Senator Debbie Stabenow Comments on the Signing of the Great Lakes Regional Collaboration

December 2, 2004

Senator Debbie Stabenow Comments on the Signing of the Great Lakes Regional Collaboration

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) offered the following comment today on the Friday signing of the Great Lakes Regional Collaboration in Chicago and the first official meeting of that body. This regional partnership will bring together federal cabinet officials, Great Lakes members of Congress, Great Lakes governors, Great Lakes communities, Great Lakes tribes, and other Great Lakes stakeholders to develop a strategy to restore and protect the Great Lakes:

"When I was able to win passage of the ban on drilling for oil and gas in the Great Lakes, it was in large part based on the strength of bipartisan and regional support I was able to garner on the measure. Because of that success, I see great potential for this new regional collaboration and for future success stories in our efforts to restore, protect, and preserve the Great Lakes.

"This new regional partnership will help us achieve a long-standing goal that most of us in the Great Lakes region share: preserving the magnificence of the Great Lakes - one of our greatest national treasures that contains one-fifth of the world's fresh water and provides drinking water to more than 33 million people".fresh water and provides drinking water to more than 33 million people".