GOP group joins push for climate legislation

Just when you thought climate legislation had been iced, along comes a group of Republicans trying to jump-start it.

Republicans for Environmental Protection and the Truman National Security Project announced this month that they have co-launched a $3 million television and Internet advertising campaign in Ohio, Michigan, and 14 other states calling on Congress to "stop bickering" and pass bipartisan legislation. See youtube.com/watch?v=YxEoX0-6N48.

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not claiming Republicans for Environmental Protection represents the GOP's platform. But let's see …

John McCain. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Lindsey Graham. A growing number of industry execs, including those who belong to the U.S. Climate Action Partnership and the Ohio Business Council for a Clean Economy.

There are actually people other than Al Gore who believe it's time for climate legislation.

"The energy-related challenges and opportunities facing our nation require balanced solutions, not political gamesmanship. Republican lawmakers need to show that they recognize that and rise to the occasion to support this much-needed legislation," said David Jenkins, Republicans for Environmental Protection's vice president for government and political affairs.

Something to Do Wednesday: The Ohio Lake Erie Commission is hosting its quarterly meeting starting at 10 a.m. in the University of Toledo's Lake Erie Center on Bay Shore Road in Oregon, a stone's throw from Lake Erie.

Dave Knight of the Great Lakes Commission will discuss potential uses for silt dredged from the Maumee River and Maumee Bay to keep the Toledo shipping channel open. Toledo's harbor is the Great Lakes region's most heavily dredged because of its shallowness. Most of the sediment gets redeposited into the lake, a practice that area officials have been trying to get the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to phase out for years.

The Ohio Lake Erie Commission isn't a household name, but it's an important panel because it comprises directors from each of the state's governmental agencies. It administers a lot of the state's research grant money for the lake.

Singing a Wonderful Warbler's Praises: Many of us, myself included, will be traveling to northern Michigan this summer. If you're so inclined, look for a Michigan Historical Marker recently placed at a rest area just north of the I-75/U.S. 127 junction.

The Michigan Department of Natural Resources said it pays tribute to the decades-long work conservationists have done to save the Kirtland's warbler, one of the world's rarest birds. The state agency said it lives in Michigan during the summer months and flies south to the Bahamas for the winter. Smart bird.

There's an Ohio link. The tiny, endangered bird was named after Dr. Jared Kirtland, whose Ohio farm hosted the first identified specimen in 1851. Kirtland's warbler is known for its blue-gray markings and bright yellow breast and black streak on its back, according to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. The agency said it nests only in grass at the bottom of young jack pine trees, a type of habitat in Michigan's northeastern Lower Peninsula. Its numbers have rebounded from 167 known nesting pairs in 1974 to more than 1,700 today.

All I know about Kirtland's warbler is that it gives me a smile whenever I hear about it because it was one of the conversation pieces of Jeff Counts, a Detroit native and former state editor at my first newspaper, the Bay City Times, where I worked from 1981 to 1985. Now an author and publisher of Michigan Streamside Journal, he took me under his wing there, so to speak, and is largely to blame or credit - depending on your point of view - for veering me off aspirations of becoming a political writer and focusing on the environment as a result of the multiple assignments he gave me in northern Michigan when I was a cub reporter.

Contact Tom Henry at:

thenry@theblade.com

or 419-724-6079.