You got the wrong message from my post. I'm not against environmental regulation, in fact I'm in favor of stricter regulation. What does irk me is the foot dragging in an emergency situation. We had to get a signoff from something like a dozen agencies from the town to the state level. Everyone was OK, except the Coastal Commission was the most intransigent and delayed everything nearly three months, imposed water quality standards far beyond those required by law, and meant the desal plant had to be shut down after the drought. The irony is that the whole plant is on CSD land and doesnt come near the beach. The other problem is dealing with hazardous conditions. It was known that the forest was unhealthy 20 years ago. Because it overlaps an urban area, it needs to be actively managed. Old trees need to be cut down to clear space for new trees to grow. They wont if they dont get sunlight. The logs can stay in place. Because of the beetles and fungus, the cant be used. If you dont cut them, you get the current situation. That has been known for 20 years but no one has stepped up to the plate to fix anything. We are unincorporated so we cant even tax ourselves to take care of ourselves. We are a town of 7000, and we cant even incorporate because of a crazy law that says that the town must reimburse the county for any lost tax revenue.
In spite of my grumbling I like living in California. We were in a financial mess because cut taxes and spend Republican governor and Bush's recession. But we took redistricting away from the legislature and threw the republicans out and now we are fiscally sound. We may have some annoying regulations, but everyone has access to health insurance, free if you are poor. Nobody dictates what a woman can do with her body. We have Silicon Valley in the north and lala-land in the south. It aint perfect, but the weather sure is nice. (OK, maybe a little more rain.)
I am not against environmental regulation at all. I am against bad regulation of any kind or a process of administering regulation that, for lack of a better word, is stupid or non-sensical. Laws like this one (nothing to do with the environment):
Nobody is suggesting dropping regulations, destroying our environment or going anarchist. But a situation like the one you described ought to make everyone angry. The damage caused through inaction (or whatever the mechanism may have been) is inexcusable. The people responsible ought to suffer consequences, perhaps even be fired. Killing half a forest is, well, criminal. And that is, per your account, what they did.
I'd like to think we agree. Perhaps I am more passionate about confronting ineptitude than you might be or perhaps I am much older and I've seen enough of this that I've just reached a limit. I love nature. Killing half a forest should not be taken lightly.
In spite of my grumbling I like living in California. We were in a financial mess because cut taxes and spend Republican governor and Bush's recession. But we took redistricting away from the legislature and threw the republicans out and now we are fiscally sound. We may have some annoying regulations, but everyone has access to health insurance, free if you are poor. Nobody dictates what a woman can do with her body. We have Silicon Valley in the north and lala-land in the south. It aint perfect, but the weather sure is nice. (OK, maybe a little more rain.)