Eighty-Nine Bag Bans and Counting

Daniel W. Slocum/Shutterstock.com Daniel W. Winter Report Eighty-nine bag bans and counting Cy Kuckenbaker Local efforts win big for Arcata Mendocino County Pacific wildlife Oakland Marin County Only a few short years ago, San Francisco made history with its first-in-the-nation South Lake Tahoe law banning single-use plastic bags. Now, Sacramento 89 California cities and counties have banned plastic bags—from San Jose to San Francisco Los Angeles, and from South Lake Tahoe San Jose to Santa Barbara. Now we’re only 11 cit- Santa Cruz ies away from 100 California bag bans. Monterey So far, more than 11.8 million Califor- Pasadena nians, nearly a third of our state, live San Luis Obispo County somewhere that has voted to phase out Los Angeles single-use plastic bags. Yet, plastic bags Santa Barbara Long Beach are still the most common litter on Cali- County ban City ban Ban in progress fornia beaches, and harm sea birds and Ventura Huntington Beach turtles that mistake them for food. Sen. Alex Padilla (left) and Environment California’s Nathan Weaver call for a bag ban in San Diego. San Diego We have more work to do to keep plastic out of the Pacific, so Environment Cali- Council calling for a citywide bag ban. single-use plastic bags litter our coastline fornia has been helping Californians take and kill thousands of seabirds, fish and action to protect the ocean and its wildlife. Sen. Alex Padilla, who is working to ban marine mammals along our shores.” plastic bags statewide, flew down to speak Will San Diego be next? to Environment California’s citizen out- Sea World, the San Diego Tourism Au- This winter, Environment California’s reach staff and members. He said, “I am thority, San Diego Coastkeeper, and the Nathan Weaver worked with local thrilled with Environment California’s offices of Solana Beach City Council elected officials, Environment California efforts to phase out single-use plastic Member Peter Zahn, and California Sen. members, and volunteers in San Diego bags in our state. They know, as I do, that Marty Block were also there in support. and Sacramento to move the cities’ pro- posed bag bans forward. more online In San Diego, Weaver held a news con- ference to show that local businesses and Want to ban the bag in your city? civic and environmental leaders are ready Check out our activist toolkit online: to move forward with a plastic bag ban. www.EnvironmentCalifornia.org/resources In front of six TV cameras, Canvass Direc- tor Blake Kopcho delivered over 10,000 To a sea turtle, a plastic bag looks like petitions and 50 letters of support from a jellyfish. local businesses to the San Diego City gov.au VOLUME 11 | NO. 3 Winter Report | 2014 To our members Susana Bates Photography Susana Bates Recent action Lately, I’ve been asked a lot about frack- Charge Ahead: A call for a million electric vehicles ing. Big Oil would tell you that they can Exhaust from cars, trucks and buses pollute our air and contribute to global frack thousands of wells, from San Jose to warming. But we know we can start to fix this by transitioning to cleaner and L.A., and even off the coast of Santa Bar- more efficient vehicles. bara, without wasting and contaminating Environment California has teamed up with Communities for a Better Environ- our water, polluting our air and our ocean, ment, The Greenlining Institute, Coalition for Clean Air, and NRDC to launch trampling our landscape, or triggering “Charge Ahead California” this winter. The group’s goal is to put a million earthquakes. electric vehicles on California’s roads over the next decade and ensure that all Californians, especially communities most impacted by air pollution, benefit Despite the millions of dollars they’ve from zero tailpipe emissions. spent on PR, I’m not buying it. Environment California’s Dan Jacobson and Michelle Kinman met with the Our staff, supporters and allies in our na- governor’s staff in the Capitol to make the case for California shifting its fleet tional federation have seen first-hand how to electric, and brought the voices of 10,000 other Californians with them. This fracking is tearing up and poisoning the spring, we will continue to build support for revolutionizing the way we drive. land, contaminating water supplies, sick- ening families, and, yes, even triggering earthquakes in states across the country. Local actions = More solar than ever before Do you know what unites the cities of Lancaster, Sebastopol, Richmond and Los Angeles? These communities and their local leaders have recently made It’s time to bring the truth about fracking big moves to bring their cities more solar power. to California—and straight to Gov. Jerry Brown. And with your help, that’s exactly Lancaster and Sebastopol have made headlines for their groundbreaking man- what we’re going to do. dates that all new buildings must be equipped with solar panels. Richmond leaders also slashed permit prices for residential solar panels. This will make it Sincerely, easier for homeowners to install solar energy systems. And Los Angeles started the largest urban solar power program in the country, enabling solar power on commercial properties throughout the city. These efforts have opened the door for all Californians to play an important Dan Jacobson role in building a new, clean energy future for our state. Now it’s “game on” for Legislative Director other cities across the state to continue to lay the groundwork for the next great energy transition—one that will transform our economy, protect our health, and preserve our environment for generations to come. Staff L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti’s chief sustainability officer tweeted “With your help and many others we will get there. Lets get more people out to support solar!!!” after seeing our volunteers showing their support for the city going solar last fall. Environment California www.EnvironmentCalifornia.org/newsletters Matthew Connolly/Shutterstock.com Matthew wikimedia commons Expanding Yosemite An island of agreement in a sea of discord Yosemite National Park is one of the crown went door-to-door in San Diego for two Effort to protect kit fox jewels of California. Not only do Califor- weeks. They talked to more than 2,600 nians seem to agree on this point, but so neighbors face-to-face about calling on grasslands do politicians—in Sacramento and D.C. their representative to protect Yosemite’s San Joaquin kit fox families are part wildlife by expanding the park. of what makes California unique. But Californians and our elected officials on soon, they could be gone. both sides of the aisle are coming together At the end of the two weeks, Rep. Scott to add a 1,600-acre wildlife corridor to Peters, who represents downtown San Di- Too many of the grasslands that kit fox Yosemite National Park. ego, signed onto the House bill to expand families need to thrive have already Yosemite as a co-sponsor. Reps. Susan been lost. Only 7,000 of these foxes are “We’ve seen Congress do some frustrating Davis and Juan Vargas, who also repre- left on Earth. And their habitat is the things, but it’s as if we’re in a sea of politi- sent districts in and around San Diego, largest remaining native grassland in cal chaos, and Yosemite is that island of have not yet signed onto the legislation. California—the Carrizo Plain. agreement,” said Environment California’s Environment California will continue to Nathan Weaver. prod members of Congress to champion That’s why Environment Califor- Yosemite’s expansion. nia has launched a campaign to Work to protect at-risk wildlife corridor protect the Carrizo Plain and Los Yosemite National Park protects over Despite support, Yosemite shuts down Padres National Forest of the Central 760,000 acres of waterfalls, granite cliffs Starting Oct. 1, the partial government Coast—important kit fox grasslands and backcountry. And each season, deer, shutdown closed Yosemite National Park that are vulnerable to drilling and black bears, and other animals migrate on its 123rd birthday. development. back and forth between Yosemite and the adjacent Sierra National Forest. While even Google celebrated the an- If we allow drilling in the last few niversary of our state’s most popular park, homelands of the kit fox, we’d not But one of the best routes to get there is a the gates were shuttered to tourists and only lose precious open space, but the section of land that—until very recently— neighbors of the park. We used the politi- dust and smoke of industrial develop- was owned by developers and set to be cal moment and the public’s discontent ment would dim the landscape and turned into vacation homes. with Congress to help Californians speak take over the home of these animals. up for Yosemite and its wildlife. Our coalition partners at the Pacific Forest Environment California is helping Trust have been acting as the land’s care- So far, more than 14,000 Californians have Californians call on their decision- takers, but we must act quickly to add this joined our call for Congress to expand makers in Congress to make this amaz- land to Yosemite National Park and protect Yosemite. ing grassland a wilderness area—the it from future development. highest protection status we have in Tim Williams/Creative Tim Williams/Creative Commons our toolbox. As a first step, the California Legislature unanimously passed a resolution calling on With enough public support, we can Congress to expand Yosemite and protect permanently protect grasslands for the a vulnerable wildlife corridor.

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