Badger makes headlines in New York Times

The Badger leaving Ludington harbor

The plight of the SS Badger has made the pages of the New York Times. A story in Thursday’s edition of the Times reported on the efforts of congressmen Bill Huizenga (Michigan) and Tom Petri (Wisconsin) to include language in a Coast Guard reauthorization bill to exempt the Badger from a shutdown by the Environmental Protection Agency.

The story debates whether the language is a glossed over earmark of two congressmen protecting a private business or if it legitimately is a fight against an over-bureaucratic agency and an effort to protect not only jobs for one business but for two communities, Ludington and Manitowoc, Wis.

The Badger pumps in $21 million a year to Mason County’s economy and another $14 million into Manitowoc’s.

The article also discusses the view of the Badger’s only competition, Milwaukee to Muskegon Lake Michigan Express.

Aaron Schultz, sales director of Lake Express, says in the article that the Badger had been operating at a competitive advantage to his ferry because of prior Congressional favors. Mr. Schultz, or the writer of the article, fail to mention the Lake Express was built with federal loan guarantees.

To see the article, go to: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/30/us/politics/fight-over-ferrys-status-prompts-earmark-queries.html

Story and photo by Rob Alway, Editor-in-Chief