NEMWI To Host Webinar on Climate Change and Resiliency in the Great Lakes on June 11th
The Northeast-Midwest Institute (NEMWI) will continue the Great Lakes Primer and Orientation Program on June 11th at 12 PM EDT with a webinar on climate change and resiliency in the Great Lakes. With continual rising water levels in the Great Lakes and increased wet and intense weather events, the briefing will focus on how climate change is impacting the Great Lakes and local and state efforts to build resiliency throughout the Great Lakes. To register for the briefing, please visit Here.
Organizations that will be participating on the webinar include:
The Environmental Law & Policy Center
The Great Lakes Commission
The Great Lakes & St. Lawrence Cities Initiative
Registration for a future session on harmful algal blooms (HABs) in the Great Lakes will be announced shortly.
To access the two previous Great Lakes Primer and Orientation Program sessions, use the following links:
The Biden Administration released its formal FY 2022 budget request to Congress last week, which includes $6 trillion in total federal spending. While President Biden had previously sent Congress a “skinny” budget, Friday’s release reveals in more depth some of the Biden Administration’s priorities. The proposed $6 trillion total is actually lower than the $7.2 trillion projected to be spent by the federal government during the current fiscal year, but it is a large increase compared with pre-pandemic spending which was roughly $4.4 trillion in FY 2020.
Several key Great Lakes priorities were included in the President’s budget request including $340 million for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI), $480 million for the next phase of construction on a new Soo Lock, almost $5 million for the preconstruction, engineering, and design (PED) phase for the Brandon Road project, and $500,000 to begin the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Great Lakes Coastal Resiliency Study, among other things.
NEMWI will monitor the Biden Administration’s budget proposal and the Congressional appropriations process as it continues to develop.
NEMWI Releases Issue Brief on the Biden Wind Initiative
The Northeast-Midwest Institute today released a new Issue Brief titled “Three Key Challenges for Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic States Scaling Up Off-Shore Wind Generation” by NEMWI Senior Fellow Arthur Rypinski.
While progress on developing off-shore wind resources in the United States has been very slow in recent years, the brief suggests that there may be improved prospects for the success of the Wind Initiative, especially in the northeast, because of a confluence of factors: a strong regulatory push from the widespread adoption of Renewable Portfolio Standards; active commercial interest by firms with the financial capacity and off-shore expertise to undertake projects; and improved off-shore wind technology in the form of larger capacity turbines.
On the other hand, wind projects continue to face permitting challenges on several fronts, including resistance from beachfront property owners and fishing interests, as well as competition from other forms of low emissions energy, including price competitive solar energy and exports of Canadian hydroelectric power.
The Issue Brief concludes with several recommendations for Federal action that would help keep the off-shore wind initiative on track.
This NEMWI Issue Brief is the fifth in NEMWI’s ongoing series, “Could Renewable Energy Be a Key Driver for Economic Recovery from the COVID-19 Shutdown?” The brief was authored by NEMWI Senior Fellow Arthur Rypinski, with the assistance of intern Jackson Segal.
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This Week in Washington
District work periods scheduled for this week, June 1-4.
