Chuqui.com
We sometimes forget that the president doesn't always need the approval of Congress (much less John Boehner) to accomplish something he thinks is important. For instance, today President Obama is expected to sign an executive order announced* plans for protecting a huge chunk of the California coastal ecosystem. The San Francisco Chronicle reports:
President Obama is poised to protect 2,093 square nautical miles of ocean habitat off the coast of Sonoma and Mendocino counties, a move that would more than double the area covered by two national sanctuaries off the West Coast and permanently ban offshore oil drilling there.
The decision, expected Thursday, would create an enormous preserve stretching some 50 miles along the California coast and extending some 30 miles out to sea. It would also fulfill the long-held dream of Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Petaluma, who has tried repeatedly since 2004 to pass legislation protecting the coastal ecosystem.
That's an area the size of Delaware, everybody. Ecstatic environmentalists are calling these new protected areas "Yosemites of the Sea." Not surprisingly, Congressional Republicans have been against it for years.
From the Chronicle:
The proposed expansion from Bodega Bay north to Point Arena in Mendocino County has been blocked repeatedly by congressional Republicans. The only foolproof way to accomplish it now in the face of a Republican majority in the House of Representatives is for President Obama to proclaim it a protected area by executive order, experts say. The nutrient-rich waters from deep ocean upwellings in the Cordell and Farallones regions support about 20 percent of the world's fish, including salmon. Birds and marine mammals, including sea lions, orcas and gray, blue and humpback whales, also thrive in the area.
Said Rep. Woolsey:
"The only meaningful opposition comes from national oil interests and their allies in Congress, outsiders who want to drill at any cost. This is more than just a matter of environmental urgency; thousands of jobs hang in the balance too. The local fishermen support my sanctuary bill because their livelihoods depend on a rich harvest that's only possible in a thriving marine ecosystem."
Apparently, elections have consequences for sea lions, too.
*UPDATE: At the press conference today, the Obama administration announced that NOAA -- the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration -- will hold first hearings on the proposed expansion. As the Mercury News reports, President Obama chose the slower route to avoid some of the upset caused in 2006 when President Bush created a new monument in the Northern Hawaiian Islands. The hearings start next month in California.
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Another great move by a POTUS that does not get the credit he deserves because the media complex gets rich from strife and discord.
It is always a good thing to protect our environment. I have never understood why the republicans want to destroy all of America's beauty.
Uh...Short term profits is their goal at the expense of all else.
I was once calling for a national environmental organization and got a woman on the line who was a Christian Wrong type (how she ever joined this organization is proof of how stupid and ignorant she was). When I started talking about the things the organization was doing, her response was "We don't have to do any of that. The Bible says 'God will provide.'" At that point I had a "line failure" on the phone (caused by my thumb on the dialer pressing the "off" switch).
But that ignorant bimbo's statement was exactly why Republicans think as they do, Marty.
Those are some smug-looking seals. They don't give nobody no guff. >:|
Sea lions....see the ear flaps.
Any hope for the sea otters?
This just in from Mt. Rushmore:
"BULLY!" -Theodore Roosevelt.
(For the low information voter, as president, Roosevelt created five national parks (doubling the previously existing number); signed the landmark Antiquities Act)
Are all national parks and national monuments off limits to oil drilling? One of the last things the Clinton administration did was to create the Canyon of the Ancients in Southwest Colorado to protect many of the ancient native American archeological sites. I live almost in the middle of this monument; its main "headquarters/entrance" is six miles down the road. There was a big outcry out here when that monument was created, mostly from the cattlemen who had been grazing their cattle on what had been BLM land.
Out here in Montezuma County and all of Colorado many of us are concerned about Fracking. Our homes, farms, and water supplies are being threatened by this very questionable technology. If drilling is banned on the Monument of the Ancients, I will rest somewhat easier because at least the oil and gas industries cannot drill on government land that is literally adjacent to mine.
I aplaude the creation of the new sanctury off California.
Don't hold your breath. As we write this those "free marketers" want to do more drilling on "public lands" for pennies to the treasury! That's what "drill baby drill" was all about, yet people forget that there are people living in these areas whose lives and livelihoods will be affected. The sad fact is many don't care until it comes into their back-yards.
Thank you POTUS, I stand a bit taller right now!
Tyranny! Communism! Fascism!
Oh, wait. A TeaPartier must have hijacked my brain for a moment. I feel myself again.
Yay! Good move Mr. President.
No doubt that if/when this is signed, it will happen without fanfare in the wake of the fisical cliff and the tragedy in Con. Reguardless, of that, congratulations and thankyou mr. president for furthering the conservation of our largely irreplaceable natural resources and ecology.
Yes yes yes, go Mr President. Our world needs saving.
Another reason that i am so glad that Obama is our President...the list just goes on.
Of course the next prez can cancel the entire thing. That might not be a bad idea. Then the money for this project can be given to seniors who are getting thrown under the bus by the Prez who has "offered" to do this to make Republicans happy. The plan is to change the formula for cost of living increases in Soc Sec, which will result over time in Soc Sec for seniors sort of disappearing.
Lila: You seem to personify a senior Republican and what confounds us progressives. Instead of blaming the party that demands Social Security cuts even though it does not effect the budget deficit, you are blaming the guy trying to compromise to appease them. Republicans fought Social Security and Medicare tooth and nail, and they continue to. Yet seniors seem to ignore these known facts and fall for such transparent nonsense the Republicans spew out. It confounds us...
I certainly do not want to throw seniors, like me, under the bus, but I do not want to throw the seals under the bus either.
Lila,
Money for this project? The area in question is already publicly owned, there is no need to build roads or other infrastructure, and the local people earning a living off the sea will benefit from healthier fish stocks and increased tourism.
The only losers in this are outside corporations wanting to extract oil and gas while neglecting to plan for spills and other mistakes. Remember EIR put out by BP, the one that pledged to protect the walruses of the Gulf of Mexico? Yeah, those guys, they lose.
While I applaud any efforts to extend protections to the sea and the coastal areas, I wish the Obama administration was demonstrating concern about the manner in which those in the administration have been failing to protect those which the The Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971 charge them to protect.
lets not destroy animal habitat or kill animal or creature life of any form, at least not w/out anestitizing (sp.?) first,thats my stand on it anyway. but if something is already going extinct, let them go extinct. this is a hell hole to live in,full of pain and suffering esp. for animals.and for those who believe in God, maybe thats one of His plans. you know, not all we do is planned by God.
Woohoo!!! Good job mr president!!! It's about time someone does something for the environment instead of big business!!!
dont wreck their habitat,but if something is going extinct dont breed more, let them go extinct. this is a hell-hole of pain and suffering esp. for animals. id like to see animals that we eat anesthesized before being killed, but i guess thats just me.
Anybody want to try to save Louisiana's diminishing coastline? Oh yeah! It's owned/destroyed by oil companies. Too bad for all THAT marine life, costal habitat, and hurricane-stopping marshlands!
:(. It sucks to be the colon of the continental U.S.
No matter what the GOP tries to do to him, President Obama just grows in stature picking up right where Teddy Roosevelt left off. This, of course, will anger Big Oil and thus start a new round of slander and Birther rants.
The entire coastline needs to be protected from those who are relentlessly trying to destroy it, because they have more than a few screws loose.
I'm all for it, but as an enforcer we need resources (money) to enforce what you desire. Don't give us more jurisdiction/regulations, no matter how wonderful it is without obligating or appropriating monies to take on new requirements.