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CA Senate Appropriations Committee Approves Fracking Moratorium Bill 

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“The costs to people, homes and the environment remain unacceptably high, but we now also know that the projected economic benefits are only a small fraction of what the oil industry has been touting.” 

By Dan Bacher / DailyKos

In spite of the millions spent by Big Oil on lobbying in Sacramento every year, the California Senate Appropriations Committee on Friday voted 4 to 2 to approve a bill, SB 1132, to place a moratorium on fracking (hydraulic fracturing) in the state.

SB 1132, authored by Senators Holly Mitchell and Mark Leno, now moves to a vote on the Senate floor. Senators Gaines and Walters voted against the bill while Senators De León, Padilla, Hill and Steinberg voted to advance the bill to the floor.

The bill moved forward the same week that the U.S. Energy Administration reduced its previous estimate of recoverable oil in California by 96 percent.   [Read more…]

Border Patrol Violence Report at Issue in ACLU Suit

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By Doug Porter

The ACLU of San Diego & Imperial Counties filed a complaint in federal court yesterday against Customs and Border Protection claiming the agency has failed to respond to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request seeking the release of the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) report analyzing the agency’s use-of-force policies and practices.

 The ACLU filed the FOIA on February 21, 2014, but says it has received no response—not even an acknowledgement of receipt of the FOIA.

“Custom and Border Protection’s failure to even respond to our FOIA request exemplifies the agency’s resistance to transparency and accountability,” said Mitra Ebadolahi, staff attorney for the San Diego ACLU’s Border Litigation Project. “The PERF report is an important document, one that details CBP’s problematic and potentially unlawful use-of-force policies and practices. The report should be made public in its entirety, immediately.”

  [Read more…]

Mayor Faulconer Called to Move on Climate Action Plan

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Mayor urged to endorse plan to address climate change and commit funds in City’s budget

By Environmental Health Coalition

On Tuesday, a coalition of 19 community, environmental, business, social justice, labor and sustainability organizations called on Mayor Kevin Faulconer to take strong and immediate leadership to advance the City of San Diego’s draft Climate Action Plan and incorporate funding for the plan into the revised city budget announced today.

The 19 organizations collectively represent more than 42,000 people in the region and recognize the high priority for the coastal metropolitan city to reduce air pollution that causes climate change. The organizations also want City leadership to prepare for the pending impacts of climate change, including sea-level rise and wildfires.

“I believe San Diego can and must be a leader when it comes to addressing global climate change, and I believe the plan that was drafted will have tremendous positive benefit for our region and for the lasting sustainability of our environment,” said Council President Todd Gloria. “Its successful implementation requires an investment by the City, which I hope our mayor includes in his revised budget proposal.”   [Read more…]

Energy officials downgrade Monterey Shale oil reserves by 95.6% 

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The big oil boom is really a bust

By Dan Bacher

Oil industry representatives have continually claimed that the expansion of fracking for oil in California will lead to the creation of many thousands of jobs and the influx of billions of dollars into the economy, but these claims were exposed as false when federal Energy Information Administration (EIA) officials downgraded Monterey Shale reserves by 95.6 percent on May 20.

In her recent blog, Catherine Reheis-Boyd, President of the Western States Petroleum Association and former Chair of the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative Blue Ribbon Task Force to create so-called “marine protected areas” in Southern California, touted the jobs bonanza that would supposedly be created by expanded fracking.

“Senate Bill 4 created a pathway to transparent environmental protections while balancing the need to meet California’s energy demands and create valuable, much-needed jobs in the San Joaquin Valley,” said Reheis-Boyd.

“A study produced by the California State University, Fresno found that hydraulic fracturing in the San Joaquin Valley’s Monterey Shale Formation could grow personal income by as much as $4 billion while creating more than 195,000 new jobs. In addition to these localized opportunities, the entire state will benefit from increased domestic energy production,” gushed Reheis-Boyd.

However, Reheis-Boyd’s contention that the expansion of fracking in California will create thousands of jobs and inject billions of dollars into the economy was completely dispelled when the federal Energy Information Administration (EIA) confirmed new estimates for US shale oil reserves, reducing its previous estimate for technically recoverable oil in the Monterey Shale from 13.7 billion barrels of oil to just 0.6 billion barrels of oil.   [Read more…]

Who Knew? Organic Foods Contain a Dose of GMOs

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By John Lawrence

To be labeled as “USDA organic,” 95% of the ingredients must be organically grown and the remaining 5% may be non-organic agricultural ingredients or synthetic substances that have been approved for use in organics by the USDA.

The 5% of non-organic products are usually derived from GMO corn which is highly sprayed with Monsanto’s Roundup.   [Read more…]

San Diego Burning: The Facts We Hate

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By Jim Miller

It was a little bit of hell on earth. With searing heat in the triple digits replacing May gray and fires sprouting up all over the county, San Diego’s mellow vibe turned menacing last week. As many of us, this author included, worried about the safety of friends and family members in harm’s way, it was hard not to be struck by a painful sense of déjà vu. We’ve been here before—three times in a little more than a decade. But not everybody felt that way.

The immediate response from County Supervisor Bill Horn was to raise the specter of arson when he said, “I’ve never seen anything like this in 20 years, and I’ve had one or two fires but never anything like this.”

Upping the ante on Horn’s uninformed speculation, the far right fringes of the Internet jumped straight to conspiracy mode, sounding the alarm that our most recent firestorm could be the act of Islamic terrorists.   [Read more…]

San Diego Wildfires: Why We Need a Strong Climate Plan

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By Environmental Health Coalition

The wildfires in San Diego recently have been nothing short of unpredictable and scary. For the past week we have been eyeing our backyards with suspicious caution and watching the news with angst. Our hearts go out to the families and communities that have been affected by these tragic fires.

These wildfires are one example of how much harm climate change is having on our region, and why we are asking San Diego to take immediate action on a strong climate plan that will prepare residents for the effects of climate change and reduce the pollution that causes climate change.

But these effects are not only a concern to San Diego. On May 6, the White House released its third National Climate Assessment to give the most updated scientific report on how climate change is directly impacting different areas of the country.   [Read more…]

Orca Profiles in Captivity: No. 9 of the San Diego 10

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By Cara Wilson-Granat

This is the ninth in a series of ten in which we meet one of the San Diego 10 orcas and hear from an advocate who continues to be one of the voices of these imprisoned voiceless, never stopping until the whole world listens. After reading about Prisoner #9, Kalia, please scroll down this article and “meet” one of the top San Diego 10 Prisoner Advocates! This week’s Advocate is Liz Jacobelly.

Prisoner #9: Kalia

Age: 9 years

Her name means “Beauty” in Hawaiian, and this lovely nine-year-old orca lives up to her name completely. Born at SeaWorld San Diego on December 21, 2004, her mother is Kasatka and her father is Keet. (Kasatka is featured in #2 of our San Diego 10 series, and Keet is featured in #5 of this series.) Kalia’s claim to fame is that she is also known as Great Grandbaby Shamu, being the granddaughter of the very first live orca born into captivity, Kalina (Keet’s mother; Keet was her first calf). But her most recent claim to fame is that this very young orca is pregnant. Tremendously upsetting to all those rallying for her and other captive orcas forced to breed by SeaWorld, more and more at prohibitively young ages, this 9-year old was impregnated by Ulises, the oldest male orca in captivity.   [Read more…]

Letter From the Garden: Produce the World around You

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By Susan Taylor

Artichokes are fun! They grow from a lovely, silver-green plant with fabulous long leaves. You can pick, steam and then eat them. Or you can let the choke stay on the plant till it erupts into a stunning purple flower that lasts a long time. My mother who wasn’t a native San Diegan took artichoke serving very seriously. She would prune off the sharp tips and outer leaves, cook them and serve them at dinner along with little Austrian bowls filled with warm melted butter.

When we got to the thinnest small leaves, Dad would cut the choke out for us so we could put the little meaty section into leftover butter. It was practically religion. One of my artichoke plants just fell over because the growing heads were so heavy. We had them last night.

We’re still planting, people. …   [Read more…]

Orca Profiles in Captivity: No. 8 of the San Diego 10

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Orca No 8(Eighth in a series)

By Cara Wilson-Granat / OB Rag

This is the eighth in a series of ten in which we meet one of the San Diego 10 orcas and hear from an advocate who continues to be one of the voices of these imprisoned voiceless, never stopping until the whole world listens.

After reading about Prisoner #8, Ikaika, please scroll down this article and “meet” one of the top San Diego 10 Prisoner Advocates! This week’s Advocate is Heather Heffernan.   [Here are the other Orca Prisoner profiles – Orca Profile #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6 and #7.]

Prisoner #8: Ikaika

Age:12

Ikaika (whose name is Hawaiian for “Strength”) was born at SeaWorld Orlando on August 25, 2002. His mother is Katina and his father is Tilikum (the featured orca in the movie, Blackfish).

Ikaika was Katina’s fifth calf. One of the others born to her was Taku. The two orcas, Ikaika and Taku were very close and spent much time together over the years, often performing with Katina.   [Read more…]

What’s at Stake With Propositions B and C?

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“Everyone who wants to preserve community control over the planning process should be afraid because your community will be next!” –Georgette Gomez, Associate Director of the Environmental Health Coalition

By Jim Miller

As we head toward the June 3rd election, the same corporate interests who spent big money to fund a petition drive based on lies  to force a vote on the Barrio Logan Community Plan are now funding an equally dishonest campaign to defeat it.

The only thing that will stop a great injustice from happening in the case of the Barrio Logan Community Plan is if San Diegans stand up against this threat to their local democracy and vote yes on B and C. For that to happen, San Diegans need to be educated. The central organization doing this work in the service of the Yes on B and C Campaign is the Environmental Health Coalition (EHC).

This week, I interview Georgette Gomez, the Associate Director of the EHC to learn a little more about who the folks are who are fighting this good fight and what is at stake in this election.   [Read more…]

Orca Profiles in Captivity: No. 7 of the San Diego 10

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By Cara Wilson-Granat / OB Rag

This is the seventh in a series of ten in which we meet one of the San Diego 10 orcas and hear from an advocate who continues to be one of the voices of these imprisoned voiceless orca, never stopping until the whole world listens.

After reading about Prisoner #7, Nakai, please scroll down this article and “meet” one of the top San Diego 10 Prisoner Advocates! This week’s Advocate is Zach Affolter. [Here are the other orca Prisoner profiles – Orca Profile #1 and #2, #3 ,4 #5 and No. #6.]

Prisoner #7: Nakai

Sweet-natured Nakai was born on September 1, 2001. His claim to fame is that he was the very first orca to be conceived through artificial insemination. Not only that. He was born head first, which is extremely rare in most captive orca births. His mother, Kasatka, who lived in California, was impregnated through semen collected from his father, Tilikum, who lives in Florida.   [Read more…]

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