Governor Schwarzenegger’s austerity budget released just before the election included a strange and dangerous proposal to bypass the State Lands Commission’s public review of offshore oil drilling. Instead, the Director of Finance could override a vote of the three-member commission. It’s a strange proposal, since the Director of Finance is a member of the SLC, along with the Controller and Lieutenant Governor. So under the existing system, the Director needs only to convince one other member to carry any motion.

It’s a dangerous proposal since corruption by the Director of Finance is what led to the creation of the SLC in the first place. Undoing regulation enacted during the Great Depression and intended to protect against abuse of the public trust sounds eerily familiar to what created our current financial mess on Wall Street.

Read more here…

State Lands Commission will be discussing this issue on Monday, June 1st.

Support: Agenda Item 70. In January, the State Lands Commission denied an oil-drilling project in Santa Barbra and we need to make sure that decision is not overruled! Item 70 is a resolution opposing the Governor’s Budget Revision to override the State Lands Commission denial of the PXP oil-drilling project.

Read the resolution here.

Read Surfrider Foundation’s position here.

(this is the last item on the agenda!)

MEETING DETAILS: CALIFORNIA STATE LANDS COMMISSION

MEETING STARTS At 10:00 AM
City Of Santa Monica
City Hall Council Chambers
Room 213, Second Floor
1685 Main Street
Santa Monica, CA 90401