SB CAN Action Alert April 8, 2014

Briefly:

1. H.O.T. Committee meetings rescheduled

2. Santa Barbara County Housing Element Workshops

3. Screening of Gasland 2 and other related films

4. Santa Barbara Rally to Stop Fracking

5. Assembly Select Committee on Coastal Protection: hearing on offshore fracking and well stimulation

6. APCD hearing on greenhouse-gas emission thresholds

Here are the details:

1. H.O.T. Committee meetings rescheduled; participation in other events is strongly encouraged.

Our H.O.T. (Housing, Open space and Transportation) Committee meetings previously scheduled for April 10 and 11 are being rescheduled. Several important events, some of which directly conflict with our normal April meeting schedule are detailed below. We encourage you to attend these events as well as our special H.O.T. Committee meeting on May 2 at 11:30 a.m. at the Orfalea Center in downtown Santa Barbara. Gar Alperovitz will speak on Community Democracy. We will send more information later.

2. Santa Barbara County Housing Element Workshops

The County Planning Department is seeking input on its Housing Element. The first public workshop is April 9 at 6 p.m. at the Betteravia Government Center in Santa Maria.

See the website link below for detailed information about the 2015-2023 Housing Element Update, the upcoming workshops, and other opportunities to provide your input.
http://longrange.sbcountyplanning.org/programs/housing/housing_element.php

Please take a minute and use this link to take the Housing Survey.

For more information about Long Range Planning go to:

http://longrange.sbcountyplanning.org/

3. Screening of Gasland 2 and other related films

SB County Water Guardians, SB CAN, and CPA invite you to a screening of Gasland 2 this Wednesday, April 9, at 7:30 p.m. at Westgate Park Community Room, on Marsala Avenue one block east of Westgate Road, Santa Maria. This will be an opportunity to learn more about the "Healthy Air and Water Initiative to Ban Fracking in Santa Barbara County."

"In this explosive follow-up to his Oscar®-nominated film GASLAND, filmmaker Josh Fox uses his trademark dark humor to take a deeper, broader look at the dangers of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, the controversial method of extracting natural gas and oil, now occurring on a global level (in 32 countries worldwide)."

And next Wednesday, April 16 we will show two short clips, "The Sky is Pink" and "Eagleford Shale" starting at 7:30 p.m. in Westgate Park Community Room in Santa Maria.

4. Santa Barbara Rally to Stop Fracking - Offshore and Onshore, organized by the Center for Biological Diversity, Santa Barbara County Water Guardians, Californians Against Fracking, Food & Water Watch, Environment California

Thursday, April 10, 2014 at 11 a.m. on the beach directly across from the Hyatt Hotel, 1111 E. Cabrillo Blvd. in Santa Barbara.

As the California Coastal Commission meets in Santa Barbara and Santa Barbara County Water Guardians launches a grassroots drive to halt fracking in Santa Barbara County, the Center for Biological Diversity invites you to join them at a lively rally on the beach across from the Coastal Commission meeting to say NO to fracking offshore and onshore.

To RSVP or for more information contact: Rose Braz, Center for Biological Diversity, [email protected], 415.632.5319.
Click here for more information on offshore fracking.
Click here for more information on Water Guardians efforts to halt fracking in Santa Barbara County.
Rose Braz, Climate Campaign Director, Center for Biological Diversity, 415.632.5319
Follow us on twitter: @CBD_Climate
Be a fan of Californians Against Fracking

5. Assembly Select Committee on Coastal Protection: hearing on offshore fracking and well stimulation

Friday, April 11 at 10 a.m.

Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors Hearing Room
Santa Barbara County Administration Building
105 E. Anapamu St., Santa Barbara, CA 93101

Das Williams notes that offshore oil fracking has been taking place without the public's knowledge and encourages you to participate in this discussion of the potential impact and oversight of such activities.

Assemblymember Mark Stone (D-Monterey Bay), Chair of the Assembly Select Committee on Coastal Protection, will be joined by Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson and Assemblymember Das Williams to lead an informational hearing about offshore oil and gas fracking along the California coast. The hearing will include a discussion of current oversight and regulations in California and federal waters. Panelists will come from the state government, the oil and gas industry, and environmental stakeholders. The public will be invited to comment.

This hearing will be live streamed and made available at the following websites:
http://asmdc.org/members/a29/
http://coastalprotection.assembly.ca.gov/2014hearings

6. APCD hearing on greenhouse-gas emission thresholds

NOTICE OF PUBLIC WORKSHOPS

May 6 at 3 pm – Santa Maria
Santa Maria Public Library, Shepard Hall
421 South McClelland St, Santa Maria, CA

May 8 at 3:00 pm – Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara Central Library, Faulkner Gallery
40 East Anapamu St, Santa Barbara

Updating District Guidelines to address Greenhouse Gas Emissions under the California Environmental Quality Act

The Santa Barbara County Air Pollution Control District’s Environmental Review Guidelines provide procedures for the District and other agencies to use when reviewing projects under the California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA. The District’s Guidelines are applied directly to projects for which the District is the lead agency under CEQA, including District permits, rules, and plans. The state’s CEQA guidelines have included a framework for addressing climate change impacts since 2010. The District proposes to update its Environmental Review Guidelines to include guidance for evaluating the significance of the impacts of greenhouse gas emissions from new or modified stationary sources.

The District will lead the workshops listed above to provide the framework and gather input from stakeholders and the public. Draft revisions to the District’s Guidelines will be developed and presented at another public workshop for input. Proposed revisions and a summary of input from the public workshops will be reviewed by the District’s Community Advisory Council, and may be brought to the District’s Board for adoption.

The following individuals or groups may be interested in attending these workshops:

Proponents of projects with new or modified stationary sources of air pollution in Santa Barbara County;

Agencies in Santa Barbara County that serve as lead agencies under CEQA;

Concerned members of the public;

Agencies, organizations and industries involved in climate change/greenhouse gas impact evaluation and mitigation.

For additional information, please see the District’s website at www.ourair.org/notices.htm, or contact Molly Pearson at (805) 961-8838.

To sign up to receive notices, please email [email protected].

Please contact me if you have any questions or concerns.

Thank you,

Ken Hough
Executive Director
SB CAN
[email protected]
(805) 563-0463
www.sbcan.org