Wisconsin To Look At Great Lakes Windmills

Wisconsin regulators want to study what it would take to implant giant wind turbines in Lake Michigan and Lake Superior, a move that might someday lead to new power for Wisconsin but cost millions of dollars and transform serene lake views.

First Load Of Biodiesel On The Great Lakes

Lake Erie Biofuels LLC, a biodiesel plant in Erie, Pa., shipped what it considered the first-ever load of biodiesel via the Great Lakes on Dec. 20. The 1.5 million gallons of renewable fuel were sent through the Welland Canal on the St. Lawrence Seaway two days before shipping lanes closed for the winter. The Clipper Tobago carried it across the Atlantic Ocean to Rotterdam, Netherlands.

Water Levels Expected To Rise

Water levels are expected to rise in parts of the Great Lakes this summer after one of the snowiest winters in years. This will be a much-needed boost for boaters and lakeside businesses.

Travel Dynamics Duluth To Toronto Cruise

Travel Dynamics, based in New York City, has announced its acquisition of a 50-suite, 100-passenger cruise ship called the Clelia II. This year, the 290-foot vessel will be refurbished and its hull will be upgraded to ice-class standards for future cruise service in Antarctica and the Arctic. However during the summer and early fall of 2009, the Clelia II is destined to make 14 voyages between Duluth and Toronto. The cruise will be sold as a seven-day, one-way service.

Budget cuts may harm Great Lakes

President Bush proposed budget calls for a decrease in funding for a variety of efforts to improve the health of the Great Lakes. According to the Associated Press, funding for Great Lakes water quality programs would drop 16 percent.

Lake Michigan Missing Fish

A lake wide prey fish survey shows the volume of small fish has dropped by half in just the last year. Meanwhile the volume of invasive mussels has increased to levels that few biologists predicted. Those mussels make their living on the plankton upon which fish species depend. The situation has scientists and anglers worried about the future of the fishery, a multibillion Great Lakes industry.

36,400 towers on Lake Michigan

Plans are in the wind that would involve placing hundreds of 325-foot wind turbines, or windmills, on floating anchor points 22 miles off the Lake Michigan shoreline that couldn't be seen from land. The winds over Lake Michigan are some of the strongest and steadiest in the country, rivaling those of the upper Great Plains and Rocky Mountains.

A power consultant has calculated that an 8,806-square mile area in the middle of Lake Michigan from northern Beaver Island to southern Chicago could house 36,400 towers, spaced 2,050 feet apart, and still not be seen from the shoreline. They would generate 182,000 megawatts of power, the equivalent to 180 large nuclear power plants.