Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Introduction to State Senator Fran Pavley

Hal Helsley, former Los Angeles County Planning Commissioner and Nancy Helsley, current Treasurer and Director of the Board at the Resource Conservation District of the Santa Monica Mountains, both requested that I share this speech, an introduction to State Senator Fran Pavley at the RCDSMM Wild and Scenic Film Festival on Saturday.


Raise your hand if you already know who our State Senator is.

In Malibu and adjacent areas, we are represented by Senator Fran Pavley. Prior to that she was our Assemblymember.

I would suggest that apart from President Barack Obama she might be the most important person in the United States.  

[Audience erupts.]

Hear me out, hear me out.  Ten to twelve years ago when all the smart people I knew started freaking out about the inevitability of climate change, pretty much equating it with the onset of the zombie apocalypse, she saw the rise of anthropogenic climate change as a budgeting issue – an inappropriate relationship of energy input and output.  As with any troubled budget, she saw this as a situation that with core changes and good planning, could be managed and resolved.

So while the rest of the country had its head dug in the sand ignoring the onset of climate change, she approached climate change as a math problem and decided to create legislation that would reduce climate change.

If California were a separate nation, we’d be the eighth largest economy in the world – so her success in working with California's legislature has borne fruit. 

In the nineties, her legislation to promote cleaner cars included laws stating that car manufacturers selling cars in our state not only had to reduce tailpipe emissions, they had to sell a percentage of cars that are ZEV.

Anyone want to tell me what ZEV stands for?

Right. Zero Emissions Vehicles. 

In essence, this legislation forced the car companies that wanted to continue to sell cars in the State of California to build and sell EV and ZEV cars.

The response of the car companies? 

They took it to the California Supreme Court – and the State of California lost that one. 

So she took it to the U.S. Supreme Court – and won.

Her work setting the framework for carbon-trading markets is a model that is being studied and emulated all around the world. She’s spoken to national legislative bodies in such countries as Japan, Norway and Canada about these legislative efforts.

Currently AB 32 requires a reduction in statewide climate pollution to 1990 levels by the year 2020.  The largest polluters are the primary target including factories power plants and oil companies.  About half the required pollution reductions have already been made, so the program is on track to be a success that other states and nations follow.
  
The positive impacts on our state’s overall carbon footprint are going to be breath-taking – or perhaps breath-adding.

In addition to her seminal work reducing climate change, the Senator has been a huge advocate for children, for the developmentally disabled, for our State Parks and for clean water and for maintaining water supply.  Her legislation on groundwater is a critical dose of good sense in an era of ongoing drought.

As an historian, I have to mention that she is a great-granddaughter of William Jennings Bryan who ran for President in 1896.

As a parent, I love it that she spent 28 years teaching school. 

As a staffer at the RCDSMM, I must tell you that she served on our board in the early days of her career as an elected official.

And, as someone who believes that the next generation has the capacity to heal and restore our earth, I want to tell you that my personal favorite piece of her legislation resulted in environmental education standards being built into the curriculum for students in California.


Please welcome our honored guest, State Senator Fran Pavley.

-- Melina Sempill Watts

Tuesday, October 7, 2014

RCDSMM Wild and Scenic Film Festival is Coming Soon: Tickets Online Now

Need some beauty in your life?
Join us at the RCDSMM Wild and Scenic Film Festival at Pepperdine University.
Watch the trailer for the RCDSMM Wild and Scenic Film Festival here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xE1A5k_BQsY&feature=youtu.be
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Buy tickets here: WildScenicBu.eventbrite.com
Please note that State Senator Fran Pavley will be our honored guest on Saturday October 25th.
Night I
Special Guest: State Senator Fran Pavley
Films About Climate Change
Date: Saturday, October 25
Reception: 6:30
Time: 7:00 - 10:00

Night II
Special Guest: To Be Announced
Films About Water
Saturday November 8th
Reception: 6:30
Time: 7:00 - 10:00
2014 Intro Trailer
YOUTUBE.COM