California’s Love Affair With Big Oil: from Marine ‘Protection’ to Cap-and-Trade

My long series of articles investigating the power of Big Oil in California, including my coverage of the passage last year of Jerry Brown’s legislation extending California’s cap-and-trade program past 2020, began at the Annual Legislative Fisheries Forum at the State Capitol in March of 2009. As I listened to testimony from the public about…

Written by

Dan Bacher

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May 13, 2018

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Originally Published in

My long series of articles investigating the power of Big Oil in California, including my coverage of the passage last year of Jerry Brown’s legislation extending California’s cap-and-trade program past 2020, began at the Annual Legislative Fisheries Forum at the State Capitol in March of 2009.

As I listened to testimony from the public about the controversial Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative to create “marine protected areas” in California, my ears perked up when John Lewallen, an author, longtime North Coast environmental leader and seaweed harvester, complained that an oil industry lobbyist was strategically placed on the panel overseeing the creation of marine protected areas.