Tag: Pollution

Fri 9/13: Carbajal’s anti-drilling bill passes the House. Join in to celebrate today and call your senators!

Action #1 – Congratulate Rep. Salud Carbajal for House passage of his bill banning off-shoring drilling!

All Santa Barbara Indivisibles and local activists are encouraged to attend Rep. Salud Carbajal’s press conference Friday September 13, to celebrate House passage of the “Coastal and Marine Economies Protection Act” (H.R. 1941). This bill bans future offshore oil and gas leasing off the U.S. coasts, and includes Carbajal’s “California Clean Coast Act” (H.R. 279) within it, which permanently prohibit oil and gas leasing off the coast of the State of California.

WHO:

  • Rep. Salud Carbajal, CA-24
  • Linda Krop, Chief Counsel, Environmental Defense Center
  • Michael Lyons, President, Get Oil Out
  • Dennis Allen, Chairman, Allen Construction
  • Ben Pitterle, Science & Policy Director, Santa Barbara Channelkeeper
  • Corley Kenna, Director, Global Communications and Public Relations, Patagonia
  • Sigrid Wright, CEO, Community Environmental Council

WHEN: Friday, September 13, 12:00 – 12:45 p.m. PDT
WHERE: Shoreline Park, East Parking Lot (closest to the pier), Santa Barbara, CA 93109

OR  thank him here: Rep. Salud Carbajal (CA-24): email.  DC (202) 225-3601, SB (805) 730-1710 SLO (805) 546-8348

The passage of this bill is crucial for Central Coast communities who have seen the devastation of the 1969 Santa Barbara and 2015 Plains All American Pipeline oil spills, and whose economies are directly tied to clean coasts and healthy ecosystems.
(Who cosponsored this? Check here – Julia Brownley and Katie Hill were cosponsors!)

Action #2 – Ask our legislators to get this passed in the Senate!

Continue reading “Fri 9/13: Carbajal’s anti-drilling bill passes the House. Join in to celebrate today and call your senators!” →

Mon 9/9: One-day notice! Join in to protect your community from oil industry pollution. County Supervisors Meeting Tuesday 9/10.

Actions – Write your supervisors and come to the meeting! 

“Hi indivisible and friends!
Los Padres National Forest is threatened by dangerously under-regulated oil development in Ventura County. We have a rare chance to change that.
On Tuesday, September 10, the Board of Supervisors will consider updating oil permitting to incorporate modern standards that better protect the health and safety of our communities and our environment. The proposed amendments would increase transparency, oversight, and public participation by ensuring that there is an environmental review, public notice, and a hearing before any new oil wells are drilled.

Mon 4/15: Those who would destroy our clean water protections are so close, they can taste it. So will we. “Waters of the U.S.”, Comment by tonight at 11:59 EST.

Action – The administration would like to redefine “water”. You know that this isn’t good. Save the current version of “Water of the United States” (WOTUS)

Clean water is not just a problem for Flint Michigan…
The Clean Water Act (CWA) has been regulating water in the United States since 1972 with bipartisan support under multiple administrations. In 2015, Obama’s EPA created the Waters of the United States (WOTUS), which added science-based protections and clarified terms, using the best input from reputable scientists, the Army Corps of Engineers, the public, agriculture, environmentalists, and more. Even with those protections in place, in any given year from 1982 to 2015, between 9 million and 45 million Americans got their drinking water from a source that was in violation of the Safe Drinking Water Act. Most at risk: people who live in rural, low-income areas.

Utilities, fossil fuel, mining, and farming interests are now expecting their return on investment in Trump, their lobbyists arguing that WOTUS defined federally regulated waters too broadly and that the scope should be limited per Supreme Court Justice (and noted NON-SCIENTIST) Scalia’s opinion to “only relatively permanent, standing or flowing bodies of water.” Then-EPA administrator Scott Pruitt issued a proposal in June 2017 to roll back the expanded definition, and our protections to having clean water. In January 2018, the EPA formally suspended the rule for two years, and in December, the administration unveiled a new plan to replace the rule. The deadline to make comments is TONIGHT (4/15), 11:59 pm EST.

  • Proposed rule here. Comment here.
  • Read other comments for inspiration here.

Comment examples: 

Continue reading “Mon 4/15: Those who would destroy our clean water protections are so close, they can taste it. So will we. “Waters of the U.S.”, Comment by tonight at 11:59 EST.” →

Mon 3/18: Keep strong Carbon Dioxide Emission Limits on Coal Plants – Comment in 10 minutes or less. Deadline tonight, 11:59 pm EST

Action – Protect Carbon Dioxide Emission Limits on Power Plants — Deadline TONIGHT, 3/18, by 11:59 pm EST.

We are currently starring in a terror movie, the plot worthy of any James Bond film. The villians, billionaires and multi-national corporations, in pursuit of boundless profit, are killing off our environmental protections, not only returning us to the days when our rivers caught on fire, our water gave us cancer and our air killed our kids, but to huge new disasters we’ve never seen before – hurricanes too big for our categories, tornados made of fire, 100-year or 500-year floods that happen every year.

If we’ve waiting for a superhero to save us… well, one 16-year-old girl from Sweden sent tens of thousands of school kids into the streets to protest government inaction.

Now it’s our turn.

Submit a comment to the oil-industry-controlled EPA opposing their proposed rule change that would eliminate our current strong carbon pollution standards that apply to new, modified and reconstructed fossil fuel-fired power plants. The administration’s proposal would relax the standard to a level that can easily be met with standard technology, continuing coal’s reign as our dirtiest energy polluter. Yes, it’s true what our opponents say. The carbon-capture rules DO make it really hard and expensive to build new coal plants.

Good.

Comment here. Continue reading “Mon 3/18: Keep strong Carbon Dioxide Emission Limits on Coal Plants – Comment in 10 minutes or less. Deadline tonight, 11:59 pm EST” →

Tues – 1/29: How has climate change affected you?

(Photo – Thomas Fire burns near Meiners Oaks in the Ojai Valley.)

This is our chance to let Congress know how climate change is affecting our lives.

(From Jim Hines, Los Padres Sierra Club)

Greetings Climate Activists:

 Our good friend congressman Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) chair of the House Committee on Natural Resources will be holding a month long series of hearings on the climate change crisis.

And he wants to hear from YOU. How has climate change impacted YOU.

Please share your thoughts with Chair Grijalva here.

Chair Grijalva will be using your comments and testimony from the hearings to develop far reaching climate change legislation this year

Jim

This is a nation-wide appeal. Share are far as you can.

 

Mon – 1/28: Reminder – TODAY is the last day to write a comment on 750 new oil wells up the road.

Photo: from video on steam injection enhanced oil recovery.

Some may say “This isn’t our county…not our problem.”
That’s not how resistance works.
We are indivisibly linked, not just with our own town or county, but with the issues that threaten our neighbors, our state and our nation. Help make California inhospitable for the toxic oil drilling industry, not just in Cat Canyon, but everywhere. (See maps at the bottom for future installation fights. One is probably close to you or your water source.)

Three companies are proposing to drill over 750 new oil wells in the northern part of Santa Barbara County. The draft Enviromental Impact Report (EIR) for one of these companies – Aera – was released in December and is open for public comment until 5:00 this afternoon.

Action #1 –  Write a Public Comment TODAY, until 5:00 pm.

Anyone can submit a comment on the draft EIR directly to Kathryn Lehr: klehr@countyofsb.org  or through http://350sb.org/public-comment/. Note – all comments must be made to be referring to the draft EIR itself. Here are some links to help. Continue reading “Mon – 1/28: Reminder – TODAY is the last day to write a comment on 750 new oil wells up the road.” →

Mon – 1/14: 750 new oil wells in north SB county! Go to the hearing, write a comment, or do BOTH!

Photo: from video on steam injection enhanced oil recovery.

Some may say “This isn’t our county…not our problem.”
That’s not how resistance works.
We are indivisibly linked, not just with our own town or county, but with the issues that threaten our neighbors, our state and our nation. Help make California inhospitable for the toxic oil drilling industry, not just in Cat Canyon, but everywhere.

Three companies are proposing to drill over 750 new oil wells in the northern part of Santa Barbara County. The draft Enviromental Impact Report (EIR) for one of these companies – Aera – was released in December and is now open for public comment. There are two ways we can submit a comment:

Action #1 -Submit a comment at a public hearing on Jan. 17th.

On January 17 at 6PM, there will be a public hearing where anyone can come and submit a comment on the draft EIR. Note – all comments must be made to be referring to the draft EIR itself. Here are some links to help. Continue reading “Mon – 1/14: 750 new oil wells in north SB county! Go to the hearing, write a comment, or do BOTH!” →

Thurs 9/6: The Regulation Clock is ticking on baby bears & fracking! They are done, tonight and tomorrow.

Action #1 – Stop “sport hunting” of predator species to make more game for human hunters. – Deadline tonight!

We need more people to write a short note on the Rules site. You have until Sep 6, TONIGHT, at 11:59 PM ET to tell the Interior department that this is wrong. Go here for all the links. image.png

Action #2 – Stop fracking in CA. Deadline tomorrow, 9/7.

Continue reading “Thurs 9/6: The Regulation Clock is ticking on baby bears & fracking! They are done, tonight and tomorrow.” →

Sat – 8/11: Saturday chores: vacuum, clean sink, STOP FRACKING IN CA…

Participation in government is no longer just a once-every-election activity…

Action: Stop oil drilling and fracking on our public lands in CA!

Comment today and often to prevent the Trump Administration from declaring open season for drillers to pollute 1.6 million acres of CA’s public lands. We’ve listed three ways to do it. Use them all!

  • Comment: here using the portal from ForestWatch
  • Email: here directly to the Federal Register.
  • Mail: Bakersfield Field Office, Bureau of Land Management, Attn: Bakersfield RMP Hydraulic Fracturing Analysis, 3801 Pegasus Drive, Bakersfield, CA 93308
  • Here is the original notice to review at your leisure.

Public pressure works! Environmental groups like ForestWatch and rural landowners stopped the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) from selling off public lands for $2.00 an acre in 2006. They need the rest of us to help out now. Comment deadline is September 7th, 2018.

Continue reading “Sat – 8/11: Saturday chores: vacuum, clean sink, STOP FRACKING IN CA…” →

Mon. – 4/30 – 3 quick environmental actions

Coal-Ash disaster from lingers in Tennessee as regulation fight rages. People continue to die of the health effects to this day. In 2008, a 5.4-million-cubic-yard torrent from a coal ash slurry-filled pond choked waterways and created a moonscape of mounds residents dubbed ‘ashbergs.’ Photographer: Wade Payne/Bloomberg via Getty Images

1. Deadline is TODAY, April 30th. – Don’t Weaken Coal Ash Disposal Regulations.

coal ash

Scott Pruitt is proposing to weakening the Coal Combustion Residuals rules that safeguard communities from coal ash contamination.  A toxic by-product of coal burning power plants, coal ash contains arsenic, lead, mercury and other contaminants, and its disposal was regulated in 2015 by the EPA to reduce health and environmental risks to communities. But at the behest of the utility industry, the Trump Administration has proposed the first of two rules that would weaken the essential protections that those EPA rules provide.

Deadline for comments is TODAY April 30th.  Comment to EPA here, by 11:59 PM ET.  Continue reading “Mon. – 4/30 – 3 quick environmental actions” →