2011 Convention

Tim Allison-Statewide Chair Environmental Caucus Democratic Party:

We have to win the battle each and every time. If a state park gets closed and it gets converted to some other use—condominiums, some other development—losing the battle means we’ve lost it for time immemorial. At a time of California’s difficult budget situation, we need to be vigilant to make sure that we’re not writing off the state’s long term environmental future. We’re talking about the closure of state parks, the gutting of environmental regulations, reducing safeguards for protecting clean air and clean water.

If this is done under the guise of short term budget relief as a negotiating chip, we’re writing off our long term future. So far the governor and Democratic leadership in the legislature have held fast. We need to make sure the public is engaged in this. There is a lot at stake. If people aren’t paying attention, all kinds of bad things could happen. We need to make sure legislation goes through to protect the environment, to make sure current laws won’t get gutted, to make strong environmental candidates step up, so that our farm team and bench are deep.

To make sure in communities up and down the state of California people are engaged in the process, that they know what’s happening in the state legislature and in Congress. This is a moment of uncertainty, a unique time in California history. Our crystal ball isn’t working very well. We don’t know what might be happening in a few years’ time. Things could be better for protecting our environment. Things could be much, much worse.

Debra Broner, Vice Chair of California Democratic Party Environmental Caucus

I’m a coastal advocate. We seem to go forward with administrations that are sensitive and concerned with our environment, then we roll back. We’re constantly needing to be pro-active. That’s the important word—pro-active on what our concerns are about, what our manufacturing and business are doing environmentally.

People do believe now that our climate has been de-stabilized. This is causing conditions and repercussions due to weather patterns. We need to step forward and make sure we’re active and preventive rather than just dealing with the consequences.

The bottom line sometimes is the economy. The economy and jobs is the mantra right now. We can create clean green jobs. It’s always about profits for corporations. They’re beholden to their boards of directors. Their bottom line is making the money. With the oil corporations, it’s clear that they are at their highest profit levels ever and they’re willing to jeopardize our beautiful oceans and coasts, fish, and sea life for their profits. And that is where the battle is—you can create clean energy and make money. Let’s work together. They seem stuck in the past and not open to developing clean resources for the future.

The environmental community needs to make sure they are registered to vote, that their family and friends are registered. That’s the easiest thing they can do. They need to be at farmer’s markets, participate in events like 350.org, make sure they are visible in their community. They have to stress that we have had several of the largest natural disasters, the BP oil spill and now the nuclear plant meltdown in Japan. This can no longer be business as usual. They have to engage their families in the reality of what is happening.

Craig Beauchamp, Democratic Party of Orange County, Anti Nuclear Activist

The biggest problem is the myth about nuclear energy that it’s clean and safe and cheap. But it isn’t cheap because when you add in the immense costs at the state, federal and county level to ensure the safety, investigate, provide all the evacuation programs to prevent an accident or clean up if there is an accident. The cost is in the billions, so it’s not cheap energy.

Is it clean? No. The mining of uranium leaves a tremendous carbon footprint. Not to mention just building the plants themselves. The operation is clean or is it? San Onofre had a leak of tritium that went into the ocean and they spent millions of dollars having to build a reef. So it’s not clean.

Is it safe? Fukushima has woken us up to the fact that nuclear energy is not safe in the event of an accident, an earthquake, a tsunami, a terrorist attack. Any number of things could go wrong. So our position--is it worth the risk? You’ve got Southern Cal Edison, PG and E, San Diego Gas and Electric making money hand over foot, high paid executives, Wall Street compensation packages, profits. So it’s profits vs. people and people don’t count when it comes to profits, so that’s where the battle line is.

The NRC wants to stay in business and they perpetuate themselves, by perpetuating nuclear energy. Consequently if a state says they don’t want it, the NRC overrules it. Vermont said they don’t want it. They want to decommission a nuclear power plant, and not re-license it for renewal. The NRC said nope, we’re not going to do it.

There was a hearing in Sacramento. Diablo and San Onofre are going through a re-licensing period and they are saying what the state requires us to do isn’t important if the NRC isn’t going to say we can do it. One issue is a seismic study. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein sent a letter stating the NRC has to do new seismic studies on the new faults with the new information and the tsunami studies. They need to investigate these things.

We now know the danger radius after Fukushima was 50 miles. The NRC said we don’t want Americans within 50 miles of it. At San Onofre within 50 miles, there’s a population of 7.4 million people. It’s 424,000 for Diablo Canyon. The potential losses are unacceptable. Even a small percent. For San Onofre, there’s no real evacuation plan. They say there is. But for the I –5 corridor people in San Clemente and Dana Point, they’re not going to be able to get out.

If there’s an accident in the future, even a small level 4 not a level 7, the impact would be devastating. And there’s no way to fix it, once it’s out of the bag. Even after Nagasaki and Hiroshima, the scientists who worked on nuclear energy realized they let a genie our of the bottle that shouldn’t have been let out. It just isn’t safe. It’s not worth the 12 percent of the energy that it provides. We can’t lose that battle. There are people who have been fighting that battle for 30 years. We will continue. I think Fukushima is going to bring more people and even Republicans onto our side. They are going to say wait a minute, is it really worth the cost? Is it worth the potential damage?

I have a lot of union friends and they’re upset because all the workers in the nuclear industry are union workers. But they can be re-trained into wind, solar, thermal energy fields. The energy field is going to be the burgeoning field for employment in the future. So the transitions into other forms of energy are there, plus the fact that it’s going to take 15-20 years to decommission these things, shut them down and clean them up. So people are going to have a lot of work. But we will have less risk of a nuclear accident.

Mike Bullock, Democratic Delegate, Sierra Club Transportation Chair

I’m a retired satellite systems engineer. I’m with the Democratic Party and the Sierra Club, my two venues for action. I do a lot of work on S-305, the governor’s executive order on global warming. It tells us how we have to reduce our emissions. It’s not good enough but it’s a step in the right direction, gives us a chance to not destabilize the climate. S-305 says that by 2050 our greenhouse gas emissions will be 80 percent below 1990 levels. Its author was Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2005.When Jerry Brown came in he could have abolished that, but he did not and I hope he strengthens it. 

Climate change is the most important issue we’ve ever faced. Nuclear war might be close. This situation is like a slow motion train wreck. We see where we’re going and it’s extinction. That doesn’t convey the level of human suffering we’re in store for. We’re not reacting to it well at all.  We have to get off fossil fuels in 35 years. It’s a daunting task. People who hold office think this is something you can compromise with physics or we just have to be reasonable about it. That is our enemy. That whole way of thinking. Not recognizing reality.

The world is going to have to move towards renewables. There’s a recognition of that. The people that are in control in the future are college graduates and they’re going to get this to a larger and larger degree. Policies will come about. There can be a lot of money to be made if you have a business that can supply people with renewable energy. Our economic well-being depends on our physical environment. The state of California may one day lose its snowpack. I’ve heard that if we lose the snowback, many of our cities will become unviable—people can’t live there. Water would be too expensive. This is the total collapse of the real estate market. It’s all based on economics, that we can get food and water, keep a roof over our heads. It all depends on the physical world. We are fundamentally damaging it by putting carbon dioxide into our atmosphere.

Governor Brown understands global warming. People have always said he’s ahead of his time. He knows what we’re up against. He’ll do a good job once he gets his budget passed. We need a 2/3^rd majority in the senate and the assembly to help him. Republicans need to face reality that they’re kidding themselves on global warming.  They’re going to have to get in line with the educated population. We’re the only industrial country in the world that has a significant political party that acts like we don’t need to stop burning fossil fuel. I don’t how long it will take for them to realize that it’s kind of dead end.

 Like Michael Moore says there more of us than there are of them. College graduates are going to wake up. We have grandchildren—the potential for grandchildren. We understand we have responsibility. Pro life does mean something, that’s human life, and human survival, nothing’s more important than that.

Dave Jones, California Insurance Commissioner

At the environmental caucus, I was talking about the ways I as insurance commissioner am trying to advance an environmental agenda. It’s a tremendously important gathering of activist Democrats and leaders of the environmental movement. Each year I attend the convention I make it a point to speak at the caucus. It’s a great way to share information about the work I’m doing and get input from caucus members.

One of the things I’m working on is a green insurance initiative. We’re looking to encourage insurance companies to offer products that reward businesses for green behavior. There’s a homeowner’s insurance product that allows consumers if their home is destroyed to replace it with more energy efficient fixtures, alternative energy sources and greener material. I think it’s great. People can buy a green homeowner’s insurance product. There are commercial insurance products that reward owners of lead certified buildings that are more efficient, perform better, have lower costs. Some insurers say I will offer you a discount if you have a lead certified building.

There’s pay as you drive auto insurance that’s priced according to your mileage. That encourages people to reduce miles, improve the environment and be rewarded in the pricing of their insurance.

There’s no question we’ve made great progress on the environment. But current house Republican leadership is very enamored of doing away with many environmental protections we’ve put in place nationally and in California. It is a fight. The loss of control of the house is very concerning with regard to environmental protections. The threat of the loss of the senate or even the presidency for Democrats ought to concern environmentalists as well.

In 2012, the stakes are big because in California we’re trying to retain control of our assembly and senate. Nationally we’re trying to recapture the house and preserve control of the presidency and the senate. These things aren’t just important to Democrats, they’re important to all Americans and Californians. The Republicans have a very different agenda. Their goal is to dismantle government. They want to eliminate that which helps people and that would be unfortunate. They want to eliminate all environmental protections and that would be a disaster.

Carrie Holliday, Peace Action West

2012 is very important. Right now Peace Action West is focusing on holding Obama to his promise to start withdrawing troops from Afghanistan, as he promised to start this summer, July 2011. We really need to be on the right track to end the war. We’ve been there 10 years, billions of our tax dollars going to that. There are lots of things our government should be prioritizing instead of having money go to the war. It’s not making us any safer. 

We try to amplify the voice of the people, encourage voters to contact Congress, join our campaign to bring a soldier home. When all of us are speaking out, they’re getting thousands of these letters and phone calls. Our teams talk to representatives in person, so it’s very effective. We really need to be using our collective power.

The new START treaty was just ratified. Peace Action was behind that getting people to contact their representatives and senators. Nuclear reduction and dismantling nuclear weapons—that’s another huge issue, should be a top priority. Democrats, listen to the people. We need funding for more things besides the military industrial complex and nuclear weapons. Our tax dollars should be going to things that benefit the people, communities, our growth. We need jobs and health care, education. There are so many things that are more productive than war weapons and violence. Let’s make it right. 

Christopher Duvali, Long Beach Democratic Club

The Republicans and the Paul Ryan budget would remove all programs for the middle class that the Democrats have enacted for 60 years like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid. This will dismantle the middle class even more. We’re seeing collective bargaining rights for unions stripped away in Wisconsin. Now we Democrats are unifying for 2012 because we fundamentally see what they want to do. They want to strip America of its original intent and that is to take care of its people.  

We need to remind our legislators, heads of states, cities, the federal government of the path they need to walk down. Encourage them. Give them a swift kick sometimes. Democrats remember who you are—the party of the people. That includes all people and issues—social justice, health rights, education rights. It’s a Democratic value to take care of the kids. We have to keep that in mind.

Carlos Mejia, Susie Griffith, AFSCME (both pictured)

Right now there’s an attack on public sector workers—in fact, all workers. Those with means and power—corporations, banks---are trying to pit public service workers against every other kind of workers. We’re trying to educate folks. Some people think the 8 hour work day and the weekend came out of thin air. Those things were fought for and they’re being taken away now—our voice is being taken away. In Massachusetts and Wisconsin. Collective bargaining is something that we have earned. It’s a fair thing, a negotiation. In 2012, we’re looking to educate the public, organize, once again start in the grass roots, really get into the community and talk with them as allies. 

We cannot outspend the powers that be, but we can outorganize them, we can outwalk them, we can outfight them. That’s what we need to do. This is a wakeup call to America. We would like to put forward leaders who really are going to stand by us and not be Democrats in name only. They need to defend us and know who they’re representing. Enough is enough. We need to hold them accountable and that is what we are doing here today.

For Democrats who are wavering, we don’t ask for much, we ask for an honest conversation. We ask for people to stop gladhanding us, stop telling us what we want to hear in the election season, and the rest of the time, they don’t even want to talk to us. I’d rather have someone tell me where I stand and how we can work together to get to a middle ground instead of selling me a bunch of lies. That’s what needs to happen.  

In 2012, you’re going to find ballot initiatives from taxpayers associations, the chamber of commerce where they want to eliminate people’s voices for collective bargaining, eliminate your benefits, where they don’t want to give you the opportunity to negotiate. It’s going to be important for all people to get involved and fight these ballot initiatives and what about competing ballot initiatives? Why don’t we have initiatives that focus on who’s really taking the money when it comes corporate bailouts and banks overcharging us? Why is that not happening? That’s where we re-focus our energy. We have to speak for ourselves. Those folks are not speaking for us.        

Kathryn Campbell, Delegate

2012 is huge. It’s the direction the economy will take, civil rights will take, the impact of foreign wars. It’ll affect the infrastructure and competitiveness of the country for quite some time, if Democrats don’t maintain control of the White House.

Democrats need to start trying to communicate our message with the nation as a whole. I don’t agree with the idea of no compromise and staying true to our values. If we haven’t gotten people to buy into our values, then frankly that can be a very destructive path. I do think there’s an increasing focus on why the Democratic vision is inherently more hopeful, more positive and better for all our futures than the Republican vision. That vision is to shrink to greatness. It doesn’t work in business or in politics. We need to show why our vision is the vision to buy into. And then let’s talk about holding to those values.

At the convention, there’s something amazing about being with like-minded people, feeling their energy and enthusiasm. It’s easy to get discouraged sometimes when things aren’t going your way on the national level or coming in frustrated about the budget situation in California. We realize how much power we have when we all walk together, link arms and go in the same direction. For me I am focused on communicating with people who are not lifelong Democratic activists, but with rest of the population about why this is important and the difference it will make in all our lives.     

Richard Turnbull, San Bernadino County Delegate

We’ve got to continue with our welfare and social justice programs. The Libertarian philosophies of the Republicans is to do nothing about these issues or any others. Part of the constitution is promoting the general welfare. The Republicans promote only the welfare of the corporations. The corporations today are as dangerous as the Communists or the Nazis were in my lifetime and I was born in 1933.

These people are dangerous. All the progress we’ve made in the last 30 years would be thrown aside and global corporations would be running our country. They want to privatize our teaching facilities, police and fire if they could. They’re dangerous to our democracy. We must dedicate ourselves as we did in the Great Depression and the second World War. We had other issues with Communist China where most of our industry has gone. We fought the Korean War and the Vietnam War to contain the Communist Chinese. Companies like Walmart have gone over to Communist China and turned their backs on the American people.

At the convention, we’re supporting social justice issues, we’re supporting welfare issues. The Republicans would throw all these things out the window—Medicare, Social Security. Incredibly, elderly people who live on these programs voted for the Republicans in the last election. I think they have no conception for what they are doing.

We should always look to the future and hope for the better.    

Willis Edwards, 47^th State Assembly District Southern California Delegate

The Democrats need to go back and build an infrastructure of trust, to organize and deliver their votes. Go out there for voter registration and make people feel like you really want them involved. People are starting to make their own decisions outside the Democratic Party and the unions on who they want to vote for. So if we don’t do it right, we’ll lose the election. We have to build an infrastructure where we do it right, without pomp and circumstance but with a lot of real hard work. 

You have to have people who are willing to organize and tell the truth to people so they can be part of a process. People are tired, people are losing their homes, jobs, so the Democratic party needs to do something to show it’s going to help those people stay alive, get jobs. There’s a lot of work to do.

This convention helps with communications, but they’ve got a long way to go. People have to go out of here—instead of coming here, running for office, this and that---go back to the local communities and start building bridges, step by step and make sure people turn out to vote.