Page 6 - Sonoma County Gazette August 2019

LETTERS & OPINIONS:
email to vesta@sonic.net
COMMENT on website: LOGIN @SonomaCountyGazette.com
Sometimes I feel I have room to include excerpts from our discussions on Social Media, and other times I just want to leave these print pages for what comes in the mail/email. This month I am leaving out the Social media chats.
station proposed for Highway 116 and Stony Point Road was featured in the April edition. That article by Jenny Blaker helped spark a community uprising that culminated on July 8 with the developer withdrawing the application. Many people and organizations were instrumental in this success both before and after the April Gazette article, and we thank them all.
I always have more material than I can fit in these 72 pages.
While we are celebrating the termination of that proposal, we remain concerned about two other gas station proposals. One of them, in Petaluma, has been permitted by that city, and is now being fought in court. It is a David v. Goliath struggle being waged by the “No Gas Here” coalition against the huge corporate developer, Safeway. The other, at Highway 12 and Llano Road, is wending its way through the Sonoma County permitting process. In this case there is still an opportunity for the community to weigh in.
Facebook opens up discussions that have relevance to our lives and community, and are downright interesting! So much to learn from each other. They are discussions, as opposed to a letter that is a statement with no opportunity to respond in a timely manner! I like that part.
Yes, there are more social media sites than Facebook, but I simply don’t have time to engage in more. It’s a time-suck! A social life online.
The proposed station at Highway 12 and Llano Road is in unincorporated Sonoma County, just east of Sebastopol, smack dab in the middle of the Laguna de Santa Rosa with gasoline fueling, carwash, and minimart, all on a well. In no way does the applicant make a case that this project is necessary. That is because it is not necessary. There are 7 stations within a 5-mile radius of the project address, 5300 Sebastopol Road.
So if you want to be part of our discussions...on fire science...on PG&E clear-cutting along power lines, county plans for the Chanate property for housing, the City of Sonoma’s ban on Round-Up, and more and more!
JOIN US @ https://www.facebook.com/Sonoma.County.Gazette/
OPINION: Dissent
“ The expression or holding of opinions at variance with those previously, commonly, or officially held”
The City Council of Sebastopol, to their credit, wrote a letter unequivocally opposing the project on the grounds that it is in a rural area that functions as a community separator with historically agricultural and rural residential uses and that the project is in conflict with countywide commitment to city-centered growth. They also cited concerns about traffic congestion and adjacency to the Joe Rodota trail. The city requested to be kept apprised of the development and that request has not been honored.
By Woody Hastings and Jenny Blaker
As regular readers of the Gazette may recall, an article about a huge gas
By Terry Kully
Here, in America, “The People” (that’s Us) are meant to be in charge. As we
Add to that the fact that the proposal is in a priority groundwater basin and underground fuel storage tanks are always at risk of leaking. The location is in the Laguna de Santa Rosa within California tiger salamander Critical Habitat. There are plenty of other reasons to have concerns.
discussed last month, Our wealth of Documents tells us EXACTLY what the “Chain of Command” here is..however, the truth in these Documents is being challenged by the current administration in a myriad of ways every day.
But the real zinger is this. Sonoma County has a well-established record
of commitments in response to the climate crisis stretching back nearly two decades to 2002 with a resolution committing the County to reduce greenhouse gases from internal operations. This was followed with further actions in 2005, 2006, and 2008. Then in 2009 the County and all nine cities formed the Regional Climate Protection Authority to coordinate countywide climate protection efforts. Most recently, in 2018, the County adopted the “Climate Change Action Resolution” to pursue local actions that support goals including “encourage a shift toward low-carbon fuels in vehicles and equipment” and to “switch equipment from fossil fuel to electricity.” Our County leaders appear to be committed, and rightly so, to meaningfully and effectively responding to the climate crisis.
The very ideas that have been fought for by generations of US are being called into question, or simply trampled, and we are being force-fed the repugnant ideas of Nationalism, isolationism, cronyism, nepotism, racial and religious intolerance.
There is a terrifying attempt to do the unthinkable, silence dissent.
The Right to dissent is the most basic of American Rights.
Simply put, it is the right to disagree with OUR Government, and to say so, out loud, and to anyone who will listen!
Now it is 2019 and in Sonoma County we are facing new gasoline station proposals. How is this possible in a County with such a commitment to responding to the climate crisis? Permitting new gasoline stations makes a mockery of these past efforts.
The first 10 Amendments to the Constitution make up the Bill of Rights. The First Amendment (the very first!), puts a very strict prohibition on the Government’s power using the following words:
”Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech; or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”
The main problem we have here is an outdated 20th century county permitting process in a rapidly changing 21st century where we are facing ever more obvious consequences of two centuries of fossil fuel burning. The rules need to be changed. All of these applicants are jumping through the permitting hoops they have been asked to jump through and in doing so, according to
the rules, once permitted, should arguably be able to build their soon-to-be obsolete fueling stations. But in order to be consistent with existing County climate and clean energy policy, these proposals must be denied. In fact, the effective result of the policies that have been adopted by Sonoma County since 2002 should, if taken seriously, result in a prohibition of the construction of any new fossil energy-based facilities or infrastructure in Sonoma County unless some kind of clear community need is demonstrated.
To petition the government for a redress of grievances”, that is, to DISSENT!
The root of our voting system is dissent. If WE perceive that one policy is not working, or that WE are being misrepresented in any way, WE can propose
a new policy with more clarity as to what WE wish to put into practice in
OUR agreed upon public policies. WE can identify, and elect a new person to represent OUR values. Attacking OUR right to dissent is, in essence, attacking OUR right to identify what WE would like to change, and to do something about it. There is no great distance between “ No Dissent” and “ No Vote”.
In the wake of Petaluma City Council’s reluctant vote to permit the station in their city, they instituted a temporary moratorium on any new gas stations that “would allow for a period of consideration and discussion regarding options for potential new legislation regarding new gas station uses.”
When WE are told that no-one but the President and current Administration (whichever it may be) are allowed to speak out, to dissent, how long will it be before we find more of our rights diminished, or completely compromised?
If WE will continue to OWN the Rights that we love, WE must also continue to fight for them!
This is a call that a similar moratorium be instituted by the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors for any proposals not already filed. Further, until the permitting process as it relates to fossil energy infrastructure is overhauled, all new gasoline station proposals in Sonoma County, that in the normal process
WILL YOU FIGHT FOR OUR RIGHTS? Call your Congressperson and VOICE YOUR DISSENT!!!!!
6 - www.sonomacountygazette.com - 8/19
OPINION cont’d on page 7
OPINION: Do Gasoline & Meaningful Climate Policy Mix?
”It is the first responsibility of every citizen to question authority.” ~ Ben Franklin