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PCL Insider: News from the Capitol
I'D BUY THAT FOR $10 - ACCESS TO CALIFORNIA STATE PARKS
High gas prices got you down? Looking for a nearby place where you can play, relax and enjoy the great outdoors on your "staycation" this year? With the temperatures heating up, Californians are heading to some of our 278 state parks for those much-needed getaways.
Under the State Park Access Pass proposal by Assembly Member John Laird (D-Santa Cruz), visiting state parks for day-use could be FREE!
Announced in early June, Laird's proposal would create a sustainable, permanent funding stream for our much-loved state parks. In contrast to the Governor's proposal this year to close 48 state parks, Laird's proposal asks Californians to chip in a little - $10 a year - in order to get a lot. How much is a lot? For one, Californians would receive free day-use access to California's state parks. That means no more paying $6 or $8 (or $10 for visitors to southern California state beaches) to park in state parks. And at the same time, it means creating a funding source that will finally address the woefully inadequate ongoing maintenance and operations of our state parks and the $1.2 billion deferred maintenance backlog.
The State Park Access Pass is the very definition of a win-win proposal. However, like many other great budget ideas, it's being caught up by the stalled negotiations on the overall state budget.
Keep an eye out for an upcoming PCL Action Alert on this issue and help us urge legislators to include the State Park Access Pass in the final state budget.
More information about the State Access Pass can be found at the California State Parks Foundation's Save Our State Park Campaign.
California Lawmakers Stand Firmly Against Calls to Open up the Coast for Oil Exploration
Preying on the sticker shock caused by increasing gas prices, President Bush lifted the executive moratorium on offshore oil drilling first put in place by his father, former President Bush. He is calling on Congress to overturn their legislative prohibition against offshore drilling to permit new oil exploration off our nation's coast.
Experts have been quick to point out the multiple problems associated with offshore drilling, going beyond obvious environmental concerns, but also into the more practical logistics involved. For example, experts estimate consumers would not even be able to utilize oil found along the coasts for at least 5-10 years. Additionally the United States Department of the Interior predicts that even using the higher supply estimates, the expected supply would only last 2.5 years.
Bush Administration punts on Global Warming Action: California's efforts remain only game in town
On the heels of a 2007 Supreme Court decision ruling that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases were air pollutants that should be regulated under the federal Clean Air Act if these pollutants posed a threat to public health, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a 588-page document analyzing the potent health impacts of greenhouse gases. However, under pressure from the Bush administration, the EPA refused to adopt its staff's findings that greenhouse gases could cause disastrous flooding and drought and disrupt water and food supplies.
By failing to take a stand on the health impacts of pollutants and seeking a period of new public comment instead, the Bush administration extended the period before the government can act beyond January 20, 2009, when the next president will be inaugurated.
export less, govern better, and call me in the morning - Prescription for the Delta laid out in PPIC report
Reduced reliance on water exported from California's Bay Delta and an overhaul of the existing laws and institutions governing the Delta must be part of any Delta solution, according to the Comparing Futures For the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta report issued on July 17 by the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC). These imperatives for rebuilding California's central plumbing system and rehabilitating its fragile ecosystem call into question long-standing practices in the state's water management.
The report's call for a new governing body to oversee the Delta's future is at odds with provisions of Senator Feinstein and Governor Schwarzenegger's recently proposed water bond. As mentioned in last week's PCL Insider, the recent bond proposes to solidify the existing governance systems. Under this plan, the Department of Water Resources would have an inordinate amount of authority to manage the Delta and limit legislative oversight.
On Friday, during a policy briefing on the report, the authors also highlighted their conclusion that reducing reliance on water pumped from the Delta would be good for the economy, and that immediately reducing these water exports is necessary to avoid the extinction of Delta fish species.The report, however, was short on specific ways to reduced Delta water exports.
PCL has proposed a solution that would cut Delta water exports by nearly one-fifth: simply stop delivering Delta water to terminally contaminated land in the western San Joaquin Valley. Irrigating these polluted lands is widely-criticized and has resulted in the chronic contamination of the San Joaquin River and the south Delta. In addition, keeping these lands in production, most of which are within the Westlands Water District, costs American taxpayers millions of dollars in environmental clean up, and crop, energy and water subsides. The conclusions of the PPIC report reinforce the need to stop irrigating these lands to increase water supply reliability for Southern California and the Bay Delta. The conclusions of the PPIC report reinforce the need to stop irrigating these lands and transition the local economy to a cutting-edge, job-creating, sustainable business like large-scale energy production.
The PPIC report is not short on controversial conclusions, including an endorsement of the notorious peripheral canal. The "PC" has hogged media attention during the short aftermath of the report's release. Yet, while further study of the peripheral canal will determine whether it is appropriate for the Delta, immediate implementation of the policy recommendations included in the report could begin addressing the Delta's water woes long before blueprints for a canal are developed. Policy makers can start by reconsidering Delta governance and eliminating some of the current uses of Delta water that no longer make sense.
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