• On Aug. 10, state Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara) was joined by other local leaders during a press conference in Santa Barbara, where she urged legislators to get behind a ban on new offshore drilling in the Tranquillon Ridge area of the Santa Barbara Channel. Jackson is giving the ban another try this year with a bill she jointly authored with Sen. Mike McGuire (D-Healdsburg), SB 78, which would ban new drilling in those state waters, located in a Marine Protected Area off the coast of Vandenberg Air Force Base. The bill is currently in the Assembly Appropriations Committee and is expected to be up for a vote in the state Assembly as the Legislature heads into its last month of the session.
• U.S. Rep. Lois Capps (D-Santa Barbara) said she supports legislation introduced on Aug. 5 by U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-California) to expand the California Coastal National Monument through the inclusion of federal lands across the state, including the Piedras Blancas Light Station Outstanding Natural Area in San Luis Obispo County. “Expanding the California Coastal National Monument would provide greater access to these national treasures and ensure that these beautiful landscapes along California’s coast are preserved for all to enjoy,” Capps said in a statement. “I am particularly pleased that Sen. Boxer’s legislation would re-designate Piedras Blancas Light Station as a national monument, an honor befitting this outstanding landmark, which is teeming with historic importance and natural beauty. I look forward to continuing to work with local stakeholders and my colleagues in the House to move this effort forward.” Capps plans to introduce similar legislation in the House of Representatives when it reconvenes in September.
• On Aug. 7, Gov. Jerry Brown signed Senate Bill 17, authored by Central Coast state Sen. Bill Monning (D-Carmel), which extends the sunset date for the California Sea Otter Fund by five years and will continue to give California taxpayers the option of supporting the fund. Legislation enacted in 2006 created the fund, which supports researchers in their efforts to study and protect the threatened population of sea otters in the state. Today, the three-year average is slightly less than 3,000 sea otters along the California coastline—one-fifth of the historic population. The fund was scheduled to sunset at the start of 2016 and now extends through 2021. Between 2007 and 2014, California taxpayers contributed more than $2.3 million to the fund through their tax return forms.
This article appears in Aug 13-20, 2015.
