Vernon Ehlers: “I rise with some hesitation to speak against the bill as it came from the committee. On the one hand, I appreciate what…”

“I rise with some hesitation to speak against the bill as it came from the committee. On the one hand, I appreciate what the gentleman from Pennsylvania, the chairman of the committee, has done, because clearly we need more commonsense application of the laws governing the environment and the regulations that are formulated. At the same time, coming from the State of Michigan, which has more coastline than any of the 48 contiguous States and which has numerous wetlands, I must rise to speak against the wetlands provisions of the bill. They are unworkable. It would do great damage to wetlands in many States, and particularly in the State of Michigan, if those standards were applied in our State. In particular, the hunters and fishers of our State, and of many States around the Midwest who come to Michigan to pursue their sport, will be deeply disappointed in the wetlands provisions because they are going to have a very deleterious effect upon the population of waterfowl, the population of fish, and, of course, there will be environmental damage as well due to the loss of the filtration properties of the wetlands that we have in our beautiful State.”