Union of Concerned Scientists Warns CA Voters about Misleading Slate Mailer and 'Trojan Horse' Attack Against State's Clean Energy Law; Urges Voters to Vote NO on 26
With most voters' attention diverted by the oil industry's efforts to derail the state's landmark clean energy and climate law with Proposition 23, another, less scrutinized oil-industry-funded ballot measure--Proposition 26--also poses a serious threat to the environment and clean energy.
Proposition 26 has received nearly $16 million from Chevron and other big oil companies, as well as alcohol and tobacco interests, to get themselves off the hook from paying for environmental and health damage they cause and shift that burden to taxpayers.
The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) is alerting California voters to beware of misleading 'slate mailers' arriving in their mailboxes just before the November 2 election. UCS strongly urges a 'NO' vote on Prop. 23 and Prop. 26.
"While Prop 23 is a frontal assault on our clean energy law, Prop 26 is more like a Trojan horse," said Dan Kalb, UCS California policy manager. "As deceptive as the Prop 23 campaign has been, the campaign to pass Prop 26 is even more insidious. Not only do the oil and tobacco companies behind Prop 26 hide the fact that it would starve state and local public health, clean air, and clean energy programs, but now they are funding misleading slate mailers that misinform voters about what the pro-environment position really is on Prop 26. The pro-environment position on Prop 26 is a definite NO."
Voters have already begun receiving a for-profit mailer with the headline "Californians Vote Green" recommending votes on Props 25 (no) and 26 (yes) that are the opposite of what the state's leading public health and environmental organizations recommend. UCS and several other leading environmental and consumer groups strongly support Prop. 25 and oppose Prop. 26. "This pay-to-play 'green' mailer sinks to new lows when it comes to false advertising," said Kalb.
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The California Department of Fish and Game is currently investigating the deaths of over 1,500 fish, the majority striped bass, after a contractor working for Chevron Oil Company drained a large duck pond along north Honker Bay in Solano County.
The fish kill at Wheeler Island was reported to authorities last week through the efforts of Jerry Neuburger, webmaster for the California Fisheries Network (http://www.calfish.net), after he received photos and an eyewitness account of hundreds of stripers dying in this area at the beginning of Labor Day weekend.
Both Jerry and I contacted Randy Imai from the DFG Office of Spill Prevention and Response about the then unconfirmed fish kill. Imai then contacted the game warden and the local DFG water quality biologist in that region.
"This case is now under investigation," said Captain Mark Lucero, DFG game warden, on September 15. "The fish kill took place when water was siphoned from Wheeler Island in order to repair a pipe operated by Chevron."
Lucero said the DFG is now reviewing the job description and the conditions of the stream bed alteration agreement between the Department and Chevron, including whether or not the company looked at alternative methods for performing the pipe repair project.
"All of the fish that we saw were dead - we don't think that's there's any live fish left," he stated.
Besides the stripers, carp and Sacramento splittail also perished in the fish kill at the 700-acre pond.
If criminal charges are filed in the case, some information may not be released, pending actual prosecution, according to Lucero. When the investigation reaches a stage nearing completion, the DFG will send out a press release with the full details of the case.
In a statement, Chevron said it had the proper work permits for the project. "In securing permits, and planning and executing the repair, Chevron Pipe Line Company (CPL) worked cooperatively with the water reclamation district, Department of Fish and Game, the landowner, Corps of Engineers, CA Regional Water Board, and the San Francisco Bay Conservation Development Corporation," the company stated.
Chevron explained that the project resulting in the fish kill took place after a levee located on private land near Honker Bay was breached in 2009 and not repaired until this year. After the levee was repaired, CPL performed a "preventative repair" on its petroleum products pipeline located in the levee containment area.
The DFG and Chevron provided differing estimates of how many fish died. While the DFG said 1500 fish died, Chevron claimed that only "several hundred fish" perished.
"Several hundred fish died when water was drained from levee containment area in order to perform the repair as required under the work permit by an independent contractor working for the local water reclamation district," said Chevron. "No petroleum products leaked from the pipeline; and no other wildlife perished. CPL is cooperating fully with authorities on this matter."
Neuburger questioned why the public and conservation groups were not contacted promptly to conduct a rescue effort of the stranded and dying fish.
"When CFN first reported the incident, it was claimed that DFG had been notified of the draining of the pond," said Neuburger. "The incident was also reported to be connected with the Chevron Corporation. It appears that the person reporting the incident, Biba, was correct in both statements."
"If DFG was notified prior to the pond's draining, why was there no effort to save the fish?," emphasized Neuburger. "Why wasn't the public notified? Is this another DFG screw up? We know from the Prospect Island fish kill that many anglers are willing to help in a fish rescue."
Neuburger was also disturbed that his calls to Captain Lucero weren't returned promptly at the same time that DFG staff informed the Associated Press (AP) of the fish kill investigation (www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_16072130?nclick_check=1.) However, Lucero did finally call Neuburger on September 15 (www.calfish.net/sept10/9-15-10e.htm).
In addition, Neuburger questioned why the permits weren't better monitored by the DFG.
"If permits were issued, where was DFG's oversight in this process?" said Neuburger. "If the Department is not providing oversight of these permits, have these permits just become a source of revenue?"
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in September 2008 vetoed the Fish Rescue Plans Bill, AB 1806, sponsored by then Assemblywoman Lois Wolk (D-Wolk), now a State Senator, to prevent fish kills like the latest one from taking place. The bill would have require the Department of Fish and Game to develop a set of protocols to evaluate the need for fish rescue and relocation plans within the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta (http://www.californiaprogressreport.com/site/?q=node/1613.)
AB 1806 was spurred by the fish kill at Prospect Island in November 2008 when tens of thousands of striped bass, Sacramento blackfish, Sacramento splittail and other species perished as a volunteer group of outdoorsman, led by marina owner Bob McDaris, struggled to get the approval from state and federal authorities to conduct a fish rescue. It was only after the anglers put intense political pressure on the authorities, amidst heavy media coverage of the fish kill, that the volunteers were allowed to conduct a highly successful rescue of over 1800 striped bass and thousands of other fish.
Schwarzenegger vetoed the bill, claiming it was "unnecessary and duplicates authority already conferred to the Department by existing laws and regulations for mitigation for fish and wildlife impacts and coordination between federal, state and local agencies. Additionally, the burdensome process that this bill would create could potentially inhibit restoration activities initiated in association with flood control projects."
If Schwarzenegger had done the right thing and signed this bill into law, it is highly unlikely that the latest fish kill in a series of fishery disasters that have plagued California in recent years would have occurred, since the DFG would have been forced to develop a set of protocols to evaluate the need for fish rescue and relocation plans in the imperiled California Delta.
Jerry Neuburger of the California Fisheries Network (http://www.calfish.net) on September 8 received a series of alarming photos from "Bibi" showing a major fish kill at a canal in the West Delta region at the beginning of Labor Day weekend.
While the kill was initially reported at or near the Chevron property in Pittsburg, it was quickly found that Chevron has no plant in the area with the closest facility in Martinez, according to Neuburger.
"The person first reporting the kill has since contacted DFG and with the assistance of GoogleEarth, has pinpointed the reported location of the disaster," said Neuburger. "DFG personnel are currently in the field, investigating to determine the cause of the incident."
The photos show hundreds of dead striped bass piled along the shore in scenes reminiscent of the Prospect Island Fish Kill in November 2007, when tens of thousands of stripers, Sacramento blackfish, Sacramento splittail, black bass, carp and other species perished in the largest fish kill ever documented on the California Delta.
In a post on Dan Blanton's fly fishing bulletin board (http://www.danblanton.com/bulletin.php), "Blane" reported a major fish kill at his duck club in Suisun while fishing there. "A formerly open-to-the Bay larger club had just repaired its levee, and as they pumped the several-hundred acres back into the Bay, all the stripers from three years of access were concentrated in the deepwater canals on the edges," he stated.
"Sadly, all the remaining fish will be dead in a couple of weeks as the water level drops---the otters and raccoons are already feasting, and the cormorants cannot choke down the fish due to their size," "Blane" claimed. "I saw an area in one of the canals that had 100+ BIG striper carcasses after they got caught behind a tule island and could not find their way to the retreating waters."
At the same time, there is also a report of a leak in a pipeline that crosses underground in the area of the fish kill. In order to repair the leak, Chevron needed to access the pipeline with heavy equipment. Chevron is in the process of bringing in the equipment needed to perform some road construction which required the draining of some of the waterways, according to sources.
Whether these two incidents are related or not remains yet to be seen.
Both Jerry and I have contacted Randy Imai from the California Department of Fish and Game's Office of Spill Prevention and Response. Imai has contacted the game warden and the local DFG water quality biologist in that region.
Imai will contact us about the location and extent of the fish kill as soon as he receives more information. Imai emphasized that it is not clear at this time whether the fish kill is on Chevron property as originally reported.
If you have any information confirming or documenting a fish kill in this region, please contact me at danielbacher [at] fishsniffer.com, 916-685-2245, ext. 224, Jerry Neuburger at gneuburger [at] yahoo.com, or Randy Imai at 916-324-0000.
Imai also encouraged people to report factual information regarding poachers and polluters to CalTIP (Californians Turn InPoachers and Polluters). CalTIP is a confidential secret witness program that encourages Californians an opportunity to help protect the state's fish and wildlife resources. The toll free telephone number operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You do not have to give your name.
CalTIP can be reached at 1-888-334-2258.
The reported fish kill takes place at a time when Sacramento River chinook salmon, Central Valley steelhead, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, green sturgeon, young striped bass and other species have declined to record low population levels, due to massive water exports from the Delta to corporate agribusiness and southern California and declining water quality.
On November 19th, 52 UC Davis students were arrested after peacefully protesting the new 32% fee increases established by the UC Regents. As a second year undergraduate, I was hopeful that students were beginning to see the bigger picture: California is broken.
Students, so far, have been forcing most of the blame on the UC Regents. While it is true that the 20 Regents who voted for the increase certainly deserve a heaving portion of the blame for borrowing tens of millions (from a non-CA bank, NY Merrill Trust) while forcing students into a cycle of debt in order to protect UC's eerily superb bond rating, the only way for students to move towards enacting change is to recognize that UC's woes are symptomatic of the larger disease that has infected the entire state.
The UC student, to widen the umbrella for a movement that might have the capability of rallying support for reform, should understand that he or she risks turning people off by angling attacks towards the Regents and the Regents only. It is important to recognize that while it is a travesty that UC is becoming an unaffordable option for many California families, it is nearsighted to think that UC fees are anything more than a slice of the pie that is California's broken political system. The state workers that have been furloughed, the elderly Californians that are losing their access to Medicare, the thousands of previously middle-class Californians that have had their homes foreclosed, and the over 12% of California that is unemployed might tell students that UC is not the only government program that is underfunded, mismanaged, and increasingly unavailable to the people who need it.
(Posted by Steve Smith, California Labor Federation)
The campaign to repeal the egregious corporate tax giveaways that were part of the last budget deal is gathering steam. Thanks to Brian and David for their coverage of this issue - it seems to being having some resonance with folks who are fed up with sweetheart deals for corporations at the expense of the rest of us.
The governor said "the only solution for our healthcare crisis" is a complete overhaul of the state's healthcare system along the lines of his $14.9-billion plan that the Legislature rejected last January as too expensive.
"We supported wholesale health reform, but this is a population that has nowhere else to go, and he's leaving them high and dry," said Elizabeth Landsberg, legislative advocate for the Western Center on Law & Poverty, a Los Angeles nonprofit. (LA Times 10/28)
Disgusting.
• A fascinating legal case is going to trial in San Francisco. A group of Nigerian villagers are suing Chevron over a protest on one an oil rig in the Niger Delta. The plaintiffs accuse Chevron of drastic human rights violations. Oh, and Chevron is now the #3 oil company in the world.
Some of these items may have been covered here, some not, but I didn't get to post a lot throughout the week, so here's some fresh meat (apologies to CMR) for those interested in Golden State politics:
This is about the eighth time I've seen a report simliar to this one that undisclosed donors are financing a Schwarzenegger trade mission.
Fifty-two business delegates will join Schwarzenegger on the trip, according to a list the Governor's Office released Friday. A third of those going represent interests that have donated to Schwarzenegger's campaigns.
The governor's trip will be financed by the California State Protocol Foundation, a tax-exempt organization not required to disclose its donors. California Chamber of Commerce leaders, including President Allan Zaremberg, serve as the group's officers.
The foundation is not required by law to disclose its contributors and has not done so. In 2005, the last year for which IRS forms were available, the group received nearly $2 million in revenue. It reported $1 million in travel expenditures that year after Schwarzenegger led a weeklong trade mission in China.
The excuse put forth by the Governor's spokespeople is always the same: this SAVES taxpayer money because they don't have to finance these trade missions! Really? What about all the corporate welfare checks that get cut as a result of this access? What about all the watered-down regulations that cost taxpayers, not only with money but with public health and quality of life? What about the state contracts that could go to lower bidders who don't have the same relationships (read: bribery poke) with the Governor?
That was Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez today at an event in downtown Los Angeles, in front of a Chevron station (that was selling gas for a low low $3.49, I think the advance man could've found stations 30-40 cents higher without too much trouble), as he announced with Assemblymen Mike Davis, Mike Feuer and Mike Eng a series of bills to combat rising gas prices and the artificial depression of refinery supply. The bills will seek to oversee refinery maintenance, expand regulatory authority, and deal with the "hot fuel" issue. The Speaker said that "During the electricity crisis a few years ago, California adopted similar measures to keep energy companies from using these convenient (refinery) shutdowns to amp up their profits, and today we're going to make sure oil companies can't use Enron-like tactics on California consumers."
This is an object lesson in why now was the exact wrong time for the CDP to accept $50,000 from the prime progenitor of those Enron-style tactics. And it actually came up in the press conference. A full report on the flip, with audio to come.
(update: Frank Russo reports that the Speaker of the Assembly will introduce various bills tomorrow regarding refinery capacity and gas prices. I believe that this is an attempt to allay the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights' concerns; they have distributed petitions for a special session of the Legislature, after all. I give tentative support to the Speaker's efforts, and hope that it won't befall the same fate as Joe Dunn's bill last year, which never made it out of the Assembly. This is the beginning of the fight, not the end. The rest of my article, which deals with the CDP and really not the Speaker, holds.)
I appreciate all the comments in my somewhat provocative diary on Chevron's $50,000 donation to the CDP and why I think there's a better way to do business. I'm no hallowed saint when it comes to politics, and I understand that right now it takes lots of cash. But my main point is that money received from this particular company at this particular time with these particular underlying scenarios, whether taken in good faith or bad, will not do as much to reach new voters as it will alienate old ones. People have every right to assume that a politician or a party who receives a large donation from a corporate entity will be expecting something in return, as the instances of such exchanges being consummated are too numerous to count. And $50,000 buys 1 ad in LA during election season, maybe not all of it, but it drives hundreds of activists crazy, and every decline-to-state voter that hears about it just shakes their head and continues to believe the perception that "they're all the same" in politics. I know personally, from the reaction this has gotten, that people are upset. It doesn't mean they'll stop working for the party, but maybe they'll stuff one less envelope. Maybe they'll make one less phone call. And maybe they just won't feel as invested in a big-donor top-down party as they would in a small-donor bottom-up one.
I am fairly surprised that more has not been made in the blogosphere of the unwelcome news that Chevron is doing everything it can to buy off the California Democratic Party and some of its top legislators. Outside of this small item in The Oil Drum, pretty much nobody has said a word about the fact that the CDP accepted a $50,000 check from a company that is attempting to artificially depress capacity and manipulate the energy market in a way that is shockingly similar to how Enron made themselves a fortune during the 2000-2001 energy crisis. You can read the details here.
As a delegate to this party, I feel personally tainted by this donation. I feel like there is a concerted effort to buy my silence. It will not work, and I want to outline why I am respectfully asking this party, of which I am a member and to which I pay dues, to return the money.
Jamie Court and Judy Dugan of the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights pen an extremely troubling piece today about Big Oil, particularly Chevron, outright buying our government and its leaders. This is not limited to Republicans, but certainly the Governor is the biggest recipient of this largesse.
Take Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who once claimed that he was so rich he did not need anyone else's money - and who isn't running for another office. Yet as gasoline prices were breaking last year's record of $3.38 a gallon, Schwarzenegger collected a $100,000 check May 1 from Chevron, the West's largest refiner. The company certainly had the cash on hand. Just three days earlier, it reported a $4.7-billion first-quarter profit, up 18% over the same period last year.
The contribution brought Schwarzenegger's take from Chevron to $665,000 (making it his 15th largest donor) since 2003, and his total political tribute from the energy industry is now $4 million. According to a recent Schwarzenegger fundraising solicitation, Chevron's $100,000 buys the company special briefings with the governor, something that beleaguered motorists aren't getting.
In all, oil companies delivered $90 MILLION dollars to political campaigns and parties in 2006, and while a lot of that went to block the corporate tax-for-alternative energy Prop. 87, plenty was spread around to political leaders and parties. And that seed money ensures that there is no investigation into practices like this (over):
Remember my facetious post excusing Californians for blaming Chevron for gas prices...well, I think I just meant for gas prices. Because, while they might have some role in the manipulation of gas prices, it's certainly not solely under their purview. But, the fact that they destroy the environment of developing nations and then run away from it? Well, that is their fault.
Vanity Fair ran an article entitled "Jungle Law" concerning a lawyer who was suing Chevron for damage that Texaco (now part of Chevron) wreaked upon their environment:
In a forsaken little town in the Ecuadorean Amazon, an overgrown oil camp called Lago Agrio, the giant Chevron Corporation has been maneuvered into a makeshift courtroom and is being sued to answer for conditions in 1,700 square miles of rain forest said by environmentalists to be one of the world's most contaminated industrial sites. The pollution consists of huge quantities of crude oil and associated wastes, mixed in with the toxic compounds used for drilling operations-a noxious soup that for decades was dumped into leaky pits, or directly into the Amazonian watershed.(Vanity Fair 5/07)
Follow me over the flip for a little Arnold connection...
And I don't disagree. I just heard a new Cheveron Ad, and they were super-psyched about finding some new oil field that will allow us to continue to pollute for generations to come. Yay!! Well, Field Research has just released one of their awesome Field polls, this time on how gas prices are affecting ordinary Californians. Apparently, 70% of Californians see gas prices as a "serious" situation (either very serious or somewhat serious), with the amount of people saying "Very serious" up to 35% from 32% in August 2005.
And I'm not going to quibble with that. Adjustment to a new price condition is ahrd. DUde, I saw $4 regular gas for the first time yesterday. $4.09.9 to be exact. Yowsers! (I won't go to that station, it's an outlier b.c of it's convenience to the highway. But, folks, yeah, you are going to have to adjust to these new conditions.
If you look at this cool graph (right) from the Department of Energy, you'll see that, oh, um, yeah we are the green line on the bottom $4 cheaper than European prices. Don't you think they are hurt by these energy prices too? Well, instead of just blaming Chevron (and ya, i'm cool with that as well), what else can we do to make our economy more competitive in a market that is just going to have expensive gas prices? How about adding more rail services and other public transportation? Increasing the CAFE standards? Taxing gas hogs?
Look, gas ain't going to get a whole lot cheaper, so how about spending a little more effort to address conservation and replacement technologies? And sure, keep blaming Chevron...they can handle it.
California Chamber of Commerce President Allan Zaremberg isn't the only Sacramento powerhouse seeking to protect power by opposing reform.
The Chevron Corporation -- formerly known as Standard Oil of California -- wrote a $250,000 check to a special interest group opposing Proposition 89, the California Clean Money and Fair Elections Act.
(Edited for space and appearence. - promoted by SFBrianCL)
Right now, we have a great chance to take a huge step toward cleaner air and cheaper energy for California. Proposition 87, on the ballot for November 7th, will:
Reduce gasoline and diesel usage by 25% over the next 10 years;
Create thousands of new clean energy jobs and grow our economy;
Reduce air pollution that causes asthma attacks, lung disease and cancer;
Make oil companies pay their fair share for oil drilling in California, just like they already pay in every other oil-producing state -- even Texas;
Make it illegal for oil companies to raise gas prices to pass the cost along to consumers.
Proposition 87 is a great initiative, and we urge you to support it. Sign the Yes on 87 campaign's petition now, at:
