Officials worry warmer temps will lead to city’s demise
Local officials are suing the feds over global warming.
City Hall has joined a lawsuit against two federal agencies involved in foreign oil projects that are expected to produce more than 32 billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions.
That output contributes to global warming, local officials argue, which threatens to erode Santa Monica’s beaches and bluffs, batter the pier and overwhelm its state-of-the-art drainage system. In the lawsuit, they demand the fossil fuel projects be studied.
“Global warming is already having alarming effects on the environment that have been documented,” said Deputy City Attorney Adam Radinsky. “All this lawsuit is asking is that the federal government conduct this environmental review, as required by law.”
The lawsuit pits Friends of the Earth, Inc., a 20,000-member environmental advocacy organization, and Greenpeace, Inc., a 250,000-member environmental nonprofit — along with the cities of Boulder, Oakland, Arcata and Santa Monica — against the Overseas Private Investment Corp. and the Export-Import Bank of the United States. Both defendants are federal agencies that in the last 10 years have put about $38 billion into overseas fossil fuel projects.
Officials said the stakes are high in Santa Monica. The health of a $788 million tourist industry that employs more than 11,000 workers and pumps nearly $24 million a year into city coffers is at stake, they argued, adding increased storm activity will not only lead to erosion but require more upkeep, and, in the case of the Palisades Bluffs, endanger motorists and pedestrians.
That’s why they’ve made a federal case out of it.
“The collective wisdom here is that nobody is aware of any occasion — at least in the past 20, 25 years — when the city has sued an agency of the federal government, until this one,” Radinsky said. “It is extremely rare that the city sues any other governmental agency. That is a matter that we take extremely seriously and the fact that we have sued a government agency in this case shows the city’s commitment to environmentalism.”
“The collective wisdom here is that nobody is aware of any occasion — at least in the past 20, 25 years — when the city has sued an agency of the federal government, until this one.” — — ADAM RADINSKY Deputy City Attorney
Senior United States Attorney Ann Navaro declined to discuss the pending litigation. She argued in court documents that the cause of global warming is unclear.
“Defendants admit only that carbon dioxide is one of many greenhouse gases and that critical uncertainties exist with respect to the science of climate change, including the contribution of greenhouse gas emissions to climate change, the effect of natural variations in climate, and the actual degree and rate of climate change in the future,” Navaro wrote.
Navaro also questioned whether the defendants must, as the plaintiffs argue, observe the National Environmental Policy Act, which requires federal agencies to do a formal review of programs and decisions having a significant effect on the environment. That’s because the agencies aren’t actually in charge of the fossil fuel projects, but are facilitators encouraging private business overseas.
ExIm “provides loans, loan guarantees and insurance to support the export of U.S. goods and services,” Navaro wrote, while OPIC “encourages U.S. capital growth and employment by offering financial incentives, such as direct loan financing, loan guarantees, and risk insurance, for U.S. private investment in order to encourage economic growth in foreign countries.”
In the past 10 years, ExIm and OPIC have invested 25 times as much money in fossil fuel as in renewable energy sources, the plaintiffs argue. The two agencies have approved funding for many of the largest new oil field developments — as well as pipelines and refineries — in South America, Mexico, Russia, the Caspian region, southeast Asia and west Africa. A full 80 percent of the fossil fuels recovered is consumed in the U.S., western Europe and Japan, they added.
36C,“OPIC’s and ExIm’s contributions to carbon dioxide loading of the earth’s atmosphere are staggering,” the lawsuit reads. “The estimated amount of carbon dioxide attributable to, or that will be directly released by, the projects supported by OPIC and ExIm is much higher than the entire amount of (carbon dioxide) that was released from worldwide consumption of petroleum, natural gas, coal, and the flaring of natural gas in the year 2000 (32.1 billion tons versus 23.5 billion tons).”
“OPIC’s and ExIm’s contributions to carbon dioxide loading of the earth’s atmosphere are staggering,” — the lawsuit reads
The case was originally filed in 2002 and Santa Monica joined it in January. A federal judge in San Francisco earlier this month ordered parties on both sides to enter into what’s called “alternate dispute resolution” to try to reach a settlement. If that fails, briefing in the case will begin at the end of this summer, said Blaine Rethmeier, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 24, 2004. Read the original PDF.