I am very, very happy to see this:Gov. Timothy M. Kaine is urging President Barack Obama to issue an executive order to speed up the Chesapeake Bay cleanup.How far we need to go on the Chesapeake Bay is explained in reports like this one, which explain that "[m]ore than half the eelgrass beds in the lower Bay have died since the early 1970s," that "algal blooms caused by nitrogen and phosphorus pollution have damaged underwater grass beds, key crab habitat," and that "[t]he Bay’s blue crab population has plummeted from 791 million in 1990 to 260 million in 2007."
At a private meeting Wednesday in Washington, Kaine delivered a draft order that he wrote to Obama's new chief of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Lisa Jackson. It calls for more federal attention, money and regulatory clout for the Bay.
In a separate letter also hand-carried to Jackson, Kaine encouraged Obama to press Congress to take several actions in support of the Bay, including the creation of a "Clean Water Trust Fund."
One section of the proposed order suggests what environmental groups have been requesting without success for years - that the EPA get tougher and ensure that pollution standards are being met by hundreds of sewage plants, factories and other facilities that discharge nutrient-rich wastes into the Bay.
This is not good, to put it mildly. Which is why we need urgent action, the kind of action that - after years of failure on "saving the Bay," most likely needs to be jumpstarted by an Executive Order from President Obama. According to Chesapeake Bay Foundation president, Will Baker, "Should the president choose to issue an Executive order like the one you have proposed, and should Congress move forward with legislative changes, we have begun to chart a new path for accelerated Bay restoration." I couldn't agree more, urge President Obama to take action, and thank Governor Kaine for his efforts in protecting this national - and Virginia - treasure.
