Cox: No progress in Asian carp talks

While Gov. Jennifer Granholm has been meeting with federal executive agencies trying to get more immediate action taken to prevent the Asian carp from reaching the Great Lakes, Attorney General Mike Cox has been urging the Supreme Court and the Department of Justice to do the same thing. But he says he’s having as little success as the governor is in getting the federal government to take the problem more seriously. The Detroit Free Press reports:

Cox and attorney generals from other Great Lakes states had asked to be part of the White House summit Monday with governors on Asian carp, but were not invited. Instead, the Obama administration proposed today’s phone meeting with Cox and attorneys from Minnesota, New York, Wisconsin, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Cox wouldn’t discuss what was said because of court rules.

“We appreciate the opportunity to talk, but no headway was made,” he said. “We are still left with this policy which will wreak havoc on the Great Lakes.”

That policy, unveiled Monday, includes part-time lock closures, more testing for carp DNA, and more electrofishing, commercial harvesting, poisoning and netting of Asian carp found above the electric barrier in the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal. “There is no sense of urgency” in it, Cox said.

The sticking point is over closing off that canal from Lake Michigan permanently. Doing so would mean millions of tons of freight that currently travels through that canal on barges would have to be moved by rail or by truck, which would be more expensive for the companies who own the freight. The government seems to be willing to do anything up to that point but are so far refusing to take that final step.