Changing the Climate: The “Will” to Deal with Climate Change
The scientific community has reached a broad consensus on global climate change: it’s real, and its effects are alarming. Here in California we face inundation of coastal and delta areas from sea-level rise, changes in precipitation patterns, increased risk of drought, fire, and flood, worsened air quality, rapid species extinction, and enormous challenges to public health. As our leaders continue to make decisions under a “static climate” mindset, they directly contribute to the growing crisis.

Policy proposals to turn the tide against global climate change abound. But that’s only half the solution. The other half is changing the “political climate” so that our leaders not only understand the threats of global climate change, but feel compelled to implement bold solutions. If we can “will” such political change, California, the worlds’ sixth largest economy, could spark a technological renaissance by shifting to a carbon-free and sustainable economy.

This panel will bring together both state and national experts to talk about the challenges and strategies to deal with the growing threat of global climate change. Get ready for a truly hot topic.

Rafael Aguilera, Environmental Defense
Reverend Dr. David Thompson, Westminster Presbyterian Church
Mark Carlson, Lutheran Office of Public Policy - California
Karen Douglas, Environmental Defense
Myra Wilensky, National Wildlife Federation
James Schroeder, National Wildlife Federation
Eileen Wenger Tutt, California Environmental Protection Agency

Business Best Practices for the 21st Century
What will business in California look like in fifty years? Will it be flexible, technologically innovative, and sustainable? Will it be distinguished by solid economic returns, genuine stewardship of the environment, and careful attentiveness to employee and community needs?

Finding the right answers to these questions and changing the “business climate” in California will require individuals from diverse backgrounds to work together. At this panel you’ll hear from business owners, a government representative, a forest advocate, a union leader, and a consumer campaign coordinator, all striving to engender better business practices. They’ll present intra-business, local, regional and statewide solutions, good policies that will ensure business in the twenty-first century is anything but business as usual.

Roian Atwood, American Apparel
Casey Harrell, ForestEthics.org
John Brissenden, Sorenson’s Resort
Jose Picon, SEIU Local 250
Sage Sweetwood, PCL Board of Directors
Brian Sullivan, Beyond Petroleum (BP)

Shifting Gears: Better Energy and Transportation Policies
Energy and transportation decisions in California are often the result of sweeping policy shifts that fundamentally change the course of the state in a single vote. Such decisions have profound impacts on how we live our lives: how we get around, how reliant we are on deregulated markets, and how we either degrade or revitalize our communities and the environment for decades to come.

California is on the verge of another major shift. Policy-makers are debating the issuance of multibillion dollar bonds to fund infrastructure projects across the state. Many have suggested fundamental reforms to the way we spend taxpayer money on power and transportation projects. Others focus on organizing impacted communities to bring more voices to the table to demand that their needs are considered. This panel will discuss decision-making successes and current hot topics so that you can help California shift gears.

Jose Carmona, Center for Energy Efficiency & Renewable Technologies
Jesse Marquez, Coalition for a Safe Environment
Jay Norvell, Caltrans
Bernadette Del Chiaro, Environment California
Alan Miller, Train Riders' Association of California

California Breathing: Air Quality in the Golden State
We hear about it all the time: kids with inhalers, “Save the Air” days, smog blotting out the sunrise. Air quality permeates all aspects of California life. Bad air means bad health. Bad health means billions of dollars in health care costs and lost productivity each year. Transportation, land use, energy consumption choices – all have a direct impact on the “breathability” of our air and on who suffers most. This panel will look for ways – from both policy and political perspectives – to help all Californians breathe easier.

Teresa de Anda, Californians for Pesticide Reform
Bonnie Holmes-Gen, American Lung Assocation of CA
Kevin Hamilton, RRT, Asthma Education & Management Community Medical Centers
Kathryn Phillips, Environmental Defense
Martin Schlageter, Coalition for Clean Air
Dr. Jude Lamare, Air Quality Policy Consultant

A Quenchable Thirst: Solving California’s Water Woes
Our population is 35 million and growing. The Bay Delta Estuary ecosystem is collapsing, due in part to excessive freshwater exports. Hundreds of Californians lack access to water, and thousands more have access only to water that is unsafe to drink. Our levees aren’t getting any younger. And climate change is melting away our largest reservoir – the Sierra snow pack – earlier than ever before.

Yet, more and more Californians are realizing that with increased efficiency and integrated management, we could have more than enough water to meet our needs. To move forward, however, we must ask the hard questions and make difficult decisions. Our panel of experts will try to convince you that California’s thirst is indeed quenchable.

Laurel Firestone, Center on Race, Poverty and the Environment
Jerry Meral, former Executive Director of PCL
Caleen Sisk-Franco, Winnemem Wintu Tribe
Dr. Peter Gleick, The Pacific Institute
Frances Spivy-Weber, Mono Lake Committee
Senator Michael Machado (D - Linden)
Tom Zuckerman, Central Delta Water Agency

Land Use and Land Trusts
The “Golden State” can’t afford many more wrong land use choices. Intensifying development pressures could result in the permanent destruction of many of California’s most treasured natural and manmade environments. Concrete continues to replace farmland, open space, and natural habitats. Entire communities are deprived of clean water and breathable air, while sprawl creates emissions that further contribute to global warming. At the same time, many poor, working, and middle class Californians have been excluded from home ownership.

The good news is that California has some of the foremost experts on these issues who are committed to restoring the quality of our natural and man-made environments through good land use policy and a statewide land trust movement that is increasingly successful at providing permanent protection to our threatened natural resources. This panel brings together a number of experts who will describe the steps that must be taken if we are to give our children and grandchildren a state in which they can thrive. Underwritten by Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker LLP.

Tom Amato, People and Congregations Together
Kevin Johnson, Johnson & Hanson LLP
Lupe Y. Garcia, LandWatch Monterey County
Edward Thompson, Jr., American Farmland Trust
Terry Watt, Terrell Watt Planning Consultants

Help formulate ways to achieve environmental protection, social equity, and economic prosperity where it matters most, in the place you live.

The Sierra Nevada: California’s mountains are our last great reservoir for clean water, woodlands, wilderness, and recreation. This vast range provides more than 65 percent of the state’s drinking water and generates more than $1.4 billion per year through recreation and tourism. Climate change and development top the list of threats to this majestic landscape. What can residents of the Sierras do to protect the symbols of California’s commitment to the natural world? Underwritten by Camp Lotus.

Mark Franco, Winnemem Wintu Tribe
Robert Meacher, Plumas County
Steve Frisch, Sierra Business Council
Tom Mooers, Sierra Watch
Elizabeth “Izzy” Martin, The Sierra Fund
Joan Clayburgh, Sierra Nevada Alliance

Urban California: The higher density living associated with urban areas has historically played a vital role in community cohesion and environmental protection. But since the rush to the suburbs in the 1950’s many Californians have forgotten the promise of our cities and have turned a blind eye to the disproportionate impacts that many of California’s urban communities now suffer due to environmental problems such as poor air quality, toxics, and unsafe public spaces. The new generation of environmentalism is coming from people fighting for a better environment where they work, play, go to school and raise a family. Come hear how to get involved. Underwritten by Elisabeth Brown.

Martha Arguello, Physicians for Social Responsibility
Jane Williams, California Communities Against Toxics
Dr. Henry Clark, West County Toxics
Martha Davis, Inland Empire Utilities Agency
Lynne Plambeck, Newhall County Water District
LaDonna Williams, People for Children’s Health and Environmental Justice

Coastal California: Drawn to the ocean and moderate climate, 80 percent of Californians now live within an hour’s drive of the coast. The pressure exerted on the natural resources along the coast is increasing in intensity. Maintaining a coast for people from all walks of life while ensuring the vitality of our thin blue line will take the concerted effort of all lovers of the sea. Underwritten by Phyllis Faber.

Debbie Cook, City of Huntington Beach
Mary Nichols, Los Angeles Dept. of Water & Power
Jesse Marquez, Coalition for a Safe Environment
Meg Caldwell, California Coastal Commission

The Central Valley: Famously described as “the garden of California” for its expansive wetlands and riparian forests, the Central Valley, with the rise of irrigation projects and industrial agriculture, is considered the most altered landscape in the West. And now it’s ground zero for an explosion of sprawl that is polluting the water, driving air quality to national lows, and paving over agricultural lands at an alarming rate – all without providing affordable housing for the men and women who work there. With the fragile Bay-Delta ecological collapse, the Valley, which so many of us now call home, clearly needs urgent attention.

Richard Cummings, Great Valley Center
Eric Parfrey, City Planner and Environmental Activist, Stockton
Susan Frank, Steven & Michele Kirsch Foundation
Paola Ramos, Environmental Justice Coaltion for Water
David Lighthall, Ph.D., Relational Culture Institute
Rey León, Latino Issues Forum

The following panels meet Minimum Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) requirements as set by the State Bar of California. The Planning and Conservation League is proud to present this program as part of its outreach to attorneys working on environmental issues throughout California. Non-lawyers are also welcome to participate.

9:30 - 11:30
CEQA: Evolutions in California’s Premier Environmental Law
The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) is the state’s most prominent environmental protection law. This workshop will provide a thorough, clear, and concise overview of CEQA. Through presentation and discussion, the program’s moderator, Bill Yeates, a lawyer with over 16-years experience working with CEQA, will provide an overview of CEQA’s environmental review requirements. Panelists will focus on proposed legislative changes to CEQA, the value of CEQA to traditionally-underserved communities, and how climate change caused by global warming can and should be evaluated within CEQA’s mandatory review of the environmental consequences of public agency action. (2 credits) Underwritten by Shute, Mihaly & Weinberger LLP.

Sydney Coatsworth, AICP, EDAW
Bill Yeates, PCL Board of Directors
Tim Grabiel, Natural Resources Defense Council
Tom Adams, California League of Conservation Voters

1:45 - 3:45
Breaking Down Barriers to Environmental Enforcement
The adoption of strong laws for the protection of the environment and public health is critical. But it’s only the first step. Without effective enforcement, all the laws on the books are meaningless. This CLE will bring together attorneys from both the public and private sector to talk about barriers to effective enforcement; what types of changes need to take place for effective enforcement of environmental laws; and what types of incentives will lead to a more robust enforcement system in California. In particular, this CLE will focus on legislative changes that can give attorneys more of the tools they need to enforce California’s environmental laws. (2 credits)

Bill Magavern, Sierra Club California
Harold Thomas, CA Off-Highway Motor Vehicle Commission
Roger Moore, Rossmann and Moore LLP
Sally Magnani Knox, Office of the California Attorney General
Maureen F. Gorsen, Dept. of Toxic Substances Control

4:00 - 6:00
From Many, One: Integrating Legal Approaches to Land Use Reform
Ensuring sustainable land use practices is one of the preeminent environmental challenges we face in California. From a legal perspective, there are a number of approaches currently in practice or under consideration. Some are competing; some are complementary; some are seemingly unrelated. They vary widely from statewide policies to land trusts to community benefits agreements. This CLE will bring together several of California’s foremost land use attorneys to talk about creating a comprehensive legal regime to bring about land use patterns that protect and preserve the environment, curb global warming, and meet the needs of California’s underserved and low-income communities. (2 credits)

David H. Anderson, Land Trust for Santa Barbara County
Kevin Johnson, Johnson & Hanson LLP
Jan Chatten-Brown, Chatten-Brown & Carstens
Jerilyn Lopez Mendoza, Environmental Defense