Annie Notthoff's Blog: Solving Global Warming

Gulf Tragedy is a Grim Reminder that California Needs to Fight for Clean Energy

2010-05-04T17:11:04Z

Flash back 41 years ago to a January morning in 1969 on an offshore oil platform in the Santa Barbara Channel. And back to now - the oil spill that is devastating the Gulf of Mexico is a wake-up call for California. As anyone of a certain age will recall, the blow-out on a rig off Santa Barbara dumped 100,000 barrels of heavy, viscous crude into the sea over a 10-day period. About thirty-five miles of beach were covered with reeking black goo, and thousands of birds perished.

(Platform A. It was here that, on January 25, 1969, a huge blowout in the ocean floor occurred, and a spill covered Santa Barbara's harbor and the nearby coast with thick sludge. Photo by Flickr user dsearls, under Creative Commons licensing.)

That disaster helped kick-start the modern environmental movement, and raised basic questions about the safety of offshore oil development that have yet to be satisfied. It also galvanized decades of bipartisan opposition to offshore oil development in California, a sentiment that remains strong – from former Governor Pete Wilson to CIA Director Leon Panetta to local governments too.

Offshore oil – or rather, opposition to it along our fragile California coast – has a special history for me. I actually started my career in 1978, when I got in my little white VW bug and traveled from Crescent City south along Route 1, talking with local merchants and handing out No Offshore Oil posters. A lot of things have changed since 1978, but one thing sure as heck hasn’t: our ability to develop offshore oil safely, or deal with the aftermath of the inevitable spills. In 1969, they were using hay bales to sop up the oil in the Santa Barbara Channel. Fast forward 41 years to the Gulf of Mexico – and yep, they’re still using those hay bales. This is the tremendous technological progress the oil companies tout when they’re pushing for more offshore drilling? We don’t need it in California, thank you.

(Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/32520523@N04/3550252781/in/photostream/)

And talk about adding insult to injury: While the Gulf of Mexico’s rich fisheries and abundant wildlife smother under a blanket of oil, while the ruptured well continues to spew raw crude at the rate of 25,000 barrels a day, today a bunch of the dirtiest Texas oil refiners have presented signatures to put an initiative on the November ballot that would roll back California’s landmark clean energy legislation, AB 32.

Passed in 2006, AB 32 is already stabilizing the rules of the game which in turn stimulates development of clean energy technology, attracts venture capital from around the world, generates thousands of new jobs, cuts greenhouse gas emissions and reduces dependence on fossil fuels. That last element is what has the oil companies in an uproar, of course: anything that reduces dependence on their dirty, dangerous fuels cuts into their profits. They claim their initiative is about saving California jobs. That’s ridiculous -- it’s about keeping us addicted to oil.

So please: let’s stop these petroleum pushers. They’re already messing up the Gulf of Mexico – don’t let them do it to California. If, as we expect, the Texas oil company initiative gets on the ballot, don’t vote for it. Better yet, join our campaign, Californians for Clean Energy and Jobs, www.stopthedirtyenergyprop.com and fight this ruse. Some of California’s largest employers like Google, Applied Materials, Virgin America and Levi Strauss have signed on to fight this battle. The campaign’s honorary chairman is George Shultz, the Secretary of State in the Reagan Administration and a lifelong Republican.

And remember: stopping clean energy in California is only part of the oil companies’ larger agenda. They want to do to our state what they’re doing to Louisiana: get at that offshore oil, our incomparable marine resources no matter what. Petroleum production continues in the Santa Barbara Channel, and the pressure to open the California coast to exploitation remains. Today Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger recognized the danger to our $60 billion coastal tourism and fishing economies and withdrew his support for any extended drilling in the Tranquillon Ridge fields, off the coast of Vandenberg Air Force Base. He, too, sees that it’s just not worth the risk. We have too much at stake.

We don’t need more offshore oil development in California – we need a moratorium on new drilling. Here’s why:

- California’s offshore waters constitute one of the richest marine environments on the planet. Coastal upwelling brings nutrient-laden water to the surface, establishing the base for a food web that sustains robust fisheries, millions of seabirds and hundreds of thousands of marine mammals. The rocky reefs shelter a vast array of marine life, but they are also particularly vulnerable to oil spills. Our state fisheries are a sustainable resource, and we need to protect them from unwise and unsustainable energy development.

- Offshore oil spill clean up technology is inadequate to the risks. We’re seeing that now in the Gulf of Mexico, and we saw it last year in Australia, where a rupture on an offshore rig belched oil for 10 weeks, creating a 20,000 square mile slick. The oil companies honk about the “progress” they’ve made in offshore drilling technology over the years, but the risk to the environment has not really changed. Booms, absorbents and dispersants aren’t working well off Louisiana -- and they’d fare even worse in California, where rough seas, high winds and strong currents are the norm.

The spill in the Gulf of Mexico is an unfurling tragedy. Let’s learn from it. Let’s take a step back and let’s take a very hard look at our energy policy. We need clear headed independent analysis of the state of offshore drilling and clean up technology and weigh its obvious risks.

Moreover, we need an state energy policy that benefits the nation as a whole rather than a handful of fossil fuel producers and refiners. We need a policy based on energy efficiency in our homes, businesses and cars, and on energy sources that are clean and sustainable. Such a policy would do more than help the environment, though it’d certainly do that. It would also secure our energy sources, ending our dependence on foreign oil producers; it would create millions of jobs in emerging new energy sectors; and it would once again place America on the leading cusp of research and development.

We already have a template for such a policy in California. It’s called AB 32. Let’s hold on to what we’ve got.

Today Earth Day is Family Day for Me

2010-04-23T01:51:52Z

This morning on my way to work in San Francisco, I joined 50 other people on a street corner in Oakland, just around the corner from where both my mother and father grew up and down the street from where both my children were born. So it was a bit of old home week for me. As a fifth generation Californian I’ve always been proud of the way our state has been on the cutting edge of pragmatic and effective environmental policy, but its citizens are facing a dire threat on Earth Day, 2010: an assault by Texas oil refiners on AB 32, the state’s clean energy law.

Valero Energy Corp. and a consortium of Texas-based refiners have pumped more than $2 million into a signature-gathering campaign to place an initiative on the November ballot that would delay or prevent full implementation of AB 32. This landmark legislation is creating thousands of new jobs and stimulating new technologies in the emerging clean energy sector while simultaneously cutting emissions of greenhouse gases.

Valero’s campaign – cynically and inaccurately tagged the California Jobs Initiative -- is a bald-faced ploy to maximize petroleum industry profits by scotching the drive toward cleaner, greener fuels. But Californians are not fooled: they have responded to this stealth campaign by Oil Patch bigwigs with outrage. Earth Day protests were held at Valero gas stations in Oakland, Sacramento, San Diego, Los Angeles and Santa Barbara. And this is just the beginning. Clean energy advocates will continue this fight to Election Day.

Make no mistake-- there is no bigger threat to economic growth, job creation and clean air than this effort by Texas oil companies to kill AB 32, our roadmap to a clean energy future. Californians know they can have both a thriving economy and a healthy environment. The protests we saw on Earth Day are telling the company they can’t sneak this ‘Dirty Energy Initiative’ through. We’re ready and eager for battle – and when we get through with these carpet baggers, they’re going to wish they’d stayed in Texas and concentrated on their barbecue recipes.

According to a recent Field Poll, support for AB 32 remains strong, with 58 percent of residents backing the legislation. Many of the state’s major newspapers – including the San Jose Mercury News, the Sacramento Bee and the Santa Rosa Press Democrat – already have run editorials blasting the Valero initiative. There’s a very good reason for this: Valero has a long and lamentable record of pursuing short-term profits over the public good. The Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts deemed the firm one of the worst polluters in the United States, and in 2005 the company was hit with $711 million in fines by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Contrary to Valero’s invidious claims, AB 32 is a boon to California. According to a recent University of California analysis, the legislation will create about 112,000 new jobs and generate $20 billion for the state’s economy. Additionally, the bill sets the standard for the nation in reducing harmful carbon emissions and puts California at the vanguard of energy research and development. AB 32 points the way to the technology we’ll need to meet 21st Century economic and environmental challenges. Valero’s initiative does just the opposite, harkening to bankrupt technologies, shrinking job and energy sectors and a polluted planet. We’re getting the word out—don’t sign this initiative. It’s a stalking horse for Big Oil and expensive, dirty energy. If it does get on the ballot, don’t vote for it.

*Photo credit: Natural Resources Defense Council

Valero: Don’t Fuel Up the Hype Machine about California’s AB 32

2010-04-21T21:59:16Z

Watch out: Big Oil, coal, their polluting friends and their legions of well-paid public relations minions are fueling up the hype machine once again. This time they’re saying AB 32, California’s forward-looking legislation that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and promote new environmentally-friendly technology, will cost the state jobs. Led by Valero Corp. and a coalition of Texas Oil refiners, they’ve wrapped their spurious claims in something they call the California Jobs Initiative, a referendum they’re attempting to place on the state’s November ballot. If approved, the initiative will delay—and possibly prevent-- implementation of AB32.

It’s time for a bit of a reality check here. First, let’s remember that Texas Oil doesn’t care about California Jobs. Texas Oil cares about Texas Oil’s Profits – profits that are paying professional signature gatherers an unusually high price for every California signature they get on their petitions. They’re out here mucking around in California’s politics because they consider AB 32 – otherwise known as the Global Warming Solutions Act— a threat. They are in the business of purveying high-carbon fossil fuels, and any public health or clean energy program that interferes with that is on their hit list.

The fact is that AB 32 gives California a competitive advantage by positioning us as a leader in the growing clean tech sector of the 21st Century. It will stimulate new technologies and create thousands of new jobs – indeed, just by providing certainty, it’s already helped create an investment environment to do just that. Projects totaling 10,000 megawatts of renewable energy are now competing for federal dollars in California.

More and more there are projects and payrolls that would not exist without the stability that AB 32 provides. We all know that we need plenty of jobs and abundant energy in California. We also know that we can’t go around producing them in the old way. AB 32 confronts the inevitability of change, and ensures that California will profit, not suffer, from it. We cannot let a gang of self-interested Texas oil refiners to drag us back to primitive energy sources and primitive economic models.

Hey, Valero: take a page from the game plan of your competitors. Just because you pump dead dinosaurs doesn’t mean you have to think like one.

Californians Know Better

2010-04-15T21:49:54Z

A bunch of the dirtiest oil refiners from Texas are trying to derail landmark California legislation that will cut greenhouse gas pollution and jumpstart the state’s emerging green economy.

The cabal, led by Texas-based Valero Energy Corp., Tesoro Corp., Tower Energy Group and World Oil Corp, is spending millions of dollars to pay professional signature gatherers to circulate petitions to qualify the “California Jobs Initiative” for the November ballot. They’ve already upped the payment to $2 per name – more than 4 times the going rate. That just shows how unpopular their dirty energy proposition is and how determined the polluters are to pay whatever it costs to get it on the ballot. The aim of these deep pocket polluters is to overturn Assembly Bill 32, the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006. This bipartisan legislation will reduce California’s emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases over time while simultaneously incentivizing the development of new environmentally-friendly technology and products. But Big Oil has AB 32 in its cross-hairs, and it wants a kill. More oil money, likely joined by coal money, is in the pipeline.

But (surprise!) the California Jobs Initiative isn’t really about creating jobs in California. It is, instead, a calculated move by Texas petroleum corporations to run roughshod over the political will of Californians, avoid any kind of meaningful regulation and maximize their profits. This Texas oil initiative won’t create jobs. It will, in fact, cut jobs: about 100,000 of them in the clean energy sector.

AB 32 blazes the path to higher technology and a sustainable economy. It is in keeping with California’s tradition as a civil trend-setter and research cynosure. It is creating rather than eliminating jobs, and the jobs it produces are the kind of jobs the state, the nation and world need.

The initiative promoted by Valero and Friends, on the other hand, serves the few at the expense of the many. The oil companies would continue to profit, but all the rest of us would pay. We would be denied clean air improvements, a vibrant 21st Century economy, and we would ultimately suffer as unchecked greenhouse gas pollution hastens the malign impacts of climate change, and in California that means water supply disruptions, coastal economy hits from sea level rise and more.

Despite the propaganda from the Texas oil refiners, Californians are solidly behind AB 32. A recent Field Poll concluded that support for the legislation currently stands at 58 percent and the public is deeply offended by the refiners’ ploy. The initiative still hasn’t collected enough signatures to qualify for the November ballot, but almost all of the state’s prominent newspapers have come out foursquare against it. The San Jose Mercury News declared in a recent opinion editorial that repealing AB 32 “would be a disaster for California,” and excoriated Republican gubernatorial candidates Meg Whitman and Steve Poizner for supporting the Texas oil initiative. The Santa Rosa Press Democrat called the initiative “a self-serving effort by polluters to duck clean-air rules”, while The Sacramento Bee warned in a March editorial that any effort to roll back AB 32 would hobble California in the world’s emerging clean tech economy, adding “there will always be naysayers to a healthy environment, but their hot air can't stand the test of time.”

Such unanimity in major media so early in the political cycle is unprecedented for this state. Clearly, Californians are wise to the machinations of the Texas oil lobby. If Texas wants to stay mired in the archaic oil-based economy of the 20th Century, they are free to do so. But California, along with most of the world, is reaching for a cleaner, greener future. We won’t be side-tracked by fossil fuel refiners and their fossilized agenda. Don’t sign petitions for the ill-named California jobs Initiative. If it qualifies for the November ballot, don’t vote for it.

Powering California’s Clean Energy Job Mill

2010-01-13T18:36:52Z

Whoever claims that jobs and the environment don’t go hand in hand has never been to California. As our state, the eighth largest economy in the world, continues to face a tailspin of budget woes, reports continue to show that the largest job gains are in the clean energy field. This is a state that has transformed the national clean energy economy and is a historic leader in advancing energy efficiency, renewable energy development and manufacturing, yet lately whenever we find ourselves in a budget crunch, the very environmental protection laws that have contributed to our State’s success are among the first things Sacramento considers sacrificing.

It’s a false sacrifice usually masked by the promise of “shovel-ready” jobs. I made this same argument last year when the Governor proposed to exempt eight infrastructure projects from California’s Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) in an effort to get people to work during the first months of the recession. It’s a false and ultimately fruitless choice to give any project immunity from our state’s bedrock environmental law and excuse any environmental fallout from the projects that ultimately aren’t job creators, at least certainly not for the long-haul.

Now there’s another budget proposal to exempt more projects from CEQA to solve the current budget battle and another separate effort is underway to “suspend” California’s landmark global warming law enacted in 2006 in a thinly veiled attempt by industry to derail the monumental progress California has made in adopting a path to clean energy. Both attempts characterize economic growth as distinct from environmental protection, which cannot be further from the truth.

State Senator Steinberg addressed that falsehood earlier this week: “the notion that we can revitalize our economy by making it easier to decimate our environment is simply false. I don’t know any Californian who wants to live, work, and raise their family in a state where we make it easier to pollute the air that we breathe and the water that we drink.”

Here are a few stats we should keep in mind from a recent Next 10 report on California’s clean energy job force. These are local, good-paying, real jobs that invest in American ingenuity and retain homegrown technology advances as we move our country beyond our addiction to oil.

Between 2007-2008, clean jobs in California grew 5% while total jobs dropped 1%.
Between 1995-2008, green businesses increased 45%, green jobs grew 36% while total jobs in the state grew only 13%.
Employment in Energy Efficiency increased 63% from 1995-2008.
Employment in Green Transportation has increased 152% since 1995.

While we all know that global economic conditions have taken a toll on our national and state economies, here in California, we have an unparalleled record of generating economic profit while controlling pollution because we have been doing both for the last 35 years. State energy policies have also saved California households $56 billion from 1972-2006.

California has much at stake when politics dictates our job growth, but we also have much to gain by sticking to solutions that have added to our economy over the years and created thousands of jobs in a sector that is expected to continue advancing across the country.

While California found religion in the clean tech industry decades ago, many states are just recently following our example. We continue to outpace other states in their investments in the clean energy industry as our state strives to attain a third of our power from renewable energy by 2020. No other state can match the scope of that goal and our determination and yet there are efforts to roll back our investments in the clean tech field in favor of subsidies for dirty industries that continue to drag their heels when it comes to supporting California’s pioneering clean energy standards.

We must tell our leaders not to sacrifice our environment, where we live and work, for short-sighted gains that will only delay California’s progress in becoming the world leader for the clean energy economy.

Using Faux Scandals to Delay Progress

2009-12-08T21:20:50Z

The role of science in curbing harmful pollution has received significant play recently. A series of stolen emails has been the subject of climate change debates just as the international community is gearing up for negotiations in Copenhagen despite the vast majority of international governments agreeing that action must be taken to reduce lethal climate change pollution. Despite the attention the science behind climate change has received recently, the global community is in agreement that our climate is changing and that it is human caused.

A similar thinly veiled attempt to derail the most significant public health regulation to come through California in decades is also brewing at California’s Air Resources Board (CARB). Chaired by Mary Nichols, CARB has been a leader in battling harmful air pollution for decades. This agency is also charged with implementing California’s landmark climate change legislation, AB 32. Fearful of the progress in cleaning up some of dirtiest air in the nation in the San Joaquin Valley and Los Angeles region, trucking lobbyists have started to complain about a recently passed and long overdue regulation aimed at modernizing our decrepit fleet of large trucks traveling throughout the state.

CARB is holding a hearing in Sacramento tomorrow to provide updates on several issues, including the economic implications of diesel regulations planned to take effect over the upcoming years. The CARB regulations will require roughly one million existing diesel vehicles to be upgraded with exhaust retrofits or cleaner engines beginning in 2010 and phasing in through 2022 to reduce diesel soot and smog-forming gases. Most long distance trucks and trailers will also have to use EPA-approved efficient tires and aerodynamic fittings, both of which are expected to save billions of gallons of fuel. School buses are included in these regulations, but would generally be required only to add exhaust retrofits, for which there is ample public funding available. To be honest, this is an expensive rule, but the trucking industry has benefited for decades by not having programs in place to clean up its aging fleet of trucks. Thousands of respiratory illnesses and premature deaths were caused by this lack of progress.

The link between diesel pollution and an array of potentially lethal respiratory diseases is founded in a plethora of independent and peer-reviewed findings. However, opponents of clean air programs are spinning tales of corruption that are simply unfounded. Lacking real grounds to oppose this regulation, which is slated to save thousands of lives each year from premature death due to air pollution, the opponents of clean air progress have latched onto an episode where a person that worked for CARB lied about their credentials. Conveniently, these opponents of clean air have left out critical facts like the fact that the report on the impacts of the diesel pollution was peer reviewed and the science behind the impacts of diesel is long-standing and exceptionally compelling. Obviously, these clean air opponents prefer ignoring science.

Heavy-duty trucks in California are the largest single source of diesel pollution, leading to thousands of illnesses and deaths each year. Pollution from diesel trucks in California is responsible for roughly 4,500 premature deaths each year, which is more than the number of deaths from auto accidents. The cost of this loss of life in addition to disease, lost work days, and school absences adds up to $40 billion per year. However, diesel pollution could easily be prevented through upgrades to the existing truck fleet. While truck owners may be wary of the added costs of upgrades that will be required, $1 billion funding has been made available by the state to offset those costs.

Individuals calling for a suspension of the diesel rule until a reexamination of the science behind diesel and adverse public health problems are simply deluding themselves. They need to wake up to the reality that we need to clean up the decrepit trucks to clean California’s air, reduce global warming pollution, and protect the health of millions of California’s residents.

California’s 2009 Legislative Session Ends with a Whimper

2009-10-13T23:47:38Z

Ending one of the most contentious legislative sessions in California's history, Governor Schwarzenegger vetoed dozens of environmental bills and signed several others over the weekend that will add tons of air pollution to our environment, delay our freedom from fossil fuel dependency and put people at risk to preventable toxics exposure. The legislative session was mired in stalemates over the state budget, economic downturn, water woes and industry-led midnight deals.

Polluters used economy scare tactics to attack public health protections, environmental progress and existing laws this legislative session. For the first time in years bills that hurt the environment managed to pass the legislature and were signed by the Governor and too many of the bills that would have provided true environmental and public health protections for Californians were held over until next year.

Good news was hard to come by this session, as the Governor's veto pen fell hard on environmental bills this year - a notable departure from his previous record.

A package of bills (SB 14 and AB 64) that would set the most aggressive renewable energy targets in the country were vetoed by the Governor, as was a bill that would have ensured that the state's green building standard is rigorous and leads to buildings of superior environmental performance.

In signing AB 1318 (Perez) and SB 827 (Wright), the Governor allows the South Coast Air Quality Management District to dismantle landmark environmental court victories blocking the sale and distribution of unsubstantiated air emission credits to power plant developers in Southern California. These bills have nothing to do with job creation and everything to do with AQMD trying to make an end run around landmark environmental laws and the federal Clean Air Act.

More progress was made in implementing California's existing landmark environmental laws. California's Global Warming Solutions Act's (AB 32) scoping plan was adopted early in 2009 by the California Air Resources Board, California's climate and land use planning law's (SB 375) regional target reductions plan was developed and CARB is set to vote on the plan this month. The California Fish and Game Commission also adopted measures within the Marine Life Protection Act to create 24 marine protected areas and ban or restrict fishing in nearly 20 percent of coastal waters between the North and Central California Coast, a similar effort is underway in Southern California.

The package of water bills currently under consideration in a special session called by the Governor this week is still in flux, but initially represents a real breakthrough among environmental groups, major utilities, business and agricultural interests. The package consists of policies to require the State Water Board to develop public trust flow determinations to restore and sustain the Delta estuary and our salmon fisheries, a comprehensive and enforceable water conservation program that addresses industrial, agricultural and urban water use, and a Delta Stewardship Council, a groundwater monitoring program and enhanced enforcement capacity at the State Board to address the problem of illegal diversions and permit violations.

DUDE! Californians Riding the Waves in Washington, D.C.

2009-02-13T19:29:56Z

The moment Senator Dianne Feinstein opened the inaugural ceremony, I had a sense of coming home. After all, there were two California women (Feinstein and Speaker Nancy Pelosi) accompanying President Obama down the stairs and they, along with lots of Californians, are now in a position to help lead our nation away from the mistakes of the past, particularly when it comes to energy and the environment. Because while environmental leadership has been missing in action in the nation's capital for the past 8 years, we've been busy here in the states - and there's no place we've been busier than here in California. California's economy has grown at a healthy pace (we're now the 8th or 7th largest economy in the world, depending on how France is doing on any given day) while at the same time, we've strengthened our energy, environmental and public health protections. And we've learned a lot of valuable lessons about balancing economic and environmental considerations along the way.

Because of California's progressive energy programs, we now use less electricity per capita than anyone else in the nation. Our energy grid is less reliant on fossil fuels and uses more renewable energy than average. And we've taken steps to protect our snowpack and coastal economy from the worst effects of global warming by enacting the first law in the world to control greenhouse gas emissions from cars, setting a clean electricity production standard, capping total greenhouse gas emissions, designing a low carbon fuel standard, aiming for aggressive renewable energy goals and linking land use to global warming policy, among other new ideas. Many other states, hungry for action, have taken matters into their own hands and adopted similar policies.

As a coastal state, we're trying to take better care of the ocean here, too. We started by setting up the first statewide network of parks in the sea or "marine reserves." Then when two national bipartisan committees called for a new era of ocean conservation, while Washington, D.C., turned a deaf ear, California heeded the call for improved governance and set up the first Ocean Protection Council. Now other states like New York have set these up, too.

These are just a few examples of what states have been up to. So now that there's new leadership in Washington, D.C., there are workable models and active coalitions of business and local government and labor and environmental and community groups all ready to help move a productive agenda at the national level. California's Congressional leaders have been paying attention to the progress in our state and they are set to lead. Fortunately, they're in the right place at the right time. Not only has President Obama tapped some top California talent like Energy Secretary Steven Chu, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis (LCV* score 85%) and CEQ head Nancy Sutley, but our senators and representatives are in leadership positions that make a difference. Both the Senate Environment Committee and the House Energy and Commerce Committees - the two committees that will design federal global warming legislation - are headed by veteran California environmental heroes - Sen. Barbara Boxer (LCV 100%) and Rep. Henry Waxman (LCV 100%) respectively.

They know how California has managed to have a strong economy while making history fighting climate change and they know how to translate that nationally. Sen. Feinstein (LCV 100%) not only heads up the Senate Intelligence Committee, when it comes to the environment, she chairs the committee with the purse strings - the Interior Subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee. And of course Speaker Pelosi has a long history of working to protect the environment. The district she represents used to be represented by the late Phil Burton - father of some of the most magnificent national parks and wilderness areas in the country. The legacy of that seat lives on. She named environmentally savvy George Miller to chair the House democratic policy committee. Rep. Sam Farr (LCV 92%) has been an ocean champion since he was on the Monterey County Board of Supervisors. Now his Oceans 21 legislation, an innovative approach to ocean conservation, has a real chance. Californians have sent environmental leaders to Congress. We have 56 members of Congress - the biggest delegation by far and nearly 60% of them have LCV scores 85% or higher (16 of them perfect 100s - Boxer, Feinstein, Berman, Capps, Davis, Eshoo, Harman, Honda, Lee, Lofgren, Sanchez, Schiff, Stark, Tauscher, Waters and Tauscher).

California's diversity and size enable us to field a hard-hitting team in Washington. Now they have a chance to bring some light to national environmental leadership. Ride on dudes!

*LCV (League of Conservation Voters http://www.lcv.org/scorecard/ )

Is Schwarzenegger throwing the baby out with the bathwater?

2008-12-23T20:59:07Z

Has Governor Schwarzenegger forgotten that California's environmental quality is the backbone of our economy? One of the things that make it so exciting to work in California is that, by and large, people here get it and they want to protect it. They know that clean water, clean air, beaches and landscapes are the backdrop for a state economy that thrives on efficiency and innovation. They understand that clean, renewable energy fights global warming and can help get us out of the economic doldrums.

And for the last five years Governor Schwarzenegger made this connection too. He's been one of the most visible champions on the world stage for the proposition that a healthy environment and strong economy go hand in hand. Remember this Newsweek cover, when he was holding the globe?

So why has he changed since last year when he summed up his global leadership platform at a speech he gave at Georgetown University, " ... we can protect the environment and protect the economy, and that's what I've been saying for years...and we have proven it in California." Again, earlier this year, "Economic growth and environmental action are not mutually exclusive."

He's said this again and again. He's signed landmark bills to combat global warming - bills to cap greenhouse gas emissions and most recently led California as the first state in the nation to inject climate protection into the transportation and land use equation. So, why now that the going's getting tough in the economy is Schwarzenegger pushing for less environmental protection?

It doesn't make sense and it will set us down a road that will make it harder for us to build a future of green infrastructure. His budget proposal will lead to more of the same - more freeway lanes and more air pollution rather than more transit and less pollution. I've worked with the Governor and his Air Board and Energy Commission to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and now I'm scratching my head as to why he's making this hard right turn now. NRDC and our allies here in California sent a letter to the governor recently letting him know that there are better ways to develop jobs and stimulate the economy.

California's dedication to our workforce and investment in developing clean energy technology has built our economy into the seventh largest economy in the world. As we work to keep that edge, let us not forget what made us strong in the first place and let us not throw the baby out with the bathwater. I think we all get it. These are tough times, but it's times like this that we need to work toward what's best for California.

Harmful CA Energy Props Fail on Election Day

2008-11-05T22:09:11Z

I don't know about you, but I'm still poring over the maps and looking at the percentages and trying to let it sink in. One of the things this change signals is a new chance to move the great work that states all over the country have been doing to develop a clean energy economy to the national stage. Here in California we've been focusing on getting the fight against global warming going and getting it right.

Yesterday, California voters took another step in the right direction by rejecting two disruptive ballot initiatives, Prop 7 and Prop 10, which would have taken us on an unproductive detour. The California Secretary of State's website shows you how people voted for each prop. NRDC along with most other environmental groups in California opposed Props 7 and 10 -- not because we don't want more renewable energy and alternative fuels, but because we do -- these just weren't the way to get the job done.

Now we can sharpen our focus on getting real results from the programs that are in place in California to reduce our greenhouse gas pollution by improving our energy efficiency and getting more of our energy from renewable resources like solar and wind. There's a lot to do on that front. Right now the CA Air Resources Board is considering how to implement our landmark global warming bill, AB 32 and in the draft Scoping Plan in front of them is a proposal to get 33% of the state's electricity from renewable sources by 2020. NRDC is championing that policy. We're also leading an effort to figure out how to get renewable energy to market and protecting natural resources too. And we are amping up our efforts to wring every bit of energy we can out of every watt we use -- our energy efficiency team is reforming the way we light our homes, freeze our food, charge our phones, get cool drinks from vending machines, play video games and more. So it's good news that Californians continue to support a clean energy economy and our state's voters can tell a good idea from a cockeyed one.

California Keeps Moving Towards Solving Global Warming

2008-06-18T23:51:29Z

As a continuation of my first video blog, here I talk about two pieces of solutions-based legislation in California aimed at combatting global warming.

The first is AB 32, The Global Warming Solutions Act, a landmark law that NRDC helped pass in 2006 and now we're working hard to make sure it makes a difference as it is implemented.

The second, SB 375 - by Senator Darrell Steinberg, the incoming Pro Tem of the California State Senate - is another vehicle (pun intended) to reduce emissions of heat-trapping pollution by getting people out of their cars through better planning.

Check out this editorial in the Sacramento Bee for more background.

The Poorely Ritten Enurgy Propozishun - Don't Be Fooled

2008-06-18T23:34:13Z

Hi, for my first blog I decided to post a video. Click below to watch me talk about another round of California ballot measures coming this November, including a poorly written energy proposition. Unfortunately, the sloppy language is the least of the problem. The real danger is that confused voters could mistake the laudable goal of increasing renewable energy for an effective solution. If passed, this measure would actually be a setback for clean energy in California. Check out this article in the Los Angeles Times for more background.