For at least the past 50 years, the Great Lakes states have been losingcongressional seats after every major census. As the Great Lakes RadioConsortium’s Lester Graham reports… some environmentalists arepredicting that the latest losses could be especially bad for theenvironment:
Transcript
For at least the past 50 years, the Great Lakes states have been losing
congressional seats after every major census. As the Great Lakes Radio
Consortium’s Lester Graham reports… some environmentalists are predicting
that the latest losses could be especially bad for the environment.
The eight states in the Great Lakes region will lose a total of nine seats
in the House of Representatives in the 2002 elections. The loss of
political clout could mean the region will lose federal money. One leading
environmentalist says the long-term damage could be even worse than that.
Keith Schneider is with the michigan land use institute. He says the votes
the Great Lakes region is losing will go to other areas.
“You know, it tranfers to the fast growing regions of the
country, particularly the southwest and the south and those areas tend to be
very conservative republicans and conservative republicans have been really,
really bad on the environment over the last 20 years.”
Although the population is growing in this region, the transfer of nine
seats in the house from the Great Lakes states to the sun-belt is the result
of even faster population growth in the south and southwest.
For the GLRC, this is Lester Graham.