Environment

"The Foundation-run MLPAI process is corrupt and deceptive from top to bottom, and will be challenged in every way if left to stand," according to John and Barbara Stephens-Lewallen.

North Coast Enviros Blast MLPA as Evidence of Corruption Emerges

by Dan Bacher

John and Barbara Stephens-Lewallen, Mendocino County's leading environmental activist couple, demanded that the Schwarzenegger administration stop the corrupt, fast-track Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative during their testimony before the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force for the North Coast Study Region on March 1. Their plea to halt the process was made the same week that new hard evidence of corruption in the widely-contested MLPA fiasco emerged during a Fish and Game Commission meeting in Ontario, California.

"It is our duty to defend California ocean food sovereignty while we still draw breath," the Stephens-Lewallens stated. "Public access to fisheries is a Constitutional right in California (Article 1, Section 25). We will lose this right unless we unite and assert it this year."

The Resnicks Manipulate Water Policy with Big Campaign Contributions

by Dan Bacher

Stewart Resnick, the Beverly Hills agribusiness tycoon who owns 115,000 acres of farmland in Kern County, appears to be putting his bets on Jerry Brown as the winner of the gubernatorial race in the November election - even though Brown hasn't officially declared himself as a candidate.

On November 11, 2009, Resnick and his wife, Lynda, the co-owner of the giant Paramount Farms and Roll Corporation, wrote four checks totalling $50,000 for the Brown campaign.

The donations that the Resnicks made to Brown to date exemplify the enormous political influence of Resnick and other water barons exert over California water politics. The Resnicks are the largest tree fruit growers in the world.

by Dan Bacher

Dan Hamburg, a North Coast Democratic Congressman from 1992-94 and Green Party candidate for Governor in 1998, recently blasted Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s fast-track Marine Life Protection (MLPA) process for its many conflicts of interests, private funding and other problems in a great letter to the editor he wrote to the Anderson Valley Advertiser in Boonville.

Mokelumne River Steelhead Run Increases In Recent Years
by Dan Bacher

The numbers of steelhead returning to the Mokelumne River Fish Hatchery in recent years don’t compare to those at Nimbus, Feather and Coleman fish hatcheries, but they are a vast improvement over many years when no adult steelhead returned to the facility.

No steelhead came back to the hatchery, located on the river right below Camanche Dam, for 10 years from 1976 through 1986. Again in 1998-1999, no adult steelhead returned to the facility.

That doesn’t mean that there weren’t any rainbows in the river during these years. The river hosted a popular resident trout fishery for fly, bait and lure anglers, but relatively few of the 100,000 steelhead yearlings released every year went to saltwater and returned.

Another evacuation ordered in Pacifica

Henry K. Lee,Kevin Fagan, Chronicle Staff Writer
Thursday, January 21, 2010
(01-21) 11:13 PST Pacifica --

Several residents at a seaside Pacifica apartment building were ordered to evacuate this morning because of an eroding bluff that has already forced the red-tagging of the structure next door.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger received a briefing on the status of Eureka earthquake recovery efforts as the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative Blue Ribbon Task Force was holding its meeting in Crescent City on January 14.

Schwarzenegger Tours Earthquake Damage As MLPA Proceeds on Fast Track

Building a Progressive California Democratic Party Platform

The Wellstone Progressive Democrats of Sacramento (PDA) held a meeting on Saturday, Jan. 9th to discuss improvements to the CA Democratic Party (CDP) Platform. All area Progressive Democrats were invited by Wellstone President Tamie Dramer and Political Affairs Chair Chris Niehaus to help shape the Party's Platform. CDP Platform Committee member Christine Thomas started off with a brief overview of the committee. CDP Progressive Caucus Chair (and PDA NorCal co-coordinator) Karen Bernal spoke about the need for Progressives in California to change the Party and how we can use our numbers to improve our platform. The room overflowed with attendees that took on issues such as Health Care, the Environment, Energy, Labor, Economic Justice, Poverty Elimination, Education & Criminal Justice.

by John Lewallen, only one member, Public Ocean Access Network, oceannetwork [at] mcn.org

There has to be another word to define the “foundation-funded corporations” such as the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), which calls itself an “environmentalist” organization. Created by oil money and awash in Pew Charitable Trust funds, the NRDC brings big oil’s agenda wherever it operates.

On California’s North Coast, the NRDC is working in tandem with the Resources Legacy Fund Foundation to make sure the Marine Life Protection Act Initiative (MLPAI) gets the Foundation-preferred alternatives enacted on tight schedule.

First of all what would a successful agreement look like? The goals were to set legally binding limits on greenhouse gases. That failed to happen! The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has the objective of stabilizing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system.

What is dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system? Already over 150,000 people die a year from climate change and 80% of them are 5 years old or younger. Most of the glaciers will disappear this century. The ice sheets on the earth’s poles are shrinking. Climate change will result in more droughts, flooding and extreme weather for Sacramento and many other locations. These conclusions have been established by World Health Organization and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Any successful international agreement requires months or years of negotiations to find common ground among the parties ahead of time. That didn’t happen. What did happen was the fossil-fuels industries' lobbyists effectively blocked any meaningful agreement.

How Reliable is CLCV's 2009 California Environmental Scorecard?

by Dan Bacher

For 36 years, the California League of Conservation Voters (CLCV) has compiled its annual scorecard of the Legislature and Governor's actions on key environmental issues.

Like many others, I have regarded the scorecard as a relatively balanced assessment of the records of the Legislators and Governor on environmental issues by a group that describes itself as "the non-partisan political action arm of California's environmental movement." However, the CLCV's positions on two key issues over the past year - the water legislation package and the Governor's fast-track MLPA process - put the credibility of the organization's scorecard and the organization itself in doubt.

News Advisory: For Immediate Release, December 10, 2009

Contacts: Kim Glazzard at (916) 455-8415 or (916) 761-4726
William Brooks at (916)201-2162