The Greatest Killer of US Citizens is the National Rifle Association

The NRA is the paid operative of the gun industry to throw up any challenge possible to gun control of any kind.  The NRA is no longer an organization defending the Second Amendment.  It is an unprincipled lobbyist for the gun industry with no thought of the effects of 300.000 million guns on citizens in the US.  This may sound a bit extreme, but I cannot say otherwise; the Republican Party, not Iran or North Korea or Al Quaeda,  is the greatest enemy of America, and the NRA, supported by the Republican Party, is the prostitute who profits from all facets of gun and ammunition sales in America.  Most gun owners in America have lost faith in the NRA, which stands alone as a shadow of its former self, a ridiculous spectacle unable to change the course even though it has lost its way.  Anyone who still supports the NRA should really have a sanity and morality check.

Fracking Projects Now to Need California Environmental Quality Act Review

FRACKING PROJECTS NOW TO NEED CEQA REVIEW

                                      

   “For 40 years, the Clean Water Act has

helped protect our water. But in the 112th

Congress, we’ve seen an unprecedented attack

from House leadership on clean water policy,”

said Michael Brune, executive director of the

Sierra Club.

   Bakersfield’s newly elected 23rd

Congressional District Representative Kevin

McCarthy, House Majority Whip,  received an

“F” from Sierra Club for votes cast against

protection of U.S. water resources. Democrat

Jim Costa also received an “F” grade.

   View the new Clean Water Report Card at

www.sierraclub.org/coal/reportcard/

   Oil companies that want to extract oil using

hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, techniques in

California may now find the controversial process a

tough sell.

   Responding to pressure from the environmental

community, the California agency responsible for

regulating the oil and gas industry recently delivered a

major setback to fracking in a decision likely to

reverberate throughout the state.

    In a nutshell, the state’s Division of Oil, Gas &

Geothermal Resources reversed its decision to exempt

an oil company from environmental review as

required in the California Environmental Quality Act

– an action that may set a precedent for future permit seekers too. 

    The agency’s decision came after Sierra Club filed

a lawsuit to force the agency to compile the

environmental review that was totally lacking for this

project and, by implication, for thousands of other

such projects that have gone completely without

public disclosure for many years.  In a Nov. 27 letter

to the oil company, Century Exploration Resources of

Bakersfield, the agency wrote:

    “Following review and analysis of the legal

challenge, [the agency] has determined that the

proposed well operations will result in more than a

minor alteration in the condition of the affected land,

and therefore are not exempt pursuant to CEQA

Guidelines section 15304.”

    “This is clearly a result of the Sierra Club lawsuit

and is a first step towards public disclosure of the

potentially massive environmental impacts, including

possible fracking, of the thousands of new oil/gas

wells that DOGGR has permitted this year alone,”

said Gordon Nipp of the Kern-Kaweah Chapter.

    In a separate lawsuit filed

in October, the Sierra Club,

court to with a larger-scale

pattern and practice lawsuit

Earthjustice, the Center for

Biological Diversity, Earthworks and other environmental advocates went to

to force the agency to abide

by the state’s foremost law

that requires public dis-

closure and protects public

health and the environment.

   “By turning a blind eye to fracking, California

officials are letting oil companies endanger our air,

our water and our climate,” Kassie Siegel, director of

the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law

Institute, said at the time.

   California wells have been pumping oil for more

than 100 years. As more easily exploited petroleum

deposits have been used up and prices have climbed,

oil companies have turned to fracking to increase

production.

   Enticed by claims that more than 14 billion barrels

of oil are trapped in the state’s Monterey and Santos

                                              

 shale formations, oil and gas companies have

commenced an exploratory drilling and fracking

campaign beneath central and southern California.

These shale formations span 1,700 square miles

across the San Joaquin Valley to the Pacific Ocean,

including the Los Angeles basin, a region

crisscrossed with active earthquake faults.

   Prior to the decision, the agency has been

rubberstamping oil and gas drilling activity,

declaring it exempt from environmental review or

issuing “negative declarations” that such activity

will have “no significant effect” on the

environment, without any study or mention of the

potential impacts from fracking or other drilling

techniques.

  The agency’s new decision moves in the right

direction.

  “Burning fossil fuels has taken its toll on our

planet for far too long. Now the desperate search

for the last remaining drops of oil has reached a

scale that threatens to add even more burden. All

the while, the state regulators responsible for

oversight have been too slow to respond,” said Jim

Metropulos, former senior advocate at Sierra Club.

         

                               —Gordon Nipp, Chapter Vice-Chair

FRACKING: New oi

Gutting California Environmental Quality Act Would be Wrong for California

Kathryn Phillips & Joel Reynolds: Gutting CEQA would be wrong for California

By Kathryn Phillips and Joel Reynolds
Special to the Mercury News

 A last-minute legislative attempt to gut California’s landmark environmental disclosure law was squelched earlier this year, but some in Sacramento are talking about reviving the worst of it.

The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) is critical to protecting the public’s right to know about the impact proposed development would have on everything from public health to traffic congestion to climate change. Capital insiders and business representatives attacking CEQA are drawing a misguided distinction between a strong economy and the public’s right to know about risks to their health and the environment. In truth, we can have both.

The core of the proposal they offer as reform is a so-called “standards-based” approach that would exempt a project from environmental review if it meets standards applicable under certain other laws. Those include outmoded planning and zoning laws and outdated local air pollution control regulations that don’t reflect the latest science. This would replace the comprehensive environmental disclosure and project review that CEQA requires.

The effective result of this “reform,” which Michael Rubio, the incoming chair of the Senate Environmental Quality Committee, has been advocating on a state-wide tour, would be to nullify CEQA. It would strip away the protection from local agencies’ foot-dragging on health and environmental protections that CEQA has provided Californians for 40 years.

This will not improve our state’s economy or make funding for new construction magically appear. What will draw more dollars to our state is a robust economy supported by good, clean jobs. A healthy quality of life including clean air, clean water and recreational opportunities is a powerful magnet for both business and tourism.

Californians have long valued the right that CEQA guarantees to weigh in on local land use decisions. We have also made it clear that we want to be informed about how pollutants might affect our health. CEQA requires developers to publicly disclose how their project would impact the environment and to show what they can do to minimize those impacts.

Environmental organizations like ours are open to discussing adjustments that would reduce unnecessary delays in the CEQA process and make it work better. But we will not agree to cut out the heart of CEQA at the expense of our children’s health and our quality of life.

Occasionally — and only very occasionally according to all the data on court filings — Californians file lawsuits to force compliance with CEQA. This is how the law was designed. Because there is no state agency charged with enforcing the statute, it is up to citizens to enforce it in the courts.

CEQA is an essential check on government decision-making on a wide range of development decisions, from oil drilling along our coast to industrial development to allocation of natural resources like clean water, clean air and open space. Californians should remain wary of giving up their say in decisions about how and where property is developed.

With the election behind us, it is time for the legislature to turn its attention to the issues that really matter. Promote good, clean jobs. Find a sustainable path forward with the state budget. Revive our struggling schools and universities. And set a course for a California that is both green and golden.

Gutting environmental safeguards won’t get us there.

Why Is the California Environmental Quality Act Getting a Crummy Deal?

“Principles only mean something if you stick to them when it’s inconvenient.”

There’s been some focus of late on legislation to “reform” (read: gut) the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), mostly because one of the bills waiting for the Governor’s signature would help fast-track a football stadium in Los Angeles. While the GOP “attack on CEQA” game is an annual favorite come budget time, this year the down economy helped spur three Dem-sponsored bills, all waiting on the Governor’s desk.

Offered up to ease the wrath of the Job-Creator-Hater god, these bills are sprinkled with some quotable nuggets:

SB 226: Because of the severe recession that continues to impact California and because of the need to promote jobs in the construction industry, it is important to make the sustainable communities assessment available as early as possible in order to promote the construction of projects that will foster the use of transit.

AB 900: The purpose of this act is to provide unique and unprecedented streamlining benefits under the California Environmental Quality Act for projects that provide the benefits described above for a limited period of time to put people to work as soon as possible. [This one even has a spiffy name “Jobs and Economic Improvement Through Environmental Leadership Act of 2011”]

SB 292: The overall unemployment rate in California is 12.0 percent, in Los Angeles County it is 13.3 percent, and in the City of Los Angeles it is 14.6 percent.

The project will generate an estimated 12,000 full-time jobs during construction and 11,000 permanent jobs at the Los Angeles Convention Center and in the hospitality and related industries. It is anticipated that the development of additional hotels, restaurants, and retail uses in the vicinity of the project would generate additional jobs in excess of these estimates. [Yup, this one is for the Los Angeles Chargers.]

Yes, all three of these job-creating, economy-spurring bills were introduced by Democrats. Looks like our state Democratic leaders are doing a great job masquerading as Republicans. Apparently it’s a national trend, so trucker hats off to representatives representin’.
The bad news, however, is that this is terrible for the environment; not only in terms of precedent, but in real, on-the-ground impacts to communities around the state. It’s also verification that special financial interests trump the good of the commons, for politicians on both sides of the aisle.

Watering down one of our oldest, most powerful state environmental regulations is a risky business. Are we really in such dire straits that we have to take up the Rick Perry approach? The GOP-created false premise that we need to ease regulatory burdens so the “job creators” can hurry up and employ us may be more believable when the shortcut leads to a stadium instead of offshore accounts, but it’s just one more concession for the good of a few, at the expense of everyone. It’s another distraction, potentially pitting environmentalists against unions when we should be working together to create long-term, sustainable jobs. Quite frankly, it’s time for our Democratic leaders to stop following the GOP looking for crumbs, and to start sowing seeds.

Livia Borak is an attorney at Coast Law Group, LLP in Encinitas where she focuses on a variety of environmental issues representing various non-profit organizations. She’s a former San Diego Coastkeeper staff attorney and member of the third-place CityBeat Trivia night team By Rolland’s Beard. She serves on the board of League of Conservation Voters and is legal advisor to the environmental nonprofit Coastal Environmental Rights Foundation. She makes killer chocolate chip vegan cookies.

by Livia Borak

Chuck Hegel is the Neocons' Worst Nightmare - Support Him!

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/13/us/old-foes-lead-charge-against-chuck-hagel.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&pagewanted=all&_r=0

Dan Lungren is Gone; is Tom McClintock Next?

Ex-Attorney General Dan Lungren Loses U.S. House Seat

With one congressional race yet to be called, the 52nd district in San Diego, the delegation had shifted to 37 Democrats and 15 Republicans.  What carpetbagger position does the wise money believe Lungren will pack his bags and head to as McClintock did in his district.  Republicans, the anti-government party, continually roam to find another govenment nipple to suck on.  Where will Lungren go to seek reelection?

What do you think?  WHEN LUNGREN GOES CAN MCCLINTOCK BE FAR BEHIND?

From Staff and Wire Service Reports

Republican Rep. Dan Lungren lost his re-election bid to Democratic challenger Ami Bera yesterday in one of California’s most hotly contested congressional contests.

Voters from the Sacramento suburbs ousted the veteran lawmaker in the race for the state’s newly redrawn 7th Congressional District. This was the second attempt for Bera, a 45-year-old physician who failed to unseat Lungren two years ago.

Bera defeated Lungren 51.1 percent to 48.9 percent.

His win adds to Democratic gains in California’s congressional races. The state’s majority party benefited from an independent redistricting process that was in full effect for the first time this year.

Before the Nov. 6 election, California’s congressional delegation had 33 Democrats, 19 Republicans and one vacancy in a Democratic district. With one congressional race yet to be called, the 52nd district in San Diego, the delegation had shifted to 37 Democrats and 15 Republicans.

Lungren, 66, is a former state attorney general who served nine terms in Congress, having first represented a Long Beach-area district. He was elected attorney general in 1990, defeating then-San Francisco District attorney Arlo Smith, then reelected in 1994 over Tom Umberg, then a legislator from Orange County.

He won the Republican nomination for governor in 1998, but lost the general election to Gray Davis, who was lieutenant governor at the time. He subsequently moved to the northern part of the state and made a congressional comeback.

He reported raising more than $2.2 million for his current campaign through the third quarter’s close, while Bera reported raising more than $2.7 million through the same period.

It was one of the California congressional races that drew intense interest nationally, after gerrymandered strongholds were transformed into free-for-alls because of the independent redistricting process. Their contest was one of the most expensive congressional races in the country, with outside groups pouring in more than $8.3 million.

The loss will cost him the chairmanship of the House Administration Committee.

Neither candidate could be reached immediately for comment last night.

Lungren’s loss comes amid a Democratic landslide in California during the general election. Democrats picked up other seats in the nation’s largest congressional delegation and grabbed supermajorities in both houses of the Legislature.

The GOP has been hit by twin forces in California — a declining number of voters registered as Republican and the independent redistricting, which meant some GOP incumbents faced vastly different constituencies than when they were first elected.

Longtime Republican Rep. Mary Bono Mack lost her seat to Democrat Raul Ruiz, a Harvard-educated physician who mobilized the district’s growing swath of Hispanic voters. In San Diego, incumbent Republican Rep. Brian Bilbray was trailing Democratic challenger Scott Peters by more than 2,600 votes.

The heavier Democratic tilt in California has national implications because it helps position the party for 2014, when it hopes to reclaim the majority in the House of Representatives.

County registrars have 28 days after the election to finalize results under California law, but any candidate or voter can ask for a recount within the following five days. It was not immediately clear whether Lungren would ask for one.