Mitt And His Beloved Great Lakes: The Rest Of The Story

Mitt Romney has never vacillated on his love for the lakes that surround his native state of Michigan.

He even has a reputation as a defender of the lakes.

As Wayne Barrett points out in his article in the Daily Beast, when John Nevin, a former Michigan environmental official, endorsed Romney’s 2008 presidential bid in the Free Press, he wrote that Romney was “the only sure bet to restore, protect and sustain our Great Lakes.”

Nevin alluded to the disturbing denigration of the lakes by chemical pollutants, and wrote that Romney “believes the cleanup of these toxic hotspots” has been “far too slow,” bogged down by “legal wrangling.”

But in reality, Barret writes, Romney’s own business career connects him closely to those “toxic hotspots”—in particular, his relations with the two companies primarily responsible for the contamination of Lake Michigan.

Shortly after graduating from Harvard Business School in 1975, Romney began working for Boston Consulting Group, where one of his biggest clients was the now-defunct boat-engine and powerboat manufacturer Outboard Marine Corporation.