Great Lakes Law

One win in the courts, one loss on the ground in the fight against invasives in the Great Lakes

There’s been some good news/bad news in the fight against invasive species in the Great Lakes the past few weeks. Let’s get the bad news out of the way first – a 19-pound Asian carp was found near the shore of Lake Michigan, past the navigation lock that the Supreme Court refused to close despite a legal challenge by Michigan and most other Great Lakes states. We knew that Asian carp would inevitably reach the... Read more →

The BP Gulf blowout and energy policy

If any good comes from the BP Gulf oil blowout, it will be a serious effort to reform America’s energy policy and reduce our dependence on oil. President Obama connected the disaster to the need for a modern energy policy that ends our dependence on oil in his first national address from the Oval Office last week. PBS NewsHour has great online coverage of the President’s address, annotating the text of the speech with comments... Read more →

The BP Gulf blowout - environmental law and political posturing

I’ll be on FOX Business Network today discussing the likely legal actions in the BP Gulf oil blowout and providing some commentary on the political response from Washington (to view video, cleck here). Earlier this week, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced that the federal government has launched civil and criminal investigations (see this coverage from the Wall Street Journal with my reaction), but the Attorney General was frustratingly vague on specifics. Here’s my short... Read more →

No new coal plants in Michigan

The tide has clearly turned against building massive and expensive new coal fired power plants in Michigan. While all forms of energy generation have environmental impacts, coal plants present numerous risks for Great Lakes water, including mercury pollution, coal ash impoundment leaks and spills, and enormous water intakes and discharges. But the real issue is need – expert studies have shown that we don’t need more electricity from coal, given the opportunities in energy efficiency,... Read more →