Podcasts about Cuyahoga River

June 22, 1969. The Cuyahoga River in Cleveland, Ohio catches fire, sparking a movement to clean up the country's polluted waterways. This episode originally aired in 2023. Support the show! Join Into History for ad-free listening and more. History Daily is a co-production of Airship and Noiser.Go to HistoryDaily.com for more history, daily.

Environmental law in the United States can be a double-edged sword. "I think that when people think about environmental law, very frequently what they mean is environmental protection, and what that misses is the other side of the coin, that there is a whole lot of law that is meant to exploit the environment," says law professor Brig Daniels. When Daniels and his writing partner Alejandro Camacho looked at the literature available on the development of environmental law in the United States, they found it lacking. "Most sort of focus only on environmental protection laws emerging from the 1970s or possibly the progressive era, missing frankly centuries of legal history that drove exploitation," says Camacho. They hope to remedy this with their new book, Lessons for a Warming Planet: A Vital History of US Environmental Law. From colonial expansion that deprived Native Americans of their ancestral lands to modern day battles over the Clean Air Act, Lessons for a Warming Planet offers a broad history of how environmental law has been developed. Change can happen gradually, or all at once. Camacho and Daniels have identified five different eras with dominant ideologies, some pushing towards protection and others towards exploitation. But in all eras, there were elements of both, the authors say. "It isn't just a black and white sort of binary of any of these eras," Camacho tells host Lee Rawles in this episode of the Modern Law Library. "And of course, what often happened is that an undercurrent in any given era becomes the dominant era in a subsequent era." The latest era of environmental law is one of contention, without a dominant force yet emerging. Lessons for a Warming Planet warns that either exploitation or protection could hold sway in the next era. "The thing that I hope that people understand is that looking back, one of the things that is so prevalent is that we didn't get the history that we had due to luck," says Daniels. "A big chunk of way we got our history was due to effort." In this episode of the Modern Law Library, Camacho, Daniels and Rawles discuss the Homestead Act, Cuyahoga River fires, and what Nixon really thought of pesky environmentalists.

Episode 113 For decades, the people of Cleveland watched their river catch fire—and barely seemed to care. In this special two-year anniversary episode of Crime to Burn, we dive into the astonishing history of the Cuyahoga River. Long before the Environmental Protection Agency existed, the Cuyahoga River became a dumping ground for oil, industrial waste, sewage, and chemical runoff. The result? A river that burned not once, but at least thirteen documented times. But the burning river is only half the story. As pollution worsened, Cleveland embarked on an ambitious effort to secure cleaner drinking water by constructing massive offshore intake tunnels beneath Lake Erie. What followed was a decades-long saga of explosions, cave-ins, toxic gas, decompression sickness, fires, and rescue attempts that claimed dozens of lives. In this episode, we explore: Why the Cuyahoga River kept catching fire How industrial pollution transformed a waterway into a recurring fire hazard The deadly construction of Cleveland's offshore water tunnels The 1916 tunnel disaster that killed nineteen workers Garrett Morgan's heroic rescue efforts using an early gas mask The massive 1952 river fire that became one of the largest in American history How a photograph of the wrong fire helped spark the environmental movement The surprising recovery of a river once considered biologically dead What happens when a city becomes so accustomed to disaster that a burning river feels normal? Join us as we examine one of the most remarkable environmental and industrial stories in American history—a tale of flaming waterways, deadly engineering projects, political indifference, and a river that ultimately helped change the nation. CHECK OUT MY NEW AUTHOR WEBSITE: www.anauthornamedapril.com The Crime to Burn Patreon - The Cult of Steve - is LIVE NOW! Go join and get all the unhinged you can handle. Click here to be sanctified.  Inner Sanctum Acknowledgments: Eternal gratitude to our Inner Sanctum patrons, Melanie Curtis, Jenny Mercer, Laura Pisciotta, and Jason Wolfe for helping us bring light to the stories others would rather leave in the ashes. Listener discretion is advised. Background music by Not Notoriously Coordinated  Get your Crime to Burn Merch! https://crimetoburn.myspreadshop.com Please follow us on Instagram, X, Facebook, TikTok and Youtube for the latest news on this case. You can email us at crimetoburn@gmail.com We welcome any constructive feedback and would greatly appreciate a 5 star rating and review.  If you need a way to keep your canine contained, you can also support the show by purchasing a Pawious wireless dog fence using our affiliate link and use the code "crimetoburn" at checkout to receive 10% off. Pawious, because our dog Winston needed a radius, not a rap sheet.  SOURCES: Bellamy, John Stark. Cleveland's Greatest Disasters! 16 Tragic True Tales of Death and Destruction: An Anthology. Cleveland, OH: Gray & Company, Publishers, 2009. Boissoneault, Lorraine. "The Cuyahoga River Caught Fire at Least a Dozen Times, but No One Cared Until 1969." Smithsonian Magazine, June 19, 2019. Smithsonian Magazine Article Dubelko, Jim. "The 1916 Waterworks Tunnel Disaster – Twenty Clevelanders Die Four Miles Out in Lake Erie." Cleveland Historical. Cleveland Historical Article "River Burned 13 Times and Changed the Nation Forever." Wild Versus YouTube Channel, January 4, 2025. Wild Versus Video "U.S. River Burned for Over 100 Years – You Won't Believe How It Recovered." Make Tech Future YouTube Channel, February 4, 2026. Make Tech Future Video Source for the bonus story at the end: "Replacement Window." GoFundMe Campaign. GoFundMe Page

Katie Tolles is the Head Women's Coach for Case Western Reserve University's rowing team and the Director of Communications for the Cleveland Rowing Foundation's Board of Directors. Katie speaks to host Elizabeth Emery about the beauty of teamwork, being on the water, coaching high school and college athletes, travel, fear, and jumping right into things.  Katie's rowing career began as a freshman walk-on at Marietta College. She knew nothing about the sport when she started, but quickly rose through the team, becoming a leader early on in the Women's 1V8+ & 1V4+ for her four years of undergrad. Katie pursued elite rowing at Vesper Boat Club on Boathouse Row in Philadelphia in 2016. That summer she and her teammates went on to win Club Nationals and Canadian Henley. Katie served as a founding coach for Magnificat High School and designed the branding for the rowing programs at Magnificat High School, Cleveland Foundry Juniors and Case Western Reserve University. Today, Katie is a competitive athlete who sculls on the Cuyahoga River. She recently placing 5th at The Head of the Charles. Sign up for Hear Her Sports newsletter at https://bit.ly/HHSnewsletter
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 Learn more about Katie Tolles at https://katietollesdesigns.com/ Find Case Western Rowing at https://casewesternrowing.weebly.com/ Follow Katie on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/kttolles/ Follow Katie on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/katie-tolles-uxmc-355959b8/

Ohio Medicaid Fraud Allegations For months, there have been headlines coming out of Minnesota that millions of dollars have been taken from taxpayers through Medicaid fraud. Now, there are claims that Ohio's Medicaid system has also been taken advantage of, particularly as it relates to how individuals are providing in-home caregiving. The issue is also being politicized, with Vice President JD Vance weighing in, as well as the leading gubernatorial candidates speaking out on the campaign trail. On Tuesday Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Director, Dr. Mehmet Oz was in suburban Columbus calling for reforms to the state's medicaid system. To begin Thursday's "Sound of Ideas," we'll dissect some of those fraud allegations, and wade into the political attacks being levied by lawmakers. Guests: - Tara Britton, Director of Public Policy and Advocacy, The Center for Community Solutions - Karen Kasler, Bureau Chief, Ideastream Statehouse News Bureau "The Menu: The Flats Evolves" Then, we shift our gaze to the banks of the Cuyahoga River, and the swaths of land in Downtown Cleveland known as The Flats. That area has seen plenty of change over the decades, with new restaurants opening and closing seemingly ever year. We'll speak with a business owner and a chef who have recently rebranded establishments on the east bank and west bank of The Flats. Guests: - Ryan Boone, Executive Chef, Shooters - Bobby Rutter, COO, Forward Hospitality Group

Winter is over, spring ephemerals are blooming and dredging on the Cuyahoga River at Gorge Metro Park has resumed, so naturally, it's time for a community update! Mike and Elaine share details about the upcoming Free the Falls Public Progress Report on Tuesday, April 28 at the Akron-Summit County Public Library – Main Library (60 S. High St., Akron). We hope to see you there! For more information about the progress report, including information about accessibility and parking, visit bit.ly/FTFppr. Free the Falls ➡️⁠bit.ly/freethefalls ⁠ Follow Summit Metro Parks:  Facebook: ⁠summitmetroparks ⁠ Instagram: ⁠summitmetroparks ⁠ X: ⁠metro_parks

AquaMissions Every year in the United States there are over 4-thousand drowning deaths, making it the second leading cause of unintentional injury death for children ages 5-14, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In Northeast Ohio, due to the proximity to Lake Erie and Cuyahoga River, there is even more reason to teach young people to swim. According to the Great Lakes Surf Rescue Project, in 2025 there were 19 drownings in Lake Erie. With summer fast approaching, the likelihood of accidental drownings increases. The nonprofit program, AquaMissions, now located at Cleveland State University, teaches kids ages 7 to 11 how to swim to help prevent accidental drownings. The "Sound of Ideas" is partnering with Cleveland State University student journalists this semester. On Tuesday's show, we'll highlight the work of Aquamissions with a segment produced by CSU's "Broadcast Pre-Production" class. Guests: - Lynne Nagy, Ph.D., Founder and Executive Director, AquaMissions - Ronqesha Robinson, Assistant Principal, Rhodes College & Career Academy, Cleveland Metropolitan School District & Board Member, AquaMissions - Devyn Etling, AquaMissions Intern and Instructor & Senior, Cleveland State University - Misa Colon, AquaMissions Student & Fourth Grader, Garfield Elementary, Cleveland Metropolitan School District Artemis II Moon Mission On April 1, NASA launched its first moon-related mission since the 1970s, a 10-day mission with four crew members set to slingshot around the moon, and return to Earth. Monday, astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen completed their lunar fly by, and with that, the Artemis II mission crew has traveled farther from Earth than any human in history. Now the four astronuats aboard the Orion multi-purpose crew vehicle, which they have nicknamed "Integrity," are making their way back for a splash down in San Diego planned for Friday night. As they say at the NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, "the road to the moon goes through Ohio." We'll talk to NASA Glenn's human exploration chief on Tuesday's "Sound of Ideas" to talk about this mission and the Artemis program in general. Guest: - Aaron Weaver, Ph.D., Chief of Human Exploration and Space Operations Projects, NASA Glenn Research Center CIFF Turns 50 The 50th Cleveland International Film Festival kicks off this Thursday. While the event has remained one of Northeast Ohio's cultural touchstones, it's also undergone several big changes in the past few years, most notably shifting home venues. And while the festival continues to evolve with this year's 50th iteration, it once again offers hundreds of screenings to cinephiles who will be in attendance. Guest: - Kabir Bhatia, Senior Arts Reporter, Ideastream Public Media

Protecting yourself from scamsThe Ohio Department of Commerce estimates that Ohioans collectively lose $150 million to scammers. Last year, in Cuyahoga County alone, the losses to scams were more than $5 million. Senior citizens have long been the focus of consumer protection efforts due to scammers preying on them using fear and high-pressure techniques to get at their money and personal information. But the rise of artificial intelligence and people spending more time online, has helped to reshape the narrative as increasingly, even younger, digital savvy people are also becoming victims. According to the Better Business Bureau of Cleveland, younger adults are scammed more often but older adults suffer larger money losses. Cuyahoga County Scam Squad This week the focus is on consumer protection and educating people on how to spot scams through National Consumer Protection Week, but the awareness is needed year round. Experts say it is becoming more difficult to determine what is real and what is a scam. We're going to talk about scams and how to protect your money and personal information to begin today's show. Call the Cuyahoga Scam Squad at 216-443-SCAM (7226) to talk with an investigator 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday-Friday. Guests:-Sheryl Harris, Director, Dept. of Consumer Affairs, Cuyahoga County-Katie Hills, Marketing Director, Better Business Bureau Cleveland The Future of Burke LakefrontBurke Lakefront Airport is full of contradictions. Corporate executives fly in and out on private jets, yet it's partially built with dredged up dirt and trash from the Cuyahoga River. It was hailed in 1947 when it opened as the nation's downtown airport, but usage has been steadily declining for years. The Cleveland International Airshow is a large economic driver, but only occupies the airport a few days each Labor Day weekend. There's been a long-running debate over what to do with the airport, with Mayor Justin Bibb saying it's a goal of his to close Burke and transform the land. Wednesday night, the next "Sound of Ideas Community Tour" tackles what to do with Burke. Next in the hour, we'll look back at the history of the airport and discuss what's currently underway. Guest:- Steve Litt, Freelance Reporter covering art, architecture and economic development, Ideastream Public Media

It's a dirty job, but someone's got to do it.   In this episode, Mike and Elaine talk with Project Manager Charlie Stein of Sevenson Environmental Services, the company responsible for dredging contaminated sediment as part of the Free the Falls dam removal project on the Cuyahoga River. Charlie walks us through how nearly one million cubic yards of sediment are being dredged, pumped, sorted and stabilized (yes, it's as complicated as it sounds). Along the way, hear about surprise discoveries like century-old mussel shells, creative problem-solving and how a construction project can leave behind not just a free-flowing river, but a brand-new park. Dirt never sounded so interesting!  Sevenson Environmental Services ➡️ sevenson.comFree the Falls ➡️⁠bit.ly/freethefalls ⁠Follow Summit Metro Parks:  Facebook: ⁠summitmetroparks ⁠ Instagram: ⁠summitmetroparks ⁠ X: ⁠metro_parks 

If social media were a literal ecosystem, it would be about as healthy as Cleveland’s Cuyahoga River in the 1960s—when it was so polluted it repeatedly caught fire. Please Like, Comment and Follow 'Philip Teresi on KMJ' on all platforms: --- Philip Teresi on KMJ is available on the KMJNOW app, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever else you listen to podcasts. -- Philip Teresi on KMJ Weekdays 2-6 PM Pacific on News/Talk 580 AM & 105.9 FM KMJ | Website | Facebook | Instagram | X | Podcast | Amazon | - Everything KMJ KMJNOW App | Podcasts | Facebook | X | Instagram See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey all! Welcome to another episode of “Mr. P.'s Tales from the Road!” And a HAPPY NEW YEAR to you and yours! In this first episode of a new fifth season, I'm diving into what is sort of an obscure topic right here in my hometown of Cleveland, Ohio, and expounding on a place that is sadly now long gone (the remnants of which are also being torn down as we speak). A place of artistic inspiration, community togetherness and a spark of Rust Belt ingenuity that gave so many others joy and a little bit of gritty wonderment in a time when things were maybe not at their best. I'm talking here about the TEMPLE OF LOST LOVE, an underground art installation that once existed in the Cleveland Flats along the Cuyahoga River (under a bridge that is ALSO about to become extinct). A little known and interesting topic that I sort of fell down the rabbit hole on, so get yourself a mug of warm hot chocolate, nuke some taquitos in the microwave, settle in wherever you are, listen in and enjoy the show! Have a great week and we'll see you in the next episode! -Mr. P.Also now available on APPLE PODCAST!: ⁠https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mr-p-s-tales-from-the-road/id1717990959Also, check out the “Mr. Explores” SUBSTACK for articles and photos: https://mrpexplores.substack.com/MR. P. INFO:The majority of my work gets published at the Mr. P. Explores Facebook Community:⁠ https://www.facebook.com/MrPExplores/⁠  Stop by for full photo explorations, history and stories told from the road!Mr. P. Explores Instagram (extras that never make the site or videos, and much more!):⁠ https://www.instagram.com/mr.p_explores/⁠@mr.p_exploresTWITTER (X?):⁠ https://twitter.com/ExploresMr⁠ @ExploresMr  (come on over and say hello!)  Thanks all, and have a great week!ON BLUESKY: https://bsky.app/profile/mrpexplores.bsky.social

On this Podcast Chris and Don review 2025 and look to the new year. They discuss many of the good things, including the reintroduction of Lake Sturgeon and Steelhead into the Cuyahoga River; the exceptional fishing on Lake Erie and a successful deer season. Some challenges in 2025, the EHD outbreak and the drought conditions to name a few. However, overall 2025 was good and we look forward to 2026. Wishing all our listeners a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! This podcast can be found on all the major platforms.

Cleveland Death Society inspires open conversations about mortality For many people, death is a taboo topic. It can feel uncomfortable, even controversial, and it's something people often avoid until they no longer can. But experts say making space to talk about death can also bring a surprising sense of relief and connection. So how do we face our fear of death, demystify it, and get more comfortable speaking honestly about it? In recent years, "death cafés" have emerged as informal gatherings, often in bars or coffee shops, where people come together simply to talk about mortality. Wednesday on the "Sound of Ideas," we'll hear from a local group, the Cleveland Death Society, which hosts these open, agenda-free conversations about loss and end-of-life experiences. And it's a timely moment for this discussion. For many, the winter holiday season can intensify feelings of grief and make them harder to navigate. Guests:- Kimberly Garchar, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Philosophy, Kent State University- Brandi Lynn Wiles, Founder, Cleveland Death Society- Gabriela Gomez, M.D., Resident Physician, Harvard Radiation Oncology Program Meet the new president and CEO of the Port of Cleveland The Port of Cleveland is a major economic driver of the region supporting some 23,000 jobs and contributing more than $4.7 billion to the Northeast Ohio economy annually. The organization's influence reaches far beyond just goods that are being transported through docks on the lakefront. They are involved in financing large housing projects, environmental endeavors and reshaping the banks of the Cuyahoga River. And now the Port of Cleveland has new leadership, as former CEO Will Friedman stepped away from the job after 14 years. Guest:- Jeff Epstein, President and CEO, The Port of Cleveland

Cleveland Food Scene. Today on Flavors Unknown, I sit down with five dynamic culinary voices who are reshaping perceptions of Cleveland and Detroit's food and drink scenes.This panel was recorded during StarChefs Rising Stars in Cleveland, and wouldn't have been possible without the support of Symrise Food & Beverage North America.My guests include:

At one time Lake Sturgeon were abundant in Lake Erie. Years of over harvest and pollution caused them to disappear. However, as the water quality improved in Lake Erie and the Cuyahoga River it provided an opportunity to jump start their population by stocking. This was a major milestone in restoring this endangered species to the river. Today, we interview ODNR Fisheries Biologist Supervisor, Eric Weimer. He discusses the historical significance of the Sturgeon reintroduction. The Ohio Division of Wildlife, in partnership with organizations like the U.S. Fish and Wildlife, Cleveland Metroparks, and the Northeast Ohio Sewer District, will begin annual stocking of juvenile lake sturgeon in the Cuyahoga River. The public is welcome to join in the celebration. It will take place on October 4th at Rivergate Park (Cleveland Metro Parks) from 1:00pm -4:00pm.

In this episode, Mike and Elaine are joined by Jennifer Grieser, Cleveland Metroparks director of natural resources and chair of the Cuyahoga River Area of Concern (AOC) Advisory Committee. The Cuyahoga River AOC is comprised of the lower 46.5 miles of the Cuyahoga River, including all the tributaries that drain to that section of river and the adjacent Lake Erie shoreline and its direct tributaries. Jennifer walks us through the Cuyahoga River's incredible comeback, highlighting why public access makes it one of a kind. She dives into past and ongoing restoration projects that require collaboration, accountability and measurable progress. Plus, get a glimpse of what's next when the AOC is delisted—a major milestone in the Cuyahoga's journey. Cuyahoga River AOC ➡️ cuyahogaaoc.org  Free the Falls ➡️⁠bit.ly/freethefalls ⁠ Follow Summit Metro Parks:  Facebook: ⁠summitmetroparks ⁠ Instagram: ⁠summitmetroparks ⁠ X: ⁠metro_parks

Cleveland is repositioning its future as a dual waterfront city. Take a deep dive (pun intended!) as we reflect on the past, present, and future visions to transform our downtown into "Coastland".rnrnFor over a year, the local chapters of the American Institute of Architects, American Planning Association, American Society of Landscape Architects, and the Urban Land Institute (AIA, APA, ASLA and ULI) have collaborated on a topic of mutual interest and significance: our waterfronts and their connections to downtown. In summer 2025, multi-disciplinary professionals from these organizations hosted "From Cleveland to Coastland" featuring a 'design your own adventure' exploration of Cleveland's downtown, lakefront, and riverfront developments.rnrnPanelists from the Urban Land Institute, Greater Cleveland Partnership, and RDL Architects will discuss the results of the adventurers' collective experiences and expertise, offer insights on placemaking, architecture, and real estate development, and share impactful ways to transform connectivity between the shores and core.rnPanelists: Melanie Kortyka, Executive Director, Urban Land Institute Cleveland; Allison Lukacsy-Love, Managing Director, Major Projects, Greater Cleveland Partnership; Gregory Soltis, AICP, Senior Designer, RDL Architects; and moderated by Zaria Johnson, Reporter/Producer, Ideastream Public Media

In this episode, Divya speaks with Scott Hardy. Scott is an Extension Educator with the Ohio Sea Grant College Program, where he leads research and runs education and outreach programs on watershed restoration, coastal zone management, and stormwater runoff. He is also an Adjunct Associate Professor of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences at Case Western Reserve University, where he works on several research projects. Scott's work is all about collaboration — bringing people together to solve problems that no one can tackle alone. He knows that collaboration isn't automatic. It takes time, trust, and spaces where people feel heard and included. He also believes that every place is different, and you need to really understand the local context to make teamwork work. Different projects need different kinds of partnerships, and Scott is skilled at figuring out what each situation needs. In this episode, they talk about Scott's ongoing work on Cuyahoga River restoration, where he has been closely collaborating with a wide range of stakeholders ranging from state agencies to industry to local communities. They also talk about his recent experience as a Fulbright Specialist at the Universidad de Atacama in Copiapó, Chile, where he was invited to share his expertise on sustainable water management.  References:  Hardy, S. D. (2022). Power to the people: Collaborative watershed management in the Cuyahoga River Area of Concern (AOC). Environmental Science & Policy, 129, 79-86. Hardy, S. D. (2022). Transaction costs for collaboration in the watershed management of the Cuyahoga River Area of Concern. Regional Sustainability, 3(2), 146-156. https://u.osu.edu/hardy.116/ Koontz, T. M. (2002). Federalism in the forest: National versus state natural resource policy. Georgetown University Press.

As the Fourth of July weekend approaches, water safety and drowning prevention guidance is crucial. In the last month, more than five people have died by drowning in Northeast Ohio and dozens more have been rescued on the Cuyahoga River.

This week on Mongabay's podcast, celebrated author and repeat Nobel Prize in Literature candidate Robert Macfarlane discusses his fascinating new book, Is a River Alive?, which both asks and provides answers to this compelling question, in his signature flowing prose. Its absorbing narrative takes the reader to the frontlines of some of Earth's most embattled waterways, from northern Ecuador to southern India and northeastern Quebec, where he explores what makes a river more than just a body of water, but rather a living organism upon which many humans and myriad species are irrevocably dependent — a fact that is often forgotten. Regardless of whether humans see rivers as useful resources or living beings, Macfarlane says their great ability to rebound from degradation is demonstrable and is something to strive for. " When I think of how we have to imagine rivers otherwise, away from the pure resource model, I recognize that we can reverse the direction of 'shifting baseline' syndrome. We can make it ‘lifting baseline' syndrome. We can make our rivers touchable, then swimmable, then drinkable again. Drinkable rivers. Imagine that!" Subscribe to or follow the Mongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, and you can also listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website. Please send questions, feedback or comments to podcast[at]mongabay[dot]com. Banner image: The author Robert Macfarlane. Photo by Bryan Appleyard. Courtesy of Robert Macfarlane. -------- Timecodes (00:00) The liquid asset story (05:42) The beginning of the ‘hydrocene' (12:49) Is a river alive? (20:01) ‘Rights of nature' (30:02) Landmarks of hope & looming threats (35:41) ‘Slow violence' (39:43) ‘A gathering that seeks the sea' (45:13) Public waterways under private ownership (48:59) How the Cuyahoga River caught fire (53:58) Collective health over private wealth

Former Buckeye football player Kirk Barton arrested on charge of aggravated vehicular homicide after a crash early Saturday morning; crews search for a man who disappeared after an inner tube accident on the Cuyahoga River in northeast Ohio; state's lawmakers react to US strikes on Iran; two state representatives re-introduce legislation aimed at prohibiting slavery in Ohio's constitution.

Send us a textImagine standing in downtown Cleveland and gazing at Lake Erie just blocks away, yet feeling disconnected by an intimidating landscape of highways and parking lots. This frustrating paradox has defined Cleveland's relationship with its waterfront for decades.The Shore to Core to Shore Initiative is an ambitious and promising effort to reconnect Cleveland's downtown with Lake Erie and the Cuyahoga River. Jessica Trivisonno, Senior Advisor for Major Projects for Mayor Bibb, and Drew Crawford, Senior Director of Planning for Downtown Cleveland, give us an update on the transformative plans that will finally bridge these divides.Ready to imagine a Cleveland where you can seamlessly walk from Tower City to the riverfront, or from Public Square to the lake? Construction begins in 2027, but the vision is taking shape now. Listen in to understand how Cleveland is finally poised to embrace its greatest natural assets.

In this interview, the Water Colors Team chats with special guest Dr. Jordyn Stoll, an accomplished aquatic ecologist with an expertise in algae! Jordyn’s formal interest in aquatic ecology began during her undergraduate work at Cleveland State University, where she helped with research using diatom fossils to understand changes in lake conditions over time. From there, she pursued a PhD at Kent State University, where she studied the effects of various nutrients on algae in the Great Lakes, Lake Victoria in Kenya, and the Cuyahoga River, specifically aimed at better understanding harmful algal blooms. Now as an aquatic ecologist with her own business, she hopes to continue researching and preventing the spread of aquatic invasive species such as Didymosphenia geminata, while also working to improve freshwater habitat through restoration efforts. We are honored to have Jordyn on the show to share her expertise!  Join the discussion on the Water Colors Aquarium Gallery Podcast Listeners Facebook group! https://www.facebook.com/groups/788428861825086/ Enjoying the show? Support the gallery by shopping aquarium plants, merch, equipment, and more! https://watercolorsaquariumgallery.com/ Looking for more content? Become a YouTube member for exclusive access to behind the scenes livestreams! https://www.youtube.com/@watercolorsaquariumgallery

Send us a textMera Cardenas is a historic preservationist working to connect people to place as the Executive Director of Canalway Partners. We are the people, and the place is the historic Towpath Trail, located within the Ohio & Erie Canalway National Heritage Area. The 100-mile Towpath Trail from Cleveland to New Philadelphia follows what once was a significant transportation artery from the mid-1800s until the railroads came. The trail was completed in 2021 when the final section was constructed in Cleveland, ending at Canal Basin Park following 40 years of planning and $54 million. For Mera, preserving this connection between past and present is her passion and mission as she honors the legacy of her predecessors who envisioned and transformed Cleveland's industrial corridor into its recreational backbone.With her background as a CNN producer and cultural historian, Mera brings a unique storytelling perspective to her role. Under her leadership, Canalway Partners has expanded its community engagement through signature events like the Lantern Parade, environmental stewardship through River Sweep, the Towpath Trilogy and Cleveland History Days, featuring over 70 events highlighting the region's heritage.Canalway Partners started with a meeting of like-minded people 40 years ago who never lost sight of their vision to reclaim Cleveland's industrial valley and bring us a unique, world-class recreational space. Today, Mera Cardenas is its new Executive Director, following the retirement of Tim Donovan, who led the development of the trail. The work ahead will bring us new opportunities to experience the trail and the Ohio & Erie Canalway National Heritage area through expanded public spaces like Canal Basin Park in Cleveland and the many trails linking east and west with the Towpath as the spine and the Cuyahoga River as the source. As we celebrate the 200th anniversary of the canal's construction this year, Mera reminds us that our waterways fundamentally shaped our communities: "We're here in Cleveland and in Akron because of the construction of that canal. Everything that came after came from what the canal brought to this region."Learn more at canalwaypartners.com or follow their social media for upcoming events.Learn More:Our Guest, Mera Cardenas, Executive Director, Canalway PartnersCanalway EventsDiscover the Towpath TrailVolunteer with CanalwayHistory and Legacy of the Towpath TrailOhio and Erie Canalway National Heritage AreaOhio and Erie Canalway CoalitionFollow us: https://www.facebook.com/ecospeaksclehttps://www.instagram.com/ecospeakscleContact us:hello@ecospeakscle.com

#728 Show Notes: https://wetflyswing.com/728   Sponsors: https://wetflyswing.com/sponsors   In this episode, Jeff Liskay, aka the “Great Lakes Dude,” is joined by longtime outdoor writer D'Arcy Egan. With over 50 years of experience covering fishing and conservation in Ohio, D'Arcy shares his knowledge of Lake Erie's transformation, the steelhead boom, and the history of fishery management in the region. From early days fishing for perch to breaking conservation stories, this episode is packed with insights into one of the most underrated fisheries in the country. Episode Chapters with D'Arcy Egan and Jeff Liskay on Great Lakes Fishing & Conservation What You'll Learn in This Episode How Lake Erie's fishery evolved from pollution to world-class walleye and steelhead fishing. The role of conservation efforts in restoring species like bald eagles and yellow perch. The impact of invasive species and commercial fishing on Great Lakes fisheries. The best spots and techniques for targeting steelhead, smallmouth bass, and even catfish on the fly. Why the Cuyahoga River's transformation is a success story for anglers. Jeff and D'Arcy dive deep into the rich history of Ohio's fishing scene, including stories of legendary anglers, conservation battles, and the growing potential of the Cuyahoga River. If you love the Great Lakes, steelhead fishing, or just good old-fashioned fish stories, this episode is for you! Show Notes:  https://wetflyswing.com/728   

Send us a textBedford, Ohio native Eddie Olshansky operates Trashfish, a volunteer organization focused on exploring and cleaning up the Cuyahoga River. Eddie talks about his personal journey, the importance of community involvement in environmental stewardship, the challenges of plastic pollution, and his ongoing efforts to improve the health of our local waterways.Follow Eddie on Instagram @trashfish_cle for updates!

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 8, 2024 is: galvanize • GAL-vuh-nyze • verb To galvanize people is to cause them to be so excited or concerned about something that they are driven to action. // The council's proposal to close the library has galvanized the town's residents. See the entry > Examples: “The original Earth Day was the product of a new environmental consciousness created by Rachel Carson's 1962 book, Silent Spring, and of public horror in 1969 that the Cuyahoga River in Ohio was so polluted it caught fire. … On April 22, 1970, some 20 million people attended thousands of events across America, and this galvanizing public demand led in short order to the creation, during Richard Nixon's presidency, of the Environmental Protection Agency (1970), the Clean Air Act (1970), the Clean Water Act (1972), and the Endangered Species Act (1973), and much more after that.” — Todd Stern, The Atlantic, 6 Oct. 2024 Did you know? Luigi Galvani was an Italian physician and physicist who, in the 1770s, studied the electrical nature of nerve impulses by applying electrical stimulation to frogs' leg muscles, causing them to contract. Although Galvani's theory that animal tissue contained an innate electrical impulse was disproven, the French word galvanisme came to refer to a current of electricity especially when produced by chemical action, while the verb galvaniser was used for the action of applying such a current (both words were apparently coined by German naturalist Alexander von Humboldt, who modeled them after the French equivalents of magnetism and magnetize). In English, these words came to life as galvanism and galvanize, respectively. Today their primary senses are figurative: to galvanize a person or group is to spur them into action as if they've been jolted with electricity.

Two vehicles pulled from the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland are related to teen Keshaun Williams who has been missing for over a year; Cincinnati making new efforts to solve cold cases; Newark leaders discuss possible solutions to the area's homeless problem after the city banned camping; Lucas County is receiving more than $2M to build new housing and rehabilitate existing homes that are in a state of disrepair.

Two vehicles pulled from the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland are related to teen Keshaun Williams who has been missing for over a year; Cincinnati making new efforts to solve cold cases; Newark leaders discuss possible solutions to the area's homeless problem after the city banned camping; Lucas County is receiving more than $2M to build new housing and rehabilitate existing homes that are in a state of disrepair.

Margaret Cogswell- In Mother's yukata, giving presentation on my work in Japanese at the opening for my mixed media installation- Karasu to Issyoni Kaerimasyo: A River of Memories in Ichinomiya, Japan- 8/24/2024. Margaret Cogswell is a mixed-media installation artist residing in West Shokan, New York. Cogswell is the recipient of numerous awards, including the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship (2009),  Pollock-Krasner Foundation (2017-18, 1991 & 1987) and the New York Foundation for the Arts (2007, 1993). Cogswell's most recent project (2024), “ Karasu to Issyoni Kaerimasyo:  A River of Memories”, was made possible by a generous grant from The Tree of Life Foundation. Cogswell was born in Memphis, Tennessee, and raised in Japan where she lived until she was 13 years old. Since 2003, the main focus of Cogswell's work has been an ongoing series of RIVER FUGUES projects exploring the interdependency of people, industry and rivers. RIVER FUGUES began in Cleveland, Ohio with Cuyahoga Fugues, a mixed-media installation inspired by and incorporating generations of stories reflecting the life and dreams embodied by the Cuyahoga River.  Expanding on this idea, Moving the Waters: Ashokan Fugues was created for a solo exhibition at the Cue Art Foundation in NYC in 2014, and re-created in 2016 for a solo exhibition at the Kleinart /James Center for the Arts, Woodstock, NY. RIVER FUGUES have been commissioned by museums and art centers for exhibitions nationally and internationally including  Moving the Water(s):  Croton Fugues, at Mid-Manhattan Library of New York Public Library, in New York, NY ( solo 2017); Water Soundings, for the Zendai Zhujiajiao Art Museum, China (solo 2014);  Wyoming River Fugues at the Art Museum, University of Wyoming, Laramie (solo 2012);  Hudson River Fugues at Tang Museum, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY, (group 2009-2010); River Fugues for a traveling group exhibition at the BOZAR Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels, Belgium (2007), the Monaco Ministry of Culture (2008) and Chicago Field Museum (2009); Mississippi River Fugues, Art Museum, University of Memphis, Tennessee (solo 2008); Buffalo River Fugues at Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, Buffalo, NY (solo 2006); Hudson Weather Fugues at Wave Hill, NYC (group 2005), and Cuyahoga Fugues at SPACES Gallery, Cleveland, Ohio (solo 2003). All RIVER FUGUES mixed-media installation projects include a parallel body of works on paper. Recent exhibitions of such works include In the Elements at Kentler International Drawing Space in Brooklyn, NY (2022);  Fragile Rainbow at Williamsburg Art and Historical Center, Williamsburg, NYC, NY (2022).  Upcoming in March, 2023, Cogswell's work will be included in an exhibition titled This Earth at the Concord Center for the Visual Arts (Concord, Massachusetts) for artists who were awarded residencies at the Montello Foundation in the Great Basin of Nevada in 2022. Margaret Cogswell, Karasu to Issyoni Kaerimasyo: A River of Memories (2024)Mixed-media installation: sunset “painted” with tulle; river= fishing nets over wire fencing mesh; LED candles on river; fishing nets on floor; black shadow on veneer board; fishing pole with bamboo & wire; photo in white fishing net; grey acrylic ground cloth on walls & bamboo structure; crows painted with sumi on washi paper stitched onto tulle and stretched over bamboo circle frame. Margaret Cogswell, Karasu to Issyoni Kaerimasyo: A River of Memories (2024) Detail of photo of artist at 4 years old with playmate in swing in hometown of Marugame, Japan. Margaret Cogswell, Departing - Fearlessly Buoyant (2024) Collaged watercolor, sumi ink, acrylic ink & color pencil on paper. 26” x 47” (unframed dimensions)

Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) isn't like those other state EPAs, they're a cool state EPA. After all, they helped Ohio become a leader in water quality assessment! Mike and Elaine are joined by special guest Bill Zaweski, Ohio EPA environmental supervisor of the Division of Surface Water. Bill explains why water should have integrity and how the Gorge Dam compromises the Cuyahoga River's. Learn the Tale of Two Fish, find out which one of our cohosts ruffled Bill's feathers and why, and explore the negative ripple effects of keeping the dam in place — for fish, humans and everything in between. If you're curious about how Ohio became a water quality trailblazer, this episode is a must-listen!  For more, visit bit.ly/freethefalls  Follow Summit Metro Parks:  Facebook: summitmetroparks  Instagram: summitmetroparks  X: metro_parks 

We are releasing a little early this week because this is an important episode and much of the week is a holiday.     Trump v. United States:  https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/23pdf/23-939_e2pg.pdf   "The Man for All Seasons" (Final Scene):  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODejZPHC9vU&t=2s   Dr. Susan Thistlethwaite "Fight On" on Substack:  https://susanthistlethwaitewaite.substack.com/p/fight-on?publication_id=1360431&post_id=146086140&isFreemail=true&r=3ag8ix&triedRedirect=true&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email   Cuyahoga River fire: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/cuyahoga-river-caught-fire-least-dozen-times-no-one-cared-until-1969-180972444/  

The episode delves into the 1969 Cuyahoga River Fire, a significant moment in American environmental history that led to increased awareness, policy changes, and successful cleanup efforts in the aftermath of severe industrial pollution.

Rivers should flow, not ooze. In this one, Ian and Liv are joined once again by Liv's sister/Ian's cousin Alexa once again to talk about the Cuyahoga River Fire, which took place in 1969. Like the name implies, the northeast Ohio river catches fire because it was so heavily polluted by local industry. Local politicians tried to address the pollution and clean up the ecosystem, but they had an extremely uphill battle ahead of them. If your water tastes like medicine, probably best not to drink it. Also, Liv struggles with basic sentence structure. Alexa makes plans to win an award. Ian goes on a failed beer run.

Chris and Don interview ODNR Fisheries Management Supervisor, Curt Wagner on Steelhead being stocked in the Cuyahoga River. Curt gives us a brief history on The River That Caught Fire. He also talks about all the partners that worked hard to help clean the Cuyahoga. We discuss the importance of the Steelhead program in Ohio and the effects on the local economy. The future looks bright for the Cuyahoga and all anglers statewide. If you'd love to hear about a true environmental success story this podcast is for you.

He's definitely going to puncture and sink that kayak! This morning, Morning Motivation, 30 Day Song Challenge, Battle of the Burbs and MORE! Did Taylor Swift write a diss track about Kim Kardashian? Some people weren't able to watch the Cavs last night. Renee wanted Group Therapy as recently she was asked to be a bridesmaid in her friend's wedding. Renee said NO, and no she thinks she isn't invited to the wedding AT ALL! Plus, 5 tips on traveling alone and did you get a great deal on something you want to brag about? 

Jim Ridge is the founder and executive director of Share the River, a non-profit that promotes Cleveland as a waterfront city and sharing everything that makes it a vibrant and engaging space for residents and visitors. In this episode, Jim talks about his upcoming Blazing Paddles Paddlefest on June 22, where hundreds of recreational paddlers and racers will paddle the commercial shipping section of the Cuyahoga River from Rivergate Park up to Cleveland-Cliffs Steelyard and back. Along the way, they will experience how the river has "risen like a phoenix" from its polluted past and is now attracting economic development, tourism, and community pride. Jim is one of our biggest river advocates, even being named Champion of the River by the Cuyahoga River Area of Concern (AOC) last year. He has much to share about how our past, present, and future are inextricably tied to our waterfront and its evolving health. Join us to hear his vision, plus some tips on sharing the river with freighters, about those YAKports, registering for Blazing Paddles, and more. You will surely find new ways to appreciate our tremendous natural resource for its recreational, commercial, and revitalizing potential.Guest: Jim Ridge, Share the RiverResources:About Share the River Follow Share the River - Instagram and FacebookAbout the Cuyahoga RiverKnow Before You Go safety tipsRegister for the Dave Vasarhelyi Memorial Recreational Paddle Map of the lower Cuyahoga River (Federal Navigation Channel)Cuyahoga River Water TrailCuyahoga River and Share the River NewsFollow us: https://www.facebook.com/ecospeaksclehttps://www.instagram.com/ecospeakscleContact us:hello@ecospeakscle.com

We've been calling our shot for 14 years. Step up to the plate as Lindsey, Ron, and Brian review Major League (1989).  In 1989, Director David S. Ward blended the tried and true sports drama with a good dose of comedy to sell and underdog story about a group of lovable losers chasing baseball glory in the warm fires of the Cuyahoga River. Can Tom Berenger pull off being a sex symbol? Can Charlie Sheen be funny? Can anyone believe the MLB Cleveland team could ever be good? Find out as we celebrate 14 years of Film Strip with this review! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/filmstrip/support

In this episode, we welcome returning guests Patrick Kearns with Re:Source Cleveland (formerly Refugee Response) and Michael Bartunek with Ohio City Farm to update us on the exciting developments at Ohio City Farm and with its operator, Re:Source Cleveland. Rachel Ramos, who manages CSA sales for the farm, also joins us to tell us about the diverse array of fresh produce available in the 2024 CSA program and the new tiered pricing structure. We first spoke with Patrick and Michael in episode 3 two years ago. Since then, The Refugee Response has relocated, rebranded, expanded, and begun a major new initiative at Ohio City Farm: the Roundstone Pavilion. Groundbreaking for the 4,000-square-foot building will take place this year. This next-level investment will bring food to the community year-round by housing a commercial kitchen, a wash and pack station, workers' facilities, a retail hall, and more. Last year, Refugee Response rebranded to Re:Source Cleveland, honoring the organization's past 14 years of providing resources to resettled families and supporting them in becoming engaged, self-sufficient, and contributing community members. The farm is central to that mission, growing local food, community connections, and providing meaningful employement. These developments enhance other investments in the area, like the West Side market and the new Metropark taking shape just below the farm along the Cuyahoga River at Irishtown Bend. Join us as our guests update you on what's happening on the farm, in the neighborhood, and at our community table. GuestsPatrick Kearns: Executive Director, Re:Source ClevelandMichael Bartunek: Senior Farm Manager, Ohio City FarmRachel Ramos: Farm Sales and Marketing Coordinator, Ohio City FarmResourcesAbout Re:Source Cleveland rebranding Ohio City 2024 CSASupport Ohio City FarmSupport Re:Source ClevelandAbout the Roundstone PavilionFollow us: https://www.facebook.com/ecospeaksclehttps://www.instagram.com/ecospeakscleContact us:hello@ecospeakscle.com

In this week's episode of Let's Get Civical, Lizzie and Arden start the new year off look at the infamous Cuyahoga river fire! Join them as they discover the cause of the fire, the response of a very theatrical mayor, and how it impacted environmental protections for generations! Follow us on Twitter and Instagram at @letsgetcivical, @lizzie_the_rock_stewart, and @ardenjulianna. Or visit us at letsgetcivical.com for all the exciting updates! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this week's episode of Let's Get Civical, Lizzie and Arden start the new year off look at the infamous Cuyahoga river fire! Join them as they discover the cause of the fire, the response of a very theatrical mayor, and how it impacted environmental protections for generations! Follow us on socials:  Let's Get Civical  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/letsgetcivical/ Lizzie Stewart Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/lizzie_the_rock_stewart/ Arden Walentowski Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ardenjulianna/ Love the show? Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The white Republican base has been so lied to and abused over the past forty or so years that they've become easy marks for the predators in both big business and the GOP… Crazy Alert! A new board game is out for fascists - "Storm the Capitol" Now we're starting to go after the other insurrectionists. Also the GOP's nefarious plan to impeach Biden on Trump's behalf... This is so damn cynical.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Show Notes: https://wetflyswing.com/gld Sponsors: https://wetflyswing.com/sponsors Embark on a journey of environmental triumph and angling adventure as we explore the Cuyahoga River's spectacular comeback, guided by the expertise of Mike Durkalec, aquatic biologist and fishing report hero. Discover how this once fiery river became a success story of ecological restoration, propelling forward thanks to the Clean Water Act and concerted community efforts. Dive into our discussion about the significance of dam removals, and witness the river's rebirth through improved water quality, enhanced biodiversity, and the return of thriving aquatic life. Feel the pulse of Cuyahoga's currents as Mike and I unpack the nuances of steelhead migrations, the survival of these resilient fish through urban challenges, and the stocking strategies that promise a brighter fishing future. Learn how walleye and the prehistoric lake sturgeon are making waves in the river's ecosystem, potentially turning the Cuyahoga into their new spawning haven. As the river flows, so does our conversation—from the excitement of elusive muskies to the practicalities of finding the best fishing spots—offering a treasure trove of tips for anglers eager to cast their lines into these revitalized waters. Finally, join us as we reveal the secrets to successful fishing along the scenic Cuyahoga, where every bend in the river might yield the catch of a lifetime. Get the inside scoop on the optimal bait presentation, the art of navigating stream access laws, and the most effective techniques to lure in the big ones, whether you're after steelhead or musky. From towpaths to tackle, this episode is a call to all fishers of dreams and stewards of nature to celebrate and partake in the resurgent spirit of one of America's most storied rivers. Episode Chapters - Cuyahoga River Restoration (0:00:24) - The Rebirth of the Cuyahoga River Nature's transformation of the Cuyahoga River, its role in sparking the environmental movement, and ongoing restoration efforts are discussed with aquatic biologist Mike Durkalec. (0:08:29) - Dam Removals' Impact on Fish Migration Nature's revitalization through dam removal improves water quality, biodiversity, and fish migration, including the introduction of steelhead in the Cuyahoga River. (0:14:18) - Cuyahoga River Steelhead Surveys and Fishing Nature's resilience and unexpected spawning behavior of steelhead in urbanized areas, highlighting the importance of stream quality and the inclusive opportunity for anglers. (0:20:02) - Cuyahoga River Spawning and Stocking Monitoring fish populations, dam removals, and sturgeon introduction in the Cuyahoga River for potential spawning and migration. (0:30:05) - Exploring the Cuyahoga River for Steelhead Nature's elusive muskies in the Cuyahoga River, strategies for steelhead fishing, comparison to other streams, and potential for a successful fishery. (0:40:06) - Fishing, River Access, and Lure Presentation Nature's scenic towpaths for fishing and biking, bait ban confusion, stream access laws, and public access on Cuyahoga River. (0:48:09) - Fishing Techniques for Steelhead and Musky Nature's effective fishing techniques for steelhead and musky, including vertical and horizontal presentations, seasonal patterns, and gear setup. (0:54:32) - Weight and Depth Considerations in Fishing Nature's techniques for presenting bait naturally in different fishing environments, including trotting, adding weight, and adapting tactics. Show Notes: https://wetflyswing.com/gld

What is an "area of concern," or AOC? Hannah Boesinger of the Ohio Lake Erie Commission talks about projects to restore fish habitat and address the "worst of the worst" legacy-pollution issues in the Cuyahoga River and other Great Lakes waterways.For more information about the Lake Erie Commission, visit https://lakeerie.ohio.gov/Note: the Ashtabula AOC was delisted in 2021:https://www.epa.gov/great-lakes-aocs/ashtabula-river-aoc-delisted

Show Notes:  https://wetflyswing.com/500 Presented By: Mavrk Fly Fishing, Dette Flies, Trxstle, Jackson Hole Fly Company In this milestone episode, we talk about the Klamath Dam Removal journey with Ann Willis. Ann shares her incredible conservation journey, starting from a 6-day white water raft trip. We explore the unique characteristics of the Klamath River, the catalyst for conservation efforts following a devastating fish kill, and the ambitious goals set by American Rivers for dam removal across the nation. Klamath Dam Removal Show Notes with Ann Willis 02:47 - Ann's journey into conservation began with a 6-day rafting trip on the Middle Fork Salmon River, leading her to work as a white-water raft guide for several years. After realizing the need for a more sustainable career, she delved into river science for 15 years and ultimately led her own research program at the U.C. Davis Center for Watershed Sciences. Ann Willis guiding a raft down the Grand Canyon. Photo credit: Amy Quinton 10:00 - Ann introduces the unique characteristics of the Klamath River. The Klamath River was a highly productive ecosystem until around 1918, when the construction of hydroelectric dams began. Among those dams were Copco No. 1, Copco No. 2, Iron Gate, and JC Boyle. 18:42 - In the early 2000s, a significant event that catalyzed conservation efforts in the Klamath River was a massive fish kill. During a drought, water shortages and poor water quality caused by the dams led to a devastating sight of dead fish floating for miles along the riverbanks. 30:00 - Monitoring efforts in the Klamath River assess stream flow, water quality, and the presence and distribution of aquatic life like insects and fish. 35:00 - The removal of dams can have a positive impact on climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions associated with reservoirs. Additionally, it encourages the shift towards more sustainable and emissions-friendly energy sources like solar and wind power. About American Rivers  38:00 - In light of American Rivers' 50th Anniversary, Ann gives advice to those advocating for the removal of the Snake River dams. Hells Canyon on the Snake River, ID. The Snake River is one of the next large dam removal campaigns to improve river health for people and the environment. Photo credit: Ann Willis 46:00 - Ann acknowledges the lack of diversity in conservation organizations. She added that there are also Eurocentric notions that need to be reevaluated, like the idea that these natural spaces are resources for us to profit from or benefit from rather than steward and enhance. 49:00 - American Rivers was founded in the 1970s, a period predating the establishment of significant environmental regulations such as the Clean Water Act and the Environmental Protection Agency. 49:30 There was a notable incident where the Cuyahoga River in Ohio caught fire due to extreme pollution. We talked about this in an episode with Alex Czayka. 51:00 - American Rivers has set ambitious goals to address dams across the country that have reached the end of their practical lifespan. Their vision includes the removal of 30,000 dams by 2050. 59:24 - People interested in the dam removal can reach out to the Klamath River Renewal Corporation. Show Notes:  https://wetflyswing.com/500

In this episode, Johanna Bozuwa of the Climate and Community Project shares a progressive vision for permitting reform and the factors that could speed up the US clean-energy buildout.(PDF transcript)(Active transcript)Text transcript:David RobertsTo achieve its Paris climate targets, the US is going to have to build out an enormous amount of clean energy and clean-energy infrastructure in coming years. But that buildout is going slowly — painfully, excruciatingly slowly — relative to the pace that is necessary.This has given rise to considerable debate on the left over what, exactly, is slowing things down. Much of that debate has come to focus on permitting, and more specifically, on permitting under the National Environmental Protection Act, or NEPA.A deal that would have put some restrictions on NEPA in exchange for reforms to transmission planning was effectively killed by progressives toward the end of the last congressional session, leading many people inside and outside the climate movement to accuse progressives of being The Problem. They are so attached to slowing down fossil fuel development with NEPA, the accusation goes, that they are willing to live with it slowing clean energy. And that's a bad trade.Progressives, not surprisingly, disagree! Their take on the whole permitting debate is summarized in a new paper from the Roosevelt Institute and the Climate and Community Project: “A Progressive Vision for Permitting Reform.”The title is slightly misleading, since one of the central points of the paper is that permitting under NEPA is only a small piece of the puzzle — there are many other factors that play a role in slowing clean energy, and many other reforms that could do more to speed it up. I called up one of the paper's co-authors, Johanna Bozuwa of the Climate and Community Project, to ask her about those other reforms, the larger political debate, and the progressive community's take on speed. All right, then. With no further ado, Johanna Bozuwa from the Climate and Community Project. Welcome to Volts, and thank you so much for coming.Johanna BozuwaThank you so much for having me, David.David RobertsThis is a hot topic, as you're well aware, permitting and the larger issues around it. And so, before we jump into specifics, I wanted to start with a few sort of broad, call them philosophical, questions.Johanna BozuwaPerfect.David RobertsAs you know, progressives have been under quite a bit of fire lately, not only from their typical opponents on the right and in the fossil fuel industry, but from a lot of sort of centrists and even a lot of sort of allies in the climate movement. For — I think the general idea is they are too attached to stopping fossil fuels and not yet supportive enough of building out renewable energy. And the mechanisms that they rely on to slow and stop fossil fuels are also slowing and stopping renewable energy. And so I think the general critique is that they ought to swing around and be more pro-building and loosen these requirements, et cetera, et cetera. I'm sure you've heard all this.Johanna BozuwaYes.David RobertsSo I guess I'd just start with this question. Is, do you think the progressive — and by the way, I meant to say this by way of a caveat, I'm going to be sort of using you as a spokesperson for progressivism, which I think we both realize is ridiculous.Johanna BozuwaRight, exactly.David RobertsProgressives are heterogeneous just like anybody else. There's no official progressive position. But as a crude, let's just say as a crude instrument here, we're going to ask you to speak for that perspective as you see it.Johanna BozuwaPerfect.David RobertsSo in your opinion, do you think progressives have taken it into their heart that things are moving too slowly and they desperately need to move faster?Johanna BozuwaMy answer to that question is that I think speed is progressive. You know, David, I don't need to tell this to you or any of the people that listen to this podcast or even progressives. We're dealing with the existential threat of the climate crisis and lives are on the line. And so I think that as progressives, we do need to take the speed question seriously. And I think what I would push back on is the fact that people have this myopic focus on permitting as the thing that's slowing everything down. And especially when I'm talking about permitting, NEPA permitting.David RobertsRight. We're going to definitely get to that.Johanna BozuwaYeah. And I just think that when it comes to this question of "Do progressives believe in speed?" I think that they actually very much do. And one of the things that I get frustrated with sometimes, when I hear these arguments like "Oh, progressives don't want to build anything," I think what progressives are interested in is building the right thing. And if we think about the United States and how our energy system rolls out today, we have a real issue that fossil fuels can expand at the same time as renewable energy is expanding. Like when it comes to fossil fuels, we can actually export that.We are now the biggest net exporter of LNG and crude oil. And I think that progressives are particularly aware that if we do the wrong thing on permitting then we're actually not only expanding renewable energy — and maybe poorly done renewable energy — but also the fossil fuel industry knows how to use these tools so much better than our renewable energy developers. And we are going to see just a massive expansion that we absolutely don't need right now. If we think the climate crisis matters.David RobertsWhat about the argument which goes like this: Fossil fuels are reaching sort of a structural peak and decline. Renewable energy is getting cheaper and cheaper and cheaper. It's on the rise. So if you just, all things being equal, make it easier to build everything across the board, renewable energy will win that race and so it's worth doing.Johanna BozuwaI just don't think that argument is true, look at how much power the fossil fuel industry still has in making these decisions. Like if we look at who is behind the recent push for permitting reform: It was largely the oil and gas industry. There's definitely some more nuance that's there, but they have significant power to move things and move them faster than the clean energy world. It's a question of when you're rolling back some of these bedrock environmental laws that the pie — it's not that the part of renewable energy in the pie is getting bigger. It's that even if we are getting more renewable energy, the pie itself has expanded so that we're having fossil fuels and renewables expanding at the same time.And it's not fully pushing out the power of the fossil fuel industry.David RobertsWell, then, how about this? And this is the final philosophical question before we get down to some nuts and bolts. Do you agree that there are going to be trade-offs as we pursue speed? This is, of course, the big discussion right now is that if you really double down on speed, if you really pursue speed with everything you've got, there are inevitably going to be some trade-offs, some other progressive values that have to take a backseat. And that might be other environmental impacts. It might be impacts on communities. It might be, you know, name it. It might be that we have to loosen up a little bit on those other things.Do you think that there are those trade-offs?Johanna BozuwaI think that there are some trade-offs. You, I think, had my colleague, Thea Riofrancos, on the pod some time ago talking about lithium extraction, right? And the fact that if we are going to decarbonize our transportation sector, it is going to take extraction in order to accomplish that. Right. And there are substantial and significant impacts that has in terms of water contamination in some of the most drought-impacted parts of the United States, that is something that we need to be thinking about. And I think what my hesitation is when it comes to so much of this conversation is that we're talking about deregulation as the way to do speed instead of actually talking about planning and coordination.And from my perspective, it's the planning and coordination that allows us to think through the decisions we're making with a far better sense of what's happening instead of a "get government out of the way, we'll figure it out" project that — it didn't really do great things for the planet. Are we going to do that again and trying to fix it? That seems like a silly mistake to make.David RobertsYeah, that's a really important distinction. I'm glad we get that out up front. Because I hate when we go from, "Yes, there are trade-offs" to therefore "Let it rip, let everything go." As Thea said on the podcast, we can acknowledge those trade-offs and thoughtfully try to minimize them through planning.Johanna BozuwaExactly.David RobertsSo let's start with this. As you say, there's this sort of what we're calling the permitting debate, quote unquote. Permitting debate is actually a bunch of debates and they're all kind of getting squished together under this notion of permitting. But in fact, there's a lot of things going on here other than permitting. So maybe talk just a little bit about all the disparate things that are now sort of getting lumped together under that rubric.Johanna BozuwaExactly. So I think just to put a point on it, often when people are talking about permitting, they're talking about this unfocused conversation about cutting red tape. But really what it comes down to is where the fight is right now in particular on the national stage is around NEPA. So the National Environmental Policy Act, but wrapped up into all of their arguments are all these other pieces that actually are maybe more of the problem than particularly NEPA. So, you know, four of them, just to start us off, obviously we do have NEPA. That's part of the permitting process.We have local and state zoning permits, approvals, things like that. You know, going to Georgia County to make sure that you can put something through. Then you have third, these contracts or arrangements that are actually between private organizations. David, I know you had folks talking about internet connection queues — that often is part of the permitting debate, but it's actually about who gets to go onto the transmission that's being built.David RobertsLet me pause there because I want to make a point that I'm not sure everybody understands and I'm not even sure we made it in that pod. But the ISOs, the ...Johanna BozuwaIndependent service operators. I know I always mess it up. RTOs. ISOs.David RobertsYes, I know. ISOs and RTOs. I could never call that to mind. But anyway, the ones who are sort of running the transmission systems and running these queues are not public organizations. Those are not state organizations. They are private consortia of transmission organizations and utilities and things like that. So it's not something that the state can come in and just directly change. I just think that's worth sort of putting on the record.Johanna BozuwaI think that's a really important point and I think we'll probably dig into this further. But the idea that and I think you talked about this on the pod last time, but there are so many different kind of private actors that are operating within the RTOs and ISOs with not actually a huge amount of oversight, as it currently stands.David RobertsYes, or transparency.Johanna BozuwaOr transparency.David RobertsOr accountability, really.Johanna BozuwaYeah, exactly. And it turns out if we're looking at what's really miring the buildout of renewable energy, a solid amount of it is right there. Is in the interconnection queues. I think it was Southwest PowerPool — takes like eight years sometimes to get the developer to get their project through. And those are for projects that already have their offtaker and have all their permitting in place. So it just feels quite misguided for us to spend all of this time talking about permitting when we could be actually diagnosing the problem —David RobertsAnd you said there was a fourth.Johanna Bozuwa— and there's a fourth. The fourth one, I would say, is just operation and construction permits, like some of the pollution discharge stuff that is at some of these more local levels. And those four don't even include some of the other things that stop things, which is like access to capital, utility squabbles, supply chain slowdowns, these whole host of other issues that are just being swept under the rug because it's very alluring to say, guess what? I have the one quick fix to make sure that renewable energy gets built in the United States.David RobertsAnd local NIMBYism. I'd throw that in.Johanna BozuwaYeah, yeah, local NIMBYism, absolutely. Add it to the pile, exactly. So and NEPA's not going to do things about local NIMBYism in the same way that's the local and state zoning stuff.David RobertsYeah, I think people really want, for obvious reasons, they're frustrated by everything going so slowly and everybody wants there to be sort of like something to cut the Gordian knot, sort of one, as you said, one weird trick. And that's, I think, why people are grasping onto NEPA because it seems like that's one big thing we can argue about and change. But as you say, the reasons here are very disparate. But let's just take a second to talk about NEPA. I go back and forth on this, but is it, do you think the progressive position that NEPA is okay "as is" and doesn't need any changes?Like, do you think there are problems with NEPA and how it's administered?Johanna BozuwaOkay. My feeling on this is that the case about NEPA is overstated, especially as we describe so many other things, even outside of the permitting process that matters. But if we're going to talk about NEPA, I think overall the projects are going through pretty quickly. There was a new study, actually, this month by, I think, David Adelman that did a really comprehensive look at wind and solar NEPA reviews over the past ten years, and he found that less than 5% of Wind and solar projects required. The EIS, like the Environmental Impact Statement, which is the one that takes the most time usually, can be two and a half years or whatever, but they're going through with categorical exclusions or some of these faster ways to move wind and solar projects through, or just projects in general.And he found that there was very little litigation involved, which is often like the dog whistle, I feel like, of some of these folks who are calling for permitting.David RobertsYeah, I was surprised when I looked at that study. It's a relatively low percentage of those projects that get litigated after they're done.Johanna BozuwaRight, exactly. And I think if I were to make any improvements to NEPA, the thing I would do is bulk up the administrative state. Jamie Gibbs Pleune wrote a kind of corresponding piece of research to our permitting report where she investigated and talked about NEPA in particular with Roosevelt. But she was looking at another paper and found of 40,000 NEPA decisions that the US Forest Service looked at, the biggest causes of delays were actually from a lack of experienced staff, budget instability, and honestly, delays from the applicants themselves not getting their stuff in on time. So I just feel as if we're going to do anything to make NEPA better, give the BLM, give US Forest Service, give EPA far more funds, training, staff empowerment that's going to actually move these projects even faster through the pipeline when they're actually moving relatively quickly.And these places have experienced chronic understaffing and lack of empowerment. So there is work to be done there. I don't want to understate that, but I think that it's a reasonable thing for us to accomplish without rolling back and applying a very neoliberal frame to how we get this job done.David RobertsYeah, I would say it does seem like NEPA has sprawled a bit since it was passed. Originally, it was supposed to be major projects that came under NEPA review, and the court basically decided that all projects were under NEPA review. And so there's just thousands and thousands now that just have these little sort of not very long delays because they get these categorical exemptions. But there's just a lot of — it's very sprawling, it seems like, and unfocused. This is one of those areas where I feel like there are procedures of the administrative state that could work better and more effectively.But at this point, liberals, they've just been under assault for so long. And liberals just know if you open this can of worms, if you open it up to review, there's just a pool of piranhas that want to go in and strip it bare. And so they just don't open it for review. Like, there's so many things like this. Like, if we could have a good faith process of actually trying to do what NEPA is supposed to do better than NEPA does it, I feel like, yeah, there's stuff we could improve, but Joe Manchin doesn't want to improve it.Johanna BozuwaWe don't want Joe Manchin in charge of what NEPA looks like and what's the more muscular version that takes into consideration the real-life climate impacts. Because I don't know when you're talking there, David, a thing that comes up for me is the reality that we will have more things happening on the ground. Like, let's say you put transmission in, we have a wildfire crisis. Now all of a sudden, the stakes are higher when it comes to these things like environmental review that are very material that I think also aren't talked about as much as they should be. And so, yeah, I can imagine things being shifted and changed within NEPA so that it works better for the current context.But I think that, as you describe it, could be a real political problem for us to do that type of work right now. And we have other mechanisms that can move us much more quickly in the interim. Like, is this really the thing we want to be spending our time on as progressives? The answer is no.David RobertsAnd I also think if you look at the reforms that were sort of ended up getting jammed through, like of all the thoughtful things you could do to NEPA to make it work better, just a sort of — page limit, like a page limit on reviews: Seems like it's such a blunt instrument. It's such a crude way of approaching this.Johanna BozuwaOh, and I think it's going to get them into serious trouble. If you want a thing that is going to increase litigation, try adding an arbitrary deadline and page limit to something with no administrative capacity.David RobertsOkay. We could do a whole pod on NEPA, but I don't want to get too — our whole point is it's not the sole or even main impediment here. So at a slightly more granular level, let's talk about what you think is actually slowing down clean energy infrastructure build out. And there's a few categories your report covers starting with transmission, which is, I think, the big one.Johanna BozuwaYeah, totally. And I would agree with you. I mean, transmission planning is kind of in shambles in this country. It's not up to the job.David RobertsYeah, I don't think literally anybody on any side of anything would disagree with you about that.Johanna BozuwaExactly. And I think there are a couple of reasons for that. One is that multistate transmission buildouts are incredibly hard to do in a federalized system. We just have so many different actors that are vying to hold on to their particular part of the market, especially with our vertically integrated utilities that don't have much interest in allowing other utilities into their service territory. And in deregulated states, utilities are kind of out of the picture for deciding where new generation is being built. So there's not a lot of efficiencies that are built into that. So we just get this really haphazard development, if development at all, of our transmission system, which I think is just quite a failure.There are so many clear opportunities to do much more clear planning around this.David RobertsYes. And then what about big large-scale renewable energy projects like big solar, wind, geothermal, what is in practice, slowing down their build out?Johanna BozuwaYeah, so I think that when it comes to some of these larger scale projects around solar or wind, you're running again into projects that aren't thinking strategically about where they're being placed. So if we're looking at the amount of land that we're going to need with the energy transition right. Wind and solar take more space up than one natural gas plant. And I think that there's just like a clear lack of land use planning when it comes to these larger scale projects when we could be doing it far better. Right. And thinking about what are the areas that make sense and are going to limit the amount of impact on our landscape and on communities and actually deploy it in those areas.And I actually think there are answers to that question.David RobertsWell, we're not to answers yet. We're dwelling on problems.Johanna BozuwaOkay, all right —David RobertsSo how does that slow down? I mean, what does that manifest as? How does that slow down the build out?Johanna BozuwaYeah, well, the way that that manifests is that you're putting big renewable energy projects in tension with things like agriculture. You're putting big renewable projects in tension with our biodiversity goals. And so those are the things that are going to potentially mire the development and deployment of these larger scale projects — in addition to getting them attached to the transmission and making sure that it's colocated with the transmission we need.David RobertsYes, the aforementioned interconnection queue issue, which alone is like, "That's a lot of years," which as you say, that's a lot of years tacked on the end of all the other stuff they have to go through. Like once they have to go through all that other stuff, then they get in the interconnection queue and wait and wither, etc. And then another thing you take on here is a big piece of the clean energy buildout, which I think a lot of people don't really think about as much, maybe don't enjoy thinking about as much, which is the sort of minerals and metals aspect of it. A big part of IRA, the Inflation Reduction Act, is an attempt to onshore supply chains so that China does not dominate them.But that means onshoring some mines and some minerals processing which are not necessarily environmentally friendly, not necessarily things people like having in their backyard. So what's slowing those things down?Johanna BozuwaI guess I would say there are two pieces that are happening. One is just that this is a pretty new area and there are so many price fluctuations that are happening. There's all of these big mining companies that are shifting ownership, trying to figure out financing. Right? So there's a lot that's happening there. And mining companies are not the best known for having perfect environmental impact statements or anything like that, that's going to get them mired right. And then you add in the fact that as we talked about earlier, a lot of where these lithium reserves are is also in extremely — like the likelihood for drought is a lot higher if you're looking, for instance, at the Salton Sea in California or, you know, over in Nevada, these are places that we actually have to be extremely careful about. And also it just takes a really long time to build a mine like this isn't something that happens the next day. Right. It's like 10 to 15 years in the future type thing. So it is a longer time frame that's going to be even longer if we aren't thinking, again, about who is impacted, how they are going to be impacted by the mining itself. What is that going to do to air quality, water quality, all of these different things?It's a really big part of the permitting discussion, or of the transition discussion in particular that is being discounted in the United States.David RobertsAnd one more bit on problems, before we transition to recommendations. I noticed that one thing you don't get into a lot in the report is the expression of those state and local level permitting issues. And a lot of those I think, are tied to environmental review. And a lot — like, for instance, the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) is just sort of like legendarily at this point, a tool for local NIMBYs to stop things happening. Like we just read a story that was bouncing around Twitter a few days ago about these wealthy people — I forget what county they were in — but they were suing because someone had moved a playground closer to their house.They didn't like the sound of the kids playing and so they sued. And part of it was that the city had not done a proper environmental review under CEQA of moving the playground. And you hear stories like that all the time. Do you think you said that NEPA is not as big a problem as people say? Do you think state level environmental review is a serious problem, a serious barrier, at least in some places?Johanna BozuwaI think it just really depends on the place. And I think that's part of why as we were writing a national paper, being able to dig into the detail and differentiations between all of these different places seemed like a big haul for a small paper. So yeah, I think that there are these pieces at the local level, the zoning things, right? People are historic preservation boards that are saying like, "No rooftop solar because we don't like the look of it." Yeah, that's some BS in my mind and I think we do need to figure out how to manage that.And I think what this comes into conversation with is a little bit of like, what is the community review process? What does that look like and how do we manage that?David RobertsContemplating the variety and number of those instruments at the state and local level is really overwhelming and really does make the problem feel so intractable because it's just like, as you say in a federalist system, it's like every bit of reform is not just one bit, it's 50 bits. Every bit is 50 fights.Johanna BozuwaTotally agree. And I think that's why we get stuck in these gridlocks sometimes. And also when we get to solutions, I think there are some examples that we can draw on and utilize our little multi tool of ideas of how to move this forward.David RobertsFinal thing before that, because I forgot about this bit, but actually it's worth making a note that it's actually easier for fossil fuel infrastructure to get NEPA permits than it is for clean energy projects. It's something you note in the paper. If anything, NEPA is easier on these pipelines and stuff. Even though Joe Manchin is complaining ceaselessly about it.Johanna BozuwaYes, and I mean, I think that's why in particular, people who have been fighting the fossil fuel industry for so long, look to this group of folks, more center left folks, that are saying "Repeal NEPA, let's do it, we want to build." They're saying, "Oh my gosh. What you're doing by saying that is saying that the West Virginian that I have been fighting alongside is going to be decimated by this pipeline that's being passed now." So there are really high stakes and in a lot of the permitting process that we saw at the federal level, it also implicated the Mountain Valley pipeline.Right. And that type of infrastructure getting a pass when it couldn't even get some of its permits at the state level to just go forth is a really, I think, scary potential because that locks us into decades of extraction.David RobertsYeah, I feel like that was not covered well when this whole thing happened. You know, the Mountain Valley Pipeline: It's not that it was like stuck unfairly in a bureaucratic tangle. It just sort of straightforwardly was polluting and so it couldn't get the permits, the permits were rejected. It wasn't like stuck in some queue or something. It was just straightforwardly a polluting project that could not qualify under US law to go on. And it was just like jammed through. So I feel like the outrage of that didn't really penetrate partially because everybody's on this like "everything needs to go faster tip" and so they just kind of slotted it under there.But we don't want things that straightforwardly fail environmental review going forward do we?Johanna BozuwaExactly, like, I would like, that the Cuyahoga River does not catch on fire again. And that's the reason we have environmental review and NEPA. And also I would like it to be able to stop more fossil fuel infrastructure.David RobertsYeah, I know. And this is the other thing too, as though we're supposed to have some sort of content neutral opinions about permitting as such. I'm just like, "Well, I want more good stuff and less bad stuff. Can I have that opinion?"Johanna BozuwaExactly. That's so crucial too, where there are ways for us to stop permitting new fossil fuel infrastructure and permit the hell out of good renewable energy projects. That's a political possibility that Biden actually had signed up for and now is stepping back on.David RobertsYeah, I mean, it's politically tough, but let's be positive here. You have a lot of recommendations in here, all of which are juicy, all of which could probably have a podcast of their own on them. There's no way we can cover them all. But you sort of have your principles and recommendations grouped under three headings. And the first one, which I think is the one that is most directly germane to the speed question, is enabling more coordination and planning. And I think this is a huge thing. This is one of my soapboxes I get on all the time.I really want the climate movement to take this up is that we've had decades and decades of for lack of a better term, neoliberalism and this sort of instinctive free market stuff. And it's not like any major developed economy actually stops planning. What happens when you claim you're not planning and you claim you're being a free market is you just move planning behind closed doors or bury it in the tax code where no one can see it or understand what's happening. And then that results in whoever has the most power and money winning the planning fights.So I'm done with my soapbox. Let's talk about restoring our ability to do public, transparent, cooperative planning. Let's talk about a few of the items under here. And first is just land use planning. What do you mean by that and what would it look like?Johanna BozuwaSo, land use planning, as we talked about earlier, it turns out that one fossil fuel plant is a lot smaller than the types of assets that we need to build. That's just a reality of what we're working with. And so that necessitates far more land use planning to think about how do we get the most out of the least amount of space that is going to do the best for keeping the lights on. And so there are examples of how we can do this type of land planning. And one example I want to bring up actually is in California.So there was the Desert Renewable Energy Plan that was basically where states and federal agencies came together and they were looking at the Mojave and Colorado desert area. It's like 22 million acres.David RobertsVery sunny.Johanna BozuwaYeah, very sunny, exactly. Very sunny, very good for some solar. And what they did is that they coordinated a plan for this entire region so that it was prescreened for issues. So they said, okay, we're going to look at the biodiversity impacts of things being put here. We're going to look at the cultural or tribal impacts, the environmental potential impacts. And so after they did that kind of, what's called often like a programmatic study, that meant that the developers that came in to build the stuff there don't have to go through some more involved environmental impact assessment or study because it's already done.And so that meant that because they had done all of that work ahead of time, projects are getting approved so much faster. They're getting approved in less than ten months. And have, I think it's been now this zone has been around for about ten years and I don't think there is one litigation case. So that is just such a good example of land use planning where it's like thinking ahead of what we need and how we're going to do it. And that still does allow for private developers to come in, even though I might even argue that we could do even more planning and fill in the gaps with some public transmission or public renewable energy.But we can get into that later.David RobertsAnd we did an example from California, so I think now we're constitutionally obliged to do one from Texas too.Johanna BozuwaAbsolutely. Well, exactly. Thank you for setting me up so neatly, David, for the Competitive Renewable Energy Zones of Texas, which was such a success. So this is a very similar situation where the legislature directed the PUC, the Public Utilities Commission to plan where new generation and transmission was going to be located, routed, all of this. And so by doing so, they allowed for this proliferation of wind in Texas, a place where you might not expect a massive amount of wind to be. And I was reading a study the other day that said that in the past ten years, the CREZ line, so the Competitive Renewable Energy Zone, represents 23% of all new high voltage lines in the US.David RobertsGood grief.Johanna BozuwaRight?David RobertsYeah. They're actually building I mean, I don't know if people know this, they're actually building transmission in Texas. I'll just talk about how transmission never gets built. They're building it there because —Johanna BozuwaThey had a plan.David RobertsThey planned in advance. Yes, they had zones where it got approved and so you didn't have to then go there and do the entire like a transmission developer didn't have to go somewhere and then do the entire thing. Right. Do the entire review, do the entire land use review and the environmental review. They didn't have to start over every time that stuff was done in advance.Okay, point made. There more land use coordination and planning. That's the states doing it. But you could imagine the feds getting into that somewhat. You have these jurisdictional issues and federalism issues that are a bit of a tangle, but it does seem like the feds at the very least could do some informational, advisory planning and assessment on a bigger level, don't you think?Johanna BozuwaOh, absolutely. Actually, we do have a lot of private land in this country. Absolutely. But there is a lot of land that is owned by the federal government. So they're actually implicating a lot of this already. And it makes far more sense for an actor that has that kind of meso level understanding of what we need to build to be involved in those processes and be doing kind of a national assessment of where should those zones be. Like CREZ that's going to have all of these benefits and is going to allow for the most kind of efficient way for us to be deploying renewable energy while also taking into consideration these biodiversity, tribal nation relations and all of these things.That's a good role for the federal government to actually play.David RobertsOkay, we're going to pass quickly by two of these since I've done pods on them. But as you say, one is the interconnection process, which is probably the biggest thing right now, slowing down renewable energy getting built. I did a whole pod on that with RMI's Chaz Teplin a few weeks ago.Johanna BozuwaA fantastic one.David RobertsReally encourage everybody to go listen to that. There's a lot of recommendations in there for how to improve the interconnection process, how to improve things in batches. To return to a theme here, a lot of that has to do with just more and better planning on the ISO's parts.Once again, like, think in advance a little bit and you can skip some of this case by case stuff, but I encourage people to go listen to that pod. Another one, which we've touched on slightly, which I also did a pod on, is just and I think this is so important is just the capacity of the agencies that are doing these reviews. These are at the state level and at the federal level. These agencies have been cut to the bone. They're all, all understaffed, desperately behind, and that, of course, makes things go slower. So all these people who are whinging about reviews, if they're not talking about bulking up agency capacity, I just have trouble taking them seriously because that is the lowest hanging fruit you could do.But I did a whole pod on that several weeks ago about government capacity and about some of the provisions in the IRA that are meant to bulk up capacity at these agencies. It's just a matter of money and hiring. So we're going to check that one off the list. Let's talk a little bit about this next recommendation, which is about more publicly owned energy and transmission. What do you mean by that? What would that look like?Johanna BozuwaYeah, so this is kind of trying to answer the question of building where private companies will not, right? Like, we do have this problem of not having the long-range solution in the mind's eye, right? And we have this system in which there isn't a lot of this coordination that's in the mind's eye of a developer, right? Like, they're focused on their development, whereas the state government, federal government, has a little bit more of like, "Okay, what are we trying to accomplish? We are trying to handle the climate crisis. And that means we need to move as quickly as possible to deploy as much renewable energy as possible.And it turns out we actually do have some capacity and to actually build this ourselves." And we've done this in the past, admittedly, in a much less dense energy system. But the New Deal is a really good example of this, where the U.S. either directly financed or built itself a massive amount of transmission and energy infrastructure, like the Rural Electrification Administration that FDR put in place. It electrified 80% of the United States land mass in ten years. And when we're talking about the climate crisis, I would like to go at that clip. So I think if there are ways for us where we have a standstill where things aren't getting built fast enough, where can the federal government, the state government come in with a little political muscle and do that building?And I think that there are additional kind of benefits to doing this too, which include the fact that if you're building public renewables, for instance, you're also probably going to value having higher and better-paid jobs. You are probably going to, in comparison to a private developer, probably thinking a little bit more about some of those community benefits. And I think that there's a real win there that actually kind of creates a baseline for the rest of the private industry in a good way too.David RobertsInstead of just nudging and incentivizing private developers to do these things, we could just do them.Johanna BozuwaWe could just do them and we can also show them the way a little bit too. Right. Like right now, right. We just have the Inflation Reduction Act. Fabulous. We love the climate investments. It's so great. And also it just largely relies on tax incentives, right. And in those it's like you get a little bit more if you use local steel and if you have high wage jobs, all these things. And we could also just do that, build some public renewables and make it happen ourselves. And also when you have, particularly from a job perspective, right, like a public renewables entity that's building these developments with high wage work, that means that the private developers are afraid that they're going to lose all of their workers.So then they have to raise their wages too, which is a good thing.David RobertsRace to the top, I think they call that.Johanna BozuwaI would love a race to the top instead of a race to the bottom in our renewable energy world.David RobertsYes. Okay, we got to keep moving here. There's a long list. The next one is something we covered, I think, on the Thea Riofrancos post, which is just we know we have to build a lot of stuff, but that's not a fixed quantity of stuff we have to build. Right. We can be more efficient with how we use materials. We can try to build in a less material intensive way. So, you know, what Theo was talking about is encourage more walking and biking and multimodal transportation rather than cars, cars, cars. Like that's a choice. And there are other choices we could make to build a clean, but the less material intensive version of clean.There's a lot of different ways we can guide things in that direction.Johanna BozuwaOh yeah, absolutely.David RobertsEveryone should go listen to that podcast, too. This pod is like an advertisement for all my other pods.Johanna BozuwaI love it, I love it. Yeah. And just to kind of emphasize, the more that we can invest in efficiency, the fewer transmission lines we might have to build, right? Like if we have a bunch of houses that aggressively go in on multi units. Like, we're having more people housed in multi units. We're creating urban density. We're making the houses that we already have more efficient. All of those things accumulate and make it so that we actually don't have to do the same level of massive deployment, which is a huge win. So we have to — I think it's like questioning some of the assumptions, too, of how much do we need to build.David RobertsRight. Maybe not all our private vehicles need to be the size of military tanks and weigh three tons. This segues perfectly into the next one, which I feel like is underappreciated, which is supporting distributed energy resources. Talk about why that's part of going faster here. How does that fit into this picture?Johanna BozuwaSo let's say we're able to add rooftop solar to a lot of the rooftops that are around and implement microgrids and put in storage. These are all, again, things that are going to be a lot easier probably to deploy because they're smaller. There's less of this zoning permitting etc. that has to happen when it comes to some of the bigger stuff, where you're going to maybe need environmental review. And so by making those investments in distributed energy resources, you're actually lightening the load again on transmission development.David RobertsRight. It's kind of a piece of the previous one, really.Johanna BozuwaTotally.David RobertsIt's about being less material intensive.Johanna BozuwaExactly. And I also think the added benefit of doing that, of course, is the fact that we live in unreliable times and it adds additional reliability potential by having things like microgrids deployed.David RobertsYes, many future pods on that particular subject are in the works, are cooking in the Volts oven. Let's go to the second big category here, and this is where I have a little bit of skepticism. So this category is "Enhance community participation and consent." So this is what I want to talk about: You say, let's bring communities in more and earlier. And of course, I think most people, at least most people in my world, when they hear "more community involvement," their palms start sweating. They envision these local zoning meetings with old people shouting at city officials.They envision nothing ever getting done, everything getting blocked, NIMBY's everywhere. You have this sentence where it says, "Strengthening community participation early in the process will likely move projects forward faster without as much community opposition." Do we know that to be true? I want that to be true. I like the idea of it. Do we know that?Johanna BozuwaGreat question. It's worth interrogating. I'm going to borrow a little bit from my colleague that we've already referenced today, Thea Riofrancos, that she often says which is "Sometimes going fast isn't actually fast." So, you know, if we streamline, right, or NEPA gets streamlined or many of these other permitting processes, you cut the red tape and therefore you are steamrolling communities affected by the infrastructure. You're potentially hardening them against the project. And when they feel mad or disenfranchised, chances are they're going to throw the book at you. They're going to throw the book to stop the project. We talked about these arbitrary dates set by some of the permitting system.You're actually putting yourself up for far more potential litigation and drawn out legal battles because you actually haven't done the work that's necessary to bring that group on side, nor do you have all of your ducks in a row. So I think that there is a justification for defraying conflict and making our odds better at doing that. I'm not saying that we're not going to run into problems and there isn't going to be this annoying mob of Karens that's going to show up every once in a while. But I do think that our odds do look better when we do involve community.David RobertsThere's a cynical point of view here which says communities are always going to have their Karens. There's always going to be somebody who objects, no matter how early, no matter how much you consult, there's always going to be somebody who doesn't want something near them. The only way in the end to overcome this problem is to take those instruments of delay out of their hands, including the litigation tool, including the environmental review tool, including the community review tool, and just get a little bit more Chinese about the whole thing. Just go do stuff, even if — bulldoze, basically.I know we want to resist that conclusion, but I wish we knew better. I wish we had better models of moving quickly.Johanna BozuwaSo I think actually, since you mentioned the Chinese, I'm going to mention the Danish. And I think that part of this is actually like — we have this problem, right, that we know that deploying renewable energy, deploying clean energy is just incredibly important for the climate crisis. But the benefits are diffuse where the potential negative is pretty concentrated when it comes to these things. And so I think one question we can ask or the permit reviewers or whatever it is, or how we're thinking about developing these projects, is getting in their shoes and asking, what is in it for me?We can pay people to have some of this stuff, right? So the Danish government in the 1990s was building out a bunch of wind. And so one of the ways that they incentivized this wind development was by incentivizing that part of it is owned by the local government to give them a revenue stream. And that actually helped to limit the controversy. And you'll see that in Denmark, people have kind of higher concepts or like the polling is better for wind. And I was talking with this professor, Nick Pevzner from University of Pennsylvania, who was discussing this really interesting particular instance in which in one of these towns where they were going to be around the offshore wind, they actually brought in landscape architects to design the offshore wind. So that it would be aesthetically pleasing.David RobertsThe Danes give a shi-, give a dang, about how things look like. What a thought.Johanna BozuwaHuge difference.David RobertsYes, I know. You look at what's the one waste incineration plant in the middle of the town that's like gorgeous. It's got a laser display, I think it's got a ski hill on it. All these kind of things. It seems like we don't care here in the US. How ugly things are. Witness any sort of midsize town or strip mall or the periphery of any city. Everything's just like plain and ugly. Like what if we made things look nice that might improve community —Johanna BozuwaWe deserve nice things. Communities deserve nice things.David RobertsWe can have nice things. And you talk about we should do what's called a "Cumulative impact analysis."Johanna BozuwaYes.David RobertsAgain, to me on first blush that sounds like oh, bigger and more analysis: Surely that's going to slow things down. So how do you see that working?Johanna BozuwaWell, again, this kind of takes us to our planning. Right. Like cumulative impact analysis which New Jersey and New York have put in place is this way to discern not just the impact of the project but the accumulated impact of that project and what's already come to date. And I think what you would find in cumulative impact in these places, is that actually it's doing some of what we were talking about before, which is trying to fight off the bad and build more of the good. So that's a way to stop new fossil fuel infrastructure but maybe see benefit around solar or something like that.These are actually tools that, yes, as you say, at first glance you might think, "Oh my gosh, more? Really?" But what it's doing is assuring some of that larger meso level discerning and also in a lot of ways these are environmental justice tools too. Right. The reason that they're doing that is because it has so consistently been the same community that has had to shoulder the coal plant, then the gas plant, then the pipeline, then another cement factory. Right. And so they're trying to say, "Okay wait, this is out of control. Let's think about where we're putting this and how that's going to burden people."David RobertsSo the last category here is "Empower a just transition." And I don't think we need to go piece by piece through here since these are very familiar asks from progressive climate people, which is just stop permitting new fossil fuel facilities. Protect the communities that are getting hurt by fossil fuel pollution and set emission reduction targets that will phase out fossil fuels. I think those are all pretty straightforward. I do think the point here, though the larger point you're making with this section is worth underlining because it seems obvious to me, but also frequently left out of this debate, which is if you want to get renewable energy built faster: One way you could do that is through statute and regulation forcing fossil fuel out. Like, nothing's going to speed up renewable energy more than forcing fossil fuels out. Right. It seems so obvious, but it's weirdly left out here.Johanna BozuwaVery weirdly left out. It's a bizarre kind of development that we've seen in the climate realm, right? The IRA, for instance, that is a bill that is great. It creates a lot of carrots, but basically no sticks. And the reality is we need sticks if we're actually going to do this, right, as we were talking about at the kind of outset of the show, we can't let just the entire pie keep on getting bigger and bigger. We actually need to get rid of the fossil fuels. That's the point of what we're doing here. They're the reason that we have the climate crisis.And so, the best way to get rid of them is to just regulate them out of existence, like eliminate them. And I also think there's a certain amount of private industry hates regulation, but they do love certainty. So what is more certain than a decarbonization mandate that says, like, well, you need to be done by this date? And that actually gets us to more of the displacement than when we just say "Build, build, build just hopefully build the right thing for us, please please."David RobertsYes, I think that's true on several micro levels and it's true on a macro level too. One thing that would help us go faster is if we could just clearly articulate our goals. But we're sort of just hampered by having to beg Joe Manchin for his vote. And to get Joe Manchin's vote, you have to pretend that the whole pie is going to get bigger, that everything's going to grow. That's explicitly the grounds upon which he voted yes on Iraq. He sets it outright. He's like, I voted yes because I thought it was going to grow renewable energy and fossil fuels.In some sense, politically, we can't just come out and say the goal is to get rid of fossil fuels. That's where we're headed. It would just help everybody, private developers, state and local governments, if we were just on the same friggin page. Instead of sort of like backing into this, we're just backing into everything we do. Trying to sort of like wink wink at one another. Like we know what we're doing, they don't know what we're doing. It's just a bunch of confusion.Johanna BozuwaRight? And I think that it's also a little bit laughable because they obviously know what we're trying to do, right? Like, we're not really hiding the bag. And I think that this speaks to the need for us to be like, this is a 20-year fight, we're not done with the fight the progressive left needs to keep — we can't just have IRA and think that we're done and can wipe our hands. I mean, even this conversation that has come up on permitting shows that people are hungry and need more. And the question is okay, how do we build the actual political power so that Manchin isn't the one that's in the driver's seat?David RobertsYes.Johanna BozuwaI think one kind of last thing on this kind of community consent piece or community engagement that makes me really nervous to tie us back to the permitting realm, right. Is that the people who are potentially going to be railroaded by infrastructure that they don't want is rural America. And if you are pissing off rural parts of the United States right now, that's a very short-sighted game to be playing, right. Because you are potentially taking these rural folk who have just been beaten back again and again, and you're turning them to the right, to a growing fascist right, and giving away a massive voting bloc that is going to be crucial for us to continue to win and win again and keep winning until we actually solve the climate crisis.So I think when it comes to this kind of larger political project that we're doing on from a progressive perspective, we have to be wary of this idea that this is — not a get it fixed quick scheme.David RobertsYes. We do not want to tick off these particular communities any more than they're ticked off. I think if you talk to Biden administration officials sort of behind the scenes, they will tell you that part of the design of IRA, part of the thinking behind it is we need to flood these areas of the country that were hollowed out by neoliberalism, hollowed out by globalism. We need to flood them with new economic activity and new development or else our democracy is screwed. But it is also the case that you can't just go stomping things down here and there, willy-nilly, without community consent.They need to have a feeling that they're involved in where and how this is done.Johanna BozuwaYeah, we're trying to bring them into the fight for a populist amazing future, and shoving this down their throats I just don't think is the most effective tactic. And if you look back to the New Deal, right, so much of it was workers. It was people that were in more of rural America. There were so many of these folks who were standing up and fighting. And if we're not setting ourselves up for that same kind of sea change, then I'm afraid we're not going to be able to win this thing.David RobertsOkay. We are just about out of time. So just to kind of review, this is just, I think the point of your report, point of all this is to say the question of speed is not the same as the question of permitting. Technically speaking, permitting is a relatively small piece of the puzzle here. There's lots of other things we could be doing to speed things up that have nothing technically to do with NEPA or even technically to do with permitting. And we've reviewed a lot of them here, and I would commend people to your report to get a fuller picture of them and to think about them.But let me finish, I guess with, this is all a vision. I love this vision, but politics are politics and we live in a fallen world, et cetera, et cetera. So toward the end of last session, there was this chance to have a permitting deal, and basically it was these sort of arbitrary caps on NEPA reviews, the length of NEPA reviews and the Mountain Valley pipeline in exchange for some pretty substantial transmission stuff, some pretty substantial stuff on transmission, federal transmission planning. The progressive movement rallied to kill that. They called it Manchin's dirty deal. They rallied, they killed it.And what ended up happening was the NEPA stuff squeezed through somewhere else. The Mountain Valley pipeline squeezed through somewhere else, and the transmission stuff died. Looking back on that, do you think that was the right political move for the progressive movement to fight that bill? And more broadly, do you think the progressive movement is prepared to sort of make the political trade-offs which are going to be necessary since a lot of this stuff that you list in your report is just going to be very difficult with today's current political distribution of power?Johanna BozuwaYeah, great question, and I think my answer is that the progressive movement still did the right thing. We needed to fight — or the progressive movement folks who were in those fights needed to fight off and make very clear the MVP is not something that we can have — this permitting that's going to expand. It was a big toad to swallow. And I think if we look at some of the transmission stuff, like, sure, it was fine. Was it the things that we were fully looking for? I think it was Hickenlooper's bill, big wires that was in some of those kind of final fights, right.With the Fiscal Responsibility Act, his bill included something like a 30% interregional transfer. The DOE says we need a 120% increase in interregional transfer. That's just not even at the scale that we need, and we'd be giving up so much for it. So, yeah, we didn't fully win that fight, but I think that from what I'm hearing, kind of at the congressional level, there is the potential for another bite at the apple on transmission. There is still some, as we said earlier, right, everyone agrees that transmission is a boondoggle right now and a hot mess. So I think that should be one of the things that we're thinking about as the progressive movement.How do we do that? Right? But I don't think I would go back in time and say "Eh, we should just accept Manchin's deal." I think that it was an important political flag to stamp in the ground that, no, we actually don't believe that we should be expanding fossil fuels and renewable energy at the same time because that's not what we need to do. Saying all that, I do think there are things that we can be doing right now to advance transmission. For instance, FERC is looking at some of these interconnection issues right now. Biden should not rest on his laurels until he gets someone approved and appointed to the FERC board.David RobertsHey, there's Joe Manchin again being a jerk.Johanna BozuwaI know, it's so true. But there are things and again, we've already talked on this pod about stuff that can be done at the state level, too. We still have some cards to play in our hand to accelerate and prove our case increasingly and build the case for more federal implementation, too.David RobertsJohanna, thanks so much for coming on. I feel like lately the progressive environmental left has appeared in mainstream media and social media more as a weird caricature viewed from a distance than been able to speak for itself. So I'm glad to be able to have you on so we can talk through a little bit about how progressives see this and the larger issues at play and their specific recommendations, all of which I think are great. So people should check out your report. And thanks for sharing your time with us.Johanna BozuwaThank you so much for having me today, David. It's lovely.David RobertsThank you for listening to the Volts podcast. It is ad-free, powered entirely by listeners like you. If you value conversations like this, please consider becoming a paid Volts subscriber at volts.wtf. Yes, that's volts.wtf so that I can continue doing this work. Thank you so much, and I'll see you next time. Get full access to Volts at www.volts.wtf/subscribe

Show Notes:  https://wetflyswing.com/493 Presented By: Smitty's Fly Box, Togens Fly Shop, Angler's Coffee, Mavrk Fly Fishing Alex Czayka is here with us today to give us a glimpse into Western Reserve Land Conservancy. We find out how Alex's journey into fly fishing and his passion for the outdoors led him to a career in conservation. Tune in to learn about conservation challenges, significant projects, and the vibrant hunting and fishing culture in Ohio. Show Notes with Alex Czayka 02:30 - Alex's venture into fly fishing took root during his late teens in Northeast Ohio, where his background in hunting and fishing farm ponds evolved into a passion for fly fishing, thanks to the influence of his brother. 04:00 - Alex's journey into conservation started with a biology degree at Kent State for his undergraduate studies, followed by obtaining a Master of Science in Wetland Ecology from SUNY Brockport. His love for the outdoors and desire to turn his passion into a career led him to roles at Nature Conservancy and Western Reserve Land Conservancy. 06:23 - We hear the distinctions between Alex's experiences at Nature Conservancy and Western Reserve Land Conservancy. 08:29 - We hear the story of the Cuyahoga River, famously known for catching fire, which tarnished Cleveland's reputation and led to the implementation of significant environmental regulations. 10:27 - Alex discusses the major challenges in natural resource conservation that we are currently facing. Additionally, he also provides insights into the work that they do. 21:00 - Alex tells us about some of the projects they have been involved in. He highlights a recent partnership with Lake Metroparks, focusing on acquiring and protecting property at risk of being heavily forested. 26:37 - Alex discusses their conservation efforts targeting specific species, such as the Eastern Massasauga Rattlesnake. 32:18 - The Western Reserve Land Conservancy, with over 50 employees, stands as one of the largest land trusts in the United States. 43:30 - According to Alex, Ohio boasts a robust hunting and fishing culture, with Lake Erie notably yielding an impressive stock of walleye. 44:40 - The significance of steelhead was also highlighted in our recent episode with Dan Pribanic of Chagrin River Outfitters, who mentioned their importance for local businesses like his shop. 51:12 - Alex is a big fan of the MeatEater Podcast. Show Notes:  https://wetflyswing.com/493

When a torso washed up on the banks of the Cuyahoga River in 1937, the police initially assumed a crime of passion. But when the next torso was found, they knew they had a serial murderer on their hands. Nicknamed the Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run, a notorious killer stalked the slums of Cleveland, killing vagrants he thought no one would miss. This episode originally aired in April 2019.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

June 22, 1969. The Cuyahoga River in Cleveland, Ohio catches fire, sparking a movement to clean up the United States' polluted waterways.Go to HistoryDaily.com for more history, daily.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This 2017 episode covers the Cuyahoga River catching fire for the last time in 1969. This event is often credited with helping pass the Clean Water Act and inspire the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.