PCL Insider: News from the Capitol
MEOW OR ROAR? “LUS-CAT”
PROPOSALS TO FIGHT GLOBAL WARMING THROUGH LAND USE POLICY TO BE
UNVEILED IN STATEWIDE HEARINGS
At a series of public
hearings around California this week, representatives of the
Governor’s interagency Land Use Subcommittee of the
Climate Action Team (LUS-CAT pronounced
“Loose-Cat,”) are soliciting public input on their
proposals to reduce global warming pollution through land use
and transportation policy reform.
Their proposal will be considered by the California Air
Resources Board (CARB) for inclusion in the AB
32 draft Scoping Plan which identifies strategies to achieve
the law’s 2020 greenhouse gas emissions reduction mandate.
The draft Scoping Plan is scheduled for release in June
2008.
Although California’s land use planning is in desperate
need of reform, we’ve heard rumors that the subcommittee
may propose a weak set of voluntary measures to CARB.
This is a critical opportunity to learn what the State is
doing about global warming and land use, and voice your support
for better land use and transportation decisions that reduce CO2
emissions, give Californians more choices in where we live and
how we get around, and preserve vanishing farmland and natural
areas.
LUS-CAT met
yesterday in Sacramento. Two more workshops will be held
later this week:
Thursday, March 20, 2008
9:00 AM – 12:00 PM
Caltrans District 7 Headquarters 100 S. Main Street
Los
Angeles, CA
Friday, March 21, 2008
9:00 AM – 12:00 PM
Elihu
Harris State Office Building, 1515 Clay Street
Oakland,
CA
For notification of future LUS-CAT activities join the
committee’s mailing
list or contact PCL’s Global Warming Program Manager
Matt Vander
Sluis.
BURSTING THE WATER BUBBLE: STATE
GETS CLOSER TO DISCLOSING WATER REALITY
Just like the bursting of the housing bubble when the sub
prime mortgage reality set in, the 2007
State Water Project Delivery Reliability Report signals a
similar burst of California’s water bubble. The 2007
Draft Report reveals that the State Water
Project (SWP) will deliver 20 to 30 percent less water to
agricultural, commercial, and residential users than it had
estimated in 2005. The draft report is the first to reflect more
realistic water export levels, although it still masks the
underlying problem that expectations for SWP water are still
much higher than nature can accommodate.
The bi-annual reliability report is the product of a
settlement agreement between PCL and the Department of Water
Resources over our legal challenge to proposed amendments
to the State Water Project contracts. This report is the basis
of many major water plans across the state, as well as the
foundation for water supply assessments required for new
development.
In much the same way that irresponsible loan practices fueled
unrealistic expectations in the housing market, previous
reports, including the 2005 report, inflated predictions of
Delta exports by ignoring
the mounting problems in the Delta and the impacts of
climate change on California’s hydrology. As a
result, water managers, cities, and counties have falsely
assumed the SWP can deliver more water than it actually can.
Despite the importance of the report, there are no mechanisms
in place to ensure the accuracy of the reports’
projections. As PCL
noted in recent comments, the 2007 report still fails to
account for many of the impacts of climate change and continues
to overestimate feasible water exports from the Delta.
To address the continuing problem, Assembly Member Eng
(Monterey Park) has introduced AB 2970, which would formally
require DWR to prepare an accurate Delivery Reliability Report
every 2 years and allow for greater public and scientific
oversight of this important document.
PCL and its partners are working hard to ensure that AB
2790 is passed and that water reliability tools are fully
implemented across the state.
THE SLAMMED SALMON SAGA CONTINUES: NEW REGS WILL KEEP
FISHERMEN OUT OF THE WATER; WHAT POLICY ACTIONS WILL KEEP THE
FISH IN IT?
Last Friday, in response to the dramatic
population declines of salmon in 2007, federal fisheries
managers proposed a complete closure of the Pacific coast salmon
fishing season. This proposal is one of three potential actions
for the National Marine Fisheries Service to consider when it
makes a ruling in April to address this crisis.
Full closure would mean a one-year ban on all commercial and
sport salmon fishing in California, Oregon, and Washington
– a measure never before used in the regulatory history of
salmon management on the Pacific Coast.
A surprisingly broad consensus of stakeholders has rallied
behind the closure. However, while the regulations will buy
the salmon some time, they fail to address the root causes of
the drop in salmon numbers.
Environmental and fishing advocates are calling for a more
comprehensive solution and are advocating for eight
additional actions to help save the California salmon.
One action that should take place immediately is ensuring
that budget squabbles don’t hamstring the appropriation of
restoration funds. Proposition 84 included such funds to respond
to a record low year of coastal salmon returns in 2005. SB 562
(Wiggins) seeks to appropriate $5.3 million from Prop 84 to the
Department of Fish and Game for salmon and steelhead restoration
projects in the DFG’s Fishery Restoration Grant Program.
The 2008-2009 State Budget, currently making its way through the
Legislature, includes $10.9 million from Proposition 84 funds
for Anadromous Fish Management. However, these investments will
be drowned out by the $32 million cut that President Bush has
proposed from the federal Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery
Fund.
To find out more, contact PCL’s Water Policy Specialist
Charlotte
Hodde.
WHAT’S MINE IS ORE: PRESS CONFERENCE CALLS FOR
POLLUTERS TO CLEAN UP THEIR TOXIC LEGACY
Last Thursday at the State Capitol, the Planning and Conservation League
joined with Assemblymember
Lois Wolk, Environment
California, the Environmental
Working Group, and the Sierra Fund, to call upon
the U.S. Congress to make
significant environmental reforms to the outdated 1872 Mining
Act.
Specifically, the group urged Congress to ensure that the
reforms of the 136 year old law include a key provision
requiring prospectors to pay a royalty for mining activities on
public lands. This would provide desperately needed money
to clean up the pollution caused by mining.
Mining is currently the number one source of toxic pollution
in the country and is having a devastating effect on
California’s natural environment and public health. In
particular, as polluted rivers and creeks wind their way down to
the Bay Delta, toxics are poisoning fish and fouling the food
chain. Currently, one-fourth of all the fish sampled in the
Delta have "high" or "very high" levels of mercury in their
tissues, including the large striped bass, largemouth bass,
catfish, and sturgeon which are popular among anglers in the
Delta. These toxins bio-accumulate, traveling up the food chain,
where they can harm humans as well.
Billions of dollars are needed to clean up this ongoing
environmental disaster. Reforming the 1872 Mining Act offers a
unique opportunity to begin to address toxic contamination by
developing a steady revenue stream that finally makes the
polluters pay for their pollution. To find out more, contact
PCL’s Public Heath Program Manager Rene
Guerrero.
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