For any environmentalist that has been hiding under a rock for the last two years, the opening for the 5th annual Green California Summit (sponsored by the California League of Conservation Voters) in Sacramento today clearly sounded the battle cry that environmental regulations are under attack and will be as long as conservatives are pitting the environment against jobs.
In a well timed wake up call, Senator Alan Lowenthal declared that environmental legislators must not continue to be "taken for granted" by legislative leaders. After a year in which environmental regulations that protect the states coast, water quality, air quality, and general environmental health were weakened, circumvented or assailed upon by the legislature, it was refreshing to hear this from a Senator. The question to be seen is can Lowenthal and other environmental legislators deliver or will they continue to let the big five push through environmental concessions in the name of the economy.
One ally of the environmental community may hold the silver bullet to protecting environmental issues during an economic recession. Bob Balgenorth, President of the State Building and Construction Trades Council, passionately advocated that the environmental and labor communities can work together to generate legislation that promotes "good jobs and a clean environment."
I agree with him on this and on a local level these types of alliances have worked with tremendous success (One example is the recent Community Benefits Agreement negotiated in Sonoma County). But on the state side, as much as environmental and labor advocates in the capitol have worked together, it has not taken much for folks to sacrifice this friendship for self interest.
An example that was pointed out at the Summit was the solar initiative passed in 2006 which did not include a prevailing wage provision. Now solar installers under this program are making as low as $10 an hour (which is a wage that I do not think will stimulate the economy and has given our tax money to bottom feeding companies in the state). Bob said that the past can be overcome by sticking together on the thing that draw the two communities together.
I only hope that those things represent some seriously sticky glue because with $20 billion in state budget cuts coming down next year, the environmental and labor communities are going to need every ally we can get to prevent the obstructionist Republican Caucus from preventing the continued creation of the green jobs California needs so badly.
Poll
Do you support protecting the environment or the economy
