April 25, 2005: Headlines: Figures: COS - Colombia: Politics: Congress: Environment: Monterey Herald: "We ought to be alarmed," said Rep. Sam Farr, D-Carmel. "It is an awful bill. Nothing in it helps the Central Coast. The governor is opposed, the state Energy Commission is opposed. Not a single Democrat in California supported the bill."

Peace Corps Online: Directory: Colombia: Special Report: Sam Farr: Sam Farr: Archived Stories: April 25, 2005: Headlines: Figures: COS - Colombia: Politics: Congress: Environment: Monterey Herald: "We ought to be alarmed," said Rep. Sam Farr, D-Carmel. "It is an awful bill. Nothing in it helps the Central Coast. The governor is opposed, the state Energy Commission is opposed. Not a single Democrat in California supported the bill."

By Admin1 (admin) (pool-151-196-181-108.balt.east.verizon.net - 151.196.181.108) on Thursday, April 28, 2005 - 1:20 pm: Edit Post

"We ought to be alarmed," said Rep. Sam Farr, D-Carmel. "It is an awful bill. Nothing in it helps the Central Coast. The governor is opposed, the state Energy Commission is opposed. Not a single Democrat in California supported the bill."

We ought to be alarmed, said Rep. Sam Farr, D-Carmel. It is an awful bill. Nothing in it helps the Central Coast. The governor is opposed, the state Energy Commission is opposed. Not a single Democrat in California supported the bill.

"We ought to be alarmed," said Rep. Sam Farr, D-Carmel. "It is an awful bill. Nothing in it helps the Central Coast. The governor is opposed, the state Energy Commission is opposed. Not a single Democrat in California supported the bill."

Coast advocates rip energy bill

Legislation could bypass state's protection of Central Coast resources

By SUSAN D. BROWN

Herald Correspondent

California conservationists are alarmed by legislation that could authorize the opening of Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling, saying the move signals a willingness to exploit previously protected areas, possibly including the sea floor off the Central Coast.

The energy bill, approved by a 249-183 vote in the House of Representatives on Thursday, also curtails California's right to determine what happens in the ocean along its shores, critics say.

"It represents a complete change in the conservation ethic to protect our special places. We have entered an era in which nothing is sacred," said Richard Charter, marine conservation advocate for New York-based Environmental Defence. "This is the most damaging year for the California coast in the last quarter-century," he said.

"We ought to be alarmed," said Rep. Sam Farr, D-Carmel. "It is an awful bill. Nothing in it helps the Central Coast. The governor is opposed, the state Energy Commission is opposed. Not a single Democrat in California supported the bill."

The House bill gives the federal Energy Regulatory Commission clear authority to override state and local officials when siting import terminals for liquefied natural gas.

"The energy bill passed by the House represents an attack on the right of any coastal state to regulate what happens offshore," Charter said.

The federal Energy Commission has previously targeted locations near large power plants powered by natural gas, such as the Duke Energy plant in Moss Landing, Charter said.

The House bill provides large financial incentives, in the form of tax breaks, primarily for the development of oil, gas and coal. Opponents believe the country's dependence on foreign oil should be reduced by developing alternative forms of energy.

"We are the biggest alternative energy state," Farr said. "We have geothermal, wind, solar, biomass and nuclear energy development in addition to oil. We've always tried to create incentives for developing alternatives. By giving incentives to all the old dinosaur industries, we're looking backward instead of forward."

Proponents of the measure hailed the vote as the first step toward reducing the nation's growing dependence on foreign oil, much of it from politically volatile regions, including the Middle East and parts of South America.

"This bill spends capital at home to produce our own energy, create jobs and lessen our dependence on foreign sources of oil," said House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo, R-Tracy. "America needs American oil until a fuel for the future is developed in an affordable and abundant fashion. We cannot conserve our way out of an empty tank of gas."

But Farr disagrees.

"It was just sickening to hear people say we have to drill in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge because gas is $2.70 per gallon," he said.

Meanwhile, a Senate bill has not been introduced, but lawmakers said they expect to take up the matter soon.

However, legislation the Senate is working on could threaten to dismantle some coastal protections dating to the late 1990s.

In 1998, President Clinton stood among the tidepools of Monterey to extend a moratorium on new ocean drilling through 2012.

The coastline was doubly protected by a similar Congressional moratorium on exploring currently unleased tracts of the ocean, a moratorium which has stood for 24 years with broad bipartisan support.

The current language of the Senate bill in progress would lift that moratorium and reverse the set of protections first announced by President George H.W. Bush in 1991.

The Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary permanently protects the bay from oil exploration. But new drilling in areas outside the sanctuary could still pose a risk for wildlife within the sanctuary. Ocean currents could carry oil from a spill or an accident -- such as the blow-out of a pipeline near Santa Barbara in 1969 -- into the sanctuary, where it would circulate in the bay for months, conservation groups warn.

"We worked so hard to protect the sanctuary from exactly this: offshore drilling," said Jane DeLay of Save Our Shores. "Our ocean currents don't know the boundaries of the sanctuary."

Herald wire services contributed to this report.
Susan Brown can be reached at subrown@montereyherald.com.





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Story Source: Monterey Herald

This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; Figures; COS - Colombia; Politics; Congress; Environment

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