Tap Into the Great Lakes

When former Presidential Hopeful Bill Richards made his silly comment about Wisconsin being “awash in water,” during a time of drought in the American South and West, no one could have imagined the significant of those three words to our region. Just a year later, the momentum unleashed during Richards speech, has been translated into the Great Lakes Compact and now, a new chamber of commerce campaign called “tap into Erie.”

Erie, PA has recognized the powerful allure of the Lakes with an aggressive campaign to draw business to their area from water hungry parts of the country. The Chamber of Commerce is actively coaxing business in Atlanta that need fresh water to function such as breweries, small steel mills and data centers. Milwaukee has embarked on a similar national campaign using the Lakes as the incentive. These very clever moves could have similar consequences to the invention of air conditioning but in our direction– a reverse migration from the dry Southeast and West to the new improved northern coast. What a great idea. This is just another example that drives home the point made by Brookings Institution’s economic study that found that for every dollar invested in the Great Lakes the region will see a $2 profit.

• Posted by Tiffany Danitz Pache on October 10th, 2008
• Tags: Bill-Richardson, Brookings-Institution, Candidate-for-President-2008, Council-of-Great-Lakes-Governors, Economic-Report, Economics-of-Great-Lakes, economy
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