Tag: environmental incentives

Feds Invest to Stop Invasives Threat

Emergency money is being spent to stop an exotic invader. Some experts think the Asian carp could be a ecological disaster for Lake Michigan. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mike Simonson reports on recent measures to stop the fish:

Transcript

Some emergency money is being spent to stop an exotic invader. Some
experts think the Asian Carp could be a ecological disaster for Lake
Michigan. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mike Simonson reports
on measures to stop the fish:


The only thing keeping the Asian Carp from leaving the Mississippi River
system and entering Lake Michigan through a canal is an electrical barrier.
That barrier repels the fish, but a power outage could shut off the barrier, and
allow the carp to enter the Great Lakes.


The International Joint Commission and three federal agencies, including the
Environmental Protection Agency, put together 300-thousand dollars for a
back-up power source.


Tracy Mehan with the EPA says it’s important to act quickly.


“It’s a modest investment with a huge payoff in terms of avoiding, yet
another scourge to the Great Lakes fisheries. We’ve got 160 exotic species
that weren’t here in the last century and we didn’t need another one
especially something with such a high impact as the Asian Carp can have.”


Asian Carp grow up to 4-feet long and 100 pounds. They eat native fish,
and have no predator in this part of the world.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Mike Simonson.

Canadians Prepare for Kyoto Protocol

Canadians are being asked to take public transportation and turn down the heat as Canada prepares to ratify the Kyoto Protocol on climate change. From Ottawa, the Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Karen Kelly has more:

Transcript

Canadians are being asked to take public transportation and turn down the heat as Canada
prepares to ratify the Kyoto Protocol on climate change. From Ottawa, Karen Kelly has
more:


Each Canadian is being asked to reduce personal greenhouse gas emissions by 20-percent
over the next decade to help Canada meet its Kyoto target.


It will require Canada as a whole to reduce its emissions by about a third.


To help meet that goal, the government will provide incentives for Canadians to buy
more fuel-efficient cars and to better insulate their homes.


Natural Resources Minister Herb Dhaliwal says Canada needs everyone’s participation.


“This is a very small step to a very long journey and we have to make sure we get
everybody engaged at all levels – consumers, government, industry.”


The federal government plans to ratify the accord by the end of year.


But it faces tough opposition from industry and the provinces.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Karen Kelly.

BUSH’S CLEAN WATER ACT CHANGES QUESTIONED

An environmental group is taking issue with a Bush Administration proposal to change the Clean Water Act. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Jonathan Ahl reports:

Transcript

An environmental group is taking issue with a Bush Administration proposal to change
the Clean Water Act. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Jonathan Ahl reports:


The Bush Administration is considering removing non-navigable rivers,
adjacent wetlands, and headwaters from the protections of the Clean Water Act. Ed
Hopkins is a senior lobbyist for the Sierra Club. He says that change would create major
problems for the waters still covered by the act:


“If you allow the headwaters rivers to be polluted or to be filled in for development of
one kind or another it is certainly going to have an effect on the downstream areas.
Those downstream rivers are going
to get dirtier.”


Hopkins says the Clean Water Act will become nearly useless if this change goes though.
The Bush Administration has announced its intent to seek the change, but has not
formalized the proposal or started the process to change the Clean Water Act.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Jonathan Ahl.