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Plastic Bag Ban Sparks Dialogue Between Left and Right : San Diego Rostra Responds to SDFP Satire

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Editor: We are crossposting an article from the conservative San Diego Rostra by Brian Brady – who has been in a dialogue with our own Bob Dorn of late – and who now outlines where he and progressives agree and disagree.

Freeped Today and Feeling Fabulous

by Brian Brady / San Diego Rostra / Monday, September 16, 2013

I was the subject of a satirical post on San Diego Free Press. Bob Dorn had some fun today, using some garden-variety stereotypes about liberals and conservatives, because I dared to confront a premise, proffered by OBRag’s Frank Gormlie, supporting a single-use plastic bag ban.

I don’t think that Bob Dorn likes that I comment on the progressive’s little paradise. He’s discounting something, though–I AGREE with the Freeps on a number of issues.   [Read more…]

It’s MY Plastic Bag, and I Do What It Wants Me To.

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By Bob Dorn

I love my plastic bag.

No one’s going to take it from me; not some foolish enviro nut-hazard with her meds in her pocketbook, or some Japanese squeeky clean wearing a mask in the subway, or a Filner Freak-o who spends his money on Mexican marijuana that probably already has some STD buried between its cracks, or Obama, the Holy, who solved Syria all by himself (ask the cruise missiles who solved Syria!!!).

No one’s taking my plastic bags.   [Read more…]

Sweden Getting 65% of its Energy From Non Fossil Based Fuels Now!

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Sweden set to get 82% of its energy from non fossil based fuels by 2020.

By John Lawrence and Frank Thomas

Why is it that other countries can convert from fossil based energy which is destroying the atmosphere and producing global warming to renewables in a relatively short time while the US is lagging way behind? One reason is the of the gas and electric companies to deter individually based solar and wind systems that would detract from the profits generated by their centrally based energy producing systems. Here in San Diego, San Diego Gas and Electric (SDGE) lobbies against any law that would make it profitable for individual homeowners to expand their solar systems and sell their energy back into the grid. SDGE wants the role of selling energy entirely to themselves. And besides they want their ratepayers, not their shareholders, to pay for the decommissioning of the San Onofre nuclear plant.   [Read more…]

Extreme Weather Watch, August 2013

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By John Lawrence

August 2013 was prime time for wildfires.  The Rim fire, started by a hunter’s illegal fire, burned 370 square miles in California.  About a quarter of the fire was within Yosemite National Park.  More than 5,100 firefighters were battling the flames at their peak.  The Rim fire has destroyed 111 buildings, including 11 residences.  It threatened San Francisco’s water supply.  It has so far cost $72 million to fight and it’s still burning.  Research in California’s Sierra Nevada found that rising average summer temperatures are strongly associated with an increase in acres burned.  An annual increase in average summer temperature of 1º F is associated with a 35 percent growth in burned areas.

Nationally, federal agencies have spent more than $1 billion so far this year on wildfires, about half last year’s total of $1.9 billion.  There have been 33,000 fires that have burned more than 5,300 square miles, an area nearly the size of Connecticut.   [Read more…]

Rebuilding Barrio Logan Begins on Tuesday – And You Can Help

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A Call to Support Alternative 1

By Environmental Health Coalition

When you think of a healthy community, what comes to mind? Maybe you picture a park where children play, sustainable local businesses or tree-lined paths winding through clean neighborhoods. This is realistic for most of San Diego, unless you’re in Barrio Logan. Intermingling land use patterns designate parks, paths, businesses, schools and homes to share streets with heavily polluting industries. This incompatible mix not only makes residential neighborhoods feel more like industrial zones, but contributes to air quality so poor that children who breathe it go to the emergency room three times more than the rest of San Diego County.

These circumstances beg the question: What happened to this neighborhood, which was once one of the most thriving areas in San Diego? Full of legends, heroes and rich culture, Barrio Logan seems to have caught the short end of the stick since the 1950s. It helps to remember Barrio Logan (once known as Logan Heights) was once a flourishing local community, fostering a culture of musicians, artists, local businesses and a strong workforce, contributing to San Diego’s overwhelming success as a national destination.

Now it seems San Diego has forgotten its own history. While other neighborhoods have improved community plans to keep residents healthy and happy, Barrio Logan’s community plan hasn’t’ seen an update in over thirty years.   [Read more…]

San Diego City Council Committee Pushes for Ban on Plastic Bags

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By Frank Gormlie

A key committee of the San Diego City Council came out today in strong support for a ban of plastic bags. The Rules and Economic Development Committee took a unanimous vote in directing staff to construct an ordinance that would ban plastic bags at city grocery stores and other retail sites within the city.

The proposal at this stage of its process would ban plastic bags in supermarkets, and other retail sites that include large stores that sell food, drug stores, convenience, hardware and clothing stores. It also has a requirement that stores charge 10 cents a paper bag, but exempting restaurants, nonprofits, food stamp recipients, and produce and meat products.   [Read more…]

Challenges and Opportunities for San Diego’s Next Mayor

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Forming the Basis of a Sustainable Neighborhoods Initiative

By Jay Powell / Part One of a Two Part Series

As things stand now Kevin Faulconer, a two term City Councilman, appears to be the choice of establishment Republicans, while Nathan Fletcher, former State Assemblyman and David Alvarez, City Councilman, will be vying for the support of the Democratic Party faithful.

Questions still remain about IF other credible candidates will throw their hat in ring in the days remaining to declare and file as candidates for this accelerated special election.

While we hold our breath, I suggest that those of us who have embraced a platform that was characterized as “neighborhoods first” during the last Mayoral election take the initiative to define what we mean by that phrase.   [Read more…]

California’s Already Fracked

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California’s SB4 Moves to State Assembly, aims to create first fracking laws in the state.

By Jenesse Miller/California League of Conservation Voters

Today and for the last 60 years, oil and gas companies frack California without public notice. They inject acid into the ground, and they hide their “frack jobs.” They pump secret chemicals underground. They won’t tell, and they don’t have to tell – not even if you live next door. And it’s about to get even worse.

Demand to know the truth about fracking in California. Tell your Assemblymember to support SB 4, the environmental bill that forces Big Oil to answer to the public.

Right now in California there are no regulations, no oversight, and no consequences for the oil and gas industry that got us where we are today: fracked by hydraulics, pumped full of acid, and completely in the dark. It was recently revealed that oil companies have even been“quietly” fracking offshore in state and federal waters.   [Read more…]

Filner’s 9-month Mayorship was the Biggest Boon to Bicycling and Livability in San Diego’s History

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by Sam Ollinger /BikeSD

Under the better late than never philosophy, I thought I’d write down some thoughts about the (now former) Mayor Filner’s short nine month reign in San Diego.

Back in 2011 when the November 2012 election season seemed eons away, I began to realize the importance of having a mayor in office ready and willing to push the bike agenda. I was just getting started in advocacy and having observed the success of having a champion in the mayor’s office from cities as large as New York City to ones as small as Oklahoma City, I thought I’d try and see how far I could get with having a mayoral candidate making a commitment a more bike friendly San Diego.   [Read more…]

Looking for Answers About Fort Rosecrans Cemetery

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New Director Talks About Getting It Fixed Up, Finally

By Judi Curry

It has been three weeks since the new Director of Ft. Rosecrans Cemetery moved into his “lodge”.

When I asked him where I should meet him he told me “at the lodge.” It took me a minute to realize he meant the “private quarters.”

He is in a wonderful position because he had the caveat to not answer questions with a “I don’t know because I wasn’t here”.  But he always promised he’d find out.   [Read more…]

Sempra Wants to “Fix” Your Energy Bill

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By Jay Powell

Hold on to your wallets, you are about to get walloped. International energy giant Sempra Energy, owners of SDG&E, have set up a front group called “Fix My Energy Bill” to promote a whopping $120 per year fixed charge on every residential electric customer bill in the State of California. It is pending in the State Senate in the waning days of this legislative session.

What started out as a bill sponsored by Assemblyman Perea from Fresno to ostensibly help poor elderly folks sweltering in the Central Valley heat be able to afford air conditioning, AB 327 has morphed into a full blown attack on working families ability to control their energy bills and to make homeowner investments in energy efficiency devices and improvements including roof top solar much more difficult.

NEWS FLASH: Run with the Sun will be joining California Solar Energy Industry Association representatives and Supervisor Diane Jacob at a news conference Wednesday, August 28 at 11 am at the steps of SEMPRA, 101 Ash Street to address the problems with this attempt to “fix “your energy bill in Sacramento.   [Read more…]

Global Warming is Cooking the Planet Now – Not in Some Far-Off Future

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90 Million Tons of Carbon Dioxide are Dumped into the Atmosphere Every 24 Hours

By John Lawrence

As Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org, states in his book, Eaarth, global warming is not some far-off event that we will have to prepare for sometime in the future; it is here today and the effects of global warming are being manifested here today. Yet the oil and gas industry is pulling out all the stops to convince people that global warming is just a myth perpetrated by fuzzy headed liberals.

Extreme weather events, billion dollar weather events, are happening with increasing frequency just as Wall Street analysts are computing Big Oil’s stock price based on all the assets yet in the ground and which the industry is bound and determined to pump out on its way to becoming part of the atmosphere. If such were to be the case, kiss the earth, as a habitable place for the human species, good-bye.   [Read more…]

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