Robert Kennedy Jr. for the Great Lakes?

Richard Baumer: Sunrise Over Snake Island ~Enlarge

Following a presidential election the attenton immediately shifts to speculation about who will fill the new president's cabinet. It's an interesting exercise as names surface, many times as a trial balloon, cautious levels of interest or disinterest are expressed, and finally a selection is made.  

2008 was no different and during the post-election process many in the Great Lakes community were focused on who would get the top job at the USEPA. Interestingly, one prominently mentioned name was that of Robert Kennedy Jr. of Kennedy clan fame and environmental activism notoriety.

Kennedy has worked for decades on behalf of the environment starting in 1984 where he engaged in Hudson River protection. His primary emphasis has been in taking legal action against polluters and he is also known to be outspoken, not always concerned about who may be offended by what he says and does.

I immediately became excited with the possibility of Kennedy calling the shots at the EPA. I wasn't sure he'd be the best Administrator overall, but I felt the agency needed a name that would draw attention to our environmental problems and more importantly, it needed someone who wasn't necessarily going to stay within approved norms of conduct.

I wanted someone who was going to put people, action, and results before process and protocol. A leader who would disrupt cozy agency/industry relationships and who would challenge politicians when they do little but take a lot of credit. Kennedy could have been the perfect antidote to the "get along" culture that pervades.

Alas, Kennedy wasn't chosen. The top environmental job went to Lisa Jackson from New Jersey who, from what I can tell from afar, is probably a competent administrator but is unlikely to stray too far outside the lines. And maybe that's the way her boss wants it.

Oh well, an opportunity lost.

Fast forward to last week and a statement from Ohio governor Ted Strickland and his Attorney General Richard Cordray concerning the Asian Carp crisis, that by the way, has been in the fore far longer than the gulf oil disaster.

As reported by Lee Berquist in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Strickland and Cordray called for the president to "...appoint a new position designated to preserving the Great Lakes with authority to manage the invasive fish across many agencies and states."

They continued that the appointee should be "someone of the caliber of environmentalists Robert F. Kennedy Jr. or Christine Todd Whitman, a former EPA Administrator."

When I read the statement, especially concerning Kennedy, my interest was renewed.

You see, the Asian Carp invasion has been 17 years in the making and a crisis since last November. Yes, there were a few fish kills and a bureaucratic coordinating committee that consisted (or still consists) of various federal and state agencies.

Politicians said all the right things depending on their geography but other than the fish kills and checking some bait shops, not much happened. The eDNA science was allowed to be discounted, the executive branch sided with Illinois and the Army Corps against the other Great Lakes states before the Supreme Court, and business exercised its considerable influence to maintain the status quo.

Meanwhile, the carp are no longer knocking on Lake Michigan's door, they're pushing it open.

I have to wonder if that would be the case if Kennedy or someone like him had been in charge.

Would he have challenged the federal and state of Illinois power structures when they did basically nothing despite calls for action from the other states and provinces in the Great Lakes region?

Would he have advised the president to tell his Solicitor General to support the seven other Great Lakes states instead of Illinois and the Army Corps before the Supreme Court?  

I suspect so.

Great Lakes governance today consists of multiple federal agencies, commissions, councils, and collaborations. A new law working its way through the legislative process proposes advisory councils consisting of, agencies, commissions, councils, and collaborations. It totals 46 advisors.

I'd trade all of that bureaucracy for one Kennedy-type leader who wouldn't be afraid to challenge the status quo. Someone who would tell the Army Corps to get its tail in gear on a Great Lakes/Mississippi separation study.

A leader who would challenge Toledo's First Energy on its massive fish kills.

Someone who would personally go to southwest Detroit and stand with the people of Zip Code 48217 - for decades, Michigan's most polluted area.

It would be messy and that type of action would bruise a few political and corporate egos, not to mention ruffling the feathers of a few agency heads. But it has to be more effective than the process driven Great Lakes governance we have now, and I'm talking about more than carp.

So kudos to Ohio Governor Strickland. I don't know what his environmental record is but I give him credit for deviating from the script.  

I'd love to see RFK Jr. throw a few sharp elbows around the Great Lakes region.

We need a catalyst for real change, not more bureaucracy.

gw