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Arnold Applauds Clean Air Waiver As He Continues War on Fish!

by Dan Bacher, editor of the FishSniffer
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, in a cynical move to distract attention from his war on California's fish populations and his failure to reach an accord with the Legislature over the state budget, held a press conference Monday in Sacramento to applaud President Obama's announcement directing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to consider granting a waiver to California for its clean car law.

"With this announcement from President Obama less than a week into his administration, it is clear that California and the environment now have a strong ally in the White House," Schwarzenegger proclaimed. "Allowing California and other states to aggressively reduce their own harmful vehicle tailpipe emissions would be a historic win for clean air and for millions of Americans who want more fuel-efficient, environmentally-friendly cars."

Evoking the phony "Green Governor" image that he and his public relations staff have carefully cultivated with the corporate media and national environmental groups, Schwarzenegger claimed, "My administration has been fighting for this waiver since 2005 and we will not give up until it is granted because we owe it to our children and to our grandchildren to do more than just protect our natural resources, we must also work to improve them so that we leave behind an environment for future generations that is better than it is today."

"The President's action is a great victory for California and also for clean air around the nation and for generations to ...(Continued) come," added Schwarzenegger. "This morning I spoke with Carol Browner, who is the President's Advisor on Climate Change, and I'm confident that when the EPA completes its review California and a host of other states can finally move forward when it comes to tailpipe emissions. Soon millions of Americans will breathe easier and enjoy more efficient cars. In fact, our law will be an equivalent of taking 6.5 million cars off the road and that's, of course, very important because cars create 25 percent of the greenhouse gases."

Last week, the Governor sent a letter to President Obama requesting that he direct the EPA "to act promptly and favorably" in reconsidering California's request for a Clean Air Act waiver so we can reduce global warming pollution from passenger vehicles.

Schwarzenegger, the worst-ever Governor for fish and the environment in California history who has presided over the unprecedented collapse of Central Valley salmon and Delta fish populations, surrounded himself with leaders of environmental groups and prominent politicians in a carefully choreographed photo opportunity.

Accompanying Schwarzenegger were Senator Fran Pavley, Bernadette Del Chiaro with Environment California, James Goldstein, executive officer of the California Air Resources Board, Annie Notthoff from NRDC, Tim Carmichael with the Coalition for Clean Air, Bill Magavern and Carl Nichella with the Sierra Club, Derek Walker, representing Environmental Defense, and several volunteers with Environment California.

With no sense of shame, the Governor held his "green" press conference on the very same day that Fish and Game Director Don Koch rejected a petition by the Karuk Tribe, California Trout, and Friends of the North Fork to restrict suction dredge gold mining. The Tsi-Akim Maidu Tribe, the Sierra Fund, PCFFA, and a host of conservation organizations also supported the petition.

The groups contend that Koch had a month to consider the petition, which was far from an all-out ban on dredging. "It is instead a call for modest restrictions in river segments serving as critical habitat from some of California's most threatened fish species including ESA listed coho salmon, and at risk species such as green sturgeon and pacific lamprey," according to the groups.

Is the DFG the Department of "Frontier Greed?"

As the Governor was spouting off about protecting "our environment for future generations," the agency at Schwarzenegger's direction chose not to act on the petition. "I guess DFG really stands for Department of Frontier Greed," quipped Leaf Hillman, Vice Chair of the Karuk Tribe and opponent of suction dredge mining.

The Department is currently under a court order to re-write its mining permit rules statewide as a result of a Karuk Tribe lawsuit in 2006. However, the rule making process has not yet begun allegedly due to budget constraints, according to the groups.

In the meantime, Schwarzenegger in 2007 vetoed a bill by then Assemblywoman Lois Wolk (D-Davis) that would have put stricter restrictions on suction dredge mining. More recently, the Governor vetoed restrictions on dredge mining contained as part of the state budget.

The petition asked Koch to use his authority to implement immediate emergency restrictions on where and when suction dredging can take place - the same authority used to restrict recreational and commercial fishing when fish runs are low.

Prominent fishery scientists including Dr. Peter Moyle of U.C. Davis have criticized suction dredge mining for its impact upon imperiled salmon, steelhead and other anadromous fisheries.

"Suction dredging represents a chronic unnatural disturbance of natural habitats that are already likely to be stressed by other factors and can therefore have a negative impact on fishes that use the reach being dredged," said Moyle. "All anadromous fishes in the Klamath basin should be considered to be in decline and ultimately threatened with extirpation. Section dredging through a combination of disturbance of resident fish, alteration of substrates, and indirect effects on heavy human use of small areas, especially thermal refugia (side creeks), will further contribute to the decline of the fishes."

In addition to the environmental damage that dredging causes, the petitioners are concerned about the cost of the program at a time of severe budget cutbacks for the DFG. DFG spends $1.25 million per year to subsidize the destruction of California fisheries by "gold mining hobbyists," the groups said.

"The fact that DFG's mining program has to be subsidized by taxpayers adds insult to injury," said Glen Spain of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermens' Associations. "In the midst of both a fiscal and fisheries crisis DFG is subsidizing the destruction of our fishing economy with tax payer dollars - it's shameful."

The rejection of the group's petition also occurs at time that the "Green Governor" is trying to "borrow" $30 million from the Fish and Game Preservation Fund, obtained from fishing and hunting license revenues, to put into the general fund. Recreational anglers are outraged that Scharzenegger is trying to raid dedicated funds badly needed by the DFG at a time when California fisheries are in their greatest ever crisis.

The threat posed by today's rejection of the petition is even greater for the Karuk Tribe. "Harvesting and consuming salmon is a fundamental part of Karuk culture," emphasized Hillman. "These recreational miners are threatening more than the survival of a fish - they threaten the survival of one of California's oldest cultures."

What will the petitioners do now? The Karuk Tribe and their allies are still pushing for a California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) review of the Department's mining regulations to happen as soon as possible, but that could take several more years. In the meantime fish advocates are considering other strategies to win immediate restrictions.

"While lawmakers are cutting state programs to the bone - including school lunch programs for poor kids and elder care - they should take the opportunity to save over a million dollars by simply banning suction dredge mining state wide or else force miners to pay their fair share," contended Hillman.

The Toxic Green Reign of Arnold Schwarzenegger

The DFG's rejection of the suction dredge mining petition and the Governor's attempted raid on DFG dedicated funds occurs at a time when California's fisheries are in unprecedented collapse, all under the watch of the "Green Governor." Salmon fishing on ocean waters off California and Oregon was closed for the first time in history in 2008, due to the dramatic decline of the Sacramento fall run chinook population. Recreational anglers, commercial fishermen, Indian Tribes, conservationists and independent scientists point to freshwater factors including massive increases in water exports out of the Delta, declining water quality and the mismanagement of upstream dam operations, combined with poor ocean conditions, as the key factors behind the collapse.

Delta smelt, Sacramento splittail, threadfin shad and American shad have declined to their lowest ever recorded abundance levels, while longfin smelt and juvenile striped bass abundance remains abysmally low, according to the results of the DFG's fall 2008 midwater trawl survey on the California Delta. However, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and his allies, Senator Dianne Feinstein and the Nature Conservancy, only want to exacerbate the deplorable state of Delta fish populations by promoting a peripheral canal and more dams designed to take even more water out of an already imperiled estuary.

In addition to promoting the peripheral canal and more dams, the Governor has also:

o Vetoed numerous environmental bills, including a badly needed bill by Lois Wolk that would provide for emergency fish rescue plans.

o Directed the Central Valley Regional Water Control Board in 2006 to continue to grant waivers to agricultural polluters, in spite of the dire condition of Delta fisheries.

o Fast-tracked a controversial Marine Protected Area (MPA) process that kicks sustainable fishermen and seaweed harvesters off the water while refusing to deal with pollution and other factors leading to fishery declines.

o Consistently slashed funding for game wardens in the field while California has the lowest ratio of wardens to residents of any state in the nation.

o Allowed the Department of Water Resources to pump record levels of water out of the Delta since he took office, resulting in the current Central Valley salmon and California Delta pelagic species decline.

Finally, Schwarzenegger is now attempting to transfer $30 million from fishing and hunting license revenues to the general fund at a time when DFG is undergoing its worse crisis ever - while the DFG Director rejects a petition to limit suction dredge mining.

There is nothing "green" about Schwarzenegger except for the corporate money he worships. Compared to Schwarzenegger, former Governor Gray Davis was Julia Butterfly, Pete Wilson was John Muir and George Deukmejian was Ansel Adams!

When are the "Big Green" national environmental groups and the corporate media going to wake up to the fact that the Governor's proclamations about "green energy" and "global warming" are nothing other than meaningless exercises in corporate green washing designed to bamboozle the gullible?