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Santa Lucian • April 20131

Don’t MissApril 30

A SLO premiere:

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The official newsletter of the Santa Lucia Chapter of the Sierra Club • San Luis Obispo County, California

SantaLucian

IIIII n s i d en s i d en s i d en s i d en s i d eWhy sanctuary 2

Free the Los Padres 4

Saving seeds & CEQA 5

Food, wine, Muir! 6

When utilities attack 10

Classifieds 11

Outings 12

Please recycle

This newsletter printed on

100% post-consumer recycled paper with soy-

based inks

April 2013Volume 50 No. 4

Santa LucianSanta Lucia Chapter of the Sierra ClubP. O. Box 15755San Luis Obispo, CA 93406

NONPROFIT ORG.U.S. POSTAGE

PAIDPERMIT NO. 84

SAN LUIS OBISPOCA 93401

Paso’s Last DropBig Grape is plunging North County into overdraft as a steering committee dithersand residents and small wineries circle the drain

Paso Robles has gained internationalfame as a wine region known for itsoutstanding reds -- cabernet, Rhonesand zinfandel. The warm days andcool evening breezes yield wine grapesof outstanding quality. Paso’s success has hidden from viewa looming disaster. Dire facts aredownplayed. Anyone who discussesthe issue in public forums is admon-ished. The groundwater basin that sustainsthe majority of this wine grapegrowing region is in serious jeopardy.Groundwater levels have beendeclining in portions of the basin fordecades. Over the past fifteen years,while wine grape acreage dramaticallyincreased, the majority of the ground-water basin went into severe decline.

Water if you can afford it Both rural residents and agriculturedepend on wells from the groundwaterbasin for their livelihood. Lastsummer, well drilling companies werebusy lowering and replacing pumpsand drilling new wells. In some areasof the basin, it is a regular occurrenceto see drilling rigs on a neighbor’sproperty. New wells are not an inexpensiveproposition -- they can cost $25,000 ormore. Drilling companies do not loanmoney; the cost must be paid up front.For homeowners with little equity intheir homes, this cost can be beyondtheir reach. For others, it is theirchild’s college fund that gets robbed. And the problem is only escalating.Paso Robles is in the midst of a winegrape planting frenzy. Driven by winebrokers and vineyard consulting andmanagement firms, new plantings thisyear are approaching 8,000 acres.Assuming an average of one acre-ft/yrper acre, these new plantings will putanother 8,000 acre-ft/yr of demandonto a greatly stressed basin. Looking into the owners of thesenew plantings -- along with the recentpurchases of some large existingvineyards -- yields some disconcertinginformation. In an area known for its

quality, family-owned wineries, thelargest vineyards are now owned byreal estate investment firms, multi-national corporations, and out-of-townbillionaires. The region’s top twenty wine grapegrowers use 40% of the water in themain basin. The largest vineyardowners in the Paso Robles areainclude: Stewart and Lynda Resnick, thenew owners of Justin Winery, cur-rently planting 600+ acres of winegrapes. In the process, the new ownersof Justin have removed numerousnative oak trees and started construc-tion of enormous ponds for frostprotection and irrigation management.The Resnicks are best known for FijiWater, POM Wonderful, Teleflora,Paramount Farming (the world’slargest grower of pistachios andalmonds), and the Kern Water Bank, aformer state-owned water bankingfacility that is now owned by Resnick. Racing magnate Gerald Forsythe isthe new owner of Continental Vine-yards (520 acres). Forsythe owned theChamp Car - CART PPG Indy RacingSeries, owns Indeck Energy Services(with interests in eleven power plants

in U.S. and U.K.) and New FrontiersCapital, LLC (national resort and golfcourse development). Forsythe lives inIllinois. Anderson-Middleton, runningtimber operations out of Washington,

PASO continued on page 8

We love our members! In January, we laid out the grim financial fate facing theChapter if we do not start receiving a minimum of $20 from300 members every month, or the equivalent. At press time, 22 of you are now making automatic monthlycontributions via Paypal ranging from $10 to $50. Another 36of you are making monthly bank bill-pay and personal checkdonations up to $200. Eleven of you have already paid anentire year’s worth of $20-a-month donations in one check.This works out to an average of $27 per month per individual,or the equivalent of 78 people at $20 per month. This means that we are 26% of the way toward the goal ofthe equivalent of $20 per month from 300 people! That’s pretty encouraging. And it’s even more encouragingto get notes like this along with those donations: “I’m proud to belong to the Sierra Club Santa LuciaChapter and I appreciate all that you do for the environmentand for keeping all of us informed.” – Nancy Ruhl “Here’s our donation for your office fund. Hope you survive! You do wonderful work.” — Gar & Elizabeth Salzgeber

“Thank you! Your research and advocacy for ecology andthe environment’s well-being bring a smile to my hope for thefuture.” – Elizabeth Bettenhausen “We hope our pledge, along with a sustained effort by themembership, will help forestall insolvency. The Club’s vitalcontributions to the county cannot be allowed to lapse.” – Ray& Sonya Bracken. You can help us hit the top of the thermometer by going towww.santalucia.sierraclub.org, clicking on the “Donate”button and selecting the monthly contribution option.

Update: 20 from 300

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EDITOR

Greg McMillanLindi DoudLinda SeeleyThomas A. CyrEDITORIAL COMMITTEE

The Santa Lucian is published 10 times ayear. Articles, environmental information andletters to the editor are welcome. Thedeadline for each issue is the 13th of theprior month.

send to:

Editor, Santa Lucianc/o Santa Lucia Chapter, Sierra ClubP.O. Box 15755San Luis Obispo, CA [email protected]

Santa Lucia Chapter

2012 Executive Committee Greg McMillan CHAIRPat Veesart VICE CHAIRLinda Seeley SECRETARYPatrick McGibney MEMBERLindi Doud MEMBER

Cal French COUNCIL OF CLUB LEADERSLindi Doud, Patrick McGibney TREASURERS

Committee ChairsPolitical OpenConservation Sue HarveyMembership Cal FrenchNuclear Power Task Force Rochelle Becker

Other Leaders

Calendar Sales Bonnie Walters 805-543-7051Outings Joe Morris [email protected]/Kayak openWebmaster Monica Tarzier [email protected] Guide Gary Felsman

Chapter Director Andrew Christie 805-543-8717 [email protected]

Andrew [email protected]

Printed by University Graphic Systems

Office hours Monday-Friday,12 p.m.- 6 p.m., 974 Santa RosaStreet, San Luis Obispo

The Executive Committee meetsthe second Monday of every monthat 5:30 p.m., and the ConservationCommittee meets the secondFriday at 1p.m. at the chapter office,located at 974 Santa Rosa St., SanLuis Obispo. All members arewelcome to attend.

Coordinator Kim Ramos, Admin and Development [email protected] Assistant Coordinator Yvonne Yip - events & social networking

Santa Lucia ChapterP.O. Box 15755San Luis Obispo, CA 93406

Denny MynattPRINT MEDIA COORDINATOR

Sierra Club, PO Box 421041, Palm Coast, FL 32142-1041

A Fierce Green Fire

Sierra Club Special ScreeningTuesday, April 30, 7 p.m.

Palm Theater, 817 Palm St., SLO. For information:[email protected], www.afiercegreenfire.com

Now More Than EverThe need for a Central Coast National Marine Sanctuary just gets clearer

At the November 14, 2012, meeting of the California Coastal Commission inSanta Monica, with the final permit for PG&E’s potentially devastating high-energy offshore seismic survey hanging in the balance, the vote went the rightway. The permit was denied. If the commission had voted the other way that day, our coastal wildlife andeconomy would have been in big trouble. Every commercial and recreationalfisher on the Central Coast would literally have been out of business the nextday, when the project was scheduled to commence; ordered to tie up theirboats at the dock for the next 42 days. For 30 of those days, PG&E’s seismic vessel would have towed air gunsthrough their prime fishing grounds, firing 250-decibel blasts every 15seconds, 24 hours a day. Once the testing was over, the local community wouldhave been left with the aftermath, contributing to the scant body of scientificknowledge on the subject by finding out exactly what the short- and long-termimpacts had been on the fish and other wildlife. So how close did we come? You can now hear the idea bandied about locallythat the seismic survey never had a chance of being approved. Here’s the reality: Every state and federal agency with any oversight role hadsigned off on the project. The federal Environmental Assessment and stateEnvironmental Impact Report had been certified. By the time PG&E got to theCalifornia Coastal Commission, they had every other permit they needed. TheCoastal Commission was the last stop on the regulatory road, and the mostlikely outcome was that the Commission would impose additional permitconditions to try to somewhat mitigate the survey’s potential damage and issuethe final permit. Because the Sierra Club, NRDC, Surfrider, Coastal Protection Network et alintensively educated staff and commissioners for weeks before the SantaMonica hearing, that potential staff recommendation for approval withconditions ultimately changed to a recommendation for denial. Faced with that,and the public outrage in the hearing room, the commission unanimouslyagreed. However, it has not gone unnoticed that the Coastal staff’s recommendationfor denial included wording that left open the possibility for future seismictesting proposals: ”[I]t appears premature to conduct the currently proposedsurvey during the fall of 2012, as other ongoing data collection and analysisefforts by PG&E, the NRC, and USGS are likely to provide even betterseismic characterization of the DCPP area in the near future and therebypotentially reduce the need, extent, or duration of the proposed survey.” Why is it a bad idea to depend on the Coastal Commission to save you fromthe next bad offshore project to come down the pike, and the one after that?For two reasons: First, assuming that a similar ad hoc coalition will cometogether to oppose any and all such future projects is not exactly a plan, nor agood use of our community’s resources. Second, members of the CoastalCommission serve at the discretion of the governor and leaders of the statelegislature. In the commission’s 40-year history, there have been manyCommission majorities that considered it their duty to deliver unto PG&Eanything it wanted that was related to Diablo Canyon, whenever PG&E cameto the commission to ask. (See “When Diablo Wins, You Lose,” Jan. 2007). To truly protect our coast from damaging seismic testing, we need nationalmarine sanctuary protection for the central coast. It would give local stake-holders control over many coastal management decisions, permanentlyprotecting our waters from damaging projects like 250db seismic surveys. A highly relevant quote appeared in The Tribune’s October 19, 2012, editionin the lead-up to the Coastal Commission hearing on the PG&E seismicsurvey. The story reported on a meeting of the Monterey Bay National MarineSanctuary Advisory Council and its discussion of the project:

SANCTUARY continued on page 8

A new documentary about thehistory of the environmentalmovement opened in select theatersin California on March 15. It hasalready received accolades at anumber of film festivals, and was anofficials selection at Sundance. It’scalled A Fierce Green Fire, and theSierra Club naturally plays a role. In partnership with Hopedance,the Santa Lucia Chapter is proud tobring A Fierce Green Fire to SLOthis month, for one night only!$10 admission.

“There is no way in the world it would happen in the sanctuary,”advisory council member Geoffrey Shester said at the Cambriameeting, expressing frustration and disbelief that “because it’s acouple miles away, all we get to do is weigh in on some concerns.”

Not to belabor the point: Had there been a Central Coast National MarineSanctuary in existence in 2011-12, it could have weighed in at the beginning of

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[email protected]


We Are the Sierra Clubinterviews with the movers and shakers of theSanta Lucia Chapter

For nearly onehundred years, thepublic has enjoyedaccess to thousandsof acres of nationalforest land at theeastern end theHuasna Valley insouthern San LuisObispo County. Buta neighboringlandowner hasblocked a publicroad that serves asthe only accessroute into the area,promptingForestWatch to launch a massive effort to keep the route open. Huasna Road begins Arroyo Grande and passes through 25 miles of privatefarmland, ranches, and a historic townsite before reaching the oak-studdedvalleys and chaparral-covered hills in the Los Padres National Forest. Fordecades, visitors have flocked to the area’s two campgrounds at Stony Creek andAgua Escondido to enjoy springtime wildflower displays, unique rock outcrops,ancient Native American pictographs, abundant game, and access to hiking trailsleading in all directions across thousands of acres of national forest land. The area is featured in California Coastal Byways: 50 of California’s BestBackcountry Drives, and has also been described in several hiking and mountainbiking guidebooks and official Forest Service and USGS maps. The area’s trailsonce provided the only publicly accessible route into the southern GarciaWilderness, and the road once served as the only publicly accessible route to thenational forest between Hi Mountain Road and the Santa Barbara County line. But today, public access to the area is blocked by gates and barricades that the

How and why did you becomeoutings chair of the chapter?

In 1983, thirty years ago now, I startedas an outings leader for the Angeleschapter in Los Angeles and loved theexperience. During that time, I organ-ized well over 200 events of all kinds,not only hikes, but backpacks, bustrips, sing-alongs, and car camps allover the state. I loved it as a greatcontrast to my university teaching jobat Cal State, Northridge. On retiring afew years ago, I moved up here to anarea where nature, not freeways, isdominant. Four years ago, I showed upat a “volunteer day” sponsored by theChapter and soon was urged to headup outings by the departing chair,Karen Merriam. It continues to be a lotof fun.

What is your outing philosophy andhow does it relate to the chapter’smission?

I’ve read that the average person isinside over 90% of the time thesedays, and when he/she does go out, it’susually to step into a car. We—andeven more so our children—are losingtouch with nature, and that is maybethe key reason why we have becomedesensitized about harming and pol-luting it. Sierra Club offers people achance to get out into beautiful natureon a regular basis to places often theynever knew about. I want our outingsto have something for everyone, notonly the strenuous 10-mile hikesfor the tigers, but also city walks,birding trips, and evening programs

for those of any fitness level. Thisdiversity of offerings also introduces agreater variety of people to ourchapter. Our director Andrew de-scribes the outings program as thechapter’s “best p.r.” Our outings also have an importantgoal of supporting our environmentalefforts. John Muir, when he initiatedthe outings program for the Club,realized that people are more likely towant to preserve and protect some-thing they know and love.

Do you have a favorite place innature you love to visit?

My favorite places are not necessarily

ones of complete wilderness but areaswhere human habitation exists in aharmonious relationship to thesurrounding environment. I’ve travel-led to Ireland seven times over theyears, and oddly feel at times more athome there than anywhere else. Out-side of Dublin, people live in small

cities and towns, mostly free ofshopping malls, freeways, andhighway signs, and the sur-rounding green hills mix withstreams, ancient castle ruins,and remote beaches.

What are your favoriteoutings to lead?

For the last four years, I’ve ledmonthly city walks of San LuisObispo and have now plannedout seven different ones,covering different historicperiods and city locations.Last year, I added a Halloweencemetery walk and a nighttimeVictorian Christmas stroll. I’vebeen happy at their growingpopularity, averaging 20 people,even exceeding 60 at times.SLO is an ideal town for guidedwalks, with its many attractiveand well-preserved buildings

concentrated in a small area. But alsothe walks remind people that cities—we sometimes forget—are part of theenvironment. For instance, San LuisCreek, threading through the city, isarguably its most important landmark,more so than the Mission. Its watersover the centuries have been a fishingspot for the Chumash, irrigation for theMission fields, a sewer for Gold Rushpioneers, and even a hiding place forbootleggers in the twenties. It has leftits mark on every era in SLO history.

Do you have an environmentalhero?

It may not seem very imaginative, butmy favorite would have to be JohnMuir. Indeed I’ve become a bit of aMuir freak, having visited his boyhoodhome in Scotland and traced hiswanderings in Yosemite and northernCalifornia. I’ve prepared a slide showof vintage photos related to him I’venow given to a half-dozen Sierra Clubsections (and will be including ourChapter at the May fund-raiser). Muirhad a number of personal qualities thatmany of us have neglected today. Heunderstood our connection to nature asa deeply personal, even spiritual onethat gives meaning to our lives. Hegave out a heartiness and positiveenergy that drew people to him.Often, I think, in our wranglingover environmental regulations, weforget why, in the end, it matters.Muir understood that the earth really isour true home.

What are your desires for the futureof the outings program?

Though we have a group of fineleaders, several have moved away inthe last few years, and we could usesome new recruits to fill their hikingboots. To me, being a Sierra Cluboutings leader has got to be one of themost fun ways to volunteer for any-thing! Consider: you walk throughbeautiful nature when, where, and howoften you want to go, you get healthfulexercise, and hang out with friendlypeople who share your interests. Mostof my own best friends in adulthood Imet on a Sierra Club outing. Iencourage anyone who’d like todiscuss being a leader to contact me.

Joe Morris, Outings Chair

TRADE continued on page 4LOS PADRES continued on page 10

Defending Public Access toLos Padres Forest March 4, 2013

Dear Member of Congress:

As U.S. trade negotiators seek to conclude a standard-setting new trade andinvestment pact for the Asia-Pacific region by this October and consider launch-ing another with the European Union, we write on behalf of our 15 millionmembers and supporters to share our expectations regarding commercialagreements in the 21st Century and the congressional oversight role needed totransform past U.S. trade policy into a tool that helps build a more just andsustainable global economy. We find it troubling that, even as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) FreeTrade Agreement enters its 16th major round of negotiations this March inSingapore, U.S. negotiators still refuse to inform the American public what theyhave been proposing in our names. Shielding not only proposals, but agreed-upon texts from public view until after negotiations have concluded and the pactis finalized is not consistent with democratic principles. In this regard, the TPPappears to be even less transparent than some past trade negotiations. Forexample, in 2001, the United States joined with 33 other countries in releasingdraft text of the Free Trade Area of the Americans, and draft texts within theWorld Trade Organization are frequently made available. Issues that must be addressed so that a TPP, a European Union-U.S. Agree-ment or any other U.S. trade pact actually improves the quality of life forAmericans and people throughout the world include: *Prioritizing of human and labor rights. Too many existing trade policies goto great lengths to protect the rights of investors, while ignoring or glossing overissues of forced labor, child labor, sweatshop working conditions, politicalviolence, environmental degradation, violations of indigenous peoples’ sover-eignty and government suppression of such basic freedoms as speech, assembly,movement and the rights to form independent trade unions and bargain collec-tively. Human and labor rights must be front-and-center in any trade agreement ifit is to help reverse the global race to the bottom in working conditions andenvironmental practices. *Respect for local development goals and the procurement policies thatdeliver on them. Trade agreements should not impede governments fromspending taxpayer funds in ways that prioritize local development, environmen-

Santa Lucia chapter signs on to Congressional letter

Not This Trade Agreement

by Los Padres ForestWatch

4


tal or social goals. The procure-ment provisions of tradepacts must maintain existing“Buy American” preferences, aswell as prevailing wagerequirements, green prefer-ences, sweat-free preferences,human rights preferences andpolicies designed to addresslong-standing inequalities. *No elevation of corpora-tions to equal terms withgovernments.Trade agreements should notgrant individual corporationsand investors special powers toprivately enforce agreementterms by challenging laws,regulations and court decisionsthrough tribunals that circum-vent domestic judicial systems.The “investor-state” tribunalsystem that allowspanels of three private sector lawyers to order unlimited taxpayer compensationfor foreign firms who claim that a country’s laws undermine their expectedfuture profits must be eliminated. International investment rules must also berevised to more narrowly define terms including “investment,” “expropriation”and “minimum standard of treatment” in order to safeguard the ability ofgovernments to regulate in the public interest. *Protect food sovereignty. Trade agreements should respect governments’ability to implement programs that ensure farmers and other food workersreceive fair compensation and that consumers have access to safe and affordablefoods. Likewise, nations must be able to protect themselves from dumping andother unfair trade practices that force farmers off their land. *Access to affordable medicine. Maintaining access to affordable, genericmedications is critical to reducing health care costs in the United States and tosaving lives throughout the world. Trade agreements are an inappropriatevehicle for extending the length of drug patents, and U.S. policies shouldexplicitly uphold the standards set forth in the Doha Declaration on access tomedicine. *Safeguards against currency manipulation. Trade agreements shouldinclude measures that allow the United States and other governments to takemeasures to counteract trade-distorting currency manipulation. Agreements should also include strong rule of origin provisions to ensure that the benefits ofthe agreement go to those countries that agree to meet its rules. *Space for robust financial regulations and public services. Trade pactsshould set floors, not ceilings, when it comes to the regulation of banks, insur-ance companies, hedge funds and otherfinancial service providers. Tradeagreements’ services provisions shouldcontain clear and specific languagestating that nothing in the agreementshould be interpreted as requiringderegulation or privatization of anyprivate or public service. *Improved consumer and environ-mental standards. Likewise, tradeagreements should set floors, ratherthan ceilings, when it comes toenvironmental, food and productsafety and consumer right-to-knowmeasures. We believe a much greater degree ofpublic and congressional oversightis needed if the TPP and other pactsare to achieve these high standards.Before granting the Obama adminis-tration any special trade policy-making authority, please request that itmake the draft TPP texts public. Instead of delegating Congress’ exclusive constitutional authority to “regulatecommerce with foreign nations” to the executive branch through the reinstate-ment of outdated and extreme procedures like Fast Track “Trade PromotionAuthority,” we urge you to support a new American trade agreement negotiationand approval process that: - Requires that the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative consult with allinter- ested stakeholders, participate in hearings with all committees of jurisdic-tion over matters affected by trade agreements and provide a public assessmentof what specific job creation and export expansion opportunities each prospec-tive trade partner would provide and how a proposed agreement would impacthuman and labor rights, the environment, food sovereignty, access to medicine,currency manipulation and balance of trade among the countries involved,beginning this expanded engagement process with the TPP as soon as possible; - Sets up an objective process to verify that negotiating objectives set byCongress are actually achieved in the final agreement, and includes a process bywhich a majority of the Congress must vote to certify that a proposed agreementis in the public interest and that Congress’ negotiating objectives have been metbefore the executive branch can sign the agreement and bind the United States toits terms. Only through this type of robust oversight and public participation can weforge a new national and global consensus on trade policy that works for all. Sincerely,

More than 400 national, regional, state and local organizations representinglabor, environmental, family farm, consumer, faith, public health, NativeAmerican and human rights constituencies. Go to Citizenstrade.org.

When globalization’s privatizers came up empty

by Andrew Christie, Chapter Director

On July 17, 2007, Carlos Gutierrez, PresidentGeorge Bush’s Secretary of Commerce, stepped upto the microphone before an audience of businessleaders and rolled out the Bush administration’s newpush for its corporate free trade agenda. “While others seek to suppress people, ideas anddebate,” he said, “we seek the empowerment of theindividual. While some seek state control and thenationalization of economic sectors, we seek freemarkets.” Of free trade agreements, he said, “a vote againstthese is a vote to slow vital reforms, helping thosewho wish to hamper the spread of free enterpriseand democracy.” As Congress Daily reported the next day,Gutierrez’s remarks were “an echo of rhetoric rarelyheard since the end of the Cold War,” and a sign that“the administration plans to increasingly point totrade as a weapon to block the influence of regimes

that seek to promote socialist ideas in Latin America.” He was echoing a talking point previously laid down by U.S. Trade Represen-tative Susan Schwab in an op ed two months earlier, wherein she plugged theadministration’s line-up of corporate free-trade agreements as “a clear alternativeto the ruinous policies advocated by self-styled anti-American populists in ourown hemisphere.” On the same day that Secretary Gutierrez delivered his comments to businessofficials, the city council of Stockton threw in the towel and allowed its citizensto turn into a bunch of anti-American socialists who decided the free market, asdefined by the corporate profit imperative, was not all it’s cracked up to be. Since 2001, the people of Stockton had been fighting to regain control of theirwater system from transnational corporations OMI and Thames, who had takenover the city’s water and sewer services in a $600 million, twenty-year contract,the largest of its kind west of the Mississippi. Privatizing the water system hadintensified harmful environmental impacts on the already beleaguered Sacra-mento Delta system, relieved the public of their right to determine how theirwater services were managed, handing that right to corporate shareholders, andexchanged public service for the profit motive. On July 17, 2007, the city councildropped its appeal of the court ruling that gave control of their municipal watersystems back to the people of Stockton. Six years earlier, as Stockton was just beginning its corporate water war, thepeople of Cochabamba, Bolivia, had just won theirs, having determined thatprivatization of their water supply by a subsidiary of Bechtel was a bad idea,primarily due to the fact that the corporation promptly hiked the price of their

water by 200 percent. In a series of uprisings that became one of the key battlesagainst economic globalization, Cochabamba eventually regained public controlover its water — sooner than Stockton did but at greater cost in injury and deathmeted out to those protesting against their government’s sell-off of a basichuman right to a multinational corporation. The road to Cochabamba’s revolt had been paved by Bolivian presidentGonzalo Sanchez de Lozada, who, in 1993-97, presided over the imposition ofprivatization and economic austerity measures dictated by the InternationalMonetary Fund which made his country into the poster child and basket case offree-market globalization – policies now repudiated throughout Latin Americabecause, as calmly noted by Time magazine the week after Sanchez’s final 2003ouster from office following a brief comeback, those policies “have so far donemore harm than good for theregion’s 500 million people inpoverty.” After Sanchez first madehimself thoroughly unpopularwith the people of Bolivia bydint of his imposition of policiesdear to the hearts of SecretaryGutierrez and U.S. TradeRepresentative Schwab, hemanaged an unlikely return topower, a story told in thedocumentary Our Brand is

Cochabamba to Stockton

STOCKTON continued on page 9

Tradecontinued from page 3

Sierra ClubP.O. Box 15755San Luis Obispo, CA 93406


By Elizabeth Johnson

Momentum has been building toform local seed libraries across thecountry to protect, and encouragegrowing of, open-pollinated heirloomcrops. Now that a few global corpora-tions own almost all seed production,it has become crucial for gardenersand farmers to start saving their ownseeds, just as we have for 10,000years. In the past one hundred years,while we ordered seeds from commer-cial catalogs, 75% of edible plantvarieties adapted to their local soil andclimate conditions have been lost,along with our human knowledgeabout them. Seeds are not created in alaboratory. Organizations like SeedSavers Exchange have contributedenormously to keep varieties fromextinction for the last forty years. Asthe world of organic seed preservationteeters on a precipice of monopolycontrol, a cavalry of thousands isfinally showing up to support andexpand the work of generations offarmers to create and maintain resilientlocal seed and food systems. In San Luis Obispo, the SLO SeedExchange has promoted seed saving

and community exchangessince 2007. Due to timing andcomplexity, a permanent seedlibrary was not created. Wechose instead to becomeindividual “seed libraries,”each of us growing, harvest-ing, storing, then offering ourseeds in an annual communityexchange. This is the mostfrequently followed modelaround the world. Ideas about seed libraries are asvaried as the communities they serve.Seeds represent and reflect culture;promoting cultural diversity translatesto lots of plant varieties, ways ofgrowing and saving them, storiesabout them, and methods of distribu-tion. Our goal is to create a living seedlibrary of edible plant seeds adapted toour bioregion; these seeds may bebetter equipped genetically to adapt toextremes of local climate change. Asour group has expanded in numbersand skill, the subject of community-accessible seed libraries is on the tableagain. Enter the Cal Poly SUSTAINteam, a group of non-ag major fresh-

men who havepartnered with SLOSeed Exchange for aJanuary to Juneproject to establish alocal seed library.The SUSTAINprogram provides aneducational partner-ship with commu-nity organizations inorder to create adifferent kind oflearning experience,while the on-

campus academic segment focuses onrigorous project management method-ology. The SUSTAIN team jumped into thisproject with enthusiasm and intelli-gence. Their prototype will be amobile Seed Library that will carryseeds, envelopes to package them, andinformation on each variety. They will also help design a websiteand logo. In addition, the team will belooking for possible locations where astationary lending seed library can beset up, and will create one if timepermits. After you borrow seeds togrow, you can replenish the librarysupply from your own harvest in ayear or two. Seeds are the foundation of aresilient local food system. Our SLOSeed Exchange recently helped co-ordinate seed donations to a brand newfarm that plans to grow organicvegetables for the SLO Food Bank.First Fruits Farm was created by acollaboration of two SLO churches—Grace and Trinity, already serving assatellites of the Food Bank—intendingto bring higher quality produce to theprogram. They asked for donations ofall kinds—land, equipment, tools,volunteers, and organic open-polli-

Saving Seeds

nated seeds. SLO Seed Exchange thencontacted individuals and groups whousually have an abundance and cameup with seeds for a number of cropvarieties desired by First Fruits Farm. A vibrant seed saving communitywith a healthy seed library willeventually serve future projects likethe two acre First Fruits Farm alongwith backyard gardens and all sizes inbetween. With our Cal Poly SUSTAINcommunity partner, the SLO SeedExchange will soon have a mobileSeed Library, and eventually astationary library, each providingeducational tools for skillful seedsaving. Growing seeds to exchange and re-plant is not only an act of hope; it isthe act of weaving our human selvesback into the great cycle of life on ourplanet; we reconnect to plant life thatalso relies on earth, water, air, andweather for health and survival, andwe reconnect with each other. Seed banks offer access to seed,education, and community. They’redesigned to play a long-term role inthe community—safeguarding andstewarding our collective seed legacyseason-to-season, generation-to-generation.

Sav

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lliot

Sierra Club California is a memberof CEQA Works, a broad coalition ofcivic, conservation, environmentaljustice, historic preservation, labor,and public health groups, native tribes,business leaders, and legal experts,working together to prevent the Cali-fornia legislature from weakening ourstate’s landmark environmentalprotection laws. We aim to: Protect the right of the public to

weigh in on community land-usedecisions. Keep California’s environmentallaws strong to prevent air and waterpollution and the public health risksthey pose. Advocate for sensible updates toCEQA that reduce bureaucracywithout weakening key environmentalsafeguards. CEQA Works and Common Ground

California held a CEQA AdvocacyDay on March 12 at the Capitol,including a training for environmentaland environmental justice, labor, tribal,health, historic preservation, andcommunity activists who came toSacramento from all over the state tovoice our support for CEQA. Thetraining was followed by a pressconference with key legislators andlegislative office visits to make thecase for CEQA. Here’s one such case, which ourreaders may recall: For three years in a row (2008-2011), the California Department ofFish and Game proposed to increasethe quota for the hunting of blackbears and the initiation of a bear huntin San Luis Obispo County. Relying on CEQA provisions thatrequire government agencies toadequately analyze and disclose theimpacts on the environment associatedwith policy changes, the HumaneSociety of the United States and othersprovided substantive commentsdetailing the inadequacies of theDepartment’s analysis, including afailure to evaluate impacts of theproposal on local bear populations orto address threats to the species fromrampant poaching. Biologists demon-strated that the Department wasrelying on outdated and incompletemethodologies for estimating thestate’s bear population. Thanks to the thorough analysis andpublic engagement required by theCalifornia Environmental Quality Act,the Commission chose not to pursuethat policy change.

The battle is joined I f you missed the March 7 edition of New Times featuring Sue Harvey’s response to COLAB’s attack on the CaliforniaEnvironmental Quality Act the week before, it ’s worth seeking out on line. To help save CEQA, go to: www.ceqaworks.org.

SavingCEQA

SLO Seed Exchange & CalPoly SUSTAIN Team partner to create acommunity Seed Library

6


Where: The Grange2880 Broad St., SLO

When: 7-9 p.m.Tuesday, April 16th

(On February 13, The Economisthosted on its website the online debate“Do the benefits derived from shalegas outweigh the drawbacks offracking?” The debate was heldbetween a gas industry representativetaking the “yes” position, and SierraClub Executive Director MichaelBrune taking the “no” position. By theconsensus of those following thedebate, we won. Mr. Brune’s closingremarks are reproduced below.)

Fossil companies don’t want us toknow just how much potentialrenewables have, but reality iscatching up with them. Last year, windenergy was the number one source ofnew American electric generatingcapacity, accounting for 42% of allnew capacity. Renewable energy as awhole accounted for 55% of all newAmerican generating capacity. InSpain, wind power this winter justsurpassed that from all other sources.Germany is on track to get 35% of itselectricity from renewables by the endof the decade. But Germany soon willbe surpassed by China as the countrywith the largest installed base of solar.This year China will more than doubleits installed solar from 4 gigawatts to10 gigawatts. Around the globe, the potential todevelop renewable energy is limit-less—if we don’t allow ourselves to beseduced by the false economies ofcheap shale gas. Someday, fracking orno, the shale gas will run out. Coal andoil will no longer be viable. But thewind will blow, the sun will still shineand the tides will still flow. I’ll close with a quote from the manperhaps most responsible for creatingthe energy infrastructure of the lastcentury, Thomas Edison: “We are liketenant farmers chopping down thefence around our house for fuel whenwe should be using Nature’s inex-haustible sources of energy—sun,wind and tide … I’d put my money onthe sun and solar energy. What asource of power! I hope we don’t haveto wait until oil and coal run out beforewe tackle that.” We do not have to wait. Moreimportantly, we cannot afford to. Weshould be looking for every opportu-nity we have to leapfrog gas ratherthan sinking our societal investmentever deeper into fossil fuels.

Stop the Dept. of Conservation’sRedefinition of Protected andBeneficial WatersBy the Sierra Club Fracking Team

The Federal Clean Water Act says that discharging pollution intoprotected waters (e.g., dumping sewage, contaminants, or industrialpollution) or filling protected waters and wetlands (e.g., building ahousing development or a parking lot) require permits. However, the Department of Conservation (DoC) through theDivision of Oil Gas and Geothermal Resources (DOGGR) hasproposed new regulations for oil and gas “stimulation” (“fracking”)that would relax current restrictions. If enacted, these draft regulationswould define “protected waters” for the State of California andDepartment of Conservation as only those waters which currently havedirect, beneficial uses for potable and agricultural purposes withouttreatment, and would remove all other waters and their reservoirs,streams, groundwater tables, and aquifers from any protection againstcontamination by oil and gas related activities. Earlier local efforts by oil and gas companies to downgrade existingbeneficial use designations were blocked, and water agencies havemaintained a greater level of protection for current and future impor-tant beneficial surface and groundwater resources within the State. Federal hydrogeologists have reported deep groundwater contamination in theLos Angeles region associated with existing oil fields. No apparent contamina-tion of the higher levels used for public drinking groundwater supplies has beenreported. Both may be correct, as they are measuring or monitoring two verydifferent -- shallow and deep -- but related groundwater conditions. If frackingand other oil exploration and production are “properly” conducted, there may notbe either deep or shallow groundwater contamination, but the needed studieshave not been done to demonstrate such protection. It seems that no one wants toknow, because then they would have to take responsibility for doing something. Recent statewide discussions regarding global warming’s expected changes toCalifornia’s water resources focused on increasing alternative beneficial waterresource storage capacities, in light of declining snowpack and climate changesacross western U.S. watersheds. Groundwater storage has been and will becomean ever increasingly important and cheapest alternative in the face of dwindlingwinter surface storage (snowpack) and summer production throughout the stateand especially near urban and agricultural centers of use: San Diego, LosAngeles, southern San Joaquin basin, Coast Range valleys, and southern Sacra-mento Valley areas. Protecting groundwater basins from potential and knowncontamination sources and restoration programs for those already compromisedare becoming increasingly important. The Sierra Club Fracking Team has reviewed available information andrecommends that the Sierra Club:

1. Oppose any relaxation by DoC’s regulations with regard to “beneficial”groundwaters within the state;2. Support further monitoring and protections through DOGGRs regulations forbeneficial waters within 1 mile of any oil fields or exploratory wells;3. Identify and ensure control of existing known or probable sources of ground-water contamination from any exploration and production activities;4. Support expanded assessing and monitoring of surface and deep subsurfacesources of contamination;5. Support identification and mitigation of low-level contamination fromproducing groundwater sources.

Communities throughout the state need to support and maintain the mostcomprehensive definition of “beneficial water” sources and oppose the attemptedredefinition of “protected waters.”

Sierra Club Slams FlawedStudy of Natural Gas Exports

On February 23, the Sierra Clubsubmitted technical comments to theDepartment of Energy (DOE) respond-ing to a flawed economic study ofexporting natural gas conducted byNERA Consulting. The DOE is using the NERA studyto inform its decision on whether toapprove 16 applications for developingexport liquefied natural gas (LNG)terminals. Together, the pendingapplications would add export capacityfor immense volumes of gas equiva-lent to about 45 percent of currentdomestic production. The increaseddemand for natural gas in both thedomestic and global markets wouldmean more fracking by oil and gascompanies, which already exploitexemptions from major federalenvironmental laws, including theClean Air Act and the Safe DrinkingWater Act. “The DOE has a responsibility toprotect the public interest,” said DebNardone, our Beyond Natural Gascampaign director. “We need DOE toredo this flawed study to ensureserious considerations are made toprotect our environment, public health,and the economy before acting onLNG export proposals.” The comments include recommenda-tions for DOE to:Reject NERA Consulting’s flawedeconomic report on LNG exports,which shows that the primary effect ofexporting LNG would be a transfer ofwealth from the majority of Americansto a small minority of oil and gascorporations and their shareholders.NERA’s study states that many wageearners would be affected by risingenergy costs and loss of jobs in avariety of sectors, yet concludes thatexports are in the public interest.Redo the economic study, taking intoaccount the real costs of exporting

What Can We Do About Fracking?

The Sierra Club believes no community shouldbe forced to accept the risks of fracking. … Theproposed Illinois rules tighten some of the loop-holes found in other states. But here’s the thing:Even these improvements do not fully protectthe health and safety of the good people ofIllinois. In fact, no proposed legislation in anystate currently does. - Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune “Coming Clean” blog, March 11, 2013 LNG continued on page 9

An overview of the problems with hydraulic fracturing for oil and gas, with emphasis on implementinga solution. Featured speaker: Doug Shields, former city councilman for Pittsburgh, the city that enactedthe first “rights-based” ban on fracking in the nation. Ask Doug and the panel anything about theimpact of fracking on a community. They have first hand info. There are 1,000 court cases of commu-nities who are in the process of trying to recover damages caused by frackers. In nearly every case,water contamination was a key issue. Keeping our water safe, clean, healthy and protected from aprocess that uses unregulated, secret ingredients will be discussed. Ben Price, project director for theCommunity Environmental Legal Defense Fund, will explain the rights-based ordinance process, itssuccess rate and how it compares to other kinds of lawmaking. Contact Jeanne Blackwell, SLOcleanwateraction.org, at [email protected], or Shannon Biggs, www.globalexchange.org,415-575-5540.

A Town Hall Meeting


Happy Birthday to Us

Ranchers for Peace are Charles & Ray Duncan, a father/daughter duo from theCentral Coast of CA with a fresh take on acoustic folk-rock they’ve termed “neo-hippie protest music.” Thoughtful songwriting, heartfelt harmonies, and janglyguitar/harmonica unite for a re-birth of that change-the-world attitude previouslyheard blowing in the wind during the Summer of Love. Their new EP, “NotAlone,” follows up on last year’s debut EP, “Tell All The World.”

SIP Certifiedsustainably farmed

vineyards and winesspeak to the

farmer’s commit-ment to protectingboth natural and

human resources.

A regional craftbrewery with a

singular purpose – tocraft the world’s bestbeers. Passionately

in pursuit of theperfect beer…and

never satisfied. Weare living beer.

Come to a party and fundraiser marking the last 45 years of the Santa Lucia Chapter’s work to conserve the naturaltreasures that make life here something special. (And since we also need to prepare for the next 45 years, that worksout to a ticket price of $90 at the bargain rate of a dollar a year.) From 3 to 7 p.m. on Saturday, May 11, we’ll be cel-ebrating with food, drink, music and more at a beautiful home and garden in the Edna Valley.

Music provided by Ranchers for Peace, food by the Sierra Club, beers and wines by local brewers and vintners.

Plus:

“John Muir’s Yosemite”Outings Chair Joe Morris, who leadsour popular SLO city walks, will takeyou back to Yosemite as John Muirknew it 140+ years ago. With vintageslides and music, you will take a tourof its long-lost sights and pioneers, andhear the stories of Muir’s transforma-tion into America’s wildernessvisionary.

A $90 ticket gets you all of above plusappetizers & main course. Reserve yourplace(s) by April 10 and get event ad-dress & map. Send an e-mail [email protected], or call(805) 543-8717.

With thanks to these providers offine libations:

Spend May 11 with the Sierra Club in Edna Valley

Over 300 acres ofCertified Organicvineyards by the

California CertifiedOrganic Farmers

(CCOF) in compli-ance with USDA

standards.

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Sanctuarycontinued from page 2

Bird SanctuaryTaking Off

owns Red Cedar Vineyards (1,731acres). Other large vineyards are ownedby Constellation and Treasury WineEstates, both huge corporations. So Paso Robles vineyards are nowlargely controlled by powerfulinterests from outside the area. Smalland medium wine grape growers andthe rural residents are wondering howmuch longer they will have water fortheir vineyards and homes. Thedeepest straw -- or deepest pocket-book -- may win. Meanwhile, a Groundwater BasinManagement Plan Steering Committeehas been remarkably ineffective. In theface of the immediate emergency, ithas had nothing to say about therelentless planting by the big growers,sinking their straws ever deeper, andhas kept its focus resolutely on uselessvoluntary conservation measures forresidents and capital water projects inthe far distant future — a future whichis looking increasingly unlikely toinclude a viable Paso Robles Ground-water basin. Last October, North County Watchchallenged the Steering Committee “tobring forward proposals for waterconservation measures for all agricul-tural operations. The con-servation measures must bemandatory, enforceable, andhave mechanisms for over-sight.” That challenge hasnot yet been met. The only choice left forthose who stand to loseeverything they have workedfor is to begin the process ofadjudicating the groundwaterbasin -- the only optionunder California water law.

Do you feel an overdraft? Adjudication happenswhen a basin is determinedto be in overdraft. Per the

California Department of WaterResources, “overdraft” is the conditionof a ground water basin where theamount of water extracted exceeds theamount of ground water recharging thebasin “over a period of time.” Thisdescribes the Paso Robles Groundwa-ter basin -- a conclusion the County istrying hard to avoid, under pressurefrom major water users. In 2012, the County released theresults of a well-monitoring study forthe area, including hydrographscovering a thirty-year period forrepresentative wells in Estrella,Shandon, and Creston. Precipitationvalues, as North County Watch notedin a recent letter to the County, “showthat the groundwater declines continuein spite of the amount of rain that isreceived in the basin. Basically, themajority of the groundwater basin is indecline. The fact is, it is in overdraft.”NCW pointed out that the “period oftime” required under the state’sdefinition of overdraft “must be longenough to produce a record that, whenaveraged, approximates the long-termaverage hydrologic conditions for thebasin. The thirty years of data from thehydrographs irrefutably supports theuse of the word ‘overdraft’.” Adjudication of the basin appearsinevitable, but NCW points out thatthe County, prior to an official

determination of overdraft, still needsto take immediate action “to abate thenuisance created by its water manage-ment policies and its agriculturalpolicies.” As the County struggles to avoid the“O” word and adjudication looms,examples of actions the County cantake include: Enacting an urgency interimordinance regulating new plantingsand expansion of irrigated ag and otherwater intensive uses in the affectedbasin which limits per parcel use ofwater to a sustainable level; Requiring a hold harmless notifica-tion, similar to the Right to Farmnotification, in the form of a recordednotice as part of the title process whenland is sold in the basin noticing thebuyer that the basin is in decline andthe buyer should not rely on ground-water for intensive water uses; Enacting an urgency interimordinance requiring new and expandedwater users provide liability insuranceor bonding that guarantees thatresidential users’ water supply andwells are maintained at current levels,current water quality and quantity; Enacting an urgency moratoriumrestricting the installation on newwells to no greater than 6” casing; Adopting an urgency interim planfor the fair and equitable allocation of

groundwater which protects thesuperior rights, per state law, ofresidential users, based on thehealth and safety of the residents,and their superior right to a clean,potable water supply;Enacting an urgency moratoriumon all agricultural overheadirrigation, including for frostprotection measures;Enacting an urgency moratoriumbanning construction of allreservoirs for the storage of waterfor irrigation purposes; Safeguarding public trust assetsby updating its water assessment

use to include environmental and natural resource requirements.

the seismic survey permit process witha simple statement to the effect that theproposed activity is not allowablewithin Sanctuary waters. Instead, local citizens and environ-mental groups, fighting a losing battleall the way through the regulatoryprocess, had to attempt a Hail Marypass at the end of it, pushing backagainst the momentum of multipleprior permit approvals. In short, we got lucky. A February 22 meeting convened byMorro Bay Mayor Jamie Irons andCity Councilman Noah Smuklerbrought Gulf of the FarallonesNational Marine Sanctuary Superin-tendent Maria Brown and her prede-cessor Ed Ueber to the Morro BayCommunity Center, along with ZekeGrader, executive director of thePacific Coast Federation of Fisher-men’s Associations. They spoke abouttheir first-hand experience in manag-ing, working and living with a marinesanctuary that was established in 1981and protects 1,250 square miles ofmarine habitat off San Francisco. Grader said of his experience as theleader of commercial fishermeninvolved with the Gulf of the Faral-lones and Cordell Bank NationalMarine Sanctuaries, “I don’t thinkthere’s a government entity that we’vehad a better relationship with.” TheGulf of the Farallones sanctuary, likeall such sanctuaries, supports theeconomic growth of local coastal

communities,scientific re-search, and thepreservation ofunderwatertreasures — andthe health of thelocal fishingindustry — forfuture genera-tions. Some otherinteresting factsrelated by thedistinguishedpanelists:

The SanctuaryAdvisory Councilcan be defined however a com-munity wants to define it in itssanctuary charter. Historically, theyhave been eminently democratic: onestakeholder group, one seat, one vote. The Sanctuary Advisory Council iscentral to the hiring decision forsanctuary superintendent The National Oceanic and Atmo-spheric Administration (NOAA)delegates authority for managing thesanctuary to the local superintendent 99 percent of the recommendationsmade by the Gulf of the FarallonesSAC are implemented Every marine sanctuary is different!Each has its own founding document,which outlines which activities thesanctuary will manage. San Luis

Obispo could have a sanctuary thatonly regulates offshore oil and gasdrilling.

In other words, the establishmentand management of a national marinesanctuary is based on local control andinput from the community. It is up to everyone with a stake inthe environmental health of the CentralCoast to grasp the reality of bothrecent history and the future threatscoming our way (see sidebar at right)and support the real bottom line: weneed a permanent solution for protec-tion along our coast. That’s why Sierra Club is advocatingfor the creation of a Central CoastNational Marine Sanctuary.

By the Environmental Defense Center

In August 2011, EDC researchuncovered that Occidental PetroleumCompany disclosed that on May 27,2011, it had fracked an oil well withinthe Rincon field, located between thecities of Ventura and Carpinteria, andsituated within steep coastal hills thatdrain straight into the ocean. The fracking operation was con-ducted at a depth of 8,474 feet andrequired more than 360,000 gallons ofwater. In March, an oil spill from theRincon field occurred after a landslideruptured a pipeline, releasing approxi-mately 210 gallons of oil on the beachbetween Hobson and Faria CountyParks. EDC is working to determinewhether more fracking operations areplanned within Ventura County, and toadvocate for full environmentalanalysis and disclosure before anyfuture projects are approved.

Fracking in CoastalWatersheds

“There’s no way in the world it would happen in the sanc-tuary” Some words for our local fishing industry to contemplate thenext time something like a 250db seismic survey comes along.

Pasocontinued from page 1

Dry hole Per the city’s Groundwater Management Plan, there’s a large water deficit growing under Paso Robles.

After many months of determinedeffort by a local resident (see “Sanctu-ary for the Swallows,” Oct. 2012), theAvila Valley Advisory Council onMarch 11 formally voted to recom-mend to the County Board of Supervi-sors that Avila Beach be declared abird sanctuary. That outcome -- brought about bylobbying, networking, research, apetition drive, videos, preparation ofadvisory council packets and enlist-ment of testimony from local businessowners and Dept. of Fish and Wildlifepersonnel over those many months --was the work of local bird loverShirley Goetz. Shirley first came to theSierra Club nine years ago to ask forour help in protecting the local cliffswallow population and educatingresidents on the legal protections forthe species under federal law (see“Saw Swallows, Saved Same,” Sept.2004). We’ve been working with her eversince, as she broadened her vision andsharpened her determination to haveAvila Beach emulate Morro Bay anddeclare itself a bird sanctuary. All bird lovers should stay alert forthe formal agendizing of the birdsanctuary declaration by the Board ofSupervisors and make sure to show upat that meeting to say a few goodwords for the birds.


search: “Santa Lucia” and become our friend!

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Whale Gazing

You hurry across the fieldsfor out in the distance you spy a spoutRushing to the edge of the bluffyou long to be closer to a whale’s majesty

Standing on the headlands in the biting windyou grab binoculars, scanning back and forthYou don’t want to miss a thingYour neck and elbows achebut you’re exhilarated, and happy to keep waiting

Suddenly a seam opens in the water, adorned by a pleated wave,and you finally catch those wispy white pillars of sprayYou’re mesmerized by the black gliding whale backsand feel a similar giddiness to when you saw other worlds before,like first discovering cells pooling under a microscope

Though the blow is gone in an instantthe addicting thrill lingersYou marvel at the profound beauty of these mighty creaturesand wonder what could possibly make your day better

You can’t yet break away from the chance of seeing moreand then, a dazzling show awards you for your patience—You see a whale breach while four flukes arc together as if on paradeTheir ocean ballet moves you deeply

Grateful to have witnessed this spectacle,you look forward to their next migrationand are reminded again of the gloriouswonders on Earth.

Kalila Volkov, Feb. 2013

Utilities are trying to take awayyour right to go solar. The big utilities are launching amassive disinformation campaign tomislead the public, press and deci-sion-makers, in the hopes of haltingthe trend towards rooftop solar.* Firstin their sights: programs that allowCalifornians to offset their energybills with rooftop solar, and innovative proposals to bring those programs to renters. California has a long way to go before everyone can use clean energy, but if utilitiessucceed in ending new rooftop solar programs, we’re never going to get there. Thanks to rapid innovation, rooftop solar has never been a more cost-effectivesolution to rising energy bills. Last year, California broke the record for most rooftopinstallations in a single year, the majority of them in middle-income neighborhoods. That’s great news for regular Californians, but competition is a scary prospect forboardrooms that have relied on monopoly status for 100 years. Per the Mercury News:“Utilities make money by getting a guaranteed rate of return on the infrastructure theybuild, such as transmission lines or power plants, using ratepayers’ money. Buildingmore infrastructure is better for their bottom line. Rooftop solar reduces the need toadd power plants. It’s good for our electricity grid, but it upsets the status quo that hasboosted utilities’ revenues for so long.” That’s why the utilities are distorting the truth about solar programs that benefitregular working Californians, and are working overtime to stop threats to their guaran-teed profits. Don’t let the utilities prevent Californians from benefiting from solar, justso they can continue their guaranteed profits and monopoly over our energy.

Tell your representatives in Sacramento: Don’t buy the utility lies! We need more, not less rooftop solar in California! Weare setting up a My Generation Campaign Rapid Responder listserv, in the hopes that many of you will enlist in the effortto help bring local clean energy to California. The purpose of this listserv will be to keep you apprised of the campaign’swork but primarily, alert you to urgent issues – either threats to local clean energy or opportunities to promote it -- andsolicit support. It seems on a nearly daily basis some opportunity arises, from the very quick and easy (letters to the editor,calls to legislators) to bigger actions like a drop by with a legislator, writing an op-ed, gathering petitions, or hosting ahouse party. The bottom line is this: utilities are on the march to halt the gains the state has made to expand rooftop solarand we need your help. If you want to join, send an email to [email protected] and [email protected]. Feel free to introduce yourself and offer some background on who you are, why you want to join the list andhow you came to the issue.

Crisis. In it, we learn that the briefreturn of Sanchez de Lozada wasengineered by the international politicalconsulting firm of Greenberg CarvilleShrum, which intervened in Bolivia’s2002 election and pulled out a razor-thin win for the hapless “Goni” bydeploying the standard U.S. electoralrecipe of focus groups, branding, catchphrases and negative ads, sliding theirman into office with less than 22 per-cent of the vote. Sanchez promptly didas he had done in his previous term andsought to further bend his nation to thewill of the International Monetary Fundby imposing a crushing tax on Bolivia’spoorest citizens. Those citizenspromptly rioted and drove him out ofthe country. Without Carville & co. tointerfere, Evo Morales, who had beeninvolved in the Cochabamba waterprotests, was elected president with anunprecedented 54 percent of the vote. In the film, Jeremy Rosner, chiefstrategist for Greenberg Carville Shrumon the Sanchez campaign, is asked tocomment on the way things turned outin Bolivia. “I feel frustrated, and I feel respon-sible,” he says. But Rosner makes itclear that he does not feel responsiblefor perverting the democratic processand triggering revolt in a country wherehis firm had no business imposing itspolitical and economic ideology.Rosner’s firm backed their candidatebecause they, like him, are true believ-ers in the essential goodness of free-market economic globalization, whichthey consider synonymous withdemocracy. No, Rosner said he feltresponsible for paving the way for the

subsequent election of Morales,Bolivia’s first indigenous president,by a majority of the country’s voters. “I think the Bolivian people arebeing taken for a joy-ride by a bunchof irresponsible populists,” he said, “alot of people who will promise easysolutions [that are] just blatantly false,ugly, empty myths.” The myths that Rosner crafted forhis preferred candidate, while falseand empty, were not necessarily ugly,as they were simply vague wordcombinations chosen for placement inthe candidate’s mouth based on howthey polled with focus groups. It wasonly after he won the 2002 electionthat Gonzalez got specific, and there-by secured his ouster and exile. Bynon-mythological contrast, shortlyafter the inauguration of Evo Moralesin 2006, as reported in the Guardian,the new president “outlawed corrup-tion in a traditionally corruptsociety…halved his salary on takingoffice so he could employ moreteachers [and] has promised tochannel more of the proceeds ofBolivia’s vast oil and gas reserves tohis poorest people, the poorest in allSouth America. And he has alreadytaken significant steps to eradicatediscrimination and exploitation.” Carville/Shrum’s failure to imposeits will on the people of Bolivia, likethe resurrection of the Red Menaceby U.S. Trade Representative Schwaband Commerce Secretary Gutierrez,bear the marks of an argument that ishaving increasing difficulty findingvisible means of support. Whenviewed against the backdrop of thecollapse of the World TradeOrganization’s last round of tradetalks, it is not hard to detect a note of

Stocktoncontinued from page 4

desperation in remarks by Schwabreported in the July 2, 2007, edition ofthe Financial Times. Her corporatetrade-boosting task, she said, “hasbeen made harder by ‘the proliferationof television channels, cable channels,the internet, blogs’ and ‘un-checkedcommunication’…. Ms. Schwabrejects calls for a new discourse on thecosts and benefits of trade, sayingpoliticians and businesses need to turnup the volume.” Susan Schwab, meet Diane Park ofthe League of Women Voters of SanJoaquin County, who joined with theSierra Club and the Concerned Citi-zens Coalition of Stockton in the fightto return ownership of their watersystem to the people of Stockton. “We are thrilled that the people willonce again have a say over the way thewater is managed in our city,” Parksaid in the wake of their court win.“This decision truly is a victory fordemocracy.” Like Spinal Tap, the corporateglobalizers can turn up the volume allthe way to eleven and it won’t improvethe song they’re singing. Thanks tounchecked communication, the notionof democracy is now abroad in theland.

* “California utilities are fighting solar progress,” by Adam BrowningSan Jose Mercury News, Jan. 25, 2013

TAKE ACTION

Fight thePower

LNGcontinued from page 6

Larr

y W

an

LNG from the U.S., including environ-mental and health impacts, as well asloss of jobs across many affectedindustries. Complete a full environmentalimpact analysis for exporting naturalgas, as required by the NationalEnvironmental Policy Act. As theEnvironmental Protection Agency hasrepeatedly advised, a comprehensiveenvironmental impact statement isessential to understanding the publichealth and environmental implicationsof increased domestic fracking. The comments were submitted bythe Sierra Club—including its Colo-rado, Kansas, Michigan, Oregon,Pennsylvania, Texas, and WyomingChapters—Catskill Citizens for SafeEnergy, Center for Biological Diver-sity, Clean Air Council, ColumbiaRiverkeeper, Delaware Riverkeeper,Lower Susquehanna Riverkeeper,Shenandoah Riverkeeper, and UpperGreen River Alliance. For more information on whypolicymakers and the public need fairanalysis and disclosure of the risks ofLNG export before deciding whetherto allow exports, read the Sierra Club’s“Look Before the LNG Leap” report.

Errata

In “Deadly Analysis” (March), two quotes from scientists about theearthquake faults around the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant weremisattributed due to an editing error. The quote “If the Hosgri Fault runsup to Bolinas and it’s connected to the Shoreline Fault there is apossibility of a magnitude 7.7 earthquake under the plant” should havebeen attributed to Dr. Jeanne Hardebeck of the U.S. Geological Survey.Dr. Samuel Johnson of the USGS, discussing the possible extension ofthe Hosgri Fault from Point Conception to Bolinas, said “If the fault wereto extend this far then that would be close to an 8.0.”

1 0


Messer Land & Development Com-pany has installed across severalsegments of Huasna Road. The roadpasses through the company’s vastproperty holdings before entering thenational forest. Messer is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Queen CityInvestments in Long Beach, a corpora-tion with assets exceeding $4 billion. Since the 1940s, Messer and priorlandowners have installed a series ofgates across the road to restrict publicaccess. Various forest user groups - hunters,hikers, campers, and equestrians -along with the Forest Service, the

County of San Luis Obispo, andmembers of Congress, have triedunsuccessfully to negotiate a long-term solution with the landowner. To permanently restore public accessto the area, Los Padres ForestWatch isbuilding a legal case in the event that amutually-agreeable resolution cannotbe reached with the landowner. Under long-standing California lawdating back to the 1850s and affirmedseveral times by the CaliforniaSupreme Court, a public right-of-waycan be established by showing fiveyears of continuous public use prior to1972.

1. Pre-1972 Evidence of Access. Ifyou visited this area prior to 1972, orknow of people who did, pleasecontact us to tell us your stories andhelp us restore public access to thisarea. Maps and photographs of thearea older than 1972 will also help usbuild our case. Email us at [email protected], call us at (805) 617-4610ext.1, or write to us at ForestWatch,Attn: Huasna Access, PO Box 831,Santa Barbara, CA 93102. 2. Donate to Our Huasna AccessFund. This is a long-term effort thatwill require a significant investment of

Los Padrescontinued from page 3

Hope to see you soon ForestWatch is working to ensure that the public can once againenjoy this beautiful view of Pine Ridge and the Stony Creek watershed in the Los PadresNational Forest.

TAKE ACTION

No admittance A young Huasna Valley Resident and his family were recently turned awayfrom a camping trip after finding this makeshift barricade across the road, blocking publicaccess to campgrounds and hiking trails.

time to research, negotiate an ease-ment with the landowner, and poten-tially file a lawsuit if we’re unable toreach agreement. Donations to theHuasna Access Fund will ensure thatwe have the resources necessary topursue this case. 3. Forward this to your friends.Help us get the word out to yourfriends who might have used the areabefore 1972, or who might otherwisewant to help. Read more on ourwebsite at lpfw.org Thank you for your support as wework to restore public access to thisbeautiful corner of the great outdoorsin the Los Padres National Forest.

By Lynne Harkins

PG&E foresters say that tree cuttingtrucks and teams recently convergingon Cambria are just for regular, routinemaintenance. This is the classificationthat distinguishes minor tree trimmingand the removal of shrubs and saplingsfrom the removal of major vegetation,which is considered development inthe Coastal Zone and requires aCoastal Development Permit. In addition to the “regular” work, aPG&E forester who was involved inthe 2009 decimation/removals of

mature and healthy Monterey Pines inCambria came to my door to informme about what he described as a“special” upcoming tree removalproject. He was looking for my ap-proval to take out two big eucalyptustrees in front of my house. He alsoreferred to nearby mature pines, and Ilater saw some marked with the bluepaint that means PG&E removal is inthe works. Below is a photo of the five vehiclesdeploying into the forest every day as I

write. How can this“regular” work not entailmajor vegetation re-moval, in addition to the“special” work? It doesnot seem credible thatPG&E’s activities aren’thaving a significantimpact on the forest. I informed the CambriaForest Committee at itsMarch 13th meeting ofthe possibility of anotherforest-unfriendlyinitiative coming toCambria from PG&E.The CFC was unaware. Forest Committeemembers say thatPG&E’s mitigationplanting of 300 trees —a result of the CoastalCommission’s enforce-ment action due to thelack of permitting in2009 — has only justnow been accomplished.

Marked out This Monterey pine in Cambria’s Special Projects Area2 is mature, healthy and has survived the plague of pine pitchcanker that killed a number of nearby big pines. This native tree’sresistance to the canker and its adaptation to this hotter, drier areaof the forest means it has important genetic heritage to pass on.

While that was good news, the factthat the trees ended up on ranchproperty up San Simeon Creek Road,not in the watershed where the treeremovals occurred, is less thanoptimal. This work is scheduled for theCambria CSD-designated “SpecialProjects Area #2.” No further buildingwill be permitted in this area, an

acknowledgement of its value as aMonterey Pine forest and Environ-mentally Sensitive Habitat Area. The 2009 PG&E forest offensiveoccurred in “Special Project Area #1”despite its habitat status and value. Our best hope is that the CoastalCommission will weigh in in a timelyfashion to review this project andprotect the forest.

Woodsman, Where’s Your Permit?

Santa Lucian • April 20131 1

ClassifiedsNext issue deadline is April 12 . To geta rate sheet or submit your ad andpayment, contact:Sierra Club - Santa Lucia ChapterP.O. Box 15755San Luis Obispo, CA [email protected]

CYNTHIA HAWLEYATTORNEY

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTIONLAND USE

CIVIL LITIGATION

P.O. Box 29 Cambria California 93428Phone 805-927-5102 Fax 805-927-5220

A portion of any commissiondonated to the Sierra Club

Pismo toSan Simeon

GREEN HOMES

Les KangasSolar Energy ConsultantREC Solar, Inc.775 Fiero Lane, Suite 200San Luis Obispo, CA 93401 Office: (805) 528-9705Cell: (805) 305-7164Toll Free: (888) OK-SOLAR (657-6527)Fax: (805) 528-9701

Hold Your Water“Slow it, sink it, spread it” is the mantraof enlightened water managers whoknow that water works best when itstays on the land where it falls. Now that mantra can be yours, too,along with healthier soils, happierwildlife, and reductions in your waterbill, thanks to the tips and techniques inRainwater Management for LowImpact Development, a publication ofthe Appropriate Technology Coalition --SLO Green Build, the Santa Lucia

Chapter of theSierra Club andthe SurfriderFoundation,available for $10postage paid,while supplieslast. Mail yourcheck to SierraClub, P.O. Box15755, SLO93406.

2012 Crop Grass Fed BeefEstate Grown Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Available Now-Delivery AvailablePlease Get in Touch For More Information

Greg and Linda McMillan

805-238-4820 [email protected]

1 2


Outings and Activities CalendarSeller of travel registration information: CST 2087766-40. Registration as a seller of travel does not constitute approval by the State of California.

This is a partial listing of Outingsoffered by our chapter.

Please check the web pagewww.santalucia.sierraclub.org for

the most up-to-date listing ofactivities.

All our hikes and activities are open to all Club members and the general public. Please bring drinking water toall outings and optionally a lunch. Sturdy footwear is recommended. All phone numbers listed are within areacode 805 unless otherwise noted. Pets are generally not allowed. A parent or responsible adult must accompanychildren under the age of 18. If you have any suggestions for hikes or outdoor activities, questions about theChapter’s outing policies, or would like to be an outings leader, call Outings Chair Joe Morris, 549-0355. Forinformation on a specific outing, please call the listed outing leader.

Join us for a 3-day, 3-island, live-aboard cruise to Channel Islands Na-tional Park. Hike wild, windswepttrails bordered with blazing wildflow-ers. Kayak rugged coastlines. Marvelat pristine waters teeming with frolick-ing seals and sea lions. Train yourbinoculars on unusual sea and landbirds. Watch for the endangered islandfox. Look for reminders of the Chu-mash people who were here forthousands of years. Or just relax at sea.All cruises depart from Santa Barbara

Island Hopping in Channel IslandsNational Park

Last chance

salewall or deskcalendar: $7.00

To order, call: 805-543-7051

The soft crunch of pine needles under your feet releases a cool, reminiscent smell. There they are, right at your feet, themain material for your unique creation, a pine needle basket. You don’t need a loom or mountains of materials for thesespecial creations. Join artist Elizabeth Bear at the Botanical Garden as she guides budding basket weavers through theart of pine needle basket weaving. Attendeeswill be led through the process of creatingfragrant and sustainable pieces of artwork at this intimateworkshop. Each piece is as unique as the person whocreates it. This is a wonderful Mother’s Day activity andthe baskets make wonderful gifts. If your inner artist iscalling, this is the perfect time to answer! Just bring sharpscissors, imagination and a bagged lunch as Ms. Bearprovides all materials and her insight. Each participantwill make their own basket and start a second basket towork on at home. Ms. Bear’s artwork will be displayed at

the 9th AnnualArt Eco show atthe San LuisObispo Botani-cal Garden.Workshop costis $95 forGarden mem-bers, $120 fornon-members.Limited classsize. To registercall 541-1400x304, or go toslobg.org. Formore informa-tion visitslobg.org.

2013 Sierra ClubCalendar

Fri-Sun, Apr. 5th-7th. CarrizoPlains Outing. Two nights campingat Selby Rocks car camp, free and noreserved sites, for hikes through areasof often stunning wildflowers. Gatherat camp on Saturday, 9 a.m., carpool today hike to be determined. Bring yourown food, water, sturdy shoes, camp-ing material. Info.: Carlos Diaz-Saavedra, 546-0317.

Sat., April 13th, 8 a.m. Hike toMachesna Mountain. 12-15 milehike, 3000 ft. elevation gain, throughthe Machesna Wilderness. Startingfrom American Canyon Campground,we will climb 1500 ft. to an openmeadow and pond below MachesnaMt. After lunch we will climb severalhundred feet to ridge overlooking theCarrizo Plain, then descend to a lushgreen valley, before ascending to ourfinal rest stop. Plenty of wildflowersand pleasant weather likely. Bringlunch, water, sturdy hiking shoes, andplan to be out all day. Some of us maygo to the Pozo Saloon after, if open.Meet at Pacific Beverage Company inSanta Margarita. This is not a begin-ner’s hike! Hikers must RSVP as Imay limit the number of people on thehike. For details call Gary (473-3694).Rain or threat of rain cancels. BringPlenty of Water! Sun., Apr. 14th, 2 p.m. City Walk:Victorian-Age San Luis Obispo. Guided stroll past 22 stately century-old homes and churches in the OldTown Historic District, SLO’s former“Nob Hill.” See residences of pastmayors, newspaper editor, and founderof Cal Poly. Eavesdrop on the lives ofthe newly rich who transformed thecity at the end of the 19th century. Duration about 1 1/2 hrs. Meet infront of Jack House, 536 Marsh St. Info.: Joe Morris, 549-0355. Sun., April 21st, 10 a.m. SycamoreSprings Trekking-Pole Hike. 2-milehike to model the benefits of usingtrekking poles, 700 feet elevationchange. Meet near the entrance ofSycamore Springs Resort, 1215 AvilaBeach Resort. Confirm with leader,David Georgi. 458-5575 [email protected].

Explore ournewest nationalpark (est. 2013)and close toSLO. It’s lessthan 3 hrs.drive to the eastentrance andlocation of themain visitors’center and mostscenic trails.Enjoy twonights campingplus socially-paced hikespast spectacular rock spires and gorges, profuse spring wildflowers, talus caves,and critical habitat for California condors. There will be ample

Joe Morris, Outings ChairSierra Club, Santa Lucia Chapter(805) [email protected]

Fri.-Sun., Apr. 26th-28th, Pinnacles National Park Campout

Sat., May 4, 9:30 a.m. - 2:30 p.m. The Art of Nature – Pine Needle Basketry Workshop

sponsored by the San Luis Obispo Botanical Garden

aboard the 68' twin diesel Truth. The cost, $590, includes an assignedbunk, all meals, snacks and beveragesplus the services of a ranger/naturalistwho will travel with us to help leadhikes, point out items of interest, andpresent evening programs. To make areservation send a $100 check, writtento Sierra Club, to leader Joan JonesHoltz, 11826 The Wye St., El Monte,CA 91732. For more information callor e-mail 626-443-0706 [email protected].

April 7-9; May 5-7; June 2-4; July 21-23; Aug. 25-27; Sept. 15-17

leisure time and a spirited campfiresing-along. You can arrive any timeafter 3 p.m. on Friday; departure bynoon Sunday. Tents only; no RVs.Bring all needed camp gear and foodplus entree for potluck salad onSaturday night. Fee covers groupcampground fees, parking, and snackson Saturday evening, children over 12welcome with parents. Entrance fee of$5 per car. Carpooling is essential dueto limited parking—a participant listwill be sent to campers beforehand.To reserve, send 2 self-addressed,stamped envelopes, H and C phones,and check for $40 (per person) madeout to “Sierra Club” to Joe Morris,533 Pismo St., #4, San Luis Obispo,CA 93401. Info.: 549-0355. Limit of18. No refunds can be given forcancellations after April 19th ifreplacement not found.

santa lucian santa lucian - sierra club · stewart and lynda resnick, the new owners of justin...

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