PCL Insider: News from the Capitol

ANOTHER DAM PROPOSAL: GOVERNOR CONTINUES PUSH FOR DAMS AFTER DAM PACKAGE DEFEATED

This week the Senate rejected SB 3XX (Cogdill), the $9 billion water bond with $5 billion for new, environmentally damaging dams. We applaud the Senate, and in particular Senator Perata and Senator Steinberg for their leadership in rejecting that wasteful proposal.

However, late yesterday the Governor's office sent a new proposal to key legislators, offering a "compromise" water package that would provide $3.5 billion for environmentally damaging dams.

While the legislative leadership has held strong in its opposition to dam funding thus far, the Governor's office is applying increased pressure to key legislators to accept his proposal and deliver a dam funding package in the next week.

Directing billions for dams will not address the crisis in the Delta, or provide increased water supply reliability to California. If advanced, this proposal threatens to derail the continued collaboration by all stakeholders in addressing these critical problems.

State and federal studies demonstrate that California has better options to meet our water needs. Water recycling, groundwater clean-up and urban water use efficiency have greater potential, are more cost effective, and can be implemented in a much more timely manner than controversial dams. These options also provide water where it is needed most, directly in the many regions of California.

PCL applauds Senator Perata and Speaker Núñez for their focus on real solutions to California water, and their refusal to direct bond funds to costly, ineffective and damaging dams.

Please join PCL in urging Senator President pro Tempore Perata and Speaker Núñez to continue to hold the line for California and REJECT ANY AND ALL proposals that direct taxpayer dollars to damaging dams! CALL TODAY!

Contact Senator Perata – (916) 651-4009
Contact Speaker Núñez - (916) 319-2046

BILL SIGNINGS: A FLOOD OF CHEERS FOR BETTER FLOOD PROTECTION

Did you hear whoops of joy yesterday while walking the streets of Sacramento? If so, it might have been because yesterday morning, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed all components of the 2007 legislative flood package!

By signing these bills, the Governor and the Legislature have delivered the most significant flood legislation for California in over a generation. The flood package will help to protect lives and property, improve local land use planning, and safeguard the state and its taxpayers from increased exposure to liability for damages caused by flood.

"This package is clearly a win for public safety and the environment," said Mindy McIntyre of the Planning and Conservation League. "Floodplains provide vital habitat for migrating birds and other native California wildlife. And by calling for the use of setback levees and flood bypasses as natural infrastructure for flood control, these measures also preserve wildlife habitat and agricultural lands."

This historic moment was made possible through the joint efforts of the Senate, Assembly, and Governor's office.

We applaud Governor Schwarzenegger, Assemblymember Lois Wolk, Senator Dean Florez, Senator Mike Machado, Senator Darrell Steinberg, Assemblymember Dave Jones, Assemblymember John Laird, and their staffs for their effective leadership in developing and delivering critically needed and long overdue flood policy for the State of California.

And a special thanks to all of you who made countless calls to get these measures signed into law!

Click on the links for more information on each bill in the flood package:

AGAINST THE ROPES, NUCLEAR POWER PROPONENTS PUT UP THEIR NUKES IN NEW FIGHTS

It's proving to be a bumpy year for opponents of nuclear waste and public taxpayer boondoggles. Here's our latest Insider scoop.

First the good news: It appears that a proposed pro-nuclear power initiative, sponsored by Assemblymember Chuck DeVore, and opposed by PCL, is not going to make it to the California ballot. Momentum seems to have died for the DeVore initiative, which would have eliminated the "nuclear safeguards" that currently protect California residents.

Now the bad: Nuclear power advocates aren't giving up the fight. They're just "putting up their nukes" in a different arena. On September 26th, Assemblymember DeVore introduced ABX2 5 into the current Special Session on water policy, to permit the construction of a new nuclear power plant if twenty percent of the power is used for desalination facilities. We predict that this bill is going nowhere, just like the proposed initiative.

Here's the ugly: At the federal level there's a more threatening move to authorize massive new financial subsidies for the nuclear power industry. Provisions to accomplish this, with a price tag of about $30 billion dollars of taxpayer-financed loan guarantees, are seriously being considered as part of a comprehensive federal energy bill. "Provision 423" is the proposal that would undermine the integrity of what would otherwise be a terrific energy package.

Please alert both Senator Boxer and Senator Feinstein that you strongly oppose the proposals to add taxpayer subsidies for nuclear power to the energy bill that the Congress is now considering.

To learn more, contact Gary Patton at gapatton@pcl.org.

PCLF TO LAUNCH CEQA WORKSHOP SERIES IN SACK-A–TOMATOES

The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) is California's premier environmental law, giving ordinary individuals the power to affect the decisions of public agencies about activities that could degrade public health and damage the environment. And with all the recent attention to CEQA, the PCL Foundation has decided to roll out another iteration of our popular CEQA workshop series!

We'll be launching this effort with a workshop right here in Sacramento on Friday, November 9, 2007. We'll review the fundamentals of CEQA, identify the key legal obligations of public agencies, and provide helpful tips on how to make sure those obligations are met. Our new workshop also highlights how CEQA can aid local residents in helping to fight global warming and to improve local resiliency to those global warming impacts that are emerging or unavoidable.

For more information, or to request a workshop in your community, please contact René Guerrero at 916-313-4508, or rguerrero@pcl.org.