SCAG'S Mark Pisano Declares NATIONAL EMERGENCY Over California Air Qualtiy And Asks For Governor's & President's Help
MARK PISANO, Executive Director for SCAG (Southern California Association of Governments) delivered a warning to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and President George Bush regarding Southern California's dangerous air quality and demanded their help in solving what Pisano calls, "the most serious health crisis in the United States."
"I have NEVER seen anything like this", delclared Pisano, at today's monthly SCAG Regional Conference in Downtown Los Angeles. "We face a health crisis, and I'd say the most serious health crisis in the United States! Not only damaging our health, but leading to premature death, and we can't stand by for that. I am here to say, 'We have a national emergency and a national crisis in the region and we need to stand together most and create the most imaginitive, creative and agressive efforts.' But we can't do it without help and support at the state and national level."
Pisano, and others feel the SCAG region bears too much of the burden in progressing the nation. (Refering to the pollution caused by the port, which is responsible for the passage of 40% of all imported U.S. goods into the country.)
"We need something other than national regulation for our basin. It's a federal and national role that we are undertaking.
Current resolutions are unsatisfactory", says Pisano, who has been the top executive at SCAG since the 1976. Adding that he has been involved in all enviromental policy since even before that, and he feels the region now deserves the same kind of attention cities like New York and others get for emergency disasters.
Pisano is calling for EMERGENCY RESPONSE FROM PRESIDENT BUSH AND GOVERNOR ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER, backed by specific provision under Clean Air Act, adding, "We need to work with the transportation industry for cleaner alternatives to diesel compulsion. And we need to move to electric. Current technology isn't cutting it. We need to PUSH an alternative technology. THIS IS AN EMERGENCY -- WE NEED COLLECTIVE LEADERSHIP. We have to get zero emmissions for all new transportations."
"This is a federal emergency situation and we are not going to stand for small incrimental changes anymore. Multiple state and federal action is needed. We need to up the ante", adds Pisano.
So what is at the root of the air quality crisis? The Ports. SCAG claims this isn't about your average gridlock commuter traffic jams. What is causing the nation's biggest health crisis (according to Pisano) are the planes, trucks , ships, farm equiptment, construction equiptment and recreactional vehicles. So the ships coming into the port and the trucks that move it along the 710 are a big culprit. And Pisano is trying to make the State and entrie nation (George Bush) realize we are absorbing all of the harmful risk for the entire nation's good, so they need to help out with solutions.
Problem with getting trucks to switch over to newer, cleaner techonolgies -- where and when available, is the low paying truckers can't afford the newer, more expensive trucks with these techonologies.
NOTE: Only CM Zine, CM Parks and IG Dogg were the only representatives from Los Angeles in attendance today. Parks left early, but he caught most of the important stuff; but then it was up to ZD/DZ to represent the City on the density housing issues that were addressed today. And ZD followed up
Posted by Zuma Dogg @ 4/05/2007 07:26:00 PM
22 Comments:
about time someone jumped up and down. how does that giant Walmart in the desert get stocked?
here's the solution America: STOP buying all the cheap imported Chinese Taiwanese Korean or whatever plastic crap that Walmart sells, and make the effort and expense to support american companies.
the budget deficit is too big to print in this blog even as I speak.
solution 2: (thats if America won't give up its obsession with 'toys') MOVE away from Los Angeles, SoCal, Long Beach. That'll save your health much quicker than waiting for Scag, City Council, the county, or the Feds to fix it.
Thats a no-brainer.
ZD says:
"So what is at the root of the air quality crisis? The Ports."
Bingo. ZD annoys me at times, but he's right about this. You want cleaner air, it starts with the Ports of LA and Long Beach. The clean air plan recently released is timid. We need much stronger political leadership to tackle this issue, although I credit Pisano and Sen. Alan Lowenthal for at least trying.
I don't see what the problem is here.
Speaking of air quality, and easy ways to improve it, I highly recommend the following movie: "Who Killed The Electric Car." It is really amazing. I can't do it justice in a blog comment here. Just spend the $3.50 or whatever it is at Blockbuster and watch it, would you? You'll want an electric car, and you'll get even more "conspiracy theory" than you are already.
I'm speaking out against Iraq and so now they're talking about me in the White House.
its up on YouTube
Rest assured Gov. Steroids and Maaahriah would care more about this issue if Brentwood was near the harbor. If he really wants to be pro-environment instead of the spineless weasel that he is, then he'll -- finally -- stand up to the shipping companies and other special interests. But I doubt it.
The problem in the ports is not just the ships; they are working on that one by mandating electrical power for moored vessels. Kudos to Dave Freeman for pushing this issue, WITH the support of Antonio Villaraigosa.
There are two other massive problems:
1. The idling diesel engine trucks waiting for containers. It is cheaper to keep them idling than start and stop. The truckers union and the operators are looking at the costs. We need to fix this one.
2. The outmoded switching engines on the trains serving the Alameda Corridor. The operators keep hiding behind Federal Legislation which supposedly occupies the field, thus preventing the State of California from regulating those engines. The State legislators are all a bunch of chickens and will not pass a regulatory statute giving the SCAQMD the ability to require retrofitting. The technology is available, but again, it costs a lot to do.
Pisano knows this, and incidentally, he's a good guy, but he has only a bully pulpit, zero power.
There it is, the true facts, instead of a ZD rant and rave or a broadside at "fix the harbor".
Let's see some action, huh?
10:13am,
Why did you have to go and take a your good comment (with the helpful info about diesel truck idling) and tag it with a ZD slam?
Excuse me, you call it a rant...it is a transcript of Pisano's comments. THE ENTIRE THREAD IS A QUOTE FROM PISANO'S SPEECH. (Plus, a paragraph from one of the presentations.)
NOT ONE WORD OF ZD EDITORIAL. SO HOW IS THAT A RANT? You say Pisano is a good guy, with only a bully pulpit and no power. Well I hope you appreciate that ZD is probably the only person in the country who took the time to write down his exact words and blog them -- and will be presenting his message on TV 35 and radio. And I didn't editorialize on Pisano or the message itself. I simply presented it, simply.
Plus, I list many other factors besides port ships. Please re-read Pisano's comments before you pop off at the mouth.
Phil, my friend (and I consider anyone I have spent my paid cell phone minutes on a friend), you have revealed yourself as an agendized ZD basher. I think if you re-read the thread, I hope you feel you owe me an apology, on this one.
Feel free to mitigate with a paypal donation at www.zumadogg.blogspot.com. Cause it cost me $8 to park at the SCAG meeting, plus gas money to attend. and no one paid me to go, or spend my time and effort helping to amplify Pisano's message. But I figure when a guy who has been working on this for 30 years says, "I've never seen anything like this, we have a national emergency, and people are dying"...and all that, I would help him get his message out...no matter how i feel about SCAG, itself, it's $40 million plus, operating budget for this year, when they are the ones demanding all the density ZD protests about, and they wouldn't let me go through the lunch line, as they paraded all that food right in front of me, and dind't think to say, "Hey ZD, would you like a sandwich?" AND THEY LITERALLY PARADED THE FOOD IN FRONT OF ME, AND WERE EATING LUNCH IN THEIR SEATS AS I OPENED UP THE MEETING WITH ZD PUBLIC COMMENT.
I said, "Wow! I feel like Henney Youngman at the Catskill Mountains in New York." (It was like a dinner club.)
But I'm sorry you felt it was a rant.
OK, ZD, when you are right, you're right. The original post was not one of your usual long winded rants.
But, your "response" to mine, was.
Get over yourself, man. We all want to participate and do the right thing, but don't need to toot our horns about ourselves.
And, we really don't need to do it in fourteen inch columns.
┬╝╖#*%@&¡!, "Crack"over, who in bloody hell do you think you are, kicking a man when he's down? Have you no shame?? Have you never been down and out at least once in your life? I cannot believe that there are people on this blog who are just as selfish as the Council in general, and the mayor in particular.
My suggestion to you sir (specifically, and others in general), is to give Zuma a break, and send him some funds for gasoline and food.
If it weren't for the actions of the morons in council a year ago robbing Zuma of his livelihood, they would still be flying under the radar with their fraudulent spending, and Zuma wouldn't be here exposing them for the con artists that they are.
C'mon people! It's the Passover/Easter weekend, for heavens sake! Show a little mercy toward Zuma!
And to all of those anons who think I'm Zuma, you are obviously needful of some eyeglasses, because I'm not!
As a postscript to stay on thread, my main concern about air quality is the future pollution from Mexican trucks coming across the border, courtesy of President Bush and NAFTA.
1:08PM,
You crybaby loser. An applogy goes like this:
"Damn ZD. Sorry, I re-read your thread. I was a little too quick to jump on your sh*t, this time. Touche'."
Mongrel:
Of course you're not ZD, you can spell.
As for giving him money, I suggest that he simply get a job like the rest of us.
I would no more give him a handout than I would some of the bums that beg on the streets, They also provide me with services that I don't request or need.
I've been to more City Council meetings than he will ever attend, and also to Board of Supervisors, MTA, SKAG, State Legislative sessions, SCAQMD meetings, and miscellaneous City Councils/Boards across the County of Los Angeles.
No one gives me handouts and I don't ask for them. If he wants to represent someone, let him register as a lobbyist or go to work for one. All he does now is waste everyone's time in the public meetings and no one listens.
You send him the money; I have better use for mine.
"I've been to more City Council meetings than he will ever attend, and also to Board of Supervisors, MTA, SKAG, State Legislative sessions, SCAQMD meetings, and miscellaneous City Councils/Boards across the County of Los Angeles."
Yeah, good for you. Just remember that "After pride comes a fall."
4:02pm,
Phil, you finally said something I can't argue with. You are entitled to that opinion, and it is a popular opinion with a lot of people in socierty and I assure you, my family represents your words all the time. (Except where you say no one listens and i am just wasting time. I am more substantive than ever. check the archives.)
But, I wish I could go back to selling shirts on Venice and not being politically active. But, we've discussed my flaws on this blog in the past, and I have them, and that's what creates whatever ZD is and fuels whatever it is that he does...so some people have been encouraginging me, some prodding me and some openly requesting my continued activism.
I have been trying to wind things down...EVERY day is my last day at City Hall as far as i'm concerned...
But some people like to see it continue, and some of those people occasionally donate a ten or twenty to zuma so i can hit one more meeting, or whatever.
So yeah, no one really asks me to do any of this (besides zd core group), and i;m not blaming anyone (except the mayor and council for their bogus venice ban), and it IS frustrating.
ZD seems smart enough and able enough that he should be holding down a job to support his political activism.
But unfortunatley, the "gift" that allows ZD to produce a funny improv show that people like so much on public access, or walk into City Hall and have people admire my passion and the way I present info, or attend a four day Deming seminar attended by 800 executives from across the world -- and write the synopsis that THOSE people liked the most -- is the same thing that makes me my own worst enemy and keeps me on such a short leash. ( I wish I could conform part of the time, and be ZD part of the time.)
But Phil, I'm glad you went to all those meetings, because i assume it is your paid job, and i wish i was able to pull it all together to be that person you and a lot of other people wish ZD could be. (Go back to being DE.)
But you can't turn a pickle back into cucumber, so I'm kinda as f-cked as darth vader and the hulk, so all i can do is roll with it one day at a time, and hope something shakes on a little more "regular" basis.
I had someone talk to me about a legitimate paid position, in the near future, but it would mean no more ZD public comment and activism. So then, i wonder, well is it worth it for $30,000, or whatever...and is the position being offered just to shut me up?
So i guess it will come down to how hungry i am on that given day. Maybe it might make you feel better to know, I wish I was you. Being ZD is a bitter, isolated, frustrated experience. I'm not having the last laugh.
EVERYTHING I SEE ANNOYS ME -- that's the secret of ZD or any comedian. And now, that all the activists and mayor sam bloggers have woken ZD up to a whole new world of shady corruption -- and it's a never ending river that flows 24/7/365...the ZD/Deming filter is stuck on "on" all the time and my head is gonna explode. After a year, I see it's never gonna end. I think this would be a good time to wrap it up and carry on...
let's hope i can go back to FM, instead of AM, VH1 instead of CNN and Malibu Starbucks instead of LA City Hall.
Meanwhile Phil, I hope your open hositility has made you feel SOMEWHAT better. You should feel good about yourself for all that you know. I know you are so knowlegable, I don't know how you do it!?!? But I don't hate you for it. And you shouldn't hate me for whatever I do.
I know I should have a job and do this only enough that it doesn't drive my life into the ground,like it just did this past year. But there seems to be hundreds and thousands of people across the US who are glad i'm tourtured, and it's been a blessing in that way, so i have to take comfort in that, cause that's all there is..except for the hope that tomorrow will be the day, everyone told me is coming...(someday).
thanks to the ZD benefactors who felt zd's frustration being stuck downtown with 200,000 people showing up in the morning. i'll be heading west to venice -- have a breakfast with a well known mover and shaker in the area, and he will be providing me with waaaaay more info than i want to know , that i will be compelled to blog here and talk about on tv and radio -- then will taka a triumphant stroll down venice --- then head down pch to malibu and see some folks about my reality pilot -- and it's WHITESTARR AT THE ROXY ON SUNSET!!! So thanks ZD supporters, and Phil, I don't hate you for your "tough love" -- but can you really argue with anything I've said?
If so, I would love to hear it. I'm begging for people to tell me I'm wrong about something,or someone only told me half the truth. That's one less thing for me to be pissed about. cause again, you bashed me in your post, only to say I was right on the content. so stop being such a bully unless i blow the content. we know you don't like people like me.
Actually, it's "Pride goeth before the fall...", but you got the general idea.
I wan't tooting my horn, I don't need to do so.
I was merely pointing out to ZD that he can make a difference if he gets a job and cleans up and does this for a living.
It's easy, and he clearly has the passion for it. For now, they just laugh at him.
Sorry, but that's the long and short of it.
krakover says:
"The problem in the ports is not just the ships; they are working on that one by mandating electrical power for moored vessels. Kudos to Dave Freeman for pushing this issue, WITH the support of Antonio Villaraigosa."
Of course the problem is not just with the ships, but how many ships (and what %) are actually plugged in with electrical power and what's the timetable?? Provide specifics.
It seems that Tonsich, Hahn, Freeman, Knatz, et al. have been "working on" this an awfully long time, meanwhile the port is BOOMING, more ships, more trucks, more cruise ships etc. while -- bottom line -- the air gets worse. Lowenthal is right that we need to put a fee on containers as a small start.
Lowenthal is an idiot. The port business is a competitive one. All Democrats think the solution to everything is tax it.
They are wwrong; the shippers will go to Long Beach, or to Oaklnad, or San Francisco or Tijuana or any other port that is cheaper.
Tonsich, Acevedo,Hahn et al. did nothing; Freeman is a true conservationist and understands greening. He brought it to LADWP; just too bad Deaton is a coal man and has virutally killed it, depite the efforts of the LADWP Board and the Mayor. Freeman is on track to get this done.
A clever bureaucrat can outrun a volunteer all day long.
And, a guy like Deaton can certainly outrun the likes of ZD et al.
^
Just as I thought, krakover conveniently provides no specifics about the [miniscule] number or % of ships plugged in. Regarding freeman, "on track to get this done" gimme a freakin break, we've been hearing this for years. freeman is just the lastest bureaucrat to spout cheap rhetoric. What's the expression, "all (faux) hat no cattle." Let's see REAL action, REAL resources committed NOW.
http://www.portofla.org/environment_amp.htm
Copy and go to the link above.
There are more current stats but I just don't have them. I deal with spot issues and this is on my back burner.
I think that you admire RON DEATON says it all.
Krack pot.
Ron Deaton is the most able bureaucrat in Los Angeles. He single handidly ran the city for years, until he was diagnosed with the Big C and decided to semi-retire to LADWP, where he runs that pretty well, despite a Board that wants to do other than he does.
You don't have to like someone to admire their ability. He is really good at what he does.
From my perspective, he seldom does good. He is especially truculent when it comes to coal generated energy, which is, of course, the cheapest available, but the most environmentally insensitive. he is a coal man, through and through.
His Board wants alternative energy, but it is s-l-o-w in coming with his deft hand.
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home