Tag Archives: wildfire

California, Environment

How did your representatives vote on the environment?

California’s clean air and water, pristine coastline, wild open spaces and public health protections don’t happen by accident. They happen because champions for the environment run for office, and once they’re elected, they work to pass laws that protect our natural resources and improve our quality of life.

Today the California League of Conservation Voters released our annual California Environmental Scorecard. The Scorecard is the behind-the-scenes look at the battle to protect the Golden State’s natural legacy and public health, and reveals how the governor and members of the state legislature voted on critical environmental proposals in the 2010 legislative session. Take action and let your legislators know what you think about their 2010 scores: Visit http://www.ecovote.org/

The story of the 2010 Scorecard is as much about how the environmental community stopped multiple attacks on the environment as it is about how we passed strong laws that protect our quality of life. But the story doesn’t end there, because we expect more attacks in 2011 that falsely claim we need to sacrifice the environment in order to improve the economy.

Emboldened by the tough economic climate, anti-environmental legislators introduced dozens of so-called “regulatory reform” bills in 2010 in an attempt to weaken environmental protections. The good news is that, with the help of environmental champions in the state Senate and Assembly, CLCV and our allies successfully defeated the bills that posed the most serious threats to the environment and public health. At the same time, environmental advocates were able to deliver several important proposed laws to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s desk, including bills dealing with energy storage, recycling, water conservation, pesticides, clean energy jobs, and oil spill prevention.

Schwarzenegger’s 2010 score of 56% factored into an average lifetime score of 53 percent over his seven years as governor. The governor received national recognition for leadership on environmental issues. However, he leaves office with a mixed legacy, having championed some issues-notably, bold solutions to climate change-and having proven less reliable on others, including protecting public health and state parks.

How did your legislator perform on the environmental community’s priority legislation to protect the environment and public health? Learn your legislators’ scores and then let them know what you think! (More after the jump).

2010 California Environmental Scorecard Highlights:

Governor Schwarzenegger 56% (leaves office with 53% average score)

Senate average: 59%

Senate Democrats: 91%

Senate Republicans: 6%

Senators with 100% score: 12

Highest Scoring Senate Republican: Blakeslee, 21%

Lowest Scoring Senate Democrat: Correa, 30%

Assembly average: 64%

Assembly Democrats: 94%

Assembly Republicans: 7%

Assemblymembers with 100% score: 30

Highest Scoring Assembly Republican: Fletcher, 19%

Lowest Scoring Assembly Democrat: Huber, 43%

Perfect 100%:

Senators: Alquist, Cedillo, Corbett, DeSaulnier, Hancock, Kehoe, Leno, Liu, A. Lowenthal, Pavley, Steinberg, Yee.

Assemblymembers: Ammiano, Bass, Beall, Blumenfield, Bradford, Brownley, Carter, Chesbro, Coto, de Leon, Eng, Evans, Feuer, Gatto, Hayashi, Hill, Huffman, Jones, Lieu, B. Lowenthal, Monning, Nava, J. Pérez, Ruskin, Salas, Saldaña, Skinner, Swanson, Torlakson, Yamada.

The California Environmental Scorecard is an important tool for environmental voters, who for nearly 40 years have helped CLCV deliver on our mission to hold elected officials accountable to their campaign promises to protect California’s families and natural heritage.

With the introduction this year of a new interactive, online Environmental Scorecard, CLCV is making it even easier for voters to communicate with their elected officials about their environmental performance.

Please know the score and take action today! Visit http://www.ecovote.org/

Budget, California, Environment, Jerry Brown

Governor’s Budget Proposal: Environmental Programs Share in the Sacrifice

Programs that fund state parks, maintain wild open spaces, protect wild lands from forest fires, fund public transportation and more are all on the table in Governor Jerry Brown’s proposed budget.  

Make no mistake, there is a lot for environmental advocates (and everyone else) to hate about this proposed budget. But with a two-thirds majority in the state legislature required to pass new taxes and now (thanks to Prop 26) new fees, and with legislative Republicans refusing thus far to consider any new sources of revenue, Governor Brown must work with the hand he was dealt.

During his campaign for governor, Brown promised voters that he would put a halt to the gimmicks that served as short-term Band-Aids on budget shortfalls in the past. He promised a tough but fair budget that – in closing an estimated $25 billion budget shortfall – would spare few of the state’s programs and services. And he has mostly made good on that promise, with the most profound cuts in the areas where the state spends the most – health & social services and higher education. The total proposed spending cuts: a staggering $12.5 billion.

For now, Governor Brown’s budget spares the state’s K-12 public education system, preferring to allow voters to decide in a special election to agree to a five-year extension of $12 billion in taxes that will otherwise expire this year (including vehicle licensing fees, state sales taxes and state income taxes) or allow even deeper cuts to California’s programs and services, including to the K-12 system.

Here’s a summary of how environmental programs fared in the governor’s first budget proposal:

Natural Resources

As expected, the agency will share in the sacrifice being asked of all levels of state government. On the one hand, we’re relieved that the cuts proposed to the agency were fairly minimal (at least as a percentage of the overall budget cuts). On the other, the worst of the cuts are to the already-struggling state parks budget (which totaled $406 million last year). The $11 million proposed cuts this year and $22 million more in ongoing cuts will result in some parks closing and/or more restricted park hours for the public. As the California State Parks Foundation points out, budget reductions over the past few years have already left the parks system operating with 150 partial closures and service reductions.

We’re waiting for a more specific list of proposed closures and service reductions before making a complete assessment-according to a state finance department spokesman, Brown asked State Parks Director Ruth Coleman to submit by February a list of the parks that will have reduced hours or will be closed completely. Cuts this deep will magnify the budget reductions already sustained by the state parks in recent years and they are sobering, to say the least.

California Natural Resources Secretary John Laird said it was necessary for his agency to share in the short-term sacrifice:

“This Governor is determined to upright California’s budget… Fixing the long-term problem requires sacrifice from each Californian–and certainly the Natural Resources Agency–in the short-term. If California is to achieve a long-term vision for natural resources management that plays a role in restoring the state’s economy, the governor’s plan is the right path.”

Delta Restoration

The Bay Delta Ecosystem Restoration Account was zeroed out in the budget. Questions remain about how to implement BDCP in light of this.

Open Space

The proposal also zeroes out all $10 million in state funding for The California Land Conservation Act-commonly referred to as the Williamson Act. For decades, the Act has helped keep large parcels of land in California as open space by enabling local governments to enter into contracts with private landowners for the purpose of restricting specific parcels of land to agricultural or related open space use. The incentive: lower-than-normal property tax assessments (based on farming and open space uses versus full market value).

The revenue for some rural counties under the Act has been significant. Eliminating funding may force some landowners to allow their lands to be developed for housing or retail, contributing to sprawl and allowing more of California’s precious open space to disappear.

Transportation

Surprisingly, transportation fared pretty well in this budget, with funding levels left unchanged from last year. According to the San Jose Mercury News:

Transportation officials say Brown’s plan would provide a stable source of funding for transit and highway planning across the state, and that could speed up work on some projects.”

Wildfires

Brown’s budget proposes changing the way the state battles wildfires, reducing the number of firefighters to pre-2003 staffing levels and shifting a significant amount of fire-fighting responsibility to cities and counties. (This is just one of many areas where Brown proposes a wholesale restructuring of the relationship between state and local governments.) Some experts on wildfires have already reacted warily to the proposal (read more in the Mercury News: http://www.mercurynews.com/bre…



Environmental Protection

The $71 million reduction ($12 million from the general fund) is one of the biggest cuts to the environment in the proposed budget. As with much of the above, we await details on these cuts.

Click here for the full budget summary: http://www.ebudget.ca.gov/

Uncategorized

A Town Beseiged: Potrero Residents Battling Blackwater Now Suffer Ravages of Wildfire

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(Welcome Miriam, an award winning journalist to Calitics. More info from on the ground there, following up on my post earlier today. Note: I moved some stuff below the fold. – promoted by Julia Rosen)

Potrero, California, the town that has gained national attention for standing up against Blackwater Worldwide’s plan to build a private military-style training camp in their pristine backcountry community east of San Diego, now faces an even more formidable force.  The Harris wildfire which began outside Potrero early Sunday morning has ravaged the small rural community, where many residents remain trapped without supplies four days after the fire began.

“It’s like the Kalahari Desert as you drive down Potrero Valley Road.  There are sand dunes everywhere-dirt and ash,” Jan Hedlun reported via cell phone on Tuesday.  “We can’t get in or out, and we are running out of supplies.” This morning, however, Hedlun said food will be provided to beleaguered residents at the old Volunteer Fire Department Building.  The County recently began initiating its fire consolidation plan, closing some rural volunteer firefighting departments.  But here in Potrero, some residents complained that they never saw a single fire engine until long after their homes burned down.

Stretches where homes once stood along Highway 94 have been reduced to wasteland.  Many homes have burned, although the town’s store, library, and Post Office are still standing.  “There is looting going on up here,” said Hedlun.  Another source described Potrero as a “moonscape with houses here and there.”

Many Potrero residents never received reverse 911 calls warning them to evacuate.  Some rely on cell phones, which were not included in the evacuation system.

“It’s like Armageddon,” said Jill Michaels, who had just four minutes to pack belongings before fleeing flames that singed her husband.  She and her family tried to evacuate but found all roads blocked.  She returned to witness her Potrero home burn to the ground. 

Others suffered worse losses.  Tom Varshock died trying to save his home on the Potrero/Tecate boundary.  His son remains hospitalized with burns over 50% of his body. 

Fires continue to burn on two sides of Potrero, blocking roads in and out.  For the moment, Hedlun assured me this morning, she and others believe they are safe.  Hurricane-force winds that howled through the mountain area on Sunday night have now calmed, giving firefighters cautious optimism to believe the fires may be contained by this weekend.

Portions of the Cleveland National Forest and Hauser Wilderness area adjoining the Blackwater site are believed to have burned, Hedlun said, though residents have not been permitted near the area yet.  Hedlun said.  Military C130 aircraft arrived late yesterday, dropping fire retardant onto the forest, which provides critical habitat for wildlife.

Blackwater’s 824-acre site in Round Potrero Valley, which survived the initial blaze, may also have burned last night.  “There is a haze of smoke rising above it this morning,” Hedlun informed me at 10:00 a.m. today (Wednesday).

  Brian Bonfiglio, vice president of Blackwater West, said Blackwater remains determined to build its planned facility despite the wildfire’s devastation.  Those plans include 11 firing ranges for small and large caliber weapons, an emergency vehicular training track, bunkhouses for 200 trainees, additional training facilities and a large armory to stockpile ammunition.

“I see a tactical operation center for East County fires,” said Bonfiglio, noting that Blackwater’s proposal includes water tanks capable of holding 35,000 gallons.  “Can you imagine how much of a benefit it would be if we were operational now?”

Opponents of Blackwater have suggested that live-fire operations could heighten the risk of fire starting in the box canyon where Blackwater seeks to locate and note that fires have been started by live-fire at military bases in the past.  The Courage Campaign has mounted a petition calling on Senators Diane Feinstein and Barbara Boxer to oppose Blackwater’s base in Potrero for reasons including the proposed facility’s location in a “fire-prone landscape http://www.courageca…. 

Bonfiglio maintains that shooting areas will have berms, cleared surrounding areas, and a standby fire watch person with fire equipment on hand.  No flares or explosives will be used, he said.

But even a fire started off-site could become an inferno, critics contend, if it were to reach the armory full of ammunition at Blackwater’s site.

Blackwater has sought approval for its project under the County’s new “shelter in place” policy.  The valley, which has only one road in and one road out, would include a 9,600 square foot facility equipped with sprinklers and surrounded by enhanced fire modification zone.  Blackwater has offered to shelter townspeople in its facility in event of a future fire.

But one Potrero resident who remained in town despite evacuation orders observed, “There is no way in hell anyone up here would want to go there during a fire.”  Evacuation would have been required from the valley as fire leap-frogged across the area, said the source, who asked to remain anonymous.

Authorities are still investigating the cause of the blaze, one of several major wildfires now burning throughout San Diego County.  Combined, the fires have forced evacuation of over half a million people – more than fled New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina.  With over a billion dollars in property damage and 1,500 homes burned countywide, the fires are now the worst in California history.

The Harris fire raises many troubling issues with regard to the fate of the Blackwater project.

Hedlun confirmed that Potrero residents will likely request a new Environmental Impact Report be filed, since much critical wildlife habitat and watershed areas have burned.  The original EIR was expected to be completed in December, followed by a vote of the San Diego County Planning Commission and ultimately, the County Board of Supervisors. 

Those votes would rely in part on an advisory vote cast by the Potrero Planning Group in favor of the Blackwater project.  Angry residents had mounted a recall election of all pro-Blackwater planners.  That election, set for December 11th, was slated to be a mandatory vote-by-mail election with ballots going out in early November.

San Diego’s Registrar of Voters, Debra Seiler, has not yet responded to an inquiry asking whether the recall election may be postponed because of the fire, or how she intends to assure that voters who lost homes or have been displaced will receive ballots and be able to cast their votes.  At least two planners facing recall have lost their homes.  Fates of some candidates running on a “Save Potrero” anti-Blackwater slate remain unknown.  Some voters now face divided loyalties, sympathizing with neighbors who lost homes and another planner facing recall who reportedly saved several houses from burning.

Residents in Potrero, scarred by internal strife and fire,  now seek time to heal. Hedlun held out hope that Blackwater may yet decide to abandon its plan to open up a training camp in Potrero.

“For now,” she concluded, “We are digging out, cleaning up, and looking to see what’s left.”