EPA chief coming to Detroit, says Trump is serious about helping Great Lakes
Todd Spangler
WASHINGTON — After three years of threatening to gut a Great Lakes restoration program, President Donald Trump's administration says it's serious about embracing it.
Andrew Wheeler, the head of Trump's Environmental Protection Agency, will be in Detroit for events Tuesday, including one on Belle Isle, where he will outline about $10 million for Michigan-specific projects and a five-year commitment toward the overall Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI).
That commitment comes with promises to monitor and combat invasive species including Asian carp; to work with farmers to lower pollution runoff that can cause algal blooms that, in the past, have resulted in drinking water systems to be shut off around Lake Erie; and to restore habitats affected by pollution and development.
Wheeler, who is also speaking to the Detroit Economic Club on Tuesday, told the Free Press that he has commitments from the White House and the Office of Management and Budget that the $300 million GLRI won't be on the chopping block again.
"We are fully committed to it," he said. "I'm originally from Ohio. ... I believe I'm the only EPA administrator to ever go swimming in the Great Lakes. I have absolute love and respect for the Great Lakes and I want to make sure that we get them restored. ... President Trump is fully committed."
U.S. Rep. Dan Kildee, D-Flint Township, said after some of the actions taken or proposed by the Trump administration, Michiganders shouldn't believe it was now committed to taking strong steps to improve the environment.
“Actions speak louder than words. Sadly, Administrator Wheeler is trying to mask the Trump administration's terrible environmental record. It takes a lot of nerve to fly into Michigan and celebrate Great Lakes programs that the Trump administration previously tried to eliminate," Kildee said.
Trump had threatened to ax the program before
For nearly a decade, the GLRI has been funding programs to reduce pollution runoff into the Lakes, restore wildlife habitat and water quality and attempt to control the spread of invasive species.
But after coming into office in January 2017, Trump targeted the program for either elimination or drastic cutbacks as his administration looked for budget cuts. This year, he called for slashing all but $30 million from the $300 million program.
Since the program enjoys widespread support in both political parties, gutting it was never likely to happen. But then after years of taking hits for proposing to cut it, Trump, in March — just weeks after saying again that he'd cut it — went before a Grand Rapids rally, promising to fund it and making it sound as though he had always been supportive of the program.
It wasn't lost on anyone, however, that Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania are the three states that Trump won — barely — in order to win his election in 2016 and that all three border the Great Lakes.
EPA is granting millions in cleanup funds in southeastern Michigan
At a news conference at 9:30 a.m. on Detroit's Belle Isle, Wheeler plans to announce a series of specific grants for projects in and around Detroit and the rest of Michigan, including:
- $2.2 million to restore Tamarack Creek in and around Southfield and Johnson Creek around Northville.
- $380,000 for Wayne County to design habitat restoration projects in and around the Rouge River.
- $3.7 million for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources to restore the natural water flow through low-lying forest on Belle Isle.
- $815,500 to restore wetlands in Seeley Creek in Oakland County.
- $3.5 million for the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy to continue restoration work at a dozen habitat sites around the state.
But Wheeler is also trumpeting the administration's overall Great Lakes action plan, which sets goals for taking steps at hundreds of sites where environmental concerns affect fish or wildlife populations or water quality.
It also calls for continuing to sample for invasive species around the Great Lakes and to conduct field testing of methods to control their spread. In terms of working to reduce pollution runoff into the Great Lakes, Wheeler said the agency is trying to improve voluntary programs or technological solutions rather than tougher regulations.
"In the past, the EPA has kind of tried to take a hammer in dealing with the farmers instead of working cooperatively with them," he said. "So I think what the action plan does is highlight some of those activities where we're we're trying to work to make sure that the agriculture community is reducing the nutrient loading and it identifies that as a problem."
Wheeler will address fuel standards before Economic Club
Although it's unlikely to come up during the Belle Isle event, while in Detroit, the EPA administrator is expected to discuss the Trump administration's efforts to overturn a waiver that allows California and several other states to set mile-per-gallon standards for cars and light trucks.
California and other states have already moved to take legal action but Wheeler told the Free Press on Monday that he hopes to clear up what he sees as the administration's position.
"What I intend to do is try to clear up a lot of the misperceptions that are out there," he said.
Specifically, Wheeler said that while the Clean Air Act allows California to apply for a waiver that allows it to set fuel standards based on health reasons, carbon dioxide emissions are not considered a health-based pollutant under the law.
Environmentalists and their Democratic allies, however, have pledged to continue fighting for the waiver, pointing to evidence that higher fuel standards cut pollutants that harm public health. Meanwhile, the Trump administration has also taken aim at Dearborn-based Ford — along with BMW, Honda and Volkswagen — which have attempted to reach agreements with California for fuel standards.
Wheeler said he still expects a new rule on fuel standards by year's end. The administration has been talking for some time about freezing or otherwise lowering standards put in place under former President Barack Obama which required mile-per-gallon standards to increase each year.
The Trump administration has argued that those more aggressive targets are costing consumers more while not resulting in large-enough cuts in pollutants blamed for climate change and health effects, a position vehemently disputed by environmentalists.
"At the end of the day, our proposal should get more new cars (sold)," Wheeler said, adding that few automakers are currently meeting fleet-wide fuel standards. "It's what the American public, the buying public, wants ... (And) I think, the automobile companies, of course, want to have the public perception as being very green. I understand that. But they also want to sell new cars."
Read more:
President Trump returns to Michigan, says he'll fund Great Lakes effort
Contact Todd Spangler:tspangler@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter@tsspangler. Read more onMichigan politics and sign up for ourelections newsletter.