Vance could be game-changing Great Lakes advocate

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The new “golden age” promised by Donald Trump in his inaugural speech Monday ought to include a commitment to finish cleaning up the Great Lakes.

Fortunately, a prominent advocate for doing so, JD Vance, was also sworn in Monday — as our new vice president. The former senator from Ohio should use his powerful perch to enlist Trump and Congress in a noble cause: reauthorizing the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI).

Congress launched this historic effort in 2010. Since then it has powered remarkable progress in cleaning up legacy pollution from industry practices predating modern environmental protections. Minnesotans can see the results for themselves in Duluth, where citizens celebrated last summer the opening of a new waterfront recreation area on the site of a former U.S. Steel operation.

But the GLRI requires periodic reauthorization to ensure its mission and funding continue. Right now, the initiative will expire next year unless lawmakers act.

Congress had been on track late last year to extend the GLRI through 2031, providing around $475 million in annual funding. In early December, the reauthorization bill cleared the U.S. Senate. Unfortunately, it stalled in the U.S. House and didn’t pass before the session’s end, a scenario I worried about when I wrote about the GLRI previously (“A bipartisan push for Great Lakes cleanup,” Strib Voices, Dec. 8).

But there’s still reason to be optimistic about the GLRI’s future. Rep. David Joyce, an Ohio Republican whose district includes a stretch of Lake Erie shoreline, has made it clear that reauthorization is a top priority.

Commendably, he’s already introduced a new reauthorization bill. It’s drawn an early, impressive bipartisan group of 28 cosponsors, 11 of them Republicans and 17 of them Democrats.

Among those who have signed on: Republican Rep. Pete Stauber, who represents Minnesota’s Eighth Congressional District. Stauber cosponsored the previous bill. With a district that includes Duluth and an iconic stretch of Lake Superior shoreline, it reflects well on him and Minnesota that he’s at the forefront of the reauthorization fight.

Another member of the state’s congressional delegation, Democratic Rep. Angie Craig, also cosponsored last year’s reauthorization legislation. She is not listed yet as cosponsoring the new bill, but her office said this week that she plans to do so.

A Senate companion bill for Joyce’s legislation is in the works and is expected to be introduced soon. Minnesota’s two senators, Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith, cosponsored the last reauthorization and remain committed to the Great Lakes cleanup.

“Lake Superior is the world’s largest freshwater lake and connects Minnesotans and our goods to global markets. It’s an integral part of Minnesota’s culture and history and a major driver of our economy, especially across the Northland,” Smith said in a statement this week, adding that she “will work hard to pass it.”

Klobuchar is on board, too. “In Minnesota, the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative has cleaned up the pollution at Munger Landing in Duluth, restored important fish spawning habitat in the Saint Louis River, and created opportunities for outdoor recreation. I will keep working across the aisle to reauthorize the initiative so this important work can continue,” she said in a statement Wednesday.

The GLRI bill is an opportunity in a bitterly divided era to find common ground and take action that will benefit generations to come. That works in theory, but getting a bill passed, even one with clear benefits and bipartisan backing, is always a challenge when there’s so many other issues competing for lawmakers' attention.

That’s where Vance could be a game changer. The nation’s second highest office also comes with a bully pulpit, and this would be a fine place for Vance to wield it.

Vance certainly has the expertise necessary. He has served as co-chair of the Senate Great Lakes Task Force and his interest is understandable. Ohio is home to four “areas of concern” (AOC) — sites where there is significant environmental degradation from long ago industrial practices.

One of them, the Ashtabula River site, was “delisted” in 2021 after significant remediation, a testament to the progress powered by the GLRI. Another, the Black River AOC, is poised to be delisted in the very near future.

Failing to reauthorize the GLRI could imperil progress on the Black River site and the remaining AOCs in Ohio. Minnesota’s one AOC, the St. Louis River estuary, has also made substantial progress toward delisting, an achievement that could be on track early in the next decade and must not be derailed.

Extending the bill wouldn’t just benefit Ohio or Minnesota. AOCs are scattered throughout the region. The GLRI has spurred real progress after decades of inaction on this legacy pollution. Delisting all sites should be a moral imperative when these inland seas provide drinking water for millions.

Vance’s sales pitch should include the GLRI’s economic benefits, as well.

“The lakes directly generate more than 1.5 million jobs and $60 billion in wages annually,” the Great Lakes Commission reports. ”The lakes provide the backbone for a $6 trillion regional economy that would be one of the largest in the world if it stood alone as a country. Recreation on the Great Lakes — including world-renown boating, hunting and fishing opportunities — generate more than $52 billion annually for the region.”

The GLRI also provides praiseworthy flexibility to states and stakeholders to tailor solutions for their area, including enlisting private sector partnerships.

The GLRI is a government program that works but there’s still much work to do. Vance was a powerful advocate for it in the Senate. He could — and should — be even more influential in his new role. Continuing this work would be praiseworthy and historic public service.