The California Coastal Commision (CCC) is suing the U.S. Navy, pitting states rights against national security interests. The Navy contends that it is exempt from state environmental laws because it is pursuing the higher priority of national security. The CCC says: not so fast.
http://www.latimes.com/...
The California Coastal Commission today filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Navy for rejecting its recommendations for additional safeguards to protect whales and other marine mammals from high-power sonar used by ships in training exercises planned for Southern California waters.
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The issue has surfaced because of increasing scientific evidence linking the powerful sonar to panicked behavior and even mass die-offs of whales and dolphins in the Bahamas, the Canary Islands and elsewhere after naval exercises.
Can I just say, the California Coastal Commission kicks ass. They are constantly on the frontier, aggresively pursuing California's commitment to protecting our natural resources. They have also battled over whether Homeland Security has to follow coastal commission zoning requirements.
Unfortunately, I don't have time to flesh this out into a detailed, context rich diary. But let me share a little bit about who the CCC is. The CCC is a somewhat unique quasi-judicial state agency, established in the '70s by voter proposition. From their website: http://www.coastal.ca.gov/
The mission of the Coastal Commission is to:
Protect, conserve, restore, and enhance environmental and human-based resources of the California coast and ocean for environmentally sustainable and prudent use by current and future generations.
[the CCC] plans and regulates the use of land and water in the coastal zone. Development activities, which are broadly defined by the Coastal Act to include (among others) construction of buildings, divisions of land, and activities that change the intensity of use of land or public access to coastal waters, generally require a coastal permit from either the Coastal Commission or the local government.
There are twelve voting members of the commision, appointed by elected state officials. There are also four nonvoting members to represent stakeholders.