarching goals leading to cleaner water - the Great Lakes contain about 20 percent of the world's fresh water supply and serve as a source of drinking water for more than 30 million people in the United States and Canada.Specific targets include pollution controls for agricultural and industrial runoff into the lakes; new efforts to restore and protect wetlands, forests and indigenous species; and the elimination of invasive species, like the Illinois carp, which Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich of Illinois called "a terrorist of the Great Lakes ecosystem."
The framework also proposes deadlines, with a preliminary plan due in six months and a final strategy to put the plan fully in motion due six months after that. Mr. Leavitt describe the program as "not a redoing, but a redoubling" of existing efforts.
What the framework does not provide, however, is a financing scheme, asserting that those who signed the declaration acknowledge that participation "is subject to funding availability."
That raised concerns for some participants.Representative Rahm Emanuel, a Chicago Democrat who has introduced legislation that would provide $4 billion over five years for essentially the same goals as those in the framework, said the new effort would fail without adequate money. The bill, a bipartisan effort sponsored by more than 100 House members, and a companion Senate bill are languishing in committee.
In an interview, Mr. Emanuel criticized Mr. Bush as promising more money for Great Lakes cleanup projects, only to back off in his budget requests. Mr. Emanuel also said that the framework's goals and partners were virtually the same as those in an effort proposed in 2002 by Mr. Leavitt's predecessor, Christie Whitman.
"If there are resources, then great," Mr. Emanuel said of the latest effort. "But if this is in lieu of resources, it's a cruel hoax and leaves us years behind."
Neither Mr. Leavitt nor any of the 46 officials who spoke at the signing ceremony discussed financing. That was deliberate, Mr. Leavitt told reporters after the event. He said, "No one knows how much money is currently being spent" on Great Lakes cleanup efforts.
