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Dan Bacher commentary: North Coast enviros blast MLPA as evidence of corruption emerges

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 7, 2010 at 7:37 am

From Dan Bacher at IndyBay.org, this commentary:

“John and Barbara Stephens-Lewallen, Mendocino County’s leading environmental activist couple, demanded that the Schwarzenegger administration stop the corrupt, fast-track Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative during their testimony before the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force for the North Coast Study Region on March 1. Their plea to halt the process was made the same week that new hard evidence of corruption in the widely-contested MLPA fiasco emerged during a Fish and Game Commission meeting in Ontario, California.

“It is our duty to defend California ocean food sovereignty while we still draw breath,” the Stephens-Lewallens stated. “Public access to fisheries is a Constitutional right in California (Article 1, Section 25). We will lose this right unless we unite and assert it this year.”

“You and the interests you represent would be wise to help us stop the Marine Life Protection Act Initiative (MLPAI). The MLPAI is a lose/lose/lose effort on California’s North Coast, benefitting only the careerists who run the MLPAI process,” they said.

The Stephens-Lewallens criticize the MLPA process for being funded by a private corporation, the Resource Legacy Fund Foundation, effectively privatizing public trust ocean resources to pave the way for offshore oil drilling, wave energy projects and corporate aquaculture.

“The Resources Legacy Fund Foundation (Foundation) and its backers will never make sustainable and respected fisheries regulations here,” they said. “The Foundation will need to become more brutal and uglier in this futile effort.” … “

Continue reading this commentary by Dan Bacher by clicking here.

MORE MLPA COMMENTARY: The MLPA Initiative: A Corrupt Enron-Style Scam, commentary by David Gurney

March 7, 2010 · Filed Under Other Oceans & Beaches Stories

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