Jerry Karnow Exposes The Insanity Behind Schwarzenegger's MLPA Process

Rather than doing the right thing, the Governor’s hand picked commission chose to adopt the Integrated Preferred Alternative (IPA) against the wishes of Indian Tribes, environmentalists, fishermen and social justice activists on the North Central Coast. The regulations will go until effect on April 1, 2010 – unless stopped by a lawsuit. 

Meanwhile, the MLPA process for the North Coast, from Point Arena to the California/Oregon border, is in full swing. A 32 member MLPA stakeholders groups met in Eureka yesterday and today to begin crafting alternatives for marine reserves ( http://www.times-standard.com/localnews/ci_14364203). 

MLPA Initiative Appointment Exemplifies California’s Love Affair with Big Oil 

Joanna Schroeder, a columnist for  http://domesticfuel.com, a website promoting biofuels, in her column on February 8 used the Schwarzenegger’s appointment of Cathy Reheis-Boyd as the chair of the MLPA’s Blue Ribbon Task Force for the South Coast as one of several examples of California’s “love affair with Big Oil.” Reheis Boyd became the president of the Western States Petroleum, the oil industry trade association, on January 1. 

“The MLPA is a debacle in and of itself (23 percent of all off shore oil reserves are believed to be off the coast of California) and it is important to note that Reheis-Boyd has been tasked with monitoring marine protection at the same time oil companies are in a lobbying frenzy to expand drilling operations off the California coast,” said Schroeder ( http://domesticfuel.com/2010/02/08/californias-love-affair-with-oil/). 

Reheis-Boyd also served on the MLPA panel for the North Central Coast and now serves on the North Coast task force. Of course, she isn’t the only corporate interest overseeing the privately-funded MLPA process – the panels also include representatives of the real estate and marina development industries. 

The same Governor who has so relentlessly pushed the MLPA ocean privatization process has presided over the unprecedented collapse of Central Valley salmon, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, striped bass, threadfin shad, green sturgeon and other fish populations. Schwarzenegger is constantly campaigning for a peripheral canal and new dams, as well as advocating for the stripping of protections for salmon and Delta smelt under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) 

His environmental record is one of unparalleled ecosystem destruction – and Schwarzenegger is using the MLPA fiasco and “green” energy scams in a cynical attempt to greenwash his regime’s environmental crimes.