RDARS 2009 Report: Revolving Doors and Rubber Stamp Commission - a Blue Ribbon Task Farce

08/27/09

Seaweed Rebellion: Fucus News

RDARS 2009 Report: Revolving Doors and Rubber Stamp Commission a Farce, a Blue Ribbon Task Farce

First a Big Big Thank you is due the State Lands Commission which in May of this year denied the Governor’s Plan to Drill off Santa Barbara Coast. The state panel voted 2-0 to reject a request to overturn its January decision of same. While the Tranquillon Ridge PXP Project was touted as bringing Oil Interests and Enviros and the Santa Barbara Community together, the Enviros finally bailed at the 11th hour. It just wasn't true.

And the old retired guard of GOO, the 1969 “Get Oil Out” Santa Barbara Group which formed after the 1969 Spill, never supported the compromise.
http://www.getoilout.org/retro.html

http://www.thedailysound.com/012809Oil

http://www.noozhawk.com/local_news/article/060109_lands_commission_denies_governors_plan/

PXP's plan involved slant drilling from Platform Irene on OCS-P 441 in federal waters to access oil in Californian state waters.

This unique project, which 'had' a broad range of support, allowed Plains Exploration & Production (PXP), to access offshore oil and gas in state waters from an existing platform in federal waters four miles off the Santa Barbara County coast. Arnold's intent was to balance the budget on the back of our coasts...and all Santa Barbara County residents.

Risks to the coast in federal waters (OCS) are only magnified in the state coastal sanctuary, which includes Santa Barbara beaches and tidepools.

"And Lt. Governor Garamendi is absolutely correct: we allow our coasts to be bought in Santa Barbara, then the three areas now slated for new federal leases under review by Interior Secretary Salazar, Santa Maria, Oceanside-Capistrano, and Point Arena Basins, will have their business plan written for them by Environmental Defense Center."

Wild Heritage Planners
http://www.independent.com/news/2009/may/14/tranquillon-ridge-project-returns/

The MLPA-I is the Back Door to Oil (Onshore Facilities) on the North Coast
http://www.astral-arts.com/oilthebackdoor.html


Riding on the torrent of oil interests and waterfront real estate development, a river of turbidity and commotion engineered by the obvious railroad job that the MLPA-Initiative has become, the Blue Ribbon Task Farce (BRTF) continues on it's own understanding of (the ever changing MOU) with the State, or maybe it is just with Mike Chrisman the Resources Secretary!

Creation of a BRTF was initially stipulated in a 2004 memorandum of understanding (MOU) to which the California Resources Agency, DFG, and Resources Legacy Fund Foundation were parties. The MOU created a public-private partnership, known as the MLPA Initiative, to help the state implement the MLPA. One element of the initiative was a pilot project along the central coast (Pigeon Point, San Mateo County to Point Conception, Santa Barbara County).

A second MOU was signed in December 2006 for the purpose of continuing the public-private partnership, including a task force, in the north central coast (Alder Creek in Mendocino County to Pigeon Point in San Mateo County),

And an amendment to the second MOU continues the partnership through the south coast study region (Point Conception to the California-Mexico border in San Diego County, including offshore islands), through the north coast study region (California-Oregon border in Del Norte County to Alder Creek) and to begin planning in the San Francisco Bay study region (Golden Gate Bridge to Carquinez Bridge).

Term: Each member of the task force shall serve for the duration of the MLPA South Coast Project, through December 2009, or until relieved of duties. Each member shall serve at the pleasure of the secretary.

The MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force October 23-24, 2004 Meeting Summary December 23, 2004 shows:

A BRTF member asked about the involvement of California State Parks in MLPA.
Response: MLPA requires that State Parks have a seat on the science team, and they will be involved in discussions about and designation of marine parks.

And this piece confirms a timeframe. The Mandate of the Marine Life Protection Act:
Ryan Broddrick, Director, California Department of Fish and Game

Summary of main points: MPA networks will be in place statewide by 2011. The science advisory team will be appointed by mid-November. The Department of Fish and Game will seek a broad group of science advisors from across the nation. Six members of the science team will be a sub-team for the central coast. The Science Team will be more than ecological and fishery scientists: social and economic scientists will also be included. One major goal of the initiative is to obtain support from stakeholders. The task force will provide direction on how to gain public involvement.

A BRTF member asked for the decision-making process to be clarified. Response: the BRTF will make recommendations to the Department of Fish and Game, which will exercise independent judgment in determining what to submit to the Fish and Game Commission. The commission ultimately decides on the content of the Master Plan Framework.

The briefing documents, California Marine Life Protection Act Initiative: Conceptual Overview and Charter of the Blue Ribbon Task Force, were summarized for BRTF members.

A BRTF member expressed concern about the short timeline for deadlines. Response: Professional staff will be starting soon and hopefully deadlines will not be moved. The initiative partners want to see the deadlines met.

A BRTF member asked about the relative importance and efficacy of management tools in the chest—MPAs versus traditional fisheries management methods. Response: Fisheries have declined under traditional methods. Unlike traditional methods, MPAs are long-term, more comprehensive, and move beyond single-species management. There is scientific consensus that marine reserves will have strong effects within their boundaries, but how MPAs will affect fisheries is less well known. Therefore, we need to use MPAs in concert with other fisheries management tools.

A BRTF member asked whether the MLPA focuses on more than fisheries management—ecosystem management. Response: the MLPA mandates ecosystem management. Fisheries management now does include a spatial aspect but where fisheries management and MPAs interact is not well understood.

And recently the revolving door between the BRTF and the Fish & Game Commission led to the appointment of Don Benninghoven to the Commission in time for a 3-2 vote (along with Rogers and Sutton) to Ban Indians, Seaweed Harvesters From Traditional Areas in Sonoma and Mendocino County on August 5th 2009.

On Thursday morning, immediately after the August 5th hearing, Secretary for Natural Resources Mike Chrisman selected Catherine Reheis-Boyd, the CEO for the Western States Petroleum Association to chair the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Farce for the remainder of the MLPA South Project Effective immediately!

Fish & Game Commissioners Dan Richards and Jim Kellogg did not get a chance (080509) to "vote for 2XA". They put forward a motion to suspend the implementation of the regulations until funding is available and studies are completed in the existing reserves in south-central California. This motion failed 3-2. Commissioner Richard Rogers then made a motion to approve the "Preferred Alternative" which passed with Don Benninghoven and Mike Sutton voting "Yea" (and Kellogg and Richards voting "Absolutely Not"). The entire meeting can be viewed at http://www.slo-span.org (California Fish & Game Commission, August 5th, 2009.)

HEADLINES
August 1, 2009 (Friday) 4 days previous to the 080509 hearing were that California Fish and Game Commission President Cindy Gustafson Resigns:
By Ed Zieralski Union-Tribune Staff Writer

http://californiafisheriescoalition.blogspot.com/2009/08/fish-and-game-commission-president.html

Cindy Gustafson not only was president of the state Fish and Game Commission, but she also was considered a swing vote on a five-member panel that faces some critical votes regarding California's resources and had once before asked “are we just a rubber stamp for the BRTF”.

But by Friday August 1st, quite suddenly, Gustafson resigned her appointed post after being advised to do so by the state Attorney General's office.

The Fort Bragg City Council has authored a letter stating the BRTF may not be a legal requirement under the original law, but if so, then there needs to be local representation.

And so we are left with ominous signs from Implementation of the MLPA - Initiative in Southern California

A good accounting and historical perspective of the MLPA-I process resides across several web-sites. Most are fisheries related, and provide localized view of current resource protections, MLPA-I impacts, the lies and runaway train momentum of the “process”. Northern California is all rough seas so far. Having heard extensive testimony, outrage, and being the 4th region to be processed through area closures, the North Coast is not an easy catch.

California Fisheries Coalition (CFC) MLPA North Coast: Fisherman to Chrisman: Shame On You
http://mlpanorth.blogspot.com/2009/06/fisherman-to-chrisman-shame-on-you.html

June was the month Mendocino County got the wake up call at the Point Arena “Fisheries Reality Tour” CFC June, 2009, the month in review.
http://californiafisheriescoalition.blogspot.com/2009_06_01_archive.html

Sonoma County Abalone Network
http://www.abalonenetwork.org/

The first lawsuit against the process: Coastside Fishing Club
http://diver.net/bbs/posts001/59769.shtml

American Albacore
http://www.americanalbacore.com/html/californiafisheriescoalition.html


The saga of Munitz and Seidl
http://www.jailhurwitz.com/sevensins.html

Privatization Timespan:
Going Beyond Land & Real Estate Acquisition – Education & Governance Reform

Barry Munitz, Dr John Seidl, Govenor Gray Davis, Ivan Boevsky, MAXXAM, Pacific Lumber, ENRON, Natomas Oil, CellNet, MyHomeKey, Senator Barry Keene, Center For Conflict Resolution (EPA), Nature Conservancy, Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation, J. P. Getty Trust, Packard Foundation...

How is it that the Captains of Industry – who found every way imaginable to loot not only the Resource of the Commons held in Public Trust, but also the workers pensions and personal savings (IRA) and investments, leaving economic havoc in the wake of their discretion are now the honored Trustees and Chairs of Foundations of Philanthropy?

These very same once-upon-a-time, Corporate Presidents, CEO's, and Vice-Presidents whose lifetime achievements have bankrupted our democratic institutions and then privatized them, these same civic leaders who engineered the failures of Banks and Savings and Loan Institutions, interstate energy schemes and hostile takeovers... have gone on...

FROM LOOTING PACIFIC LUMBER AND THE REDWOODS OF N. CALIFORNIA TO THE ART AND CULTURE LANDSCAPE OF L.A.... WHAT'S NEXT?

The last Public Commons held in Trust? After leaving MAXXAM, Dr John Seidl went to the Nature Conservancy where he learned to spell the word “biodiversity”.

The GLOBAL PHILANTROPHY FORUM in 2001 declared Dr JOHN M. “MICK” SEIDL the Chief Program Officer, Environment, of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. As head of the newly formed Moore Foundation’s Environmental Program, Dr. Seidl oversaw the Foundation’s efforts to protect biodiversity and intact natural ecosystems across the globe.
(Previously - The Nature Conservancy, & then The Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation)

The word “Initiative” as used in the MLPA-Initiative is right out of the Funding Program of the Gordon and Betty Moore Moore Foundation funding apparatus. Barry Munitz, after MAXXAM went on to be Chancellor of the CSU System. His corporate inappropriateness finally got him fired from the Getty Trust in L.A. (2006) which led to the first State Attorney General investigation of the Getty, and has focused public discourse and concern toward the unwatched nationwide influence of private foundations and Philanthrophy.

Barry Munitz held Gray Davis' hand as he signed into law the MLPA. The Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) is now a 'private foundation backed Initiative'. The (MLPA-I) is attempting to implement a privatized version of the public law AB993 from 1999.

Like Utah Phillips said to a graduating class of bright young minds: "You are about to be called America's most valuable natural resource. Have you seen what they do to valuable natural resources? Have you seen a stripmine, have you seen a clearcut in the forest. They're gonna stripmine your soul, they're gonna clearcut your best thoughts for the sake of profit unless you learn to resist, cause the profit system follows the path of least resistance."


Tomas DiFiore
Seaweed Rebellion
Astral Arts Mendocino