Plant Heist - Succulent Smuggling Documentary (SXSW Official selection)

Plant Heist - Succulent Smuggling Documentary (SXSW Official selection)

Thousands of Succulents, millions of dollars. a real world theft of highly prized plants that are worth BIG money.

In northern California, a Game Warden uncovers an illicit network of succulent poachers after mysterious packages containing native plants are reported, and with the help of citizens, biologists, and authorities, he races against time to halt the destruction before permanent damage is inflicted on the land. Winner of Emerald award Coronado Film Festival 2021 ✳️A note from the Filmmakers Hi there, it all began with reading a news article in The New Yorker describing the case and Officer Freeling's big break. We decided to call him up and ask to talk on camera about it, not really knowing where it would lead but understanding it was incredibly bizarre and interesting. We self-funded the whole project and are proud of what we were able to pull off with very little money. We're very grateful to have been accepted into prominent festivals like SXSW and Doc NYC. In documentary filmmaking, finding an audience that cares about the issues in your film is crucial, so festivals are huge. Please share the video; the more people who know that plant poaching is a real issue, the better! UPDATE⚠️: Governor Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill (AB) 223 by Assembly member Chris Ward (D - San Diego) into law, making it unlawful to sell, or possess with the intent to sell, any Dudleya illegally taken from its natural habitat on state lands. AB 223 makes it unlawful to sell or possess with the intent to sell any Dudleya illegally taken from its natural habitat and establishes minimum penalties of $5,000 per plant for the first offense, and $40,000 per plant for any subsequent offenses.

– – – It appears that there are so many Dudleya in cultivation now that the market for expensive poached and exported plants has collapsed 🙂 However, there is still plenty of poaching going on for other species of cacti and succulents. 🌵 Only take photos! and don't buy poached plants 🦊 Well, I should probably say that there are still probably some that will still want the "big wild plant" and pay big bucks for it. Definitely for other species... 😒

Here's how to respond to those misleading posts claiming our recent fires are all about tree huggers | President Trump is wrong about wildfire prevention (Opinion) - CNN

just a few items cobbled together...

this first one thanks to California Chaparral Institute on Facebook –

Here's how to respond to those misleading posts claiming our recent fires are all about tree huggers preventing logging and a supposed fuel build up via past fire suppression.

1. Most of California's most devastating fires were far from any forest (see map below).

2. For those few devastating fires that were near forests, all of those forests around the communities destroyed had the kind of suggested thinning and fuel treatments misinformed commentators claim didn't exist.

3. Much of the area around Paradise that burned in the Camp Fire had burned 10 years ago, had been salvage logged, and was composed of habitats other than forest (e.g. post fire shrublands). The wind-driven ember rain that destroyed the town came primarily from open grassland/post fire/mixed woodland environments northeast of the town. A large percentage of the trees within the devastated town did not burn. See the fire progression map here and match it with the current view on Google Earth:
https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/map/6250/4/90791

4. Climate change is drying the state. Dryer conditions lead to a more flammable landscape. We may see more of the kind of winds that powered the Camp Fire into Paradise. More fires will dramatically alter the kinds of habitats we are used to seeing. Non-native weed filled landscapes that dominate places like Riverside County will likely become more common. More on this issue here:
http://www.californiachaparral.com/threatstochaparral.html

It is more than discouraging when someone claims our wildfires are all about forests, dead trees, lack of logging, or unnatural fuel build up via past fire suppression. Such claims are a disservice to the families who have lost so much and hamper our efforts to solve the problem.

What is it about? Flammable homes and communities located on flammable terrain.

Please see our solutions in our letter to Governor Brown below.

Here is a well-researched article on the Woolsey Fire from the LA Times:
http://www.latimes.com/proj…/la-me-woolsey-fire-progression/

Here's how to protect your home from wildfire:
http://www.californiachaparral.com/bprotectingyourhome.html

Here's our information flyer on external sprinklers:
http://www.californiachaparral.com/…/INDEPENDENT_EXTERNAL_S…

Here's why Governor Brown and the California State Legislature failed us - they ignored the real problem:
http://www.californiachaparral.com/…/Gov_Brown_2017_Wildfir…

Here are the most devastating wildfires in California to November 17, 2018 (fire, structures burned, fatalities):

Fires 2017-2018
Camp/12,263/71 (as of 11/17/2018)*
Tubbs/ 5636/ 22
Redwood/ 546 / 9
Carr/ 1599/ 8
Atlas/ 783/ 6
Nuns/ 1355/ 3
Woolsey/500+/3 (as of 11/17/2018)
Thomas/ 1063/ 2
Ferguson/ 131/ 2
Mendocino/ 277/ 1

Previous devastating fires prior to 2017 where losses were also unrelated to forests and dead trees:
Tunnel (1991)/ 2900 /25
Cedar (2003)/ 2820/ 15
Harris (2007)/ 548/ 8
Old (2003)/ 1003/ 6
Witch Creek (2007)/ 1650/ 2
Butte (2015)/ 921/ 2
Jones (1999)/ 954/ 1
Paint (1990)/ 641/ 1

Significant forested area involved, but not seriously impacted by dead trees:
Valley (2015)/ 1955/ 4
*Camp Fire involved forest within the fire perimeter, but most of the area within/near the devastated town of Paradise was a mix of habitats.

President Trump is wrong about wildfire prevention (Opinion) - CNN

(CNN)With the shocking loss of thousands of homes and dozens of lives in the Camp and Woolsey fires in Northern and Southern California, people are looking for answers as they try to understand how a tragedy such as this can be prevented in the future.

As people struggled to evacuate, President Donald Trump in a tweet blamed the fires on poor forest management and repeated the claims before his visit to California. While Trump did not explicitly call for an expansion of logging in his latest response, he has previously touted this strategy as a way to curb fires. Meanwhile, the federal government is moving to allow commercial logging in areas such as the Los Padres National Forest outside Santa Barbara, claiming it will prevent fires. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has also blamed "environmental terrorist groups" for preventing the government from properly managing forests.

It is deeply troubling that Trump and his administration would support logging as a way to curb fires when studies have shown it's ineffective. In the most comprehensive scientific analysis conducted on the issue of forest management and fire intensity -- which looked at more than 1,500 fires on tens of millions of acres across the Western United States over three decades -- we found that forests with the fewest environmental protections and the most logging actually tend to burn much more intensely, not less.

This may seem counterintuitive, but logging leaves behind combustible twigs and branches on the forest floor, which can make fires spread faster. It also reduces the cooling shade of the forest canopy, which creates hotter and drier conditions, and the invasive weeds that take over readily burn. Denser forests buffer and reduce the winds that drive wildland fires, but this effect is largely eliminated by logging.

The fact is that Northern California's Butte County, which has been ravaged by the Camp Fire, had been heavily logged in previous years. In the area immediately to the east of Paradise, dead trees had been extensively logged and removed on both private and public lands, and commercial "thinning" operations had been conducted across large expanses of the nearby Plumas National Forest, supposedly to protect nearby towns from wild land fire…

more: President Trump is wrong about wildfire prevention (Opinion) - CNN

As California Burns, Trump and Zinke Use Catastrophe to Benefit Industry | Earthjustice

U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke wrote recently that “radical environmentalists would rather see forest and communities burn than see a logger in the woods. ” In Zinke’s zero-sum equation, the devastating wildfires in California would stop if those radical environmentalists would let the timber industry cut down more trees.

The truth is that Zinke and House Republicans are using the destruction across the West as an excuse to chip away at bedrock environmental laws created to ensure that science drives decisions about the future of our nation’s forests.

Everyone agrees that we must protect homes and lives from the catastrophic effects of fires, but Zinke’s argument is dangerously oversimplified, cynically disingenuous and downright false. And that’s not the worst part. He also proclaims that climate change has “nothing to do” with these wildfires, even as scientists and firefighting officials unanimously assert that climate change is creating the conditions that allow destructive wildfires to thrive. These types of fires will only grow in intensity and frequency if we do nothing to address climate change…

more: As California Burns, Trump and Zinke Use Catastrophe to Benefit Industry | Earthjustice

see also: 

Trump, offering no evidence, blames deadly California fires on “gross mismanagement of the forests”

Camp Fire: The Terrifying Science Behind California’s Massive Blaze | WIRED

New insights into the Ridiculously Resilient Ridge & North American Winter Dipole | California Weather Blog

A timely example: Persistent Western ridge, Eastern trough next 2+ weeks

A pronounced example of the “Warm West/Cool East” temperature dipole pattern will develop over North America in the coming days. (NCEP via tropicaltidbits.com)

December 4, 2017

In the coming days, a remarkably persistent weather pattern will begin to develop across North America and adjacent ocean regions. Characterized by strong high pressure near the West Coast and low pressure over the Eastern Seaboard, this “quasi-stationary,” high-amplitude atmospheric wave pattern will essentially become locked in place for at least the next 2 weeks. Patterns like this have a tendency to become self-reinforcing, lasting for much longer than more typical transient weather patterns and leading to prolonged stretches of unusual weather. This particular event will be no exception: California (and much of the West Coast) will almost certainly experience an extended, multi-week warm and dry spell, while much of the East Coast shivers through repeated blasts of cold, Arctic air.

As it turns out, these upcoming anomalous conditions provide a timely example of several atmospheric phenomena my colleagues and I have been studying over the past few years. In this post, I’ll explore the broader climate context of recent North American weather extremes, with a focus on insights gleaned from two recent scientific papers published by my colleagues and me.

more: New insights into the Ridiculously Resilient Ridge & North American Winter Dipole | California Weather Blog

Northern California Fires – on Fire Watch

my area on the 13th

i won't post a bunch of photos or details here, but want to say that the past week has been dramatic - you would have seen it in the news - an international story. just to say: safe here, but devastation is not all that far away. the air quality improved today, forecast winds arrived but not too strong – the Red Flag Warning for the [San Francisco] North Bay Area has been lifted. while firefighters have made major progress with containment this weekend, we are not "out of the woods" yet. Thankfully the forecast is for calm to light winds for the next three days to be followed by rain!

see todays LA Times: California wildfires have killed 40 people; dozens still missing as firefighters make progress - LA Times

my resource notes on Facebook –
• #SonomaValley #SonomaCounty #FireStorm *** RESOURCES ***
• FireStorm :: MENTAL HEALTH --- "Disaster Mental Health"

The Copernicus Sentinel-3A satellite captured this image of smoke from wildfires in the US state of California on 9 October 2017. Wildfires broke out in parts of the state on 8 October 2017 around Napa Valley, and the smoke was spread by strong northeasterly winds.

In early October 2017, a series of wildfires started burning across the state of California, United States. They broke out throughout Napa, Lake, Sonoma, Mendocino, Butte, and Solano counties during severe fire weather conditions effectively leading to a major red flag warning from much of the Northern California area. Seventeen separate wildfires were reported at this time.[3] These fires included the Tubbs Fire (the most destructive), the Atlas Fire, Nuns Fire and others.

Due to the extreme conditions, shortly after the fires ignited on October 8 and 9, they rapidly grew to become extensive, full-scale incidents spanning from 1,000 acres (400 hectares) to well over 20,000 acres (8,100 ha) each within a single day. By October 14, the fires had burned more than 210,000 acres (85,000 ha), and destroyed an estimated 5,700 structures [4][1] while forcing 90,000 people to evacuate from their homes.[5] The Northern California fires have killed at least 42 people[1] and hospitalized at least 185,[6] making the week of October 8, 2017, the deadliest week of wildfires in California history.[7][8][1][9][2] Collectively, this event constitutes the largest loss of life due to wildfires in the United States since the Cloquet Fire in 1918.[10]

more: https://en.wikipedia.org/…/October_2017_Northern_California…

CAL FIRE - California Statewide Fire Map

Record response: CPUC hit hard on net metering - SmartGridNews

Picture this: Wheelbarrows full of signed postcards and petitions being pushed (literally) toward the offices of the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) in support of net metering, whereby energy consumers can generate their own energy using solar power.

Rooftop solar in Los Angeles, California. Credit: Downtowngal/Wikimedia Commons

It really happened late last week, as residents throughout California -- representing a diverse coalition of consumer, environmental, faith, public health, environmental justice, and business organizations --gathered on the CPUC steps to deliver more than 130,000 signatures in support of net metering.

This petition marks the largest number of public comments ever recorded at the CPUC on any issue...

more: Record response: CPUC hit hard on net metering - SmartGridNews

Oil Spill Threatens the Galapagos of North America (Ocean Conservancy) | WILL THIS SPILL CHANGE ANYTHING? (Greenpeace)

MARINE PROTECTED AREAS

Oil Spill Threatens the Galapagos of North America

California leads the nation in marine protection with the largest network of marine protected areas in the country. The Gaviota oil spill puts ten years of cooperation between fishermen and conservationists to protect the state’s crown jewels at risk.

Media Contact:
Greg Helms
Manager, Fish Conservation Program
805-886-8645
ghelms@oceanconservancy.org

May 20, 2015

Statement from Greg Helms, manager, Fish Conservation Program, and Santa Barbara-based marine protected area expert:

Santa Barbara, CA: “Yesterday’s crude oil spill off the coast of Santa Barbara County, resulting from an inland pipeline break, is a reminder that oil and water don’t mix. California leads the nation in marine protection with the longest network of marine protected areas in the country. In the Gaviota Coast area with its world-class and irreplaceable marine life, the community has just completed years of work establishing four marine protected areas due to its very special nature. The currently four-mile long oil slick puts ten years of cooperation between fishermen and conservationists to protect the state’s marine crown jewels at risk. The threat that this oil spill poses to important locally harvested species like sea urchin, squid and lobster as well as marine mammals and seabirds, and the Naples Reef and Kashtayit State Marine Conservation Areas that serve as their feeding and breeding grounds concern us. The companies must be held fully accountable for the impacts of this spill. This spill is a wake-up call for us to look at how we as a state prioritize the different uses of our ocean and the risks associated with them."

Ocean Conservancy: Oil Spill Threatens the Galapagos of North America


see also –

WILL THIS SPILL CHANGE ANYTHING?

Yesterday afternoon, news spread of the latest oil-related tragedy to occur in the United States—an oil pipeline ruptured in Santa Barbara County in Central California, along the Refugio State Beach coastline. Though the pipeline was on land, it was found to be leaking into a culvert that eventually emptied into the ocean. By the time the pipeline was shut off, oil had been spilling into the sea for at least three hours.

As of yesterday evening, officials claimed that an estimated 21,000 gallons had spilled into the ocean in an oil slick that was four miles wide. Unfortunately, as of this morning, the slick had spread to at least nine miles wide, as the winds and tides did what they do. And now, a new estimate says that up to 105,000 gallons of oil might have been spilled.

Refugio State Beach has been closed indefinitely. The area is a sensitive and important place for all kinds of species, including migratory whales and rare seabirds—and wildlife has already been affected. Though there is no estimate of how much wildlife has been impacted so far, things don’t look good.

The cleanup is painstaking work. There are several dozen workers outfitted in protective suits and helmets on the beach, shoveling up contaminated mud and rocks into plastic bags. It is made more arduous by having to take place both on shore and on the water, since the oil originated on land.

Greenpeace visited the site to survey the true damage and to share with the world the devastation to the Santa Barbara County coastline, and to communicate the dangers of fossil fuels so that we can transition to clean energy and prevent this from happening again.

Plains All American Pipeline, the company that owns the ruptured pipeline, has a history of spills. The company has apologized, with the district manager saying, “We’re sorry this accident has happened, and we’re sorry for the inconvenience to the community.”

This spill has not occurred in a vacuum. We can now add it to the sad history of oil-related spills and accidents that have happened the world over in the past years—including one that happened very near to this area in 1969, which spilled 3 million gallons of oil into the ocean.

As Annie Leonard, our Executive Director, has said, “Oil spills are never accidents. They are the direct result of substandard oversight of fossil fuel companies who put their profits above human and environmental impacts.” Each time a spill, oil train explosion, or some other disaster occurs, we look to our leaders to take responsibility to make change. So far they’ve demonstrated that they don’t have the courage to stand up to Big Oil.

We all hope that this oil spill will quickly be contained and cleaned up. But are we willing to keep taking chances for future accidents to occur? I can’t help but think of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s research that shows that there’s a 75% chance of an oil spill occurring in the Arctic if drilling takes place there. Even with that scary fact, the Obama administration has decided to give Shell the conditional go-ahead to drill. Let’s demand better from our President and other leaders before it’s too late.

GREEN PEACE BLOGS -

http://greenpeaceblogs.org/2015/05/20/will-this-oil-spill-change-anything/

Lawsuit Seeks to Halt Offshore Fracking in California

For Immediate Release, February 19, 2015

Contact: Patrick Sullivan, (415) 517-9364, psullivan@biologicaldiversity.org   

Legal Action Could Also Affect Federally Permitted Fracking in Gulf of Mexico

SAN FRANCISCO— The Center for Biological Diversity sued the U.S. Interior Department today for violating three federal laws by rubberstamping offshore fracking off California’s coast without analyzing fracking pollution’s threats to ocean ecosystems, coastal communities and marine wildlife, including sea otters, fish, sea turtles and whales.

Oil companies have fracked more than 200 wells in state and federal waters off California’s coast; today’s suit challenges the federal government for its permitting role. Offshore fracking blasts huge amounts of water mixed with dangerous chemicals into the earth, under extremely high pressure, to crack rock formations beneath the ocean floor.

The oil industry has federal permission to dump more than 9 billion gallons of wastewater, including chemical-laden fracking fluid, into the ocean off California’s coast every year.

“Every offshore frack increases the threat to our fragile ocean ecosystems,” said Miyoko Sakashita, an attorney and director of the Center’s oceans program. “The Interior Department is turning a blind eye while oil companies frack wells and dump chemicals into our oceans. If the federal government doesn’t halt this inherently dangerous practice, fracking chemicals or a disastrous oil spill could wreak havoc on marine wildlife and coastal communities.”

The Center’s lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in California, seeks to prohibit the federal government from issuing permits allowing fracking until it complies with the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, the National Environmental Policy Act and the Coastal Zone Management Act.

The Center’s legal complaint points out that the Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement have developed “a pattern and practice of rubberstamping permits to frack with no analysis of the environmental impacts, no determination of whether such activities are consistent with the plans governing oil development and production in the Pacific Region or California’s Coastal Management Program, and no public involvement.”

The federal government has also given oil companies permission to frack at least 100 wells in the Gulf of Mexico, including in the vicinity of the disastrous Deepwater Horizon spill. They’re also dumping vast quantities of wastewater into the Gulf of Mexico. Similarly, fracking in the Gulf of Mexico has never had meaningful environmental review. The lawsuit in California could affect oversight of all federally permitted offshore fracking.

Fracking chemicals threaten water quality along both coasts. Dangerously high levels of cancer-causing benzene and chromium-6 are common in fracking flowback fluid from onshore wells in California, according to a recent Center analysis of tests conducted by oil companies. At least 10 fracking chemicals routinely used in offshore fracking in California could kill or harm a broad variety of marine species, including sea otters and fish, Center scientists have found.

“Fracking has caused terrible damage on land, and it clearly has no place in our oceans,” Sakashita said. “If federal officials follow the law and take a hard look at the risks, they’ll have to conclude that offshore fracking is far too big of a gamble with our oceans’ life-support systems.”

The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 825,000 members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.

biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_releases/2015/fracking-02-19-2015.html

Shut down the dangerous Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant. | CREDO Action

another PETITION to Shut down the dangerous Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant – Petition to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission:

“PG&E is endangering the lives of half a million Californians who live near the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant. Revoke PG&E’s license to operate this aging, unsafe, and unnecessary nuclear power plant.”

In the wake of a 6.0 magnitude earthquake near Napa, a shocking new report from a federal nuclear safety official raises the prospect that PG&E's Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant could face catastrophic failure when the next big earthquake hits, and recommends that it be shut down.1

The report,2 which was authored by Diablo Canyon's former lead on-site inspector, flatly refutes PG&E's claim that the plant's two nuclear reactors can withstand an earthquake like the earthquake that shook northern California just a few weeks ago.

Incredibly, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is trusting PG&E's internal assessment of the danger of continuing to run the plant, despite the clear conflict of interest. With half a million people living within 50 miles of this disaster waiting to happen, the plant needs to be shut down now.

The engineers who designed the coastal nuclear plant at Fukushima believed it could withstand any disaster imaginable before a massive earthquake and tsunami struck in 2011 and caused a major catastrophe.

Here in California, sitting on the same earthquake prone Pacific Rim “ring of fire,” PG&E's engineers similarly claim that the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant can withstand any anticipated earthquake. But the plant was built long before a major fault line was discovered in 2008 -- just a few hundred yards offshore from the coastal nuclear plant.

The plant also sits nearby the Los Osos, Hosgri, and San Andreas Faults, a confluence of seismic features with dramatic potential activity that could overcome the plant’s outdated and inadequate safety design features.3 The fact is that no utility would choose to build and operate a nuclear facility at the current site knowing that it is surrounded by major fault lines.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has the power to revoke PG&E’s license to operate the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant -- and that's exactly what it needs to do.

Tell the Nuclear Regulatory Commission: Shut down the dangerous Diablo Canyon nuclear plant.

1. "AP Exclusive: Expert calls for Diablo Canyon shutdown," Associated Press, August, 25, 2014.
2. To download the full report, click here (PDF).
3. "Petition seeks closure of Diablo Canyon nuclear plant," San Francisco Chronicle, August 27, 2014.

SIGN NOW > Shut down the dangerous Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant. | CREDO Action

MORE PETITIONS to SHUT DOWN DIABLO > whats up: 3 PETITIONS to SHUT DIABLO CANYON & MAPS OF EARTHQUAKE FAULTS

Petition | Decommission the aging Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant | Change.org

In fault-ridden San Louis Obispo County, stands California's last two operating nuclear reactors in the aging Diablo Canyon Power Plant (circa 1973). It is located proximally to the Los Osos, Hosgri, San Andreas, and Shoreline Faults, along shores near Avila Beach... [more]

SIGN NOW > Petition | Decommission the aging Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant | Change.org

more at whats up: 3 PETITIONS to SHUT DIABLO CANYON & MAPS OF EARTHQUAKE FAULTS:



SEE ALSO
 >>> whats up: Tell Chairman Macfarlane: Shut down Diablo Canyon! | Friends of the Earth


• recent articles on Diablo Canyon at "whats up nuclear blog" (tagged posts)

Inspector General Finds EPA Justified in Intervening to Protect Drinking Water from Fracking | EcoWatch

 December 24, 2013

Today the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Inspector General found EPA Region 6 was justified in legally intervening to protect Parker County, TX residents’ drinking water from drilling impacts. At Sen. Inhofe’s (R-OK) request, the Inspector General investigated to determine if Region 6’s intervention against Range Resources was due to political influence by the Obama administration.

Steve Lipsky, who lives near a fracking operation in Weatherford, TX with his flammable water. Photo credit: Gasland Part II.

“The EPA’s internal watchdog has confirmed that the EPA was justified in stepping in to protect residents who were and still are in imminent danger,” said Sharon Wilson, Gulf regional organizer of Earthworks. “Now we need an investigation as to whether political corruption caused EPA to withdraw that protection.”

The EPA invoked its power to protect drinking water in 2010, prompting Oklahoma Sen. Inhofe to request the Inspector General’s investigation in 2011. The EPA withdrew its legal complaint against Range Resources in 2012 despite having a report from an independent scientist showing that a gas well drilled by Range likely polluted nearby water supplies.

The EPA’s withdrawal from Parker County appears to be part of a larger pattern, in which the Obama administration has blocked or abandoned investigations of whether drilling or hydraulic fracturing polluted drinking water. In addition to the case in Parker County, reports in major news outlets indicate that the Obama administration caused the EPA to abandon studies of potential drilling or fracking pollution in Pavillion, WYand Dimock, PA despite evidence of drilling-related harm.

“The Obama administration appears to be more concerned about protecting corporate interests, not the public interest,” said Steve Lipsky, a Weatherford, TX homeowner who sued Range Resources after the EPA named the company the party responsible for contaminating his drinking water well. “President Obama promised that hydraulic fracturing would occur safely. With this IG report, it now seems clear that he is determined to squash any evidence to the contrary.”

Just prior to the release of the Inspector General report, the Texas Railroad Commission (regulator of oil and gas, not railroads) opened an investigation into the case. The EPA intervened in 2010 to protect area drinking water only after the commission refused to do so. The Commission’s new investigation prevents the EPA from legally intervening now as it did in 2010.

“Regulators shouldn’t have to be pressured into doing their job to protect people like me from drilling impacts,” said Shelly Perdue, a Parker County resident with drilling-polluted drinking water. “If what has happened to me is happening to others, I completely understand why communities across the country are voting to ban fracking and drilling.”

“Releasing this report at noon on Christmas Eve shows the Obama administration is obviously embarrassed by its findings,” said Earthworks energy program director Bruce Baizel. “As they should be. The withdrawal of Obama’s EPA is an abject failure of its mission to protect Americans’ health and environment.”

Visit EcoWatch’s FRACKING page for more related news on this topic.

Inspector General Finds EPA Justified in Intervening to Protect Drinking Water from Fracking | EcoWatch

***

California -

#NoFracking #FRACKING :: Gov. Brown, Be a true climate champ: Ban Fracking Now.

Jerry Brown talks a big game on #climate, but actions speak louder than words. Take action to join our latest campaign: www.BigOilBrown.org

LIKE and SHARE on Facebook to help spread the word!

> Timeline Photos - Oil Change International

Californians Against Fracking | The statewide coalition to ban fracking in California.

Whales WIN! The California Coastal Commission Sends PG&E Packing | Greenpeace Blogs

Whale lovers it’s time to CELEBRATE and thank the California Coastal Commission (CCC) for protecting whales, dolphins, sea otters and a long list of other marine wildlife from the devastating impacts of a proposed seismic testing project by PG&E. Last Wednesday, the CCC voted unanimously to deny PG&E’s application to conduct seismic testing in California’s coastal waters adjacent to the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant...

The proposed seismic tests would have blasted powerful underwater air cannons every 15 seconds for 9 days decimating marine life from whales to plankton. PG&E had hoped by doing this and mapping another earthquake fault they could then claim that Diablo Canyon was safe and should have it’s operating licensee renewed. Earthquakes, oceans and nuke plants are a dangerous combination no matter how many tests they do – Fukushima – need I say more.

Nearly 60,000 of you took part on our online action and sent the CCC a message urging them to deny PG&E’s permit request. During the Commission’s deliberations they thanked the public for their comments and participation, letting us all know that they heard us and agreed with us. I too want to thank everyone who contacted the CCC. The coalition that came together to fight this insane proposal was rather amazing with whale lovers, conservationists, fishermen, native Americans and a host of others standing together telling the CCC not now, not ever, our coastal heritage both cultural and environmental is priceless and NOT to be sacrificed for one companies profits.

Several of the commissioners went on to tell PG&E that proposals like this will never be approved in California. Also that PG&E should decommission the Diablo Canyon nuke plant, shut it down permanently and start investing in green energy alternatives. I couldn’t agree more.

Whales WIN! The California Coastal Commission Sends PG&E Packing | Greenpeace Blogs

Food Fight: Debating Prop 37, California’s Landmark Initiative to Label GMO Food

On Election Day, California voters will decide on Proposition 37, which would make their state the first in the nation to require the labeling of food products containing genetically modified organisms (GMOs). The California Department of Public Health would be responsible for labeling everything from baby formula and instant coffee, to granola, canned soups and soy milk. Many major corporations, including Monsanto, Dow Chemical, Pepsi and Coke, are spending millions fighting the measure, which stands to impact labeling practices across the country. We host a debate on Prop 37 with two guests: Stacy Malkan, a longtime advocate for environmental health and spokesperson for the Yes on 37 California Right to Know campaign, and David Zilberman, professor of agricultural and resource economics at University of California, Berkeley, and director of the Center for Sustainable Resource Development. [includes rush transcript]

Food Fight: Debating Prop 37, California’s Landmark Initiative to Label GMO Food

Democracy Now!