KLOBUCHAR ON BIPARTISAN INFRASTRUCTURE LAW INVESTMENTS: “Good for the environment, but also good for the economy”

WATCH KLOBUCHAR OPENING REMARKS HERE

WASHINGTON - At a fireside chat with Canada’s Ambassador to the U.S. Kirsten Hillman and Canadian legislators, U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), a vice chair of the Great Lakes Task Force and co-chair of the U.S.-Canada Inter-parliamentary working group, highlighted how the Infrastructure Investments and Jobs Act will benefit the Great Lakes and help boost the regional economy on Minnesota’s northern border with Canada. 

Klobuchar highlighted the legislation’s significant investments in environmental restoration for the Great Lakes as “good for the environment, but also good for the economy because I think we all know how much tourism depends on clean lakes and rivers. Drinking water, we have millions and millions and millions of people that get their drinking water from the Great Lakes. And so all of that really matters.”

Specifically, the bipartisan infrastructure law will restore environmentally degraded Areas of Concern (AOC) within the Great Lakes and work to delist the St. Louis River Area of Concern in Duluth-Superior, the second largest AOC in the United States.

She also touted the funding the legislation provides for increasing capacity and repairing waterway infrastructure at the Port of Duluth-Superior, noting: “We’re not going to be able to continue the [economic] growth we’ve seen…without improving the efficiency and competitiveness of our maritime transportation system. So that means an interconnected navigational system that will help sustain our regional economy.”

A co-chair of the U.S.-Canada Inter-parliamentary working group, Klobuchar has long been committed to maintaining the two countries’ strong economic and cultural ties. Last May, Klobuchar led a comprehensive discussion between ten United States Senators and fourteen Canadian Parliamentarians on topics of mutual concern including trade, security, and the environment.

As a vice-chair of the Senate Great Lakes Task Force, Klobuchar is a leading advocate for the protection of the Great Lakes. In November, she led bipartisan legislation that would provide critical resources to conserve and restore fish and wildlife populations in the Great Lakes. 

Klobuchar’s full opening remarks are available below and for TV download HERE and online viewing HERE.

Exactly. Of course, Duluth, which also shares the border with Superior, Wisconsin, is one of the biggest ports in America on the Great Lakes, not the biggest Port in America, but the biggest one on the Great Lakes. And I actually was there yesterday, believe it or not, Ambassador, with the President, we flew on Air Force One to the Great Lakes because he wanted to make the point about infrastructure. And that includes bridges between the two states of Minnesota and Wisconsin.

But it also means the ports. And that is going to be so important as the shared navigation system between our two countries. Canada is America's biggest trading partner, $1.4 billion daily crossing the border, if you think about that. And we're not going to be able to continue the growth we've seen in recent years. And now that we're coming out of this pandemic and see the lighthouse on the horizon – we're in a Great Lakes theme, right, Ambassador – without improving the efficiency and competitiveness of our maritime transportation system.

So that means an interconnected navigational system that will help sustain our regional economy. And we've got something like 35 million tons of cargo over 800 vessels passing through the port that we have and $2.25 billion in Great Lakes port infrastructure development grants that are coming down because of the bill that we passed in Congress.

I know you hear a lot about things that don't pass in Washington, but what did pass was this infrastructure bill, which is going to really help. And it means money for the new lock and dam at Soo Locks in St. Marie, Michigan, which help connect Lake Superior to Lake Huron, money for the Port of Duluth. And all of this makes a difference.

Also Coast Guard. I actually held one of our inter-parliamentary meetings on a Coast Guard ship to make the point that between the two countries, we've got to make sure that we have ice breakers that work and that we can clear out ice.

With climate change in the lake, we see changes good and bad to transport. And one of the things we always want to make sure is that we have enough ice breaking. And according to one study that came out of the Lake Carriers Association, businesses that depend on the Great Lakes maritime industry lost over a billion in revenues because of delays just in one season, 2018 to 2019. So I've been advocating for additional ice breaker funding on our end. And I know that you guys are doing the same. And not every Senator understands the value of an ice breaker, Madam Ambassador, but I do, I appreciate that very much.

And just to say on your point, I do think we're having a lot of interesting conversations in Canada. I am with lawmakers down here and the administration as we are looking to build infrastructure because also making significant infrastructure spending coming out of COVID and moving forward into the next generation.

We have many things in mind, but one of them is environmentally sound infrastructure, green infrastructure, resilient infrastructure.

So the way in which our climate is operating is having an effect not only on us wanting to make sure that the infrastructure we put in place is less impactful on the environment, but also is fit to purpose for an environment that is, you know, is changing and that we need to take account of. And for all of those citizens and those businesses and those communities that are on the water or close to the water, this is a big part of the task ahead.

For decades, there have been plans made about invasive species, water contaminants, habitat loss, but it has always lacked some of the funding to make the changes. And one of the things with this bill that I brought up – bipartisan infrastructure law. I was there when the President signed it. And it also includes significant progress in the cleanup and restoration of the Great Lakes' most environmentally degraded sites. And I know I just did an event with Mitch Landrieu, who heads up giving out these grants for the President. The investments through the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative of $1 billion is going to secure clean water. And obviously, that helps both Minnesota and Canada. To give you a sense of that amount of money, the total funding from 2010 to 2021, that was over ten years was $3.8 billion. So in addition to that type of funding, we're given this injection of money, and that will be a huge role, just in one injection. And so I'm really excited about that.

Addressing 22 of the 25 most severely degraded sites known as Areas of Concern. That's what we're calling them. That sounds like some kind of Canadian bureaucratic name, but that's what we're calling them. One example would be the St. Louis river area. I discussed this with the President yesterday, which is in the Duluth-Superior area, including restoring wild rice, removing contaminated sediment.

I mean, all of that is good for the environment, but also good for the economy because I think we all know how much tourism depends on clean lakes and rivers. Drinking water, we have millions and millions and millions of people that get their drinking water from the Great Lakes. And so all of that really matters.

And I also just want to add one thing of being through this last summer with the fires that were raging in Canada, in Northern Minnesota. We also know with climate change and the lake, as we think about the Great Lakes region, it's the Lakes, yes, but it's also the  surrounding forest.

And we want to make sure we do more on that front in terms of smart forestry policies, which we'll make sure that we don't have the kind of fires that we saw. And that's going to be part of this money as well. And I know we're both working on that.

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