via @indybay

Tribes, enviros speak out against trailer bills to fast-track #DeltaTunnel project

“Delta tribes deserve a responsible and equitable approach to water management in the state that does not require jamming a tunnel through the Delta, destroying our ancestral homelands and waterways, or desecrating sacred sites and ancestral remains,” said Malissa Tayaba, Vice Chair with the #ShingleSpringsBand of #MiwokIndians.

by Dan Bacher
Mon, Aug 11, 2025 4:19PM

Sacramento, CA – "On an unusually mild summer day, Tribal leaders and environmental justice advocates met with legislators at the State Capitol on July 16 for the 2025 Day of Action for #WaterJustice.

"They urged the legislators to reject Governor Newsom’s proposed trailer bills that they say would fast-track the Delta Conveyance Project (#DCP) and bypass critical #EnvironmentalProtections at a time when the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta is in unprecedented ecological crisis — and a number of fish species are on the edge of #extinction.

"The day-long event started with meetings between Tribal members, environmental advocates and legislators to urge support for 'equitable, science-based water solutions' that protect the #BayDelta and to reject the financially reckless Delta Conveyance Project that threatens ecosystems, Tribal sovereignty, and public health, according to a statement from #RestoreTheDelta.

[...]

"At the press conference on the Capitol steps, advocates called on lawmakers to reject trailer bills that would provide CEQA exemptions for the #DeltaConveyanceProject, circumventing existing law, court rulings and public opinion.

"Specifically, the coalition called on lawmakers to:

- Vote NO on SB 72 that undermines the #DeltaReformAct and sets arbitrary water supply targets;

- Vote YES on AB 362 that protects tribal beneficial uses of water and to;

- Vote YES on AB 263, extending emergency protections currently in place for the #ScottRiver and #ShastaRiver, a high priority for the recovery of #CohoSalmon.

"Speakers at the press conference included representatives from the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians and the #WinnememWintu Tribe, as well as elected leaders and representatives from Restore the Delta, #SierraClub California, #FriendsOfTheRiver, #DefendersOfWildlife, #SanFranciscoBaykeeper and the #DeltaCountiesCoalition.

"Malissa Tayaba, Vice Chair with the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians, began the press conference emphasizing the harm that the Delta Tunnel would cause to Tribes and #disadvantaged communities.

" 'Delta tribes deserve a responsible and equitable approach to water management in the state that does not require jamming a tunnel through the Delta, destroying our #AncestralHomelands and waterways, or desecrating #SacredSites and ancestral remains,' said Tayaba. 'Our culture and identities are intrinsically tied to the Delta. There is no price tag worth paying that would ever justify the harm done to us or the unquantifiable costs that Tribes and disadvantaged communities would ultimately bear.'

"Gary Mulcahy, Government Liaison with the Winnemem Wintu Tribe, followed Tayaba by stating, “There is nothing about the Delta Tunnel Project that significantly benefits anyone except #BigAg and south of the Delta water agencies, while putting #EndangeredSpecies, tribal cultural resources, and disadvantaged communities and the viability of the S.F Bay-Delta itself at risk. #CEQA exemptions continue to attempt to erase Tribes from #WaterGovernance.”

[...]

" 'Instead of wasting ratepayer money to keep pushing this expensive environmental justice debacle, we need to sees investments in local water supply like #RecycledWater, and the Freshwater Pathways program that would improve Delta levees to keep communities safe and improve State Water Project reliability in an emergency. We urge a commitment to vote NO on the return the Delta Conveyance Project and Bay Delta Water Quality Control Plan bills,' Wagner said."

https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2025/08/11/18878845.php

#WaterIsLife #TribalGovernance #CulturalPreservation #CulturalErasure #BigAgriculture #BigWater #GavinNewsome #CaliforniaPol #Graywater

#ClarenceThomas Secretly Participated in #KochBrothers Network Donor Events

by Joshua Kaplan, Justin Elliott and Alex Mierjeski
Sept. 22, 2023, 5 a.m. EDT

Excerpt: "Thomas has attended at least two Koch donor summits, putting him in the extraordinary position of having helped a political network that has brought multiple cases before the Supreme Court.

" 'In the 15 years since, the Koch network has left a deep imprint on American society. Its advocacy is credited with helping stamp out Republican Party support for combating #ClimateChange, once an issue that drew bipartisan concern. The “full weight of the network” was thrown behind passing the 2017 #TrumpTaxCut, securing a windfall for the Kochs and their donors. And the upcoming Supreme Court term could bring the network a victory it has pursued for years: overturning a major legal precedent known as #Chevron.

"While most Americans aren’t familiar with the 1984 case Chevron v. #NRDC, it’s one of the Supreme Court’s most-cited decisions. Legal scholars sometimes mention it in the same breath as Brown v. Board of Education and Roe v. Wade. In essence, Chevron is about government agencies’ ability to issue regulations. After a law is enacted, it’s generally up to agencies across the government to make detailed rules putting it into effect. The Chevron decision said courts should be hesitant to second-guess the agencies’ determinations. In the years that followed, judges cited Chevron in upholding rules that protect endangered species, speed up the approval process for new cellphone towers and grant benefits to coal miners suffering from black lung.

"The Koch network has challenged Chevron in the courts and its lobbyists have pushed Congress to pass a law nullifying the decision. It has also provided millions of dollars in grants to law professors making the case to overturn it.

"The network’s position has become increasingly popular in recent years. Once broadly supported by academics and judges on the right, Chevron is now anathema to many in the conservative legal movement. And there’s no more prominent convert than Thomas.

"In 2005, Thomas wrote the majority opinion in a case that expanded Chevron’s protections for government agencies. Ten years later, he was openly questioning the doctrine. Then in 2020, Thomas renounced his own earlier decision, writing that he’d determined the doctrine is unconstitutional after all — a rare reversal for a justice with a reputation for being unmovable in his views.

"By last year, Koch network strategists sensed that victory could be at hand. During an internal briefing for network staff, Jorge Lima, a senior vice president at Americans for Prosperity, said the Supreme Court seemed primed to radically change its approach to the issue. The network was trying to find cases that could bring about major changes in the law, according to a video of the meeting obtained by the watchdog group Documented. “We’re doubling down on this strategy,” Lima told the crowd.

"Several months later, the Supreme Court announced it would take up a case, Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, in which Koch network staff attorneys represent the plaintiffs. If Thomas and his colleagues side with them this coming term, Chevron will be overturned once and for all."

Read more:
https://www.propublica.org/article/clarence-thomas-secretly-attended-koch-brothers-donor-events-scotus

#OligarchCamp #BohemianGrove #SCOTUS #ImpeachClarenceThomas #Chevron #ChevronDoctrine #NDRC #KochIndustries #Oligarchy #CorruptSCOTUS #SCOTUSIsCompromised #Corporatocracy #Oiligarchy #EnvironmentalProtections #BigOilAndGas #CorporatePolluters #HeritageFoundation #ClimateDeniers #WaterIsLife #AirIsLife

House Fast Tracks Bill That Would Give #Trump Power to Target Nonprofits

The legislation would let the Treasury Department revoke tax-exempt status for any “terrorist supporting organization"

November 10, 2024

"The vague language in the bill could be used against nonprofits that support #Palestinian rights, #ReproductiveRights and #EnvironmentalProtections. "

Original article:
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/house-bill-trump-power-target-nonprofits-1235161151/

Archived version:
https://archive.ph/MOe4R

#SilencingDissent #FreePalestine #Activists #NoDAPL #Section25 #Fascism #Greenpeace #Blackwater #ErikPrince #CriminalizingDissent #CrackdownOnProtests #AntiProtestLaws #Genocide #ClimateActivists #ErikPrinceColonialism #CorporateFascism #CorporateColonialism #ClimateProtestors #CharacteristicsOfFascism

Here comes the climate section of Writing the Occult, and we've got the human who literally wrote the book: Dr Kevan Manwaring will give an intro to cli-fi as it appears in speculative literature. Consider this your crash course in how to put the day's learning on the page. 🧵⬇️

#climatefiction #ecofiction #climatechange #climatecrisis #climateemergency #writersofmastodon #environmentalProtections #environment #green #conservation

Historically Undeveloped #SearsIsland Now Threatened by #Maine’s #WindTurbine Project

By Seamus Othot
November 20, 2023

"The State of Maine intends to develop the untouched Sears Island in #Searsport to build and ship offshore wind turbines, according to Downeast lawmakers who oppose the controversial project.

"'It is the largest undeveloped uninhabited causeway accessible island on the eastern coast of the United States,' said Rep. Lynne Williams (D-Bar Harbor) in her letter defending Rep. Reagan Paul’s (R-Winterport) proposal to stop the development of Sears Island.

"The lawmakers see the Sears Island project as a negative environmental effect of Maine’s offshore wind plans, which are supposed to lower Maine’s greenhouse gas emission and thereby forestall anthropogenic global warming.

"The development of offshore wind turbines also has the potential to impact Maine’s lobster and haddock fisheries, according to scientific studies collected and distributed to media by the New England Fishermen’s Stewardship Association (#NEFSA).

"Rep. Paul’s proposal, which was appealed on Thursday’s meeting of Maine’s legislative council, would have granted a conservation easement for land on Sears Island that is not privately owned.

"This would have stopped the development of 100 acres of the 940 acre island.

"The appeal failed, with a vote of five-five. The four republicans on the council voted for the bill, along with Sen. Mattie Daughtry (D-Cumberland). The rest of the Democratic leaders opposed the bill.

"Rep. Williams argued that, in addition to its #ecological value, and its sentimental value as untouched #wilderness for the people of her district, Sears Island ought to be preserved for its #historical value.

"'The island is rich with #indigenous #Wabanaki history and American history from the Revolutionary War that deserves to be preserved and protected as well,' said Paul.

"Without Paul’s bill, there is no legislation preventing Maine’s offshore wind industry from industrializing the island.

"A similar bill, proposed by Rep. Tiffany Strout (R-Harrington), was appealed at the same council session as Paul’s, but, like Paul’s, it failed.

"Rep. Strout’s bill would have helped Maine retain its Lobster Management Area One if it is auctioned off to company’s building offshore wind turbines."

https://www.themainewire.com/2023/11/historically-undeveloped-sears-island-now-threatened-by-maines-wind-turbine-project/

#Wahsumkik #Maine
#FirstNations #GovernorJanetMills
#Corporatocracy #OffshoreWindFarm #ProtectTheDunes #SaveSearsIsland #EndangeredSpecies #EnvironmentalProtections
#MackPoint #Searsport

Critics call plan for #Searsport offshore wind site ‘dangerous precedent,’ point to coastal impacts

#WindPower advocates and #conservationists looking to protect #SearsIsland from use as a wind power hub presented their points of view to lawmakers, who must choose between the two sides.

"Bill would set a dangerous precedent for the destruction of our coastal #ecosystems"

Stephen Singer
March 18, 2024

"Opponents urged lawmakers to respect the area’s coastal environment.

"Tribal Rep. #AaronDana of the #PassamaquoddyTribe said the proposal would disrupt the area’s environment and cause #pollution, affecting the ability to fish, hunt and gather 'in the traditional ways that have sustained the Passamaquoddy people' and others.

"#Industrialization of the areas 'not only (desecrates) our #SacredSites, but (it also erodes) our cultural heritage and our connection behind the land,' Dana said.

"Joshua Kercsmar, vice president of #PreserveRuralMaine, said the conservation group prefers construction of a wind port on the 'already industrialized #MackPoint part of Searsport that has no coastal dunes.

"He also said the state would set a bad precedent by changing environmental policy.
'If through a single bill the laws no longer apply to protecting Sears Island then a troubling question arises: If the state can so easily undo protections on Sears Island sand dunes, why could it not just as easily undo protections on other protected ecosystems elsewhere?' Kercsmar said.

"#SandDunes and coastal #beaches protect buildings and infrastructure from waves and #flooding and provide #habitat for #MigratoryShoreBirds and endangered and threatened species, #MaineAudubon said. It suggested establishing a Coastal Sand Dune Restoration and Protection Fund, modeled after Maine’s Lake Water Quality and Restoration Fund, that 'would help kickstart a novel opportunity to increase technical assistance, research and public education.'"

Source:
https://www.pressherald.com/2024/03/18/legislature-gets-its-first-look-at-searsport-site-for-offshore-wind-as-backers-and-critics-weigh-in/

#Wahsumkik #Maine #FirstNations #SacredSites #JanetMills #Corporatocracy #OffshoreWindFarm #Wabanaki #ProtectTheDunes #ProtectTheForest #SaveSearsIsland #EndangeredSpecies #EnvironmentalProtections #CorporateColonialism

Geesh. More stuff going on behind the scenes. It could be a full-time job trying to keep track of shifty bills and corporate wheeling and dealing!

Back Track on Mining Regulation:Legislative ENR Committee Poised to Weaken Environmental Protections

Sunlight Media Collective March 24, 2024

"On Monday, March 25, the Maine legislature’s Committee on Environment and Natural Resources (ENR) will discuss a new “Zombie Bill” version of #LD1471, a bill that was tabled last year. This bill takes a dangerous U-turn on #EnvironmentalProtections protections for metallic #mining in #Maine. This new version of LD1471 replaces language about strengthening environmental and human health mining protections with language that instead weakens Maine’s mining law and creates a loophole that specifically exempts #OpenPit #LithiumMining from environmental protections in the law.

"Writing a “Zombie Bill” is sneaky, undemocratic politics. The Maine Board of Environmental Protection (BEP) missed the deadline for this legislative session to have the legislature review these new rules regarding open-pit lithium mining. Instead of going through a transparent, democratic process of review in the next legislative session, the #JanetMills administration, pushed by the mining industry and in cooperation with the ENR committee, is bringing this zombie bill forward in an attempt to rush it through without a public hearing.

"We deserve the right to a public hearing and to submit testimony on this legislation, but this undemocratic process takes away our right to do so. There is no online portal available to submit testimony, so please submit comment by email or in person."

Source:
https://www.sunlightmediacollective.org/back-track-on-mining-regulationlegislative-enr-committee-poised-to-weaken-environmental-protections/

#NoMetallicMiningInMaine #NoLithiumMining #NoOpenPitMining #ProtectTheForest #LithiumRecycling