State Parks Initiative

Good news is hard to come by these days, but the news from the California State Parks Foundation is just that! Sufficient signatures have been gathered to qualify Proposition 21 - The State Parks Protection and Wildlife Conservation Trust fund Act of 2010 for the November ballot. This initiative, if passed by the voters, will establish a secure revenue stream, separate from the State budget, to keep State Parks open and maintained.  Funding will come from an $18 surcharge on California vehicle registrations that will, in exchange, allow free day-use access to all State Parks.   MCL acted as “Ground Zero” for the local signature-gathering campaign, an effort that was aided by Mt. Tamalpais Interpretive Association members and others. Ann Thomas, returning this year to the MCL Board, coordinated the successful Northern California campaign, from Marin to Del Norte Counties.

AB32

Attempts to roll back AB 32, the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 that requires reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, are coming from both the legislature and the initiative process.  These ballot measure are being cast as necessary means to protect jobs— “California Jobs Initiative”—and are funded by Texas-based oil firms Valero Energy and Tesoro Corp.  The measures would require the State to abandon greenhouse gas controls, including renewable energy and clean-fuel rules, until the State unemployment rate falls to less than half today’s rate of 12.5 percent—whixh has not happened in the past 20 years. Rather than protect jobs, the initiative, if passed, would kill the momentum already building toward investment in innovative technologies that have the potential to “de-carbonize” the California economy.  Anyone who cares about climate change—and that’s almost everyone! —should oppose all efforts to undo AB 32.

California Environmental Quality Act

CEQA is under attack. This may sound like old news, since rarely has a year gone by in the past almost 40 years when the California Environmental Quality Act has NOT been under attack.  But this year the attack is different. The poor economy and jobs climate has brought CEQA detractors out in force. On the grounds that CEQA is stifling the economy, pending legislation to weaken CEQA would exempt, based on their jobs benefits, up to 125 projects over five years from judicial review. If adopted, opponents of projects selected for exemption would not be able to challenge the project EIR in court. Despite considerable debate on both sides, the notion of exempting some large projects from CEQA is far from dead this legislative session.

Most recently, AEG, the owner of Los Angeles' Staples Center, has requested a CEQA exemption for a new NFL football stadium it wants to build in downtown LA - despite the fact they don't have a team under contract! MCL has signed on to a Planning and Conservation League letter opposing this request for exemption.

2010 Documents and Correspondence

• June 25, 2010 - PCL letter regarding AEG request for CEQA exemption
• February 23, 2010 - MCL letter to state representatives regarding various CEQA bills