EdB

Nice catch!

Great catch Capt Mike!

Nice king!

Great catch to start off the season!

Some real nice kings and laker, nice job!

Great catch Don, way to go in the tourney!

A fish like that sure gets your adrenelin pumping.

Nice job Ben!

Nice catch:thumb:

Great catch there:thumb:

Way to go!

Great catch, thanks for the report.

Nice job, congratulations on the limit!

Some nice kings there, that's a good start for the season!

Great catch Tim!

Great start to your season.

That sure was a good morning in the water.

Way to go!

Nice catch Erik!

Thats was a good trip with your daughter. Way to go!

Nice catch!

Thats a big king, way to go! Welcome to the site.

Great catch, welcome to the site!

You have my reasoning wrong. I am not advocating any new pollution to the great lakes. When the Badger was put in commission, it met all EPA regulations. The EPA changed their standards and it became an issue. Why should that change impose millions of dollars of add'l cost to the business and put them out of business. That is what I disagree with. Even a 5 year timeline is unreasonable. The Badger is not some money machine making huge profits. It is not much better than a break even operation. They don't have millions of dollars laying around to completely change their engines. They are not like a utility company that can just raise rates with the blessing of regulators and recover all costs imposed by the EPA. In a case like a private business like the Badger, if the government wants to impose new regulations that negatively impact their finanacial position, they should subsidize those regulatory costs or grandfather the Badger and impose the rules to prevent other coal fired operations from starting up. If the Badger was leaving some scum line across the lake when she crossed, I'd be on my soapbox screaming it should be stopped but its impact is truly negligible. If the EPA decided gas powered engines should not be allowed on recreational fishing boats and told us we all had five years to spend our money changing our boats to natural gas, would you be happy and glad to do it? Keep in mind there are no natural gas engines made for rec fishing boats, just like there aren't any for ships like the Badger. Our cost would quadruple because we'd all have to pay to design and develop a natural gas engine for our boats. Or we could just scrap our investments. I'm not for more pollution to the great lakes and I do feel the Federal government does have a role in regulating industry to protect our resources. I just don't agree with how the EPA is handling this. I do respect your postion too. I know you speak with a passion for our Great Lakes. Probably just have to agree to disagree on this one. Tight lines and good fishing to you.

Private investors risked their own money to bring the Badger out of mothballs and launch this business. When they risked their money and launched the business, they were in full compliance and met all environemental regulations. The ship has been a huge boom to the economies on both sides of the lake. The local people who live around the Badger want it in their communities. Then the Feds change the rules forcing huge costs on this private enterprise that can put it out of buisness. It is perfect example of the current administrations war on private enterprise and why the economy is struggling. After 4 years of it, very few people can say they are better off now. If the Feds are going to change the rules and impose a huge cost on this business, than they should pay for some or all of it. The coal ash dumped from the Badger is not devastating our lakes. 1000's of ships powered this way plied the great lakes for over a century with no lasting damage or impact. You can't show me any evidence of problems caused by the Badger. There are many other sources of pollution that have a much larger impact on the lakes the Feds ignore. The city of Grand Rapids causes more annual pollution to the lakes than the Badger and there are dozens of other cities doing the same. If the cities want their pollution fixed, why aren't the Feds forcing this to happen. They can raise local taxes to fix it. It's Ok to allow that pollution to continue but the Feds are going to imposes regulations and cost and force a private enterprise out of business. The Feds ignore asian carp and they will be in our lakes soon due to no action. They will bring some true devastation. I'm all for converting the Badger to natural gas but it should not be done in a way that forces it out of business.