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McCain will protect Great Lakes
By REP Membership and Development Director Rob Sisson—a former mayor of Sturgis, MI, and recipient of a 2008 Michigan Environmental Leadership Award—published by the Traverse City (MI) Record Eagle on October 1, 2008

One of the most pressing issues facing our next president is restoration and protection of the Great Lakes.

Holding 20 percent of the world's freshwater supply, the lakes are a global strategic asset and a key to our national security. They will be the basis of our regional economy for the next century.

Both of the candidates for president have pledged to sign the Great Lakes Collaboration Implementation Act.

Sen. Obama even promised an additional $5 billion to help protect the Great Lakes. Unfortunately, Mr. Obama makes promises like that at every campaign stop.

According to the L.A. Times, he has promised more than $130 billion in new spending. With unfathomable budget deficits, most reasonable people will agree that Mr. Obama's promises are as shallow as Lake St. Clair.

John McCain has a proven record of environmental stewardship. He led the way in protecting 3.5 million acres of land in Arizona, protecting our national parks, protecting rivers and trails, and in many other actions.

He's been emphatic that Great Lakes states should control Great Lakes water.

In 2006, the National Park Trust gave Mr. McCain its highest honor. They said, "Like President Theodore Roosevelt, John McCain's conservation legacy is diverse and meaningful."

In 2003, while Sen. Obama was casting 140 "present" votes in the Illinois State Senate, Sen. McCain introduced the first major bill to focus on climate change.

Once a skeptic, he has led expeditions to the Arctic, Antarctica and Greenland to fact-find for himself.

Sen. Susan Collins, after returning from one of these trips with Mr. McCain said, "When he tackles a problem, he does not let go until he has identified a plan for solving it."

Sen. McCain also understands the reality of our nation's financial situation.

He's been a stalwart ally of taxpayers for two decades. He has not earmarked one dollar in 20 years. Sen. Obama's earmarks, on the other hand, have averaged just under $1 million per day over the course of his three-year Senate career.

In order to fund Great Lakes restoration and protection, we must first end reckless and wasteful spending that feeds the re-election hopes of most members of Congress. McCain knows that delaying action on the Great Lakes will only ratchet up the cost.

He also knows that funding the legislation can provide a $60 billion benefit to our regional economy.

Twelve years ago, John McCain authored a column in the New York Times titled, "Nature is Not a Liberal Plot." He stated: "Have Republicans abandoned their roots as the party of Theodore Roosevelt, who maintained that government's most important task is to leave posterity a land in better condition than they received it?

"The answer must be no. Our nation's continued prosperity hinges on our ability to solve environmental problems and sustain natural resources on which we all depend."

President John McCain will leave restoration of the Great Lakes as one of his great legacies.

Conservation, for him, is a moral imperative, not a campaign promise.