Coastal Commission Update // 2016 Report Card Released
The Surfrider Foundation California chapters, WiLDCOAST/COSTASALVAjE, Azul and Environment California, in cooperation with ActCoastal and California’s coastal conservation community, recently released the 2016 California Coastal Commission Conservation Report Card.
This report card, an annual tradition, monitors the performance of the California Coastal Commission, the state’s most powerful land use agency, by tracking conservation votes cast by individual commissioners. The 2016 report card is especially noteworthy after last year’s exceptionally tumultuous time at the commission.
The Conservation Report Card is based on the monthly voting charts found at ActCoastal and focuses on high-priority, high-stakes coastal development projects and issues that often pit the interests of coastal developers – who employ experienced and politically connected paid lobbyists – against the rights and values of ordinary Californians.
Climate Change News // Paris Agreement
Recently President Trump signed a sweeping executive order to roll back a number of climate change policies, including gutting the Clean Power Plan. He has also proposed massive budget cuts that will impact climate change research, coastal resiliency programs and climate data collection. Take action now! — we can't let allow Trump Administration to rollback important climate change policies. Sign the petition here.
News Alert // SONGS - Settlement Talks Announced
"Citizens Oversight an activist group based in San Diego, is making what could be the last push to halt the burial of spent nuclear fuel at San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS).
Southern California Edison (SCE), the majority stakeholder of SONGS, was granted a permit in October 2015 by the California Coastal Commission to start the process of burying the fuel as early as this year. Shortly thereafter, Citizens Oversight filed a lawsuit to have the permit revoked." - as reported in the San Clemente Times.
The hearing is scheduled for April 14th, however, settlement talks were recently announced and the hearing may be subsequently postponed.
The major issue is that the fuel currently has nowhere to go. Read Surfrider's recent blog post on the topic and the Inertia covered the topic as well. Feedback welcome!