Stumping for the White House

What is Taking so Long?

Do you hear that rhythmic thumping, drumming sound? That is the sound of our collective fingers tapping in anticipation of a new Great Lakes Czar. President Obama promised this to us during his campaign for the presidency and then he provided for a post in his budget. Both houses of Congress have passed the budget so what’s holding things up? The Chesapeake Bay and Anacostia River have their coordinator: Charlie Fox – is it just because those waters flow through the District that they get priority?

HOW has sent a letter to EPA head, Lisa Jackson and CEQ’s Nancy Sutley Read More » »

Be Careful What You Wish For…

It didn’t take long for our Great Lakes Congressional Task Force to drop the gauntlet before President Elect-Barack Obama. Just days before the new President is to be sworn in, US Senators Carl Levin (D-Mich.), George Voinovich (R-OH) and Rep. Vern Ehlers (R-Mich.) introduced the Great Lakes Collaboration Implementation Act, begging the question, did Obama really mean it when he signed the campaign pledge to usher in Great Lakes restoration during his tenure in the White House?

“With a partner in the White House who understands the great need to restore the Great Lakes ecosystem, I’m hopeful Read More » »

Banner Week Ahead

Next week confirmation hearings will be the headliner on Capitol Hill. The marquee hearings promise lots of star power with Great Lakes Sen. Hillary Clinton and the future leaders of the Environmental Protection Agency and the Council on Environmental Quality up on stage, but we want to ensure that the Great Lakes will be a special feature during the questioning.

Tuesday will open with Sen. Clinton’s nomination to the post of Secretary of State. This is an ideal opportunity for Russ Feingold (D-Wisc.), Robert Casey (D-PA) or George Voinovich (R-OH) to ask New York’s Senator about Read More » »

In His Own Words

In the last weeks of the 2008 Presidential Election, Barack Obama released a 5-point plan to restore the Great Lakes including investing $5 billion federal dollars. Of course, some people called it pandering to possible swing state voters, but it turns out the latest Obama plan was consistent with his past actions.

Obama was the only presidential candidate to respond to HOW’s invitation to speak at our annual conference in 2007. Obama sent emissary Debra Shore – a local Chicago politician – to deliver a statement he wrote sharing his concerns about the Lakes with us.

He said Read More » »

Promise Keepers

It seems safe to assume we won’t be the only ones who will be holding President Elect Barack Obama to his promise to restore the Great Lakes, now that Great Lakes advocate Rahm Emanuel is to be White House Chief of Staff.

With great ferocity, Rahm Emanuel addressed the HOW conference in 2007, imploring us to make sure any candidate for President not only pledged to restore the Great Lakes to win our precious swing votes, but also to hold the winner to it when they took office. Lets hope Mr. Emanuel doesn’t rue the day he lit that fire under Read More » »

Word on the Street

Even before Barack Obama won last night, he had teams of people planning for his 76-day transition. Word on the streets of Chicago and Washington is that Illinois Democrat Rahm Emanuel is on Obama’s short list for the Chief-of-Staff position.

This is the same man who stood before HOW a little more than a year ago and implored us to make this Presidential election about the Great Lakes. The same man who said he would do everything in his power to get the $26 billion into law that we need to heal and revive the lakes. Now, the Washington Read More » »

Election of Barack Obama Holds ‘Great Promise for Restoration of Great Lakes’

Healing Our Waters®-Great Lakes Coalition

Election of Barack Obama Holds ‘Great Promise for Restoration of Great Lakes’

Coalition Vows to Work with President-Elect, New Congress to Restore and Protect Lakes, Boost Regional Economy

Statement by Jeff Skelding, national campaign director, Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition on election of Sen. Barack Obama to President of the United States

ANN ARBOR, MICH. (November 5, 2008)— “The Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition is excited about Sen. Barack Obama’s victory and looks forward to working with his Administration and the new Congress for the change we need to restore and protect the Great Lakes—a national icon that is Read More » »

Time To Get Your Great Lakes On

For almost a year, we have been talking about making restoration of the Great Lakes a campaign issue, now two Great Lakes states: Pennsylvania and Ohio have put Great Lakes issues onto the ballot. The two measures have nothing in common but it will be interesting to see what priorities voters choose come Election Day.

Tomorrow, Pennsylvania voters will have a chance to say if the state should spend $400 million to update the Key State’s antiquated sewer systems and clean up drinking water for 10 million residents. Governor Ed Rendell is in favor of the measure that would Read More » »

A Real Economic Recovery Package

If Boston is the cradle of American liberty then the Great Lakes region is surely the cradle of American ingenuity and it just happens to hold twenty percent of the world’s freshwater, and it is the second largest economy in the world (as long as we include Canada’s two largest Provinces in our rendition). That is pretty impressive and so is this – our region is responsible for a third of our nation’s GDP and 90 percent of our country’s fresh water – we have the resources and power and now a plan to turn this recent economic Read More » »

Every Heart Beats True…

Barack Obama’s Great Lakes proposal is still making its way through the news cycle and now regional Republican Party Chairs have chimed in saying that John McCain is also committed to supporting the Great Lakes – via the Compact.

As we said previously, during the primary campaigns both Obama and McCain signed a pledge to restore the Great Lakes circulated by Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), Rep. Rham Emanuel (D-Ill.), Vern Ehlers (R-Mich.) and Dan Lipinski (D-Ill). The pledge committed the candidates to appoint a cabinet level official to coordinate parties working on Great Lakes restoration, as well as be an Read More » »