Ironwood Daily Globe: Peters talks northern issues

Ironwood - U.S. Sen. Gary Peters visited Ironwood Wednesday during his motorcycle trip around the state. During the visit he stopped by the Daily Globe to talk about the issues he is working on in Washington D.C. - including jobs, health care, the Essential Air Service and a promise to look into the rules regarding the Federal Emergency Management Agency's response to natural disasters.

As part of the Senate committee's on Commerce, Science and Transportation; Peters (D-Michigan) is directly involved in overseeing many of the areas he talked about.

Peters said he was using the senate's August recess to travel the state and meet his constituents.

"(The recess) gives you a chance to get around the state and visit folks, and I try to use this opportunity to particularly get out to the more rural parts of the state," Peters said. "This gives me an opportunity to really spend some time on the road, and so we cover a lot of ground all through the (Upper Peninsula)."

Broadband internet

During his trip, he said most people have been concerned about jobs and economic opportunities. Part of creating those opportunities, Peters said, was expanding access to high-speed broadband internet - something he called "absolutely critical for economic development."

"The business model is tougher for companies, obviously, in a rural area that don't have as many customers and there's a lot of land between customers," Peters told the Daily Globe. "I really equate this to the last century when we made the determination as a country that everyone should have access to electricity. It's the same thing ... just as electricity was essential, today it's high-speed internet."

One of the things Peters said he was working on to help bring broadband to more of the U.P. was working on updating the provider-created service maps for the region, which are used when determining how funds are distributed.

"The companies always say they have more service than they sometimes do," Peters said. "We need accurate maps of where coverage actually is ... and then bring the resources in and we'll find clearly there are a large number of gaps in the U.P. we need to plug."

Local issues

Peters also touched on several U.P.-specific issues; including the use of public land, the Soo Locks and the importance of the Essential Air Service in allowing the region's airports to operate.

Regarding the rules governing how FEMA awards federal funds, Peterson said he would try to fix the requirement that each state meet the minimum damage thresholds to receive federal funds regardless of whether the damage all stemmed from the same disaster.

"I'll look into that, because we've got to change that rule," Peters said.

The rule led to Gogebic County being ineligible for FEMA aid after the July 11, 2016, storm; as the several million dollars in damage couldn't be added to neighboring Wisconsin's damage totals, despite being below the minimum threshold alone.

"The whole idea of public lands is that people can enjoy them," Peters said, regarding the importance tourism and recreation play in the area.

While appreciating the U.P.'s natural beauty, Peters also argued there were ways to create jobs in the U.P. through more logging.

"We have to be sustainable and we have to be good environmental stewards - I'm passionate about that, as I know everybody up here is as well - but a tree is just like wheat, you cut it down and it grows again," Peters said. "It takes a few years longer, but it's an agricultural product just like wheat ... it's a renewable resource so we should be able to harvest more and do it in a sustainable way."

Not only would increased logging benefit the timber industry, but Peters said it would open up opportunities in the biofuels market.

"Unfortunately, the cost of electricity is way too high here in the U.P.," Peters said. "You're sitting on a ... wealth of resources for biofuels, so harvest those biofuels and it's sustainable."

Another project of Peters was getting the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to restudy the economic impact of the Soo Locks.

"They had done it in the past, but it was a flawed study," Peters said. "And they'll admit now it was flawed."

The study is a key part of getting on the list to receive funding for infrastructure improvements.

According to Peters, a similar study by the Department of Homeland Security found a 90-day shutdown of the locks would send the country into a recession.

He expects the Army Corps' new study to be done at the end of the year.

Along with seeking funds for the locks, Peters said he is working to secure funding for dredging work in Ontonagon's harbor so ships can once again unload cargo there.

The funding issue is difficult, as the dredging priorities are determined by usage.

"That's the problem with the dredging stuff. You have to have so much tonnage to get dredging," Peters said. "If you don't have the right tonnage, you don't get dredging; but if you don't have get dredging, you don't get tonnage. It's this catch-22 kind of problem."

The western U.P. is also expected to benefit from better coast guard services, according to Peters, after the Coast Guard has replaced the helicopters at the Traverse City Air Station with new helicopters that can fly to the region and begin taking part in an operation without refueling.

"These are great new helicopters - state of the art," Peters said.

He said while the old helicopters had to refuel near Marquette after arriving, the new ones can hover for two hours over a site after arriving before needing to refuel.

Essential Air Service

Peters also said he was concerned about the Trump administration's proposed cuts to Essential Air Service, which provides subsidies for many rural airports.

Michigan has the second most Essential Air Service airports in the country, according to Peters.

"My colleagues in Washington all think of us as a manufacturing and industrial state, but we are a very large rural state," he said.

"We've been pushing back on (the proposed cuts) aggressively," Peters said, saying it is another key for businesses in rural areas to succeed. "This funding program ... is named aptly - it's essential air service, you have to have it."

Peters said without the government help, the airlines will stop providing services to these communities as it is no longer a viable business model for them.

Rural health care

Peters visited Aspirus Ontonagon Tuesday to discuss another issue many are concerned with - health care, particularly in rural communities.

Once again, Peters promotes broadband expansion as part of the answer.

"Home tele-health medicine is where you can actually deliver medical services directly to someone's home and have access to physicians 24-7," Peters said. "Instead of getting in a car and driving two hours to go see a physician somewhere, you can go online and look at the physician looking at you and have a conference and they can look at all the stuff that is being sent over the internet that gives them the medical information they need.

"This is probably one of the most transformative technologies for the delivery of health care all over the country."

Of course, as Peters pointed out, none of this works without internet access.

Concerning the greater debate in Washington around health care, Peters said the current health care system had both good and bad parts.

"What we need to do is celebrate what works and fix what doesn't," Peters said. "The Affordable Health Care Act is like every law that I've passed, which means it is not perfect. There is no perfect law that gets passed."

Regarding specific fixes Peters would like to see, he said health care exchanges in rural communities need more than one provider to be effective and affordable and supported the idea of a public option in addition to private plans.

He said he is also working on making insurance for smaller businesses to purchase.

"If you look at people who do not have insurance, it tends to be small businesses, that's where it is at," Peters said, saying the methods for small businesses in the current health care law clearly aren't adequate.

He also talked about the importance of listing what health care services are deemed essential and part of every policy, as many people don't fully understand what is covered until they get sick and it's too late.

He also said while it may be unpopular, the reality of the insurance model means the system works best when everyone has insurance.

"The system only works when everyone pays in - that's the concept of insurance, that's Insurance 101," Peters said. "... You can't say, 'Well, you only need to buy insurance when you get sick.' That's not a business model (insurance companies) can survive."

Tour continues

As an avid biker and co-founder of the Senate's motorcycle caucus; Peters is traveling the state on his Harley-Davidson Super Glide, something he did last year as well.

"I figured I'm going to cover a lot of ground, and if I have to get from Point A to Point B, why not do it by motorcycle? It's really my passion, I've been riding since I was a kid," Peters said.

He plans to travel to Iron River later Wednesday, then Iron Mountain before going to Oceana County later this week.

Following his interview at the Globe; Peters toured Jacquart Fabric Products, which has benefited from several federal business programs - including the Northern Initiative and Manufacturing Extension Partnership.

"They're an example of a success story and one big reason why I'm here," he said.

Bob Jacquart led the tour that also included 20 others including members of Peters' staff, Northern Initiatives staff and local officials and business people. They saw the company's Stormy Kromer and other clothing items being made, as well as awning, pet furniture and other products.

After the tour, Northern Initiatives Vice President Chuck Hurst spoke to the group about how the non-profit's loan and business support services help companies, and how it has had a long relationship with JFP. He said NI's first contact with Jacquart resulted in hooking him up with some manufacturing consultants.

Hurst said Northern Initiatives started 25 years ago in just the 15 U.P. counties, but now covers 46 counties, stretching downstate and includes the five border counties in Wisconsin. They have made nearly 1,000 loans, including 58 in Gogebic County for $5.321 million, mostly in Ironwood.

Jacquart and Peters both spoke about the importance of continuing Northern Initiatives' work to help grow employment opportunities.