http://www.pressdemocrat.com/opinion/6263768-181/saturdays-letters-to-the-editor

Jacobi’s platform 11/5/2016

If you care about climate change, and more, please vote for me. I’m the only candidate for state office in California (and the first anywhere) to take the Pledge to Mobilize; that is, to apply a World War II effort to solving climate disruption. I’m ready to lead on this issue, and I have the engineering background, work experience and leadership record to do so. See RoniJacobi.com and TheClimateMobilization.org.

According to an analysis prepared for the CA Assembly Committee on Natural Resources, methane is about 80 times more powerful as a global warming pollutant than carbon dioxide on a 20-year time scale. Reducing methane is one of the most effective ways to slow global warming and rising sea levels.

My plan includes local food self-sufficiency. I will listen to those who make a living in agriculture and work with them to make climate solutions a top priority.

I’m interested in legislation and funding to address greenhouse gas and other pollution, water storage and drought and wildfire preparedness. I envision a point system, where the more points a proposal addresses, the greater the potential for funding in the form of loans and, maybe, grants for excellent proposals.

VERONICA “RONI” JACOBI

................

Again, I wrote the above Letter to the Editor in 2016 BEFORE wildfires hit locally in Sonoma County. When I served on the Santa Rosa City Council from 2006 to 2010 I frequently urged action for wildfire prevention and other climate resiliency measures. We successfully developed an award winning climate plan that I personally guided and added to. We took significant action on drought preparedness, but wildfire preparedness was never taken seriously enough by enough council members.

Emily Johnson, who shut down a tar sands pipeline valve said "I feel incredibly privileged to be alive in this moment, when so much is still so beautiful, and there's still a chance to save it." That is how I feel too. One of the other 4 valve turners served a year in prison, he asked others to focus on action rather than writing him supportive letters and such.

I have spent countless hours evaluating and acting on how to best serve the greater good on climate solutions, as well as the many other challenges. I love multi-solving with systems thinking.

I will not stand by without attempting optimal positive impacts because ~"winning on climate solutions too slowly is losing" - Bill McKibben. All the solutions we need exist, it is just a matter of political will and collective will for the speed and scale we need to avert ever increasingly harsh consequences. There are points where feedback loops may be irreversible and our earth will be more like purgatory or hell at times in most and perhaps all locations. A person fleeing the Tubbs/Santa Rosa fires in October 2017 said "It was like being chased by hell."

I feel compelled to do the most I can. Our future is at stake, our lives are at stake. Everything is NOT OK. It is time for many more of us to act like it. The book Drawdown points to 100 solid solutions that are already happening, but again, we need to scale up very rapidly. (98 of the solutions are clear win win win, do it now, "no brainers".) I will not stand by and pretend enough is being done. We are ALL in this together. I need your help: your vote, some of your extra money if you have it, and ideally your efforts ongoing. Let's create the Santa Rosa and beyond that we want, and the future we and our young people deserve!

...............

The below letter gives important information about methane emissions. Even though the letter is a number of years old the methane information is still very relevant in this SB1383 letter.

September 13, 2016 The Honorable Edmund G. Brown, Jr. Governor, State of California State Capitol, Suite 1173 Sacramento, CA 95814

RE: Veto Request – Senate Bill 1383 (Lara) – Dairy Industry Exemptions from short-lived climate pollutants: methane emissions

Dear Governor Brown, We are grateful to you for your extraordinary leadership to combat climate change, the single most pressing issue affecting all of the planet’s inhabitants, but affecting low-income communities and communities of color first and worst. Your signing of SB 32 and AB 197 is among the top achievements of this legislative session. Thank you, Governor.

However, another climate bill sits on your desk which, if signed, will counteract many of the significant advancements promised by SB 32 and AB 197 – bills which mandate sweeping greenhouse gas reductions for all sectors of the economy and an important oversight role for the Legislature. We owe it to ourselves, our constituents, and the millions of Californians breathing the air in the San Joaquin Valley to raise our serious concerns with the dairy provisions included in SB 1383.

According to Air Resources Board, the California dairy industry (liquified manure management and enteric fermentation) emits 45 percent of California’s total methane,1 which is 84 times more potent than carbon dioxide according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). In contrast, the waste sector emits 20 percent of the state’s methane.2

1 Air Resources Board, Proposed Short-Lived Climate Pollutant Strategy at 58, April 2016, available at https://www.arb.ca.gov/cc/shortlived/meetings/04112016/proposedstrategy.pdf. This equates to 52.1 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent emissions.

2 Id. Governor Brown Veto Request – SB 1383 September 13, 2016

Page 2 of 3

As approved by the Legislature in its final form (a version which was never in print until after adjournment), SB 1383’s treatment of the dairy industry runs counter to the scheme established in SB 32 and AB 197. Senate Bill 1383 creates special rules for dairies – rules not available for any other industry – that will undermine the state’s effort to reduce methane, while creating unequal and unfair burdens on other industries. For example, ARB may reduce the dairy emissions reduction target at its discretion, backsliding from a 40 percent reduction by 2030 to whatever the ARB decides.

Furthermore, fiscal considerations like the price of milk authorize ARB to delay implementing any regulations after January 1, 2024.

Finally, the delays and other provisions signal years of improper public subsidies for private polluters and an unprecedented shift in climate policy, especially after the Legislature appropriated $50,000,000 for the dairy industry in the state budget. This unwise scheme undermines the urgency to reduce methane but also encourages other industries – like Big Oil – to use political leverage to obtain public subsidies for compliance and secure regulatory relief. No social imperative exists that warrants such protections for milk, cheese, ice cream, and other dairy products.

SB 1383 also seems inconsistent with your urgent response to the Aliso Canyon methane disaster. Your January 2016 Executive Order called that leak “an emergency” and announced actions to “protect public health and safety.” The California dairy industry emits far more methane than Aliso Canyon – 2.3 times more methane per day on average and 1.45 times more per day at the peak of the disaster. Given the magnitude of emissions from dairy, the urgency of reducing methane in the near term, and your response to Aliso Canyon, SB 1383 runs counter to this state’s and your administration's climate goals.

Furthermore, SB 1383 unnecessarily undermines important environmental justice and environmental goals. Under existing law in SB 32, the ARB may regulate methane at dairies without special treatment for the industry. Nor would a veto impair important public health benefits from black carbon reductions because ARB (diesel vehicles) and air districts (wood smoke) have existing authority to adopt additional, more stringent black carbon reductions to meet more stringent federal air quality standards for PM2.5 and ozone. Finally, a veto will not foreclose the opportunity to enact important waste diversion policies in 2017.

Diverting waste from landfills in this bill does not justify placing unfair and disproportionate burdens on San Joaquin Valley communities for years to come who already suffer unacceptable air and water pollution conditions caused by dairies. The dairy industry in the Valley emits the most volatile organic compounds and ammonia compared to all other sources, pollution which substantially contributes to a public health crisis. Signing this bill will unequivocally tell San Joaquin Valley communities that they must sit at the back of the climate bus, will be at odds with to your response to Aliso Canyon, and interferes with your commitment to environmental justice.

Governor Brown Veto Request – SB 1383 September 13, 2016

Page 3 of 3

We respectfully ask for your veto of Senate Bill 1383.

Sincerely,

Rebecca Spector West Coast Director Center for Food Safety

Brent Newell Legal Director Center for Race, Poverty and the Environment

Phoebe Seaton Co-Director and Attorney at Law Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability

Todd Shuman Wasteful Unreasonable Methane Uprising

Ara Marderosian Executive Director Sequia Forest Keeper

Janaki Jagannath Coordinator Community Alliance for Agroecology

Ron Whitehurst Founding Coordinating Team Member Ventura County Climate Hub

Jan Dietrick Founding Group Leader Ventura Citizens' Climate Lobby

Adam Scow California Director Food and Water Watch

Penny Newman Executive Director Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice

Carolina Martinez Senior Planner & Policy Advocate Environmental Health Coalition

Reyna Alvarado Comité ROSAS

Anabel Marquez Committee for a Better Shafter

Salvador Partida Committee for a Better Arvin

Gema Perez Greenfield Walking Group

Jose Mireles Lamont Parent Partners