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Fisheries Fascism and Indigenous Indifference: Eco-tourism is coming, the MLPA component
Eco-tourism is coming and the MLPA Initiative is part of it. Eco-tourism has increasingly become articulated with environmental policies, in particular the creation of protected areas. Such policies have privileged those environments that are of interest to the eco-tourism industry. They have also served to restrict competing forms of resource use. Local populations in particular have seen their access to natural resources diminished. And Cultural Assets? Everything is for sale, price not negotiable, but payment is.
Fisheries Fascism and Indigenous Indifference: Eco-tourism is coming and the MLPA is part of it.
Eco-tourism has increasingly become articulated with environmental policies, in particular the creation of protected areas. Such policies have privileged those environments that are of interest to the eco-tourism industry. They have also served to restrict competing forms of resource use. Local populations in particular have seen their access to natural resources diminished. And Cultural Assets? Everything is for sale, price not negotiable, but payment is.
Enhanced Wildlife, Biodiversity, Eco-tourism, and Development. Born in its current form in the late 1980s, Eco-tourism came of age in 2002, when the United Nations celebrated the "International Year of Eco-tourism". The tourism industry defines it as being "environmentally responsible travel to relatively undisturbed areas, to enjoy and appreciate nature and accompanying cultural features and to become aware of the need for preserving natural capital and cultural capital.
Along with a locally allowable low impact, affordability, and careful waste planning, Eco-tourism must satisfy several criteria, such as conservation (and justification for conservation) of biological diversity and cultural diversity, through ecosystems protection. Promotion of sustainable use of biodiversity, by providing jobs to local populations. Sharing of socio-economical benefits with local communities and indigenous people by having their informed consent and participation in management of eco-tourism business. Increase of environmental & cultural knowledge. Though just the knowledge, and not the culture.
“Eco-tourism should not be driven by commerce or it will self-destruct. Stakeholders have to realize that eco-tourists are normally educated and pro-conservation." The Stevenswood Lodge, near Van Dam on the Mendocino Coast usually has a fairly good eco-conscious blog, and they promote eco-tourism locally on the Mendocino Coast.
Though contrary to BRTF discussions, and the MLPA-I Master Plan Framework, tourism revenue generated at a particular area should be directed towards the management and conservation of the local area’s natural assets. What we face under the MLPA-I is top down crown taxation of locally generated revenues to support the continuation of the MLPA-I process. Remember, these are billion dollar private foundations and the controlling interest in this MLPA-I process. But:
Another component of the MLPA-I Master Plan Framework is environmental education' It is only the means to accomplish the objective: the development of eco-tourism. Anyone who is a subsistence or commercial fisher or ocean food harvester, and gets cut out, like we did at Sea Lion Cove in Point Arena, CA, or the Kashia Tribe at Stewards Point, I suppose could go to college and come back and get a job in the Eco-Tourism industry as a museum docent, maybe even a "cultural capital" prop (CCP).
That's it! Prop Culture!
Eco-tourism functions as a clear catalyst of change, in the sense that it incorporates new environments into market economies. It entails a commodification and symbolic reshaping of a variety of localized natural characteristics, in order to extract use or exchange value from them. In the process, the quality of environments can deteriorate through the construction of tourism infrastructure and over-exploitation of attractions.
Still, eco-tourism has the pretension of contributing to the preservation of pristine landscapes or fragile ecosystems, in other words to secure environmental continuity. The marketing strategy of the eco-tourism sector evolves precisely around this pretension. Simultaneously, it is also a basic necessity of eco-tourism that the environments it exploits remain unchanged, in order to preserve the direct resource base on which it depends and to secure long term profitability of investments. As a result of this paradox, eco-tourism has often come hand in hand with new environmental legislation, the establishment of protected areas or the regulation of access to natural resources through environmental management plans. Such interventions are aimed at mitigating the environmental impacts of tourism. However, in practice they also serve to restrict competing forms of natural resource use that might deteriorate them.
Not all is sunshine in eco-tourism paradise. Stakeholder interest conflicts between local and external user groups evolve around the development of eco-tourism and the use of the natural environment.
Listen to Kashia Tribal Chairman Lester Pinola's comments on the MLPA-I at the Commission Hearing 080509, wherein the tribe faces loss of traditional access and areas due to closures under the Big Green supported BRTF proposed IPA, and subsequent vote of the Commission. (less than 2 min 400kb mp3)
http://www.astral-arts.com/audiomovie/openthecoast.mp3
The Big Green environmental movement is also vested with power in other ways than its alliance with the affluent eco-tourism sector. Sharing this power base, makes the tourism sector a serious threat to any economically strapped local political body. It (the Big Big Green environmental movement) is backed by formal interventions, national and international per region of involvement.
Though not a local placed based view, this paper provides quite a fascinating look at what the MLPA-I proposes, and what it closes (culturally). "Nature as "Staged Authenticity"
http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0104-71832003000200010
We may have a different situation on the North Coast of California. But in Costa Rica, where the Nature Conservancy sent Dr. John "Mick" Seidl, immediately after leaving MAXXAM and Pacific Lumber as CEO and President - presiding over the clearcut of localized natural and cultural capital assets, eco-tourism can have a fantasy script.
"The Quichua people allow eco-tourists to stay in traditional bamboo lodges and use candles at night so that the tourists may enjoy the "real" life of the tropical rain forest. The native people, however, live in concrete block, tin-slate houses, lit up by home electric generators."
To enjoy an eco-tour is to engage in a process of cultural production. The "production" of culture is not necessarily homogeneous. The production of culture in eco-tourism has strong connections to consumption. Society and history constrain culture. These constraints also limit the numbers of alternative ways of life, aiding cultural hegemony.
And now we come to the California Coast Makeover Licensing and Privatization Act or MLPA. Look for cultural Memes & Linguistics as Planning Aides.
Now from the Central Coast MLPA Initiative Final Statement of Regulatory Reasons for Regulatory Action: Excerpts in full, FOCUS: Regulatory Backdrop, Responses to interesting comments, Hearings and Regulatory Compliance, & Kelp Harvest Allowances Date of Final Statement of Reasons: May 14, 2007
"It is important to understand that the charge of the peer review entity is not to authenticate the data presented to them, but to evaluate the scientific methodology employed and the facial plausibility of the conclusions that can be drawn therefrom. More importantly, the peer review entity is not expected to approve, disapprove, or comment on the wisdom of those conclusions."
Inadequacy of Socioeconomic Analyses:
"Socioeconomic information is fatally deficient. However, nothing in the MLPA imposes an affirmative duty to generate socioeconomic data beyond that which is required by other applicable laws, such as the Administrative Procedure Act or, to the extent a socioeconomic change induces significant adverse environmental impacts, the California Environmental Quality Act. The MLPA authorizes the establishment of a Master Plan team of scientists, one of which “may” have expertise in socioeconomics [subsection 2855(b)(3)(A)]."
"The preferred siting alternative must incorporate information and views provided by people who live in the area and other interested parties, including economic information [subsection 2857(a)]. Here, the term “economic information” relates back to “information” so we reasonably interpret this to mean that it is the “people who live in the area and other interested parties” that provide the economic information. Conversely, neither the five MLPA Program elements in subsection 2853(c), nor the
eleven Master Plan components in subection 2856(a)(2), address socioeconomics. Socioeconomics, then, is only one factor to consider in the development of a siting alternative [subsections 2855(c)(2), 2857(a)], which still must be consistent with the ecosystem-based goals and elements (Section 2853) and sound scientific guidelines [subsection 2857(c)] of the MLPA. Consistent with CEQA Guidelines [14 C.C.R. subsection 15131(a)]."
Like Bill Heil, Albion mill worker use to say, "It's all bull sh.." Actually he used to sing it, on the front lines, in the days of the third timber wars, loosely a calendar period around 1985-2000.
And the State AG office "informal opinion" of 092509 regarding MPA design, eloquently leaves out any discussion of access to oil and LNG reserves form outside the 3 nm demarcation of State controlled waters. New technologies such as slant drilling techniques and budget drilling by voter initiatives, unless fully understood, will cause a backlash of divisive alliances.
We here in Mendocino County face an attempt by Measure A to privative politics and zoning by mis-information campaigns, and then the vote. How many lies can you buy? In Venture County, residents and local government face the same re-zoning challenges, by Venoco Oil to slant drill from shore. Any subsequent reviews by public agencies regarding offshore resource extraction, are often truncated by legal constraints on purview. The State Lands Commission is likely the main bureaucratic hurdle to any drilling project.
Of course, Eco Tourists uses an amazing amount of oil to travel.
Directional and Horizontal Drilling
Horizontal drilling now accounts for 5 to 8 percent of active onshore wells in the U.S., and seems to be increasing every year. The ability of horizontal drilling to reach and extract petroleum from formations that are not accessible with vertical drilling has made it an invaluable technology. Horizontal drilling allows for an increase in the recoverable petroleum in a given formation, and even increases the production in fields previously thought of as marginal or mature. Horizontal drilling also allows for more economical drilling, and less impact on environmentally sensitive areas. In fact, in some areas in which drilling is not allowed for environmental reasons, it is possible to drill horizontal wells to the targeted deposit without harming the environment above.
There are three main types of horizontal wells; short-radius, medium-radius, and long-radius. Short-radius wells typically have a curvature radius of 20 to 45 feet, being the 'sharpest turning' of the three types. These wells, which can be easily dug outwards from a previously drilled vertical well, are ideal for increasing the recovery of natural gas or oil from an already developed well. They can also be used to drill non-conventional formations, including coalbed methane and tight sand reservoirs.
Long-radius wells typically have a curvature radius of 1,000 to 4,500 feet, and can extend a great distance horizontally. These wells are typically used to reach deposits offshore, where it is economical to drill outwards (from shore or from federal waters) from a single platform to reach reservoirs inaccessible with vertical drilling.
To give an idea of the effectiveness of horizontal drilling, the U.S. Department of Energy indicates that using horizontal drilling can lead to an increase in reserves in place by 2% of the original oil in place. The production ratio for horizontal wells versus vertical wells is 3.2 to 1, while the cost ratio of horizontal versus vertical wells is only 2 to 1. In carbonate formations, where 90 percent of horizontal drilling is done, productivity of horizontal wells is almost 400 percent higher than vertical wells, while they cost only 80 percent more!
http://www.naturalgas.org/naturalgas/extraction_directional.asp
Fields under wetlands or cities can be accessed without disruption of the surface" (U.S. Department of Energy)
Accessing reserves in environmentally sensitive areas: In some areas, drilling is restricted for environmental reasons or because a rig cannot be set up on the proposed pad site. This often occurs when the targeted formation is under a building, below a shallow lake, or in a protected wildlife habitat. In cases where a vertical well cannot be used, horizontal drilling can access the targeted reservoir while leaving the surface habitat undisturbed.
Directional Drilling - also called Horizontal, Deviated, or Slant Drilling - is the process of drilling an indirect path to a reservoir that cannot be reached directly beneath the drilling site. http://www.enermaxinc.com/directional-drilling/
Project Paredon ... Santa Barbara Independent, "Carpinteria voters to decide fate of oil project", July 30, 2009 ...
ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/Carpinteria_Oil_Drilling_Initiative,_2009
A Carpinteria Oil Drilling Initiative may appear on the June 8, 2010 ballot in the City of Carpinteria in Santa Barbara County, depending on the results of a lawsuit. The initiative is also known as the Paredon Initiative and the Carpinteria Community Initiative.
The drilling rig would allow extended-reach, or slant, drilling, which would allow access to oil and natural gas in the Santa Barbara Channel without building an offshore platform. Efforts by the City of Carpinteria to keep the measure off the ballot have cost the city more than $180,000.
http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/Carpinteria_Oil_Drilling_Initiative,_2009
We are dismayed and astounded that the Venoco Oil Company is now trying to convince Carpinteria voters through a so-called “initiative” and great promises of money that it should be above the law and be able to bypass the City’s public review process for its proposed Paredon oil drilling project. They want to rewrite our local planning policies. http://www.carpinteriabluffs.org/wp/?page_id=23
Venoco, which maintains its West Coast headquarters in Carpinteria, has filed papers for a Carpinteria ballot initiative for its Paredon project, which would use an onshore rig to tap an estimated 20 million barrels of offshore reserves on one of the firm’s leases over about 15 years. The initiative would bypass the Carpinteria City Council and Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors to put the project in line for approval from the State Lands Commission.
http://pacbiztimes.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=647&Itemid=1
We support the City of Carpinteria’s current legal challenge to this clever but illegal attempt to bypass our local planning process. But the Motion to Stay was not supported by the Judge. Judge Thomas P. Anderle did not agree completely. He ruled that the initiative did improperly take some of the city’s police powers but that Venoco could recirculate a revised petition for a new initiative later this fall, unless the city appeals the decision.
http://pacbiztimes.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1014&Itemid=31
Pacific Coast Business Times Monday, 03 August 2009
A Santa Barbara County judge has invalidated a part of Venoco’s ballot initiative to approve slant drilling a site in Carpinteria into a lease offshore.
And back to the AG opinion on protections and use within designated MPA's, and reliance on the Endangered Species Act.
“Take” of Protected Species as a Result of Exposure to Oil. The National Marine Fisheries Service issues no-jeopardy Biological Opinions that contain the following language “NMFS does not including an incidental take statement for the incidental take of listed species due to oil exposure. Incidental take, as defined at 50 CFR 402.02, refers only to takings that result from an otherwise lawful activity. The Clean Water Act (33 USC 1251, et seq.), as amended by the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (33 USC 2701 et seq.), prohibits discharges of harmful quantities of oil, as defined at 40 CFR 110.3, into the waters of the United States. Therefore, even though this biological opinion has the effects on listed species by oil spills that may result from the proposed action, those takings that would result from an unlawful activity (i.e., oil spills) have no protective coverage under section 7 (o)(2) of the Endangered Species Act.”
It's all bs.
Tomas DiFiore
Seaweed Rebellion
Astral Arts Mendocino
Commercial, Subsistence Seaweed Harvester
Eco-tourism has increasingly become articulated with environmental policies, in particular the creation of protected areas. Such policies have privileged those environments that are of interest to the eco-tourism industry. They have also served to restrict competing forms of resource use. Local populations in particular have seen their access to natural resources diminished. And Cultural Assets? Everything is for sale, price not negotiable, but payment is.
Enhanced Wildlife, Biodiversity, Eco-tourism, and Development. Born in its current form in the late 1980s, Eco-tourism came of age in 2002, when the United Nations celebrated the "International Year of Eco-tourism". The tourism industry defines it as being "environmentally responsible travel to relatively undisturbed areas, to enjoy and appreciate nature and accompanying cultural features and to become aware of the need for preserving natural capital and cultural capital.
Along with a locally allowable low impact, affordability, and careful waste planning, Eco-tourism must satisfy several criteria, such as conservation (and justification for conservation) of biological diversity and cultural diversity, through ecosystems protection. Promotion of sustainable use of biodiversity, by providing jobs to local populations. Sharing of socio-economical benefits with local communities and indigenous people by having their informed consent and participation in management of eco-tourism business. Increase of environmental & cultural knowledge. Though just the knowledge, and not the culture.
“Eco-tourism should not be driven by commerce or it will self-destruct. Stakeholders have to realize that eco-tourists are normally educated and pro-conservation." The Stevenswood Lodge, near Van Dam on the Mendocino Coast usually has a fairly good eco-conscious blog, and they promote eco-tourism locally on the Mendocino Coast.
Though contrary to BRTF discussions, and the MLPA-I Master Plan Framework, tourism revenue generated at a particular area should be directed towards the management and conservation of the local area’s natural assets. What we face under the MLPA-I is top down crown taxation of locally generated revenues to support the continuation of the MLPA-I process. Remember, these are billion dollar private foundations and the controlling interest in this MLPA-I process. But:
Another component of the MLPA-I Master Plan Framework is environmental education' It is only the means to accomplish the objective: the development of eco-tourism. Anyone who is a subsistence or commercial fisher or ocean food harvester, and gets cut out, like we did at Sea Lion Cove in Point Arena, CA, or the Kashia Tribe at Stewards Point, I suppose could go to college and come back and get a job in the Eco-Tourism industry as a museum docent, maybe even a "cultural capital" prop (CCP).
That's it! Prop Culture!
Eco-tourism functions as a clear catalyst of change, in the sense that it incorporates new environments into market economies. It entails a commodification and symbolic reshaping of a variety of localized natural characteristics, in order to extract use or exchange value from them. In the process, the quality of environments can deteriorate through the construction of tourism infrastructure and over-exploitation of attractions.
Still, eco-tourism has the pretension of contributing to the preservation of pristine landscapes or fragile ecosystems, in other words to secure environmental continuity. The marketing strategy of the eco-tourism sector evolves precisely around this pretension. Simultaneously, it is also a basic necessity of eco-tourism that the environments it exploits remain unchanged, in order to preserve the direct resource base on which it depends and to secure long term profitability of investments. As a result of this paradox, eco-tourism has often come hand in hand with new environmental legislation, the establishment of protected areas or the regulation of access to natural resources through environmental management plans. Such interventions are aimed at mitigating the environmental impacts of tourism. However, in practice they also serve to restrict competing forms of natural resource use that might deteriorate them.
Not all is sunshine in eco-tourism paradise. Stakeholder interest conflicts between local and external user groups evolve around the development of eco-tourism and the use of the natural environment.
Listen to Kashia Tribal Chairman Lester Pinola's comments on the MLPA-I at the Commission Hearing 080509, wherein the tribe faces loss of traditional access and areas due to closures under the Big Green supported BRTF proposed IPA, and subsequent vote of the Commission. (less than 2 min 400kb mp3)
http://www.astral-arts.com/audiomovie/openthecoast.mp3
The Big Green environmental movement is also vested with power in other ways than its alliance with the affluent eco-tourism sector. Sharing this power base, makes the tourism sector a serious threat to any economically strapped local political body. It (the Big Big Green environmental movement) is backed by formal interventions, national and international per region of involvement.
Though not a local placed based view, this paper provides quite a fascinating look at what the MLPA-I proposes, and what it closes (culturally). "Nature as "Staged Authenticity"
http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0104-71832003000200010
We may have a different situation on the North Coast of California. But in Costa Rica, where the Nature Conservancy sent Dr. John "Mick" Seidl, immediately after leaving MAXXAM and Pacific Lumber as CEO and President - presiding over the clearcut of localized natural and cultural capital assets, eco-tourism can have a fantasy script.
"The Quichua people allow eco-tourists to stay in traditional bamboo lodges and use candles at night so that the tourists may enjoy the "real" life of the tropical rain forest. The native people, however, live in concrete block, tin-slate houses, lit up by home electric generators."
To enjoy an eco-tour is to engage in a process of cultural production. The "production" of culture is not necessarily homogeneous. The production of culture in eco-tourism has strong connections to consumption. Society and history constrain culture. These constraints also limit the numbers of alternative ways of life, aiding cultural hegemony.
And now we come to the California Coast Makeover Licensing and Privatization Act or MLPA. Look for cultural Memes & Linguistics as Planning Aides.
Now from the Central Coast MLPA Initiative Final Statement of Regulatory Reasons for Regulatory Action: Excerpts in full, FOCUS: Regulatory Backdrop, Responses to interesting comments, Hearings and Regulatory Compliance, & Kelp Harvest Allowances Date of Final Statement of Reasons: May 14, 2007
"It is important to understand that the charge of the peer review entity is not to authenticate the data presented to them, but to evaluate the scientific methodology employed and the facial plausibility of the conclusions that can be drawn therefrom. More importantly, the peer review entity is not expected to approve, disapprove, or comment on the wisdom of those conclusions."
Inadequacy of Socioeconomic Analyses:
"Socioeconomic information is fatally deficient. However, nothing in the MLPA imposes an affirmative duty to generate socioeconomic data beyond that which is required by other applicable laws, such as the Administrative Procedure Act or, to the extent a socioeconomic change induces significant adverse environmental impacts, the California Environmental Quality Act. The MLPA authorizes the establishment of a Master Plan team of scientists, one of which “may” have expertise in socioeconomics [subsection 2855(b)(3)(A)]."
"The preferred siting alternative must incorporate information and views provided by people who live in the area and other interested parties, including economic information [subsection 2857(a)]. Here, the term “economic information” relates back to “information” so we reasonably interpret this to mean that it is the “people who live in the area and other interested parties” that provide the economic information. Conversely, neither the five MLPA Program elements in subsection 2853(c), nor the
eleven Master Plan components in subection 2856(a)(2), address socioeconomics. Socioeconomics, then, is only one factor to consider in the development of a siting alternative [subsections 2855(c)(2), 2857(a)], which still must be consistent with the ecosystem-based goals and elements (Section 2853) and sound scientific guidelines [subsection 2857(c)] of the MLPA. Consistent with CEQA Guidelines [14 C.C.R. subsection 15131(a)]."
Like Bill Heil, Albion mill worker use to say, "It's all bull sh.." Actually he used to sing it, on the front lines, in the days of the third timber wars, loosely a calendar period around 1985-2000.
And the State AG office "informal opinion" of 092509 regarding MPA design, eloquently leaves out any discussion of access to oil and LNG reserves form outside the 3 nm demarcation of State controlled waters. New technologies such as slant drilling techniques and budget drilling by voter initiatives, unless fully understood, will cause a backlash of divisive alliances.
We here in Mendocino County face an attempt by Measure A to privative politics and zoning by mis-information campaigns, and then the vote. How many lies can you buy? In Venture County, residents and local government face the same re-zoning challenges, by Venoco Oil to slant drill from shore. Any subsequent reviews by public agencies regarding offshore resource extraction, are often truncated by legal constraints on purview. The State Lands Commission is likely the main bureaucratic hurdle to any drilling project.
Of course, Eco Tourists uses an amazing amount of oil to travel.
Directional and Horizontal Drilling
Horizontal drilling now accounts for 5 to 8 percent of active onshore wells in the U.S., and seems to be increasing every year. The ability of horizontal drilling to reach and extract petroleum from formations that are not accessible with vertical drilling has made it an invaluable technology. Horizontal drilling allows for an increase in the recoverable petroleum in a given formation, and even increases the production in fields previously thought of as marginal or mature. Horizontal drilling also allows for more economical drilling, and less impact on environmentally sensitive areas. In fact, in some areas in which drilling is not allowed for environmental reasons, it is possible to drill horizontal wells to the targeted deposit without harming the environment above.
There are three main types of horizontal wells; short-radius, medium-radius, and long-radius. Short-radius wells typically have a curvature radius of 20 to 45 feet, being the 'sharpest turning' of the three types. These wells, which can be easily dug outwards from a previously drilled vertical well, are ideal for increasing the recovery of natural gas or oil from an already developed well. They can also be used to drill non-conventional formations, including coalbed methane and tight sand reservoirs.
Long-radius wells typically have a curvature radius of 1,000 to 4,500 feet, and can extend a great distance horizontally. These wells are typically used to reach deposits offshore, where it is economical to drill outwards (from shore or from federal waters) from a single platform to reach reservoirs inaccessible with vertical drilling.
To give an idea of the effectiveness of horizontal drilling, the U.S. Department of Energy indicates that using horizontal drilling can lead to an increase in reserves in place by 2% of the original oil in place. The production ratio for horizontal wells versus vertical wells is 3.2 to 1, while the cost ratio of horizontal versus vertical wells is only 2 to 1. In carbonate formations, where 90 percent of horizontal drilling is done, productivity of horizontal wells is almost 400 percent higher than vertical wells, while they cost only 80 percent more!
http://www.naturalgas.org/naturalgas/extraction_directional.asp
Fields under wetlands or cities can be accessed without disruption of the surface" (U.S. Department of Energy)
Accessing reserves in environmentally sensitive areas: In some areas, drilling is restricted for environmental reasons or because a rig cannot be set up on the proposed pad site. This often occurs when the targeted formation is under a building, below a shallow lake, or in a protected wildlife habitat. In cases where a vertical well cannot be used, horizontal drilling can access the targeted reservoir while leaving the surface habitat undisturbed.
Directional Drilling - also called Horizontal, Deviated, or Slant Drilling - is the process of drilling an indirect path to a reservoir that cannot be reached directly beneath the drilling site. http://www.enermaxinc.com/directional-drilling/
Project Paredon ... Santa Barbara Independent, "Carpinteria voters to decide fate of oil project", July 30, 2009 ...
ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/Carpinteria_Oil_Drilling_Initiative,_2009
A Carpinteria Oil Drilling Initiative may appear on the June 8, 2010 ballot in the City of Carpinteria in Santa Barbara County, depending on the results of a lawsuit. The initiative is also known as the Paredon Initiative and the Carpinteria Community Initiative.
The drilling rig would allow extended-reach, or slant, drilling, which would allow access to oil and natural gas in the Santa Barbara Channel without building an offshore platform. Efforts by the City of Carpinteria to keep the measure off the ballot have cost the city more than $180,000.
http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/Carpinteria_Oil_Drilling_Initiative,_2009
We are dismayed and astounded that the Venoco Oil Company is now trying to convince Carpinteria voters through a so-called “initiative” and great promises of money that it should be above the law and be able to bypass the City’s public review process for its proposed Paredon oil drilling project. They want to rewrite our local planning policies. http://www.carpinteriabluffs.org/wp/?page_id=23
Venoco, which maintains its West Coast headquarters in Carpinteria, has filed papers for a Carpinteria ballot initiative for its Paredon project, which would use an onshore rig to tap an estimated 20 million barrels of offshore reserves on one of the firm’s leases over about 15 years. The initiative would bypass the Carpinteria City Council and Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors to put the project in line for approval from the State Lands Commission.
http://pacbiztimes.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=647&Itemid=1
We support the City of Carpinteria’s current legal challenge to this clever but illegal attempt to bypass our local planning process. But the Motion to Stay was not supported by the Judge. Judge Thomas P. Anderle did not agree completely. He ruled that the initiative did improperly take some of the city’s police powers but that Venoco could recirculate a revised petition for a new initiative later this fall, unless the city appeals the decision.
http://pacbiztimes.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1014&Itemid=31
Pacific Coast Business Times Monday, 03 August 2009
A Santa Barbara County judge has invalidated a part of Venoco’s ballot initiative to approve slant drilling a site in Carpinteria into a lease offshore.
And back to the AG opinion on protections and use within designated MPA's, and reliance on the Endangered Species Act.
“Take” of Protected Species as a Result of Exposure to Oil. The National Marine Fisheries Service issues no-jeopardy Biological Opinions that contain the following language “NMFS does not including an incidental take statement for the incidental take of listed species due to oil exposure. Incidental take, as defined at 50 CFR 402.02, refers only to takings that result from an otherwise lawful activity. The Clean Water Act (33 USC 1251, et seq.), as amended by the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (33 USC 2701 et seq.), prohibits discharges of harmful quantities of oil, as defined at 40 CFR 110.3, into the waters of the United States. Therefore, even though this biological opinion has the effects on listed species by oil spills that may result from the proposed action, those takings that would result from an unlawful activity (i.e., oil spills) have no protective coverage under section 7 (o)(2) of the Endangered Species Act.”
It's all bs.
Tomas DiFiore
Seaweed Rebellion
Astral Arts Mendocino
Commercial, Subsistence Seaweed Harvester
For more information:
http://www.astral-arts.com
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