Once more, we fight for our coast
On a recent Saturday afternoon, I sat alone in the Sonoma State University Library sifting through an archive representing the two decades I served in Congress. Quiet as it was, I was not contemplative, but brooding, almost paralyzed by rage at President Trump’s executive order threatening to open the Pacific, Arctic and Atlantic oceans to new drilling in federal waters.
The executive order from the White House shouldn’t have been a surprise. After all, every order President Trump has signed during the first days in office seeks to destroy something good President Barack Obama, the past administration and/or the Democrats have accomplished to make our country safer, healthier, cleaner and more secure. To prove his malevolence further, Trump even attacked Michelle Obama’s school nutrition guidelines. But, of course, he wasn’t done. Earlier this year, he turned his attention on our oceans, including some of our nation’s most biologically important waters.
My reason for visiting the archives was to pull together the files related to the successful expansion of the Cordell Bank and the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuaries to protect the Sonoma and southern Mendocino coasts. Our effort had been to protect some of the nation’s most biologically rich and pristine waters from blowouts, spills and seepage that are lethal to marine life, even while the products oil rigs produce condemn us to escalating climate catastrophes.
I curbed my rage and dug into the files that described the history of the sanctuary expansion. Our records traced the efforts of my offices, starting a dozen years ago researching scientific reports, interviewing experts, asking for advice and securing the support we would need from the stakeholders who would be affected by adding sanctuary protection off our coast. We held meetings with commercial and recreational fishermen (and women), representatives from business and tourism interests; environmental groups, elected officials and the general public. Resolutions of support were passed by the counties of Sonoma, Marin, Mendocino and San Francisco and cities in the four counties. The California Coastal Commission, the State Lands Commission and ultimately Gov. Jerry Brown joined in support.
We drafted legislation and had it reviewed by experts and stakeholders to ensure the legislation said what it did and did what it said. Former Sen. Barbara Boxer agreed to write the Senate companion bill.
It took years, but finally the House Resources Subcommittee on Oceans held a hearing with witnesses both for and against. The full committee then marked up legislation and scheduled a vote on the House floor. HR1187 passed the House unanimously on March 31, 2008.
Unfortunately, the bill stalled in the Senate, requiring us to reintroduce our legislation in 2010. The House leadership, however, was now under Republicans’ control, and they had no interest in expanding our sanctuary and/or protecting our coast. They refused to even discuss it. President Obama was our only hope.
Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi presented our position to the president. The vice president and the interior secretary spoke to him in support of expansion. The president agreed to make it happen through appropriate administrative action. In January 2013, President Obama directed the Commerce Department to assign the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration the task of using the National Marine Sanctuary Act’s administrative process to assess the expansion, through economic and environmental analysis and public involvement. So began a two-year process, postings in the Federal Register, public meetings up and down the coast, and thousands of overwhelmingly favorable comments from the public.
Leaving the library that Saturday, I felt my anger subside as I recalled the wonderful and amazing people who put their brains in gear and their shoulders to the grindstone and did not give up. They insisted on good science and sound public policy in the hearing rooms of Congress, the offices of NOAA, and the modest meeting halls of Bodega Bay, Gualala and Point Arena. We have a passion for our coast, and we will not go gently into Trump’s oil-black night. I have no doubt that committed coast protectors will prevail in Congress or the courts, if necessary. And if they are allowed to be heard, over reactionary, fossilfueled greed and deliberate ignorance. Lynn Woolsey, a Democrat from Petaluma, served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1993 to 2013. Tom Roth, environmental specialist and project leader in the congresswoman’s office, helped prepare this commentary.