LEGISLATURE REJECTS CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT THAT WOULD THWART ENVIRONMENTAL FEES, CAP SPENDING
Last Friday, the Assembly Budget Committee voted 10-2 to reject Assembly Constitutional Amendment (ACA) 19 which represented the Assembly Republican Caucus' budget reform agenda, thwarting a direct attack on California's environmental protections and other governmental services.
ACA 19 was introduced by Assembly Members Mike Villines and Roger Niello and was co‑authored by the other twenty-seven Republican members of the Assembly.
The proposed constitutional amendment would have overturned the landmark Sinclair decision, which allows California to charge fees for services and to establish those fees through a majority vote of the Legislature. PCL often advocates in the Legislature for fees that ensure both that polluters pay to clean up their pollution and that those entities that must be regulated will help pay for the enforcement costs of the regulations that affect them.
ACA 19 also included requirements for a spending cap on the state budget which would have forced perpetual cuts to environment, parks, education, health care, law enforcement, disaster response, and other vital services in our communities.
PCL's Julia Van Soelen joined Traci Verardo-Torres of the California State Parks Foundation and Darla Guenzler of the California Council of Land Trusts to testify on the negative environmental ramifications of ACA 19. The line to testify snaked around the edge of the hearing room and included representatives from environment, education, labor, and local government.
ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT ATTACK: NEW RULES WOULD BAR WILDLIFE AGENCIES FROM REVIEWING DOCUMENTS, ADDRESSING GREENHOUSE GASES
Under the Bush Administration's rules, agencies could decide whether proposed projects complied with the Endangered Species Act without consulting wildlife agencies.
John Kostyack, Executive Director of Wildlife Conservation and Global Warming at the National Wildlife Federation, noted that the rules continued the Bush Administration's long history of downplaying the role of science in its decision making. "These changes take unbiased, professional wildlife biologists out of the equation and put decisions in the hands of political appointees."
The rules also reflect the Administration's continued opposition to addressing global warming, preventing agencies from assessing the greenhouse gas emissions from proposed projects and the effects of increased emissions on species and habitat.
The Interior Department plans to limit the public comment period on the new rules to thirty days. To speak out about their plan, hop on the web.
DEVIOUS DESALTING: STATE LANDS COMMISSION IS LAST CHANCE TO FIX CREATIVE ACCOUNTING IN PROPOSED PLANT'S GHG MITIGATION SCHEME
This Friday, the State Lands Commission will consider whether or not to approve a lease to Poseidon Resources for the construction of an energy-intensive ocean water desalination facility in Carlsbad, California, based in part upon faulty claims that the new facility will be greenhouse gas neutral.
Indeed, the California Coastal Commission was so impressed by Poseidon's "commitment" of greenhouse gas neutrality that they approved the project in November 2007, contingent upon Poseidon's submission of a formal emissions proposal.
The plan assumes that the operation of the desalination plant in Carlsbad will result in less water being pumped through the State Water Project (SWP) from the Bay‑Delta to Southern California, resulting in fewer greenhouse gas emissions from the SWP. Therefore, since it would be essentially swapping out SWP emissions with emissions from the desalination facility, the company proposes to mitigate only a small portion of the plant's actual emissions.
However, the California Department of Water Resources' Delivery Reliability Reportand the Metropolitan Water District's Integrated Water Resources Plan Update reveal that both agencies intend to continue pumping as much water as allowable by law from the Delta to Southern California regardless of the output of the desalination plant. Functionally, that means that any greenhouse gas emissions from the operation of the proposed desalination plant will be additional to the current emissions from the SWP, increasing the overall emissions associated with water supply in Southern California.
Unfortunately, the Coastal Commission bought into the double counting scheme and approved Poseidon's plan at their hearing earlier this month, with dissenting votes coming only from Commissioners Shallenberger and Wan.
Approving the Carlsbad desalination project, as proposed, would be a huge step backwards in California climate policy. Allowing phony accounting to support claims of greenhouse gas neutrality would set a dangerous precedent, threatening the successful implementation of AB 32, which requires California's greenhouse gas emissions to be reduced to 1990 levels by 2020, and other state laws including the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and the California Endangered Species Act (CESA).
The State Lands Commission is now the last opportunity to challenge Poseidon's false claims and reject its phony greenhouse gas scheme. Commissioner and Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi has been a state champion on global warming, and last fall pushed Poseidon to address its greenhouse gas emissions in a credible way. Based on incomplete information given to him by the company, the Lieutenant Governor is currently on record as supporting their emissions accounting. However we're hopeful that when he probes further at Friday's meeting, he will reconsider his position. We look to the Commission, and in particular Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi, to show leadership in the fight against global warming by standing up for real emission reductions and honest accounting.
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