Capitol Voice January 2025

 

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Golden State Natural Resources Biomass Project Spells Disaster for California Communities and Forests

How We’re Continuing to Push for Sustainable Investments at CalPERS

The Delta Tunnel: Where We’re At, Where We’re Going, and How You Can Help

 

Golden State Natural Resources Biomass Project Spells Disaster for California Communities and Forests

By Mahtisa Djahangiri

GSNR advocates holding signs

On January 8th, Sierra Club California joined a coalition of environmental and community groups — Little Manila Rising, Biofuels Watch, National Resources Defense Council, Center for Biological Diversity, Green America, Climate 911, and W.A.T.E.R —  to hold a rally and meet with legislators in Sacramento to raise awareness and opposition to the proposed Golden State Natural Resources (GSNR) wood pellet project. This project aims to construct two industrial-scale wood pellet manufacturing facilities in Northern California and an export terminal in Stockton with plans to ship the resulting pellets overseas for foreign energy markets, mostly in Asia.

The project poses significant environmental and public health hazards, particularly at the proposed storage site in the Port of Stockton. As seen with similar projects across the U.S., the siting of the GSNR project in the already environmentally degraded and disadvantaged community of Stockton would continue the state’s systematic disregard of community members' health, air quality, and life expectancy. Doubly concerning is GSNR’s partnership with the significantly greenwashed British biofuels giant Drax, which has an abysmal history of environmental racism for which it is currently facing multiple lawsuits. 

Not only does the GSNR project spell disaster for the communities that would be closest to it, but there are serious risks of opening the door to Drax in California. The company could worsen climate impacts of the biomass industry at large by burning biomass for energy, which releases significant greenhouse gas emissions (including more CO2 than coal). Biomass is also frequently misrepresented as a win-win for wildfire mitigation and energy needs. Despite claims of utilizing solely slash piles and mill waste, the GSNR DEIR reveals plans to log whole trees, including those up to 40 inches in diameter, across 18 California national forests, with potential expansion into Nevada and Oregon. This undermines California's climate goals and contradicts efforts to transition to clean, renewable energy sources. It is an unsustainable and environmentally destructive climate “solution”.

Additionally, the public process for this project has been fraught with discrimination and inadequate information. Not only did GSNR fail to hold fair and transparent hearings in Stockton, but the public was initially given only 8 days to review and submit comments on the over 1000 page draft environmental impact report (DEIR) that is riddled with inadequacies and fails to adequately address community concerns or provide alternatives. This process has made it even clearer that Drax is counting on taking advantage of another marginalized community. We must, in solidarity, use our voices to send a message that we won’t let this happen. 

The public comment period for the GSNR project's DEIR now ends on January 20th. Submit comments to express your concerns about this devastatingly harmful project via email to ceqacomments@gsfahome.org with the subject line “GSNR DEIR Comment” by January 20th. Sample comments have been created to edit and utilize, and people can express their concerns for the project to their representatives through NRDC’s sample letter.

 

How We’re Continuing to Push for Sustainable Investments at CalPERS

By Jakob Evans

Advocates at CalPERS

It’s a New Year for advocacy at the California Public Employee’s Retirement System (CalPERS)! Sierra Club California, Sierra Club’s Fossil Free Finance campaign, and our labor allies at California Common Good are gearing up to push for sustainable investments at CalPERS in 2025, and reviewing our climate finance advocacy in 2024.

As the year came to a close, ExxonMobil - a corporation that remains committed to a business model that is fueling the climate crisis - issued bonds with a maturity date of 2074. If purchased, investors would hold investments in fossil fuel expansion for the next 50 years. Thanks to your support, Sierra Club California was able to add 766 signatures from volunteers and supporters to a letter with over 1,750 signatures demanding that CalPERS place a moratorium on new Exxon bond investments. These signatures and letters were delivered in person at the November CalPERS Investment Committee Board meeting to the 11 Committee members by SEIU 1000 leader and CalPERS beneficiary Bobby Ray Daulton. In addition to comments from our allies, Sierra Club volunteers stayed through almost six hours of the committee hearing to deliver comments in support of our bond moratorium demand. 

While the Investment Committee did not respond in affirmation of our demands, this was a major moment for our coalition to come together and say, “keep our pension out of fossil fuel expansion!”

Now, we’re focusing on advocating for truly sustainable investments in CalPERS’ $100 billion dollar climate solutions fund. The pension fund announced in November that it has committed $53 billion dollars towards “climate solutions.” However, it is unclear what investments are included in this portfolio and how CalPERS is defining what technologies and corporations are included as climate solutions. Potentially, investments in fossil fuel corporations that have relatively small renewable energy efforts could be included in this $53 billion.

As we advocate for CalPERS to remain true to its leadership in climate finance, stay tuned for opportunities to join our advocacy in 2025. 

 

The Delta Tunnel: Where We’re At, Where We’re Going, and How You Can Help

By Caty Wagner

delta river

The past few months have seen a series of votes by participating State Water Contractors (SWC) on whether or not to fund the next phase of the environmentally destructive Delta Conveyance Project (DCP), aka the Delta Tunnel. The ultimate vote on construction of the tunnel is scheduled for 2027, although Newsom leaves office that January and has said that he wants the Delta Tunnel to be a “done deal” before he goes. Over the past few years, Newsom has continually tried to expedite the approval process for the tunnel, despite pushback from Sierra Club California and our partners highlighting the harms of the project. However, he was unfortunately able to expedite the tunnel’s multi-billion dollar sister project, Sites Reservoir. 

California governors have pushed for the various iterations of this project since the 1960s, and have cost state residents billions of dollars in the process. Newsom considers the Delta Tunnel a legacy project, and like Jerry Brown trying to finish what his father Pat started, Newsom hopes to be the one to take the credit for the Delta Tunnel. Pressure from donors like Wonderful Co. billionaires the Resnicks and other agriculture and developer associations likely contribute to his sense of urgency. 

Newsom and CNRA Secretary Wade Crowfoot heavily lobbied SWCs like Metropolitan Water District (MWD) in the days before the crucial Delta Tunnel vote in December. Crowfoot was invited to sit with the board during the vote, deliver a monologue, and evade questions right before their vote, in which only member agency Santa Monica voted “no.” Los Angeles delegates asked insightful questions that highlighted the high cost and low reliability of the project, but were ultimately directed by Mayor Karen Bass to vote in favor of it. 

Los Angeles had already surpassed its budget by $300 million at the time of the vote, but MWD’s participation in this round of funding of $141.6 million means a 3% increase in water rates because the project was unbudgeted. MWD already increased rates last spring and doubled property taxes. Bass is under scrutiny this week for cutting the LAFD budget by $17.5 million, while simultaneously not spending the full homelessness budget, leaving unhoused people vulnerable to the catastrophic fires.

This coming Tuesday, January 14 at 1:00 PM, Valley Water’s Board of Directors will vote on whether to spend $9.69 million to push the destructive Delta Tunnel project forward. For 90 years, Californians have rejected this harmful project. Let’s make sure Valley Water does the same. This meeting is our last big chance to stop this project before it moves forward, and we need your help. Please send a message to Valley Water and RSVP to attend the Board meeting on Tuesday, January 14 at 1:00pm to urge them to vote NO on funding the next phase of the Delta tunnel. Your help will be crucial in preventing this environmentally destructive project.

 


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