Hey, NOAA: Don’t shrink Chumash Heritage Marine Sanctuary to cater to offshore wind | Opinion

NOAA’s responsibility

“California lawmakers say marine sanctuary shouldn’t be shrunk to cater to offshore wind,” (sanluisobispo.com, Jan. 26)

It’s wonderful to see Reps. Salud Carbajal and Julia Brownley urge the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to keep the originally proposed boundaries of the Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary. Lawmakers are saying that the sanctuary shouldn’t be shrunk to cater to offshore wind, and our organization, Brightline Defense, agrees completely. The onus is on federal agencies to establish clear permitting pathways for critical transmission while protecting vibrant marine habitats like the CHNMS. We sent a letter to NOAA — along with organizations like Greenpeace, The Climate Center and The Schwarzenegger Institute — echoing hopes that it takes this responsibility seriously.

Carefully planned transmission within the proposed CHNMS could set an enduring precedent for tribal co-stewardship and protect Chumash sacred sites. The CHNMS has been a decades-long organizing effort and the first Indigenous nominated national marine sanctuary. Offshore wind has the potential to bring necessary clean energy and economic development, all while protecting marine ecosystems. It’s NOAA’s responsibility to figure out how.

Eddie Ahn

Executive director, Brightline Defense

California needs recall reform

“Gavin Newsom faces new recall effort from conservative activists” (sanluisobispo.com, Feb. 26)

An organization that was part of the 2021 attempt to recall Gov. Gavin Newsom is trying to disrupt California’s government, again. The previous recall failed by nearly 24%. The current recall, if it gets onto the ballot, will also be a huge waste.

It is too easy to get a recall on the ballot; 12% of voters can initiate a recall of an elected state official who got over 50% of the vote. To initiate a recall because your candidate lost is a waste of time, money and effort. If one party loses, it is because the other party put forward either a better candidate or proffered a more acceptable platform.

California has moved past the political norms of 1911, when the state constitution was amended to allow the recall of elected officials. Current requirements to initiate a recall must change. When a recount is requested in San Luis Obispo County, the petitioner must pay the expenses associated with the recount. The state constitution should be amended to require the same of recalls, and to change the threshold to initiate a recall from 12% of total votes to 25%.

These changes might give pause to those who would file frivolous recall petitions while still giving the people a way to address real grievances.

Ron Gottesman

Arroyo Grande

Opinion

‘Generation Build’ supports Moreno

“Buying a home is impossible for most young Californians. They have a right to be angry” (sanluisobispo.com, Sept. 23, 2023)

San Luis Obispo County is at risk of becoming a retirement community that surrounds a college town. My generation cannot afford to live here, and employers cannot recruit talent to grow here.

With these beliefs, and with the mission of our organization to be to provide political support for more housing, we asked both Susan Funk and Heather Moreno for their opinions on housing.

We believe Moreno understands the difficulties related to adding new housing. In her answers, we found plans and action items to remove red tape, utilize excess county-owned land for affordable housing, respect property rights and minimize costs to build new units. Although our members would like to see 5-7% annualized growth in housing supply, we appreciated Moreno’s intent to help the county reach its 2% annual growth cap on new housing — something we haven’t come close to since enacted.

We are prepared to fight for housing with whoever wins the District 5 race, whether it be Moreno or Funk. But we write today to ask you to fight with us now — for our ability to afford to live here, your children’s ability to stay here when they grow up and the health of our local economies. Fight with your vote on March 5 by joining us in voting for Moreno, the most pro-housing candidate.

Michael Massey

Board of directors, Generation Build

Connection to the land

“SLO: Toxic chemical found in soil at businesses, groundwater,” (sanluisobispo.com, Feb. 9)

The loss of arable land is a threat with grave consequences not only to our environment and climate, but also to something that should concern us all: the ability of humanity to feed itself. Industrial farming practices have left our soils depleted, jeopardizing food production on a planet with a growing population, while substantially contributing to greenhouse gas emissions. Regenerative farming practices address both of these existential problems.

One claim over the reasons soil degradation has been widely ignored is because people who live in big cities have lost contact with the land. Thankfully, this is not the case in San Luis Obispo County, where a significant portion of the land is dedicated to farming.

We are also home to world-class agricultural education programs at Cal Poly. The Sustainable Land Initiative, a partnership between the university, Resource Conservation Districts and local nonprofits, provides resources like compost, biochar, cover crops and equipment, as well as funding and training, through a streamlined model that allows farmers to implement these solutions in months instead of years. Let’s spread awareness of this important resource to our farming community.

Aline Kubiak

San Luis Obispo

Clearing up a misconception

“Updates: Storm hits SLO County, new flood advisory issued,” (sanluisobispo.com, Feb. 19)

A letter to the editor last Sunday suggested that concurrent warnings of water restrictions and flooding are somehow contradictory. In fact, those warnings are an accurate reflection of the effects of on-going climate change to our SLO County water resources.

County residents are no-doubt familiar with the multi-year extreme drought followed by the past two years of heavy rains and atmospheric rivers. An accepted phenomena of climate change is more weather extremes. So, while the rains have helped replenish surface water supplies, ground water levels in several water basins in our county remain at concerning levels due to past droughts and pumping.

The county and entities managing the basins are taking steps to manage groundwater in a sustainable way by balancing replenishment with extractions. It makes perfect sense to warn the public of the immediate hazards of flooding, while acting to ensure an adequate future water supply for all of us.

Thomas Burhenn

Arroyo Grande