California  – Do Not Let Big Oil Win

Oil companies are working very hard this week to block a measure that would protect California’s oceans, beaches, bays and coastlines from oil spills.

This coming Monday, an important bill sponsored by Pacific Environment and supported by several environmental groups will be voted on by the California State Senate.  Assembly Bill 1112, authored by Assembly Member Jared Huffman,  tightens up our state’s oil spill prevention standards while ensuring that there are adequate funds to manage these programs— and paid for by Big Oil, and not the citizens of California.  If this law does not pass, California’s waters will be at risk of devastating and costly oil spills which have severe impacts on our marine environment and public health.

Here’s why this this bill is important:

Our state’s ability to prevent and respond to oil spills is funded by the Oil Spill Prevention Administration Fund (OSPAF), which collects very small fees from the oil industry at a current cap of a nickel per barrel of petroleum product that enters our state.  Unfortunately, this fund will be deficient by millions of dollars over the next several years and the state will have no choice but to cut programs and staff as early as 2012. Clearly, that nickel is not enough.

Huffman’s bill, AB 1112, will bring the fund back to solvency by requiring oil companies to pay an additional 1 and ¾ cents per each barrel of petroleum product shipped into California.  The bill also strengthens the state’s oil spill prevention program by increasing monitoring and safety measures on board the most dangerous oil tankers and offshore drilling platforms.  Unless lawmakers pass this bill, California’s wildlife, beaches and bays, tourism and fishing industries, and human health will be at risk of a catastrophe that could cripple our state.

So, who would be against safeguarding our state from oil spills?

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While Sunday 10/10/10 was celebrated all over the world by activists as “Global Warming Work Party” and now known as the “Biggest Day of Climate Action”, I was fortunate enough to participate in Pacific Environment’s Vessel Watch trip to the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary to collect and record data on whales (humpbacks, blue whales, etc) and help raise awareness about the impacts of shipping traffic on our magnificent marine life that frequent this sanctuary.

 

Vessel Watch Trip Leaving San Francisco Bay

On board the 65’ Catamaran “KittyKat” were experienced naturalists plus my colleague Jackie Dragon, the director of our Marine Sanctuaries Program; fellow colleagues and researchers; and several members of the public who for the first time were going to see and hear these amazing creatures in the wild.  The trip took us 27 miles beyond the Golden Gate to the Farallon Islands, a group of six small islands and giant rocks near the edge of the continental shelf. The sanctuary supports an abundance of life, including many threatened or endangered species – including the humpback whale, blue whale, great white shark and even killer whales.  The naturalist informed us that just two weeks ago they saw pods of the endangered northern right whale dolphins, an extremely rare sighting.  There are three typical seasons where researchers come out to collect data and they are – birds, whales and sharks.  Right now is great white shark season and the Farallons are heavily frequented by shark cage divers.

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Posted by Andrea Barnetche

Four years ago, California passed the state’s landmark greenhouse gas reduction law –AB 32– mandating a 25 percent reduction in industrial greenhouse gases by 2020. This law made California a leader in clean air and energy policy, and a leader in clean tech businesses in the nation. The law, which has earned support from businesses, labor, environmental and health organizations, demands polluter accountability by requiring polluting industries to reduce toxic emissions that will threaten our health and contribute to global climate change.

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As the world watches the urgency of oil spill response operations in the Gulf of Mexico, Pacific Environment and SF Estuary Partnership hosted a local forum last week that brought this national tragedy a bit closer to home here in the Bay Area. The forum, “Oil Spills in San Francisco Bay: Preparing a Better Response,” for the first time brought together stakeholders of the Bay area community including natural resource managers, local and state agencies, environmental groups, fishing groups and the public to discuss the lessons learned from two recent oil spills in the Bay – the Cosco Busan in 2007 and the smaller Dubai Star spill in 2009 – and how to better prevent and respond in the future.

Oiled Bird

Among the speakers were Pacific Environment’s very own Jackie Dragon, Marine Sanctuaries Program Director; Mike Lynes, Conservation Director, Golden Gate Audubon Society; Scott Schaefer, Deputy Director for the Office of Spill Prevention and Response (OSPR); Zeke Grader, Executive Director for the Pacific Coast Federation of Fisherman’s Associations; and Captain Gugg and Lt. Cmdr. Gus Bannan of the U.S. Coast Guard. (more…)

Posted by Alex Felsinger

Last week, a California Marine Life Protection Act Blue Ribbon panel approved several Southern California marine protected areas after 14 months of negotiation between scientists, environmentalists and fishermen. Conservationists were disappointed a few requested areas were omitted from the plan, but generally considered the decision a victory for many exhausted fish populations. The local catch of rockfish and cod has rapidly dropped up to 95%, along with severe drops in the population of many other species.
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CBS 5 KPIX’s Green Beat reporter Jeffrey Schaub talked to Pacific Environment and residents of Antioch yesterday about PG&E’s plans to build two new high capacity natural gas power plants in Eastern Contra Costa County.

However, KPIX’s account yesterday is overly simplistic and implies that a power plant is the panacea to economic woes faced by residents in the far eastern corner of Contra Costa.

In reporting, KPIX inaccurately led viewers to assume the following:

1) That a power plant creates long term economic development and jobs when in actuality the construction of a power plant requires a few hundred temporary employees for a few years. And after that, only a few dozen highly specialized employees are needed for its on-going operation. This is not a long term solution for the region’s economy.

2) That this is the only option for Antioch’s development. Ironically, a day after the KPIX piece appeared, an article appeared in the East Bay Express “Activists Try to Block Green Tech in Berkeley” . It would certainly behoove Antioch to roll out the red carpet for these new industries that actually will employ people for the long term. Let Berkeley’s loss be Antioch’s gain!

These points were missing from the report:

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Whale Fluke by Laura Wais

The others were out on deck craning their necks at the red underbelly of the Golden Gate Bridge, gazing at seals and sea lions draped over the rocks around Point Bonita, and dreaming of a day full of whales at Farallon Islands. I spent the first full hour of my prep trip for our upcoming Vessel Watch Project wrestling with my computer. Actually, I was doing the very thing one should not do, unless you are trying to get seasick – staring closely and long at a stationary object while our boat rocked and then picked up speed, riding softly bucking waves out to the islands. No worries though; I kept my stomach in place.

The whole point of this trip was to get all the technology glitches worked out before our first trip on August 15. I was trying to get our Automatic Information System (AIS) antenna and receiver to pour real-time data from any near-by ships onto our computer screen. Then, when we encounter any of the thousands of giant ships that drive through the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary to our busy ports we can get the skinny on it, so to speak. The AIS can tell us the ship’s name, destination, ship type, as in cargo or oil tanker, and how fast that ship is traveling through these rich and biodiverse waters. The faster a large ship goes, the noisier it is in the water. Most of the noise is caused by cavitation, created when thousands of tiny bubbles form and burst as the propeller turns. Captain Joe, quite a technology buff himself, turned the wheel over to his deck hand, Steve, and joined me to try his hand at the stubborn computer. Finally, we surrendered to defeat…but just for today. We’ll get this system humming.

Never fear, I had more mechanical toys to test, and unpacked the hydrophone, digital recorder and mini amplifier. I asked Captain Joe if he thought there would be a good time to stop the boat today, as I wanted to lower the hydrophone and see what we could hear. He replied affirmatively in his usual bright tone. Joe is a fisherman transformed by the changes in our oceans, and our depleted fisheries. Now he turns his boat and expertise towards ecotourism and research. Captain Joe and S.F. Bay Whale Watching go beyond ferrying ocean enthusiasts out to find whales. They partner with anyone who needs to get out on a boat to make a positive difference in these waters. Joe conducts water quality sampling for the state, releases rehabilitated seals and sea lions for The Marine Mammal Center, and even turns off the boat so our Marine Sanctuaries Campaign can bring the underwater world of sound up on deck. Our goal is to open ears to the threats of ocean noise pollution facing whales and marine life in the sanctuary.

A wave of questions, “Are we getting close?” and “How much further to the islands?” washed over the boat. A few minutes later Capt. Joe’s voice came overhead reminding passengers that a free t-shirt was the prize for spotting the first whale. We were about five miles out from the islands and in prime whale territory. Seconds later Steve, called out “There she blows!” I caught the faint remnant of a short heart-shaped misty blow. A minute later, directly in front of our boat’s bow, we watched the knuckled back of a grey whale roll into a graceful dive, finished with flukes slipping below the surface.

And then, we saw a lot of nothing. That first-whale excitement gave way to concern as 46 pair of eyes scanned the water in vain. Capt. Joe wondered what kind of activity was happening on a large retrofitted crabbing vessel trolling nearby. Might they be driving the whales away? An older gentleman on his ninth trip out to the islands, the last time six years ago, told me he had never seen it “so dead.” Finally, we turned and drove in for a closer look at the wild Farallon Islands. Trish Mirabelle, our naturalist for the day, captured our attention with stories of egg wars on the islands in centuries past, and the research on birds and white sharks and pinnipeds that has followed for the past 40-some years.

And then, more whales. Humpbacks this time. Three swimming together, flukes over one at a time. We hung around them at a safe distance ooohhing and aahhhing just to see them. Another humpback breached off in the distance. The whales were here, after all! Just as I was getting antsy wondering if we might get the chance to hear these magnificent creatures, as well as see them, I heard the sound I was waiting for – quiet! Joe had cut motor.

I was already lowering the hydrophone over the side when Trish came to tell me we were stopped for a listen. I turned on the little amplifier and hit the red record button. The relative quiet on board was replaced by sound pouring out of the little box. Passengers gathered around. We could hear the water slap, slap, slapping against the metal hull, and lots of crackling in the background – the tell tail sounds of snapping shrimp. And then, we heard them. Whoop, whoop, whoop… Nobody spoke. We just turned wide-eyed at each other and mouthed the word WOW! For thirteen minutes we floated while whales swam, dove, and fed all around us. Intermittently we heard squeaks, moans and gulping sounds. Three whales turned into seven or eight and they seemed content to swim around our floating boat, sometimes quite close. I couldn’t help wondering if turning off our own noisy motor gave the whales a chance for a closer look at us. Our nine-trip veteran said he had never seen so many whales ever before.

Castelanelli Brothers Dairy cows stand patiently while their barn is cleaned - their manure heads to a sealed lagoon, where it turns into methane gas and high quality fertilizer.

What a great experience I had in the past few days. Unforgettable! I have probably learned more information in the past ten days than I normally do in two months. On November 8th Pacific Environment brought a group of Siberians from Lake Baikal area to the Bay area to learn about renewable energy and energy efficiency. Tatiana Molchanova, the Deputy Head and Tatiana Tivikova, the Chief Ranger of the Pribaikalsky region of Buryatia, and a well known journalist in Ulan-Ude, Sergey Basaev, participated in the exchange.

The purpose of the exchange stems from the current rate and type of development plaguing the Baikal region: privatizing public property in the area has resulted in the saturation of both legal and illegal dwellings in the area, which have escalated the cost of electricity for the local people. Now the Russian government plans to invest more in infrastructure in the region in order to increase the quantity of hotels, restaurants and other recreational establishments on the lake’s shores. This – if not monitored correctly and not using environmentally-efficient methods – could cause tremendous cultural, social and environmental tension in the area, including between tourists and the local residents. California and, particularly, the San Francisco region, which is considered to be the second greenest city in the U.S, have a lot to offer in terms of learning about green technologies. We hoped to give our Baikal participants the opportunity to learn from government offices, businesses and other organizations about renewable energy and planning.

We visited a ‘green’ hotel, a renewable energy and sustainable living demonstration site, a geothermal power plant, a wind farm and a dairy that uses methane digesters to generate electricity. The group also met with local legislators to learn about California’s renewable energy policies, renewable portfolio standard, and energy efficiency standards.

Overall, I think the exchange was a real success and that our participants got a ton of useful information that can potentially lead to real projects in Pribaikalsky region. They are now back in Buryatia, full of ideas and eager to jump into projects in their own communities. That success had a lot to do with the valuable information and tips they got from meetings or tours.  I think it was especially valuable to show them the entire spectrum of various technologies – wind, solar, geothermal, methane, and complement this knowledge with what they learned about energy efficiency. Results will be long-term, and I am looking forward to organizing a follow-up exchange and working with communities back in Siberia.