From the publisher/Arnold G. York
A recent Los Angeles Times headline reads, “Two State Officials Blast Panel’s Decision on San Diego Sewage”
The story from the above headline went on to describe how two of the state’s top environmental leaders, California Resources Secretary Mary Nichols and Environmental Protection Secretary Winston Hickox, both longtime environmentalists, jointly wrote a letter to the California Coastal Commission telling it that, in a recent decision it made, the Coastal Commission had overstepped its authority in rejecting San Diego’s bid for the extension of a waiver from the Federal Clean Water Act.
In the letter the two said, “A serious error was committed.”
Nichols and Hickox wrote, ” … The Commission overstepped its authority and disrupted the orderly process of San Diego’s ‘ocean waiver,’ ” and “has no jurisdiction over the discharge limitations of a treatment works.”
Also, the two charged, the “Commission acted prematurely and in excess of its jurisdiction,” and opinioned that it was “clearly aimed” (read that as attempted to push) at trying to influence the Regional Water Quality Control Board to bow to the Coastal Commission’s wishes. The Regional Water Quality Control Board (RWQCB) did not bow under pressure and went on to approve San Diego’s application.
Hickox and Nichols suggested to the Coastal Commission that it rehear this issue at its June meeting in San Diego “in the most expeditious manner.” This is a not-so-polite bureaucratic way of saying, Butt out-this is not your turf- we (meaning the governor et al) don’t appreciate you guys looking to take charge of the entire California Coast to the exclusion of every other governmental agency, like the RWQCB and, inferentially, the City of Malibu.
You would think the Coastal Commission would begin to learn, perhaps be a little humbled, perhaps to try and “work and play well with others,” which they seem to fail to do regularly. You might think so, but you would be wrong.
Another headline, this time in the San Diego Union, reads, “Oceanside’s gaffe draws dire reaction from insulted panel.”
In a wonderful column by Logan Jenkins, he wrote, “To put it politely, Oceanside committed a bonehead gaffe, a flaming faux pas, a brain-dead bungle.
“In failing to send an emissary to the California Coastal Commission meeting in Santa Barbara, Oceanside … offended the dignity of the high and mighty commission, an appointed body well known for it’s imperious independence (just asked stunned sewage officials in San Diego for their take).”
Jenkins goes on to compare the Coastal Commission to the court of Louis XIV at Versailles.
Now, you might well think that any government agency that was recently chastised by the governor, two major environmental players and a couple of the state’s largest dailies might become, at the least, a little bit more cautious in approach, a little more deferential to opposition, perhaps even a little bit willing to find some compromises. You might well think that but you’d probably be wrong again.
The reason I know this, is that earlier this year Peter Douglas, the executive director and high potentate of the Coastal Commission, gave a speech and outlined his environmental beliefs, kind of a road map to his thinking.
What was most interesting, was his view of what he described as the NGOs, the non-governmental environmental organizations, by which I assume he meant the biggies-the Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Nature Conservancy and the many land trusts.
He examines them and finds them wanting, and, I quote him, “I’m not suggesting that any NGO has sold out. I think it is a matter of a subtle shift in perspective relating to the perceptions of success for the organizations. This is what I mean by the graying of the environmental movement. Success today seems to be measured more by the status and credibility of the power brokers, being players at the table … Caution and pragmatism appear to have displaced ideology, bold action, and, to some extent in my view, principle.”
Now, in case you’re holding your breath, wondering who it is that meets these Olympian ideals of boldness, clear ideology and principle beyond reproach, it is now revealed to us. There is only one person, a godlike reincarnation of the “New Everything,” a man who believes fervently in the mantra of governmental regulation, who believes in regulatory advocacy groups, who “pushes for controls over how land is used in opposition to developers, extractive industries, and private property rights and landowner groups.”
That man could only be Peter Douglas, and, I’m sure, after great soul searching, he looked in the mirror and humbly said, “C’est moi.”
So, I don’t hold out great hope for rapprochement with the Coastal Commission and its Local Coastal Program for Malibu, which apparently was shaped in the image of Peter the Pure, the last great survivor of the age of the “New Deal,” who in his heart knows what’s best for us and intends to see that we get it.