Source: Wikipedia

Sens. Al Franken and Amy Klobuchar are among several cosponsors of legislation aimed at cleaning up the Great Lakes. Introduced in the Senate last week, the Great Lakes Ecosystem Protection Act of 2010 would commit $500 million over the next 7 years on cleanup and restoration of the Great Lakes ecosystem.

Along with Minnesota’s Senate delegation, Democratic Sens. Carl Levin, Sherrod Brown, Dick Durban, Debbie Stabenow and George Voinovich have signed on to support the legislation. In the House, none of Minnesota’s delegation are listed as supporters of the companion bill.

“This monumental legislation adds momentum to Great Lakes restoration and sets in place a framework for the future,” said Lynn McClure, co-chair of the Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition and midwest regional director for the National Parks Conservation Association in a statement last week. “We applaud the President for proposing his Great Lakes Restoration Initiative and we applaud Congress for introducing bi-partisan legislation that recognizes the national importance of the Great Lakes to our economy and way of life.”

“This legislation means we all have a say in making sure Great Lakes restoration is done right,” said Jill Ryan, co-chair of Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition and executive director of Freshwater Future. “Passage of this bill will pay huge dividends for the people, businesses and communities which rely on the lakes 365 days a year. We urge the U.S. Congress to pass this bill, before the problems get worse and the solutions get more costly.”

Rep. Collin Peterson

Rep. Collin Peterson has introduced a “disapproval resolution” in an attempt to stop the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating climate change emissions. Peterson said that “EPA bureaucrats” should not be put in charge of regulating greenhouse gases because it would harm the Minnesota’s ethanol industry. Environmental groups have dubbed Peterson’s bill the “Dirty Air Act.”

“The EPA is trying to use unwarranted regulatory action to go after greenhouse gas emissions without seeking Congressional approval,” Peterson said in a statement Friday. “The Clean Air Act was never meant to be used for this but they’re trying to do it anyway so Congress needs to act. Most everyone I’ve heard from about this thinks that elected officials — not EPA bureaucrats — should decide how to address our energy problems.”

Peterson introduced the resolution with Reps. Ike Skelton, D-Mo., and Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, R-Mo. The resolution is identical to one introduced by Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, which was crafted, according to the Washington Post, with the help of Bush-era EPA officials turned energy industry lobbyists.

The American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Environmental Health Network have come out in opposition to the resolution in a letter to the Senate (pdf).

Peterson’s resolution of disapproval would be a rare use of the Congressional Review Act of 1996 and would allow Congress to overturn EPA regulations.

Source: Wikipedia

The Conservation Minnesota Voter Center released its scorecard of Minnesota’s members of Congress on Monday. Delegation members were ranked for their votes on policies relating to clean energy, land conservation, environmental funding and offshore drilling, among others. Democratic Reps. James Oberstar and Betty McCollum scored 100 percent, as did Democratic Sens. Al Franken and Amy Klobuchar. While the state’s Republicans took the bottom four slots, Reps. Michele Bachmann and John Kline fared worst, each earning 0-percent scores.

Here’s how the members ranked (pdf):

Sens. Al Franken and Amy Klobuchar, 100%

Rep. Betty McCollum, 100%

Rep. Jim Oberstar, 100%

Rep. Keith Ellison, 93%

Rep.Tim Walz, 93%

Rep. Collin Peterson, 79%

Rep. Erik Paulsen, 21%

Rep. John Kline, 0%

Rep. Michelle Bachmann, 0%.

Reps. Ellison and Walz lost points for supporting (or not voting) on a water resources amendment pertaining to the San Francisco Bay. Rep. Paulsen supported a public lands protection bill, a water resources bill and legislation to protect an Oregon watershed.

“We know that the overwhelming majority of Minnesotans treasure our outdoors way of life, clean water and recreational land,” Paul Austin, director of the Conservation Minnesota Voter Center, said in a statement on Monday. “So it’s great to see strong support for these values from so many of our state’s members of Congress.”

“We hope voters will keep in mind how their members of Congress voted on conservation in 2009,” said Austin.

Asian Carp. Photo: Kate Gardiner, Flickr

A $78.5 million dollar federal plan to keep Asian carp from becoming established in the Great Lakes is drawing criticism from diverse groups that say the proposed temporary closure of the locks in Chicago area canals will disrupt the economy without stopping the spread of aquatic invaders.

The Chicago canal system that connects the Mississippi River system to the Great Lakes basin conveys much of the Chicago region’s petroleum, coal, road salt, cement, and iron, according to federal officials, along with 15,000 recreational boats and 900,000 passengers that travel through the locks on the system each year.

The canal system is also thought to be the route through which Asian Carp could enter — or perhaps already has entered — Lake Michigan. Asian carp have been designated a nuisance fish by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service because they can out compete other fish and dominate ecosystems. The Bighead carp can grow to 100lbs, and the Silverhead carp has been called a “live missile“ because it can jump several feet out of the water and has caused injuries to boaters. Many worry that these Asian carp, which have no natural predators in this region, could destroy Great Lakes fisheries and recreational boating if they become established in the lakes.

The draft Asian Carp Control Strategy Framework, released last week, includes short and long term action items that range from fish herding and poisoning to construction of new barriers, changes to the operations of the Chicago Sanitary and Shipping Canal and long term studies on the movement of invasive species between waterways.

At a hearing on this framework, convened last Friday by the EPA Office of the Great Lakes in Chicago, it became quickly apparent that the locks are the flashpoint in the growing national debate over how to respond to Asian carp.

Dozens of people from the Chicago and Indiana maritime industry — tugboat operators, tourism officials, and others — urged officials not to close the locks. They stressed that their livelihoods are at stake, that even the suggestion of temporary lock closures is endangering jobs in the region. Some also argued that the concerns over carp were vastly exaggerated and based on little information.

A new DNA testing technique called environmental DNA testing or eDNA, extracts fragments of DNA from water samples. EDNA sampling has found genetic material from the carp past the electric barrier and in a harbor of Lake Michigan, but only one actual fish has been found past the barrier, and e-DNA does not tell where the fish are or whether a breeding population has been established.

Some opponents of lock closure pointed out that Asian Carp were once found in Lake Erie, a fact corroborated by Charlie Wooley, deputy regional director of the US Fish and Wildlife Service. Though it is thought that there are no Asian Carp in Lake Erie now, no environmental DNA testing has been done to establish this. EDNA sampling has only been used around Chicago.

Several also warned that the locks, when closed, do not block the flow of water so fish can cross even when they are closed.

This is how the framework imagines the temporary lock closures:

Periods of non-operation would be synchronized with efforts by other agencies to take steps to suppress, eliminate, or reduce Asian carp populations that may be present in a target area of action. This concept envisions controlling the periods during which navigation traffic could pass through the locks, so that effective measures to attack Asian carp populations that may be present in the waterway could be taken.

The federal carp control framework states that a plan for how to change canal operations to minimize carp movement should be developed by early March for possible implementation by April 30.

Other actions that are either already taking place or are planned to begin by mid-May include using chemicals, electro fishing and netting against the carp in areas where eDNA has been found, more eDNA sampling, and the construction of barriers to keep fish from moving between the Des Plaines River and the Illinois and Michigan Canal into the Chicago waterway system.

The framework also calls for construction of a new electric barrier that will serve as a backup when the existing barrier is undergoing maintenance. Electric barriers combat the movement of the carp by feeding a low level electric current into the water.

John Rogner, assistant director of the Illinois Dept. of Natural Resources, said that members of his staff planned to use the current cold weather to hunt for Asian Carp around the warm water out flows in the canal system. He said that the DNR would hire commercial fishers to assist in finding and killing as many carp as possible.

Long term carp control ideas in the federal plan include developing a commercial market for carp to encourage people to catch them, exploring new types of barriers that use sound, lights and bubbles to repel fish as well as new biological and chemical controls.

Rogner said that his department planned to make sure that Chicago area bait shops are not inadvertently selling Asian carp minnows as bait.

Other long term action items involve investigating the possibility that freighter traffic may be spreading carp; disrupting the known large Asian carp populations in the rivers south of Chicago, and studying the possibility of creating a dead zone in the canal system by creating a low oxygen environment.

National Wildlife Fund regional executive director Andy Buchsbaum said that the federal carp framework was like a list of ingredients without a recipe and he called it “dramatically incomplete.”

“We need a true contingency plan, a lock by lock management plan that combines all these measures,” he said. “The framework proposes no long term solution, it just studies long term solutions.”

“Ecological separation is the clear solution.”

Tom Cmar, attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council said that Army Corps statements about the economic impacts of lock closure have indicated that the Corps is prejudiced against the possibility of permanent lock closure.

Ecological separation is only permanent reliable way to control the spread of carp, Cmar said. “We should not assume that we have no choice but to rely on a 19th century canal system.”

States, divided by their economic interests, continue to fight over how to best manage the carp.

The governor of Indiana announced on Feb. 12 that his state has decided to oppose the closure of the Chicago area locks. According to Rogner of the Illinois DNR, two of the five Chicago area canals that need to be modified are in Indiana.

Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen said that partial temporary lock closures are not acceptable and vowed to continue to fight for total closure.

“I am not moved that this is a solution at all. If this course of action is to be followed, there is little to stop the certain infestation and ruination of the Great Lakes by Asian carp. Further study and open locks is unacceptable.” Van Hollen said in a statement. “I have instructed our team here at Justice that our participation in the litigation will continue. The Great Lakes are not a koi pond for six foot flying fish that eat half their body weight every day.”

The state of Michigan, together with Wisconsin, Minnesota, Ohio and Pennsylvania have renewed a recently rejected request that the US Supreme Court grant an immediate order to close the locks of the Chicago waterway system until a method can be found to ensure that Asian carp don’t travel through the canal and enter Lake Michigan.

The Supreme Court has not yet indicated when or if it will consider the request.

Michigan Attorney General, Mike Cox, who is running for governor as a Republican, is using the carp fight to slam Obama.

Cox told FOX that the federal framework proves that President Obama will “do anything to protect the narrow interests of his home state of Illinois, even if it means destroying Michigan’s economy.”

Obama has dedicated more for the Great Lakes cleanup than any president. This years budget included $475 million budgeted for a range of projects including controlling invasive species, and the president has requested an additional $300 million for Great Lakes projects in the 2011 budget.

A mountaintop mine in West Virginia. Photo: Rick Eglinton, Toronto Star/ZUMA Press

Most of us take it for granted that when we flip the switch, the lights will go on. Sure, we write the electric company a monthly check, but otherwise lend no thought to the source of the power — like urban kids clueless that chicken originates someplace other than the freezer aisle of chain groceries.

But this month, an energetic author from the rugged, coal-laden hills of southern Illinois hopes to relay the message — utterly apropos in a country where coal generates nearly half the electricity — that a consequence of that national dependence is the outright decimation of the communities surrounding the mines.

Jeff Biggers, a civil rights activist and cultural historian, watched helplessly a dozen years ago as the hollers of Eagle Creek, Illinois — a corner of the Shawnee National Forest and his family’s home for roughly 200 years — were blasted away, the forested hills bulldozed under by companies intent on harvesting the lucrative coal seams beneath — a scene from Avatar playing out in real time.

“They’ve strip-mined your heritage,” Biggers’ uncle told him at the time.

The tragic episode launched Biggers on a decade-long examination of the history of the coal industry’s impact on local communities — not only the environmental imprint, but the effects on culture, health and family history as well. The result is “Reckoning at Eagle Creek — The Secret Legacy of Coal in the Heartland,” released last week, in which Biggers describes the industry’s utter disregard for everything standing between it and the coal it wants out of the ground. It’s an apt study as the Obama administration advances its “clean coal” agenda.

“The old pond, the four plum trees, the sorghum and cornfields, the garden, the barn, and the one-hundred-fifty-year-old log cabin were buried in a crater formed before the Paleozoic era,” Biggers writes of his family’s experience with strip mining. “But it wasn’t just our family history. It also included a thousand years of bones of the first natives in the region, the modern Shawnee encampments and farms, the pioneering squatters and homesteaders in our family, and the slave and coal miners in one of the first settlements in the nation’s heartland — all of which had been churned into dust in the race to strip-mine the area.”

All told, the miners hauled an estimated 960,000 tons of coal from his family’s property and the adjacent plots — “enough electricity to supply American demands for approximately four and a half hours,” Biggers writes. “That was the choice we made.”

The book isn’t all. Biggers has also adapted the story for the stage, taking the two-man show — “The Saudi Arabia of Coal” — on a 22-city tour that arrives this week at Busboys and Poets in Washington. The story — about a strip miner and his wife faced with losing their home to the very project providing their income — features Biggers and Stephanie Pistello, a community organizer with Appalachian Voices, a North Carolina-based environmental group. Both are products of Appalachia; both are grandchildren of coal miners. The driving force behind the play, Biggers said in a phone interview last week, was simple: “How do we bring strip mining to people who have never seen it?”

It’s a timely story. For all the scientific warnings about the warming effects of coal combustion, the White House continues to view the fossil fuel as central to the nation’s energy future. Indeed, President Obama last week announced the creation of a new “carbon capture” task force charged with developing new “clean coal” technologies. The administration hopes to have between five and 10 new commercial facilities featuring these advancements up and running by 2016.

“Even if you disagree on the threat posed by climate change,” Obama said, “investing in clean energy jobs and businesses is still the right thing to do for our economy.”

Obama was referring to coal processing, not extraction. But in the eyes of a growing number of environmentalists and human rights advocates, the administration’s alacrity to embrace coal — combined with the mixed signals from the Environmental Protection Agency on mining permits — likely means that coal communities will remain vulnerable to the ravages of strip mining for many years to come.

“We see this as a criminal activity,” Biggers said. “And if you recognize there’s criminal activity taking place, how can you minimize it [instead of banning it]? It’s their mentality that they can regulate this crime.”

Human rights activists are hoping that Congress will step in to eliminate the most destructive forms of strip mining, a method featuring the removal of all materials (rock, soil, trees, etc.) resting on top of the coal. (That contrasts with underground mining, in which tunneling allows the overlying land to remain intact.) Of particular concern in Appalachia is one type of strip mining, known as mountaintop removal, in which the peaks of mountains are blasted away and the debris pushed into adjacent valleys, many of which contain tiny streams representing the headwaters of much larger rivers below. Bipartisan bills introduced in both the Senate and the House would end mountaintop removal by prohibiting such dumping into active streams. There appears, however, to be little congressional appetite to challenge the powerful mining industry in a tough election year when unemployment remains near double digits.

“My miners and the folks who are working and those who are unemployed are very concerned about some of your policies,” West Virginia Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R) told Obama last month, referring in part to the EPA’s denial of some mountaintop permits. “In our minds, these are job-killing policies.”

At a much-watched debate on mountaintop mining in Charleston, W.Va., last month, Don Blankenship, president of Virginia-based Massey Energy, echoed Capito’s concerns. “The mission statement for coal is prosperity for this country,” Blankenship said. “This industry is what made this country great and if we forget that, we’re going to have to learn to speak Chinese.”

The adverse health effects associated with coal mining have, of course, been known for decades. Biggers’ grandfather was among the tens of thousands of miners to die of coal workers’ pneumoconiosis, or black lung disease. Though the cases of black lung are down considerably relative to historic highs, more than 10,000 American miners died of the disease in the last decade alone.

But health problems are only one part of coal’s dubious legacy, critics argue. Coal communities also suffer from poisoned streams, the noise pollution associated with blasting and the barrage of heavy machinery constantly lumbering along local streets. In short, they just aren’t great places to live.

“Over 1,200 miles of waterways had been sullied and jammed with mining fill,” Biggers writes of mountaintop mining’s effect on Appalachia. “Blasting and coal dust had made life unbearable for anyone in the strip-mined areas. Wells had been busted and polluted with toxic waste. … The history was clear: Coal was not cheap, and coal was not clean.”

Backing that argument, Forbes magazine last November deemed West Virginia — the second largest coal-producing state and a hot-bed of mountaintop removal sites — the worst state in the country to live, ranking it 50th in “well being,” “life evaluation,” and physical and emotional health. That’s no coincidence, says Biggers, contending that the tactics employed by the coal industry all but ensure that coal communities will be one-industry towns.

“As long as they keep those communities poor, they can continue to plunder Appalachia,” he said.

For all the wealth that Appalachia’s coal beds have brought to coal executives and corporate shareholders, the money isn’t exactly trickling down to local communities. Indeed, West Virginia ranks 49th in the country in per capita median income, according to the latest figures from the U.S. Census Bureau, with a median household income of $37,989 — well below the national median of $52,029. Only Mississippi families fare worse.

Coal critics say that the message is beginning to sink in among residents of coal towns. Although recent protests have featured the arrests of such prominent figures as actress Daryl Hannah and climate scientist James Hansen, Biggers says the backlash against strip mining is being led by locals fed up with seeing their communities decimated. “We’re all children and grandchildren of coal miners,” he said. “The only people defending coal companies are on their payroll.”

This charge could extend to Capitol Hill, where coal-country lawmakers — backed by considerable donations from the giants of the coal industry — have built careers defending those companies, usually in the name of creating jobs for their constituents.

It’s an argument, critics maintain, designed simply to insulate the industry from stricter regulations on tactics like mountaintop removal, which actually rely more on dynamite and heavy machinery than they do manual labor. Indeed, while U.S. coal production is at an all-time high, the number of mining jobs has dropped off considerably in recent decades. Just 25 years ago, coal mining employed more than 169,000 workers, according to the Energy Information Administration. In 2006, the figure had fallen below 83,000.

“If mountaintop removal disappeared tomorrow we would start creating jobs,” Biggers said, advocating for more sustainable projects. Community groups, for example, are hoping to thwart Massey’s plans to level West Virginia’s Coal River Mountain, pushing instead for a wind farm they say will sustain more jobs and bring in more tax revenue for the state — all without destroying one of the oldest mountains in the country.

Yet Biggers is also aware that numbers and statistics, whatever secrets they might reveal, can never be as persuasive as real stories of human suffering in the face of privation. His play, he hopes, will bring that tale — his tale — to audiences sitting hundreds, even thousands of miles from coal country.

“We all relate to the human story,” Biggers said. “We all relate to a sense of loss. Hopefully, this can change more minds than all the statistics I could rattle off.”

At the very least, he’s provided something to think about the next time we flip on the lights.

“The Saudi Arabia of Coal” is currently touring the East Coast; a Minneapolis stop, date to be announced, will follow the tour’s West Coast leg.

Mike Bonanno (left) and Andy Bichlbaum demonstrate the Survivaball

Long before college conservatives were planning videotaped ACORN stings or Tea Partiers were wielding copies of “Rules for Radicals,” The Yes Men were pioneering a form of much-copied culturejamming to lambaste greed and misdeeds by corporations and governments. By posing as bigwigs from the WTO, Halliburton, the Canadian government, and Dow Chemicals, among others — and fooling press outlets along the way — they shamed various institutions about everything from foot-dragging on climate change measures to the inaction in the wake of 1984’s Bhopal disaster. Now one of these legendary activists is headed our way for a discussion following a screening of the film, The Yes Men Fix the World.

Yes Men co-founder Mike Bonanno will be in Minneapolis this Friday, Feb. 12, at St. Anthony Main Oak Street Cinema — Survivaball and all — to launch a seven-day run of screenings.

Watch the trailer:

HERC. Photo: Paul Schmelzer, MnIndy

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) is requiring a new environmental review of Hennepin County’s plans to burn 212 more tons of garbage per day at its downtown Minneapolis incinerator.

Hennepin County has been seeking a permit for the increase by relying on an Environmental Impact Study (EIS) that was completed for the Minnesota Twins’ new Target Field across the street.

That raised concerns about health impacts beyond the ballpark last summer at the Minneapolis City Planning Commission and City Council, leading the incinerator’s private operator, Covanta, to withdraw its application for pull back on its pursuit of city approvals.

In September three citizens filed petitions for a new Environmental Assessment Worksheet (EAW) to specifically study increased burning at the Hennepin Energy Recovery Center (HERC).

“It looked like there were going to be ways for Covanta to circumvent the public process,” petitioner Justin Eibenholtzl told the Minnesota Independent.

Those petitions were pending in November when Covanta tried to get state approval via an MPCA administrative process that is reserved for changes so minor they require no public hearing. The MPCA turned back that effort.

Last month Covanta submitted a new application to the MPCA, triggering the agency’s examination of whether state law requires a mandatory EAW. It does, the MPCA decided.

The EAW will take an initial look at the effects of burning more municipal solid waste at the facility. Depending on what’s found, an EAW can lead to a more extensive EIS.

“The MPCA will be getting the EAW process under way shortly,” the MPCA wrote in a letter to the citizen-petitioners (pdfs: page one, page two).

The Minneapolis park board is planning to use $1.7 million in Metropolitan Council funds to buy a piece of Mississippi riverfront property from the family business of a Met Council member.

Met Council member Roger Scherer maintains a financial stake in Scherer Bros. Lumber Company company, though he retired as president and CEO 15 years ago. (His son, Peter, is now president.)

Scherer tells the Minnesota Independent that if the question of funding the purchase comes before the Met Council, he won’t vote on the matter, discuss it with fellow council members, or attend a meeting of the council’s Community Development Committee when it’s considered there.

That’s in keeping with state law governing conflicts of interest, according to Met Council spokesperson Bonnie Kollodge, who couldn’t recall an instance of council funds being used to buy property in which a member had a financial interest.

The 16 Met Council members are appointed by the governor. Roger Scherer is the longest-serving member, with 17 years’ service under three governors, all Republican.

Among other things, the Met Council has authority over transit, water and sewers, and regional parks in the Twin Cities metro area. Some Minneapolis parks have regional status and get money from the Met Council. The newest is known as Above the Falls, running along the Mississippi River from Plymouth Avenue just north of downtown to the city’s northern border. The park board, the Minneapolis City Council, and the Met Council approved a plan for Above the Falls that envisions a strip of riverfront parkland and a path at the Scherer Bros. location, just above Plymouth Ave. on the river’s east bank.

Scherer Bros. Lumber Company, which ceased operations at its Northeast Minneapolis yard on Dec. 31 (pdf), has been trying to sell the 13.84-acre property since at least last summer. A prospective buyer for part of the property lost interest in the fall. That’s when park board staff — who had been called in on the earlier deal due to the park board’s interest in land along the river and for a path — say they began to pursue purchase of the entire property (pdf).

The park board had negotiated an easement for a strip of land along the river with the industrial property owner immediately upstream but was unable to do so with Scherer Bros., according to minutes from the Above the Falls Citizen Advisory Committee (pdf).

At its final 2009 meeting — and the last meeting for four of nine commissioners who didn’t win or seek re-election – the park board voted to pursue the deal. The proposal hadn’t come via the usual committee process and there was no price tag attached. However, at the Dec. 16 meeting (video, starts at 1:41), Commissioner Jon Olson cited an appraisal’s “reasonable price” of $650,000 per acre, which would put the total cost for the entire site at nearly $9 million.

One park commissioner, Annie Young, abstained from the vote, citing pollution concerns. Park board planner Judd Reitkerk assured her that environmental studies had found no vermiculite, a material that in local stockpiles was tainted with asbestos, prompting massive cleanups in Northeast Minneapolis — including at the park board’s own Gluek Park only a mile upstream.

But the studies of the Scherer Bros. site show that asbestos was indeed found on the property (pdf).

A purchase agreement, including payment of $400,000 in earnest money to Scherer Bros., was supposed to be completed by the end of December. But that’s been stalled by confusion over who, if anyone, owns part of the property’s river frontage. (A triangular piece of land, possibly a result of infilling or sedimentation, comprises almost half the property’s length along the river, but isn’t included with the Scherer Bros. title.)

The company offered to finance the deal over four years at 3.25 percent interest, according to park board staff, who said other possible sources of money included the state’s new Legacy fund. The $400,000 payment, refundable if the sale falls through, would come from proceeds from the sale of parkland downstream to the Minnesota Department of Transportation for the new I-35W bridge.

Plans are for the park board to take a final vote on the deal within 90 days of the signing of the purchase agreement. The Met Council spokesperson says they haven’t yet received an application for funds for the project.

Why buy nearly a nearly-14-acre lumber industrial site — complete with buildings and parking lots, “mostly concrete, ” as described by Cristof Traudes in the Downtown Journal — if the park plan calls only for a strip of riverfront and a recreational path?

“Their interest is in selling the entire property,” Reitkerk told the park board at the Dec. 16 meeting, and the Scherer Bros. Lumber Company wanted the deal done by Dec. 31. He termed it “a friendly purchase.”

Source: Wikipedia

Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson has added Minnesota’s support to a lawsuit by the state of Michigan against the state of Illinois to force the closure of a canal connecting the Mississippi River to Lake Michigan. Unless the canal is closed, Asian carp will make their way into the Great Lakes and eventually Minnesota inland lakes, rivers and stream. The lawsuit will be heard by the U.S. States Supreme Court on Thursday.

“If they invade the Great Lakes, they will have access to the rivers and tributaries that feed into the Great Lakes, thereby threatening inland waters,” Swanson said in a brief to the high court. “This would be extremely destructive to Minnesota’s economy and way of life, where inland fishing is an important recreational and economic pursuit. Indeed, Minnesota is known as ‘The Land of 10,000 Lakes,’ and the recreational fishing in Minnesota alone is a $2.725 billion per year industry.”

The carp are invasive and reproduce rapidly, crowding out native fish. They also startle easily and have injured boaters when they jump out of the water.

Illinois constructed an electric barrier on the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal to keep the fish out of Lake Michigan, but in November researchers found evidence of the fish above the barrier. That leaves only one lock and dam between the carp and the lake. Two weeks ago, Michigan filed suit to close that lock.

But business interests are fighting back. The Illinois Chamber of Commerce said that the closure of the canal will mean $500 million in expenses as grains, coal and petroleum have to be shipped on highways instead of the cheaper barges.

“There’s no monetary comparison to an ecosystem,” Swanson told the Christian Science Monitor. “They’re an American treasure. Once you contaminate them with Asian carp, that treasure is jeopardized and can’t be changed. You can’t pay Michigan or Ohio or Minnesota enough money to ruin the Great Lakes.”

Here’s a video of the carp jumping out of the water and onto boaters:

Source: Wikipedia

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, and Reps. Tim Walz and Jim Oberstar each earned a 100-percent rating from Environment Minnesota in a year-end congressional scorecard published last week. Rep. Erik Paulsen scored the lowest among Minnesota’s member of Congress with a rating of 17 percent.

“We applaud Senator Klobuchar, and Representatives Oberstar and Walz for being environmental champions,” Environment Minnesota Program Director Ken Bradley in a statement Thursday. “With the help of these Congress people, the 111th Congress is making progress in several key areas. Already the House of Representatives has passed a bill to begin to repower the country with clean energy and limit global warming pollution.”

Walz responded to Environment Minnesota’s scorecard, “Green jobs that cannot be outsourced are a major part of our economic recovery and I am proud to have voted for legislation during 2009 that will preserve and protect our environment for future generations while also creating good jobs here at home,” he said. “I am honored to be recognized and look forward to continuing to work with Environment Minnesota as we pursue a healthier economy and environment in 2010.”

Reps. Keith Ellison and Betty McCollum each scored 93 percent. The urban duo voted against the Great Lakes Compact, but not because they oppose the idea of protecting the lakes from pollution; both said the bill was too weak and that their votes were in protest of a compromised bill.

Blue Dog Democrat Rep. Collin Peterson scored 87 percent. Reps. Michele Bachmann and John Kline got 20 percent each. Their votes for the Great Lakes Compact, The Great Lakes Legacy Act and The Saving Energy Through Public Transportation Act kept the conservative duo out of the group’s “Natural Disasters” list of legislators with a zero score.

Rep. Erik Paulsen score could’ve been lower had he not voted for the Omnibus Public Lands Management Act, which added federal protection to 2 million acres of wilderness.

“He has not followed in the footsteps of his predecessor Jim Ramstad, who consistently represented the interests of his district and voted with the environment over his nearly twenty years of service,” Bradley said.

Sen. Al Franken was not seated when the majority of the votes that Environment Minnesota tracks were taken. The only vote that was tracked, Franken voted with the interests of Environment Minnesota.