Happy New Year! 2012 brings with it new opportunities and yes, new challenges. But let’s start the year by thanking President Obama for charting a clean energy future by standing up to dirty oil and saying “No” to the dangerous Keystone XL pipeline that would have transported tar sands oil through the United States for export. The Brown and Obama administrations are partnering for clean energy here at home, too. Interior Secretary Salazar and Governor Brown signed an agreement in the Central Valley to expand renewable energy development. These decisions put the health and safety of the American people first, and will help combat the threats of climate change, air pollution and oil addiction. Starting off the new year with a proposal to shrink the size of government, the president announced a plan this month to move the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration out of the Commerce Department and into the Department of the Interior. While streamlining government to better serve the American people is a worthy undertaking, this decision could significantly undermine efforts to safeguard our oceans and marine life, which are essential to California's economy. We understand the interest in creating a more nimble, coherent entity for economic policy, but NRDC knows this can be achieved without sacrificing the scientific and environmental strengths of NOAA and the independent perspective we need for our ocean resources.

Annie Notthoff, California Advocacy Director
Felicia Marcus, NRDC Western Director

In a tremendous victory for common sense, NRDC led a successful campaign to protect and strengthen California's landmark Low Carbon Fuel Standard. With support from NRDC and other groups, the California Air Resources Board unanimously rejected the oil industry's arguments that there aren't enough clean fuels and that dirty fuels (like tar sands) should be treated the same as any other crudes. The board's clear-minded action demonstrates that no matter how many millions oil companies spend on lobbyists, their trumped-up arguments and statistics simply don't hold up under scrutiny. Despite a legal setback to protect the standard, NRDC remains committed to defending the regulations and ensuring that cleaner fuels are introduced in the state.

The new year brought new protections for some of southern California’s most iconic coastal areas, including La Jolla, Laguna, Santa Monica Bay and Catalina Island. On January 1, NRDC celebrated the grand opening of a string of underwater parks. These “marine protected areas” form the southern section of the statewide network called for under California’s landmark Marine Life Protection Act; the network will be complete later this year once planning is finished for the far north coast region. The news about California’s new underwater parks was heralded in press all over the state, including Capital Public Radio, Coastline Pilot, Laguna Beach Independent, Malibu Daily Breeze, and Ventura County Star. NRDC knows that marine protected areas are an important step in charting a course toward greater sustainability, which means better fishing, diving, kayaking, tide-pooling and birding for the next generation of Californians.

Last month, NRDC and a coalition of conservation groups filed a lawsuit in D.C. federal court, challenging the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management's decision to accept bids from oil and gas companies for new deepwater leases in the Gulf of Mexico as part of Lease Sale 218. In deciding to proceed with the sale of new leases on December 14, the bureau dismissed the lessons learned during the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster from its assessment of oil spill risks for the Gulf of Mexico, the possible size of an oil spill and resulting damage — all considerations that could help prevent or mitigate a future spill.

California is leading the nation in clean energy investments, with huge benefits for consumers and the environment. Noah Long, an attorney in NRDC's San Francisco office, is one of our "utility players" working on a broad array of issues to promote clean energy and reduce the impacts from electricity generation. Noah has worked to implement and defend California's emissions performance standard that ensures utilities avoid long term investments in dirty power plants, and he led NRDC's sponsorship of SB 454, legislation that passed in 2011 with bipartisan support to improve enforcement of energy efficiency appliance standards. Noah recently joined NRDC's Western Renewable Energy project and is looking forward to promoting the expansion of renewable energy that minimizes land and wildlife impacts. A native westerner, Noah grew up in northern New Mexico, and loves nothing more than a day outside -- rain or shine.