Mike Levin: “33 million people rely on the Great Lakes for drinking water, including 10 million on Lake Michigan alone. Millions of…”

“33 million people rely on the Great Lakes for drinking water, including 10 million on Lake Michigan alone. Millions of people use our Great Lakes for recreation, such as swimming, fishing, and boating. It is simply irresponsible to risk contamination of this source of drinking water and a large portion of our tourism industry and our recreation without studying the potential damages of drilling. Our pristine Great Lakes' coastlines are home to wetlands, over 400 of them along Lake Michigan alone, and to some of the world's most spectacular sand dunes. They are home to endangered species. Even advocates of drilling acknowledge that some damage at the shoreline is inevitable from more and more slant drilling. It just is not worth the potential harm for the small amount of oil that could be produced in the Great Lakes. That is all we are talking about, a very small drop in a very large bucket, taking risks that we should not be taking with about 20 percent of the world's supply of fresh water. The Great Lakes are a shared natural resource. That means that many of the States need to work together in order to protect them. That is why Governors of many States have stated their opposition to drilling of the kind which is being proposed.”