Make a Difference - Fight to Win!

Howard Learner, Executive Director of the Environmental Law and Policy Institute, was the keynote speaker at the annual meeting.  He told us that the Great Lakes states were critical to the election of Donald Trump, and in his first 100 days he has declared war on clean, safe water.   21% of the world’s fresh water supply and drinking water for more than 42 million people are found in the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River.  Water quality here is essential.  (In this video, Howard Learner is introduced by Dan Breeden from WXOW TV in La Crosse.)
 
We need to communicate that safe, clean water is not a partisan issue; we need to communicate this to members of Congress, the White House, our state legislatures.  It is a basic human right to breath clean air and drink clean water.  

Here's a summary of Howard's remarks, check the video at the second marks indicated to watch it.

6:00 What do we need to do to make a difference?  First, we need to be here to play to win.  We are not fighting the good fight, we are playing to win. 
 
8:30  Facts:  To better understand what Trump voters think about water, the Environmental Law and Policy Center hired Ann Selzer from the Des Moines poll to conduct research in key areas of Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Iowa and Indiana.  Focus groups were asked about their priorities in general and about the environment in particular.
 

1.  People care a lot about jobs.
2. There was an attraction to Donald Trump as an agent of change, and a dissatisfaction with Secretary Clinton; people did not find her an attractive candidate
3. Most important environmental issue:
   1. Water!  Flint water supply problems, Enbridge pipeline spill in Kalamazoo, Toledo algae problems, boil orders in Iowa
   2. Water!  Recreation on water is very important to people.  Issues like non-swimmable water and fish contaminated with mercury are seen as a problem.
   3. Notably, these beliefs were held about equally by Republicans and Democrats, by men and women.
4. What about regulations for clean water?  People saw this as common sense, there needs to be rules to govern what can be discharged to protect downstream users.  There was no support for getting rid of EPA, no support for rolling back all regulations. 

  
12:50  What did we learn from the focus groups?   Howard outlined the threats to our clean water regulatory framework from the Trump administration.   Why are they doing this?  He’s sure they are doing survey work too that shows people don’t’ support these changes.  This is an area where we need to fight back and win. 
 
15:30  Pushback on these issues is effective, and needs to be relentless and consistent.  Here’s how we can win:
 

1.  Litigation is very important.  We need to bring suits in the public interest to keep government following their rules and our nation’s laws.  The best defense is a good offense.  ELPC is bringing law suits to require EPA to enforce their rules. 
2. We need to activate people.  People who care about water and the environment need to go to town hall meetings, write letters to the editor and contact their elected officials.  New tools for citizen monitoring make it possible for people to monitor air quality in real time; this will help groups like ELPC to identify problems and activate people to engage and take action. 
3. Think globally and act locally.  We need to find state and local allies in this effort; we have seen that cities are willing to step up and make good clean energy decisions.  Also, individuals are embracing new technology and cleaner energy technologies; they will not be willing to step back to older inefficient technology. 

 
24:50  Trump’s voters don’t agree with the war on water quality that the Trump administration has declared.  We will need to litigate cases to fight this war, we need to use new technology to activate people to take action on problems in their neighborhoods and we need to work with state and local allies to push back against the roll back of regulations and the push to tie the hands of environmental regulators.
 
26:00  What are we going to do about climate change?  About 2/3 of Americans believe that climate change is real and are concerned about what it means for them.  We need to fight for cleaner energy and cleaner transportation.  The Midwest states have already done a lot to reduce air pollution – all states in the ELPC area are way ahead in implementing the Clean Power Plan; both Minnesota and Iowa are already fully in compliance and the rest are making excellent progress more rapidly than required. 
 
30:00 – We are not here to be ‘at the table’, we are not hear to ‘fight the good fight’.  We are here to win!
 

What do you think about Howard's comments?  Do you have questions for Howard?  Make a comment here!