Home

Action Alert: Oceans/Great Lakes Task Force needs to heard from you!

From the Healing our Waters Coalition:

Download Talking Points

Healing Our Waters has prepared a stalking points for attendees.

.Click here to view them
(Files is a MS Word Document)

President Obama hasn’t only made protecting the Great Lakes a national priority; he has made protecting our oceans, coasts and Great Lakes a priority. He hails from Hawaii and Illinois so he knows oceans and the Great Lakes firsthand. Before his first year is out, he could quietly revamp the way our nation manages and/or protects these resources, all with the stroke of a pen. The Obama Administration is laying the groundwork for protecting our Great Lakes and oceans from all of the threats they face.

On June 12, President Obama announced the creation of a 23-member member Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force to develop within 90 days:

  1. A national policy that ensures the protection, maintenance, and restoration of the health of ocean, coastal, and Great Lakes ecosystems and resources;
  2. A framework for agency coordination in implementing the policy; and,
  3. A set of priority actions that will help advance the policy and, within 180 days, develop a framework for coordinated coastal and ocean spatial planning.

In September, the Task Force released its interim report: http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/ceq/initiatives/oceans/

The Task Force is holding a public meeting on its interim report in Cleveland on October 29 from 4-7pm. The meeting will be held at:

Cleveland Marriott Downtown at Key Center
127 Public Square
Cleveland, Ohio 44114

This will be the only opportunity to provide public comment in the region on the Task Force's Interim Report.

Nancy Sutley, Chair of the White House’s Council on Environmental Quality; NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco; and other high-level Administration Task Force members will be there.

This is our chance to influence this work and ensure that all the hard work undertaken this summer on Great Lakes restoration will be recognized!

Limited travel subsidies are available for Healing Our Waters Coalition members. For more information contact Jennifer Heller at 734-887-7104.

For more information:

Chad Lord, HOW Coalition, 202-454-3385
Jennifer Heller, HOW Coalition, 734-887-7104
Kristy Meyer, Ohio Environmental Council, 614-487-5842

  • ""