Energy from clean coal.* Because fossil fuel emissions create pollution and foster climate changes that threaten the Great Lakes, the Foundation has a long-standing interest in the energy infrastructure of the region. Investment and policy or regulatory decisions about proposed new coal-burning power plants will shape not only our electricity system for the future, but the future of the Lakes as well. We are committed to promoting policies that encourage (through incentives and regulatory structures) the development of clean coal technologies and to ensuring that state agencies approve only those projects that meet state-of-the-art standards for minimizing air pollution and have significant promise for reducing or capturing carbon emissions. The Foundation supports efforts to engage state officials and power plant developers to build the cleanest possible plants to meet the region's electricity needs.

Healthy rivers, healthy lakes.* The health of the Great Lakes depends in part on the health of the rivers that feed them. Those tributaries are threatened by nutrient and sediment runoff, altered water flows, loss of habitat, and contaminated sediments. The Foundation supports efforts to coordinate conservation and restoration in a handful of selected Great Lakes tributary watersheds and to document the benefits of those efforts.

Great Lakes restoration. Protecting the Great Lakes, with their vast economic and environmental significance, should be a national priority. The Foundation supports collaborative efforts to build a policy case for significant public investment in, and to shape implementation of, Great Lakes restoration.

Special opportunities. The Foundation will consider especially promising proposals for addressing other threats to the Great Lakes, including invasive species.

*Proposals on clean coal and healthy rivers will be considered by invitation only. River projects currently under consideration are limited to river systems in the western Lake Erie basin.