In a press release issued Wednesday evening, a coalition of local environmental groups accused city and county planners of employing a harmful and dishonest “accounting trick” in the process of developing a regional Climate Action Plan.The groups say Humboldt County, as lead agency in the plan’s development, has resorted to “adopting fuzzy math” to achieve state targets for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.Specifically, the environmental organizations argue that the county plans to sidestep meaningful action on reducing GHG emissions by taking credit for the emission reductions already achieved over the past three decades through the closure of industrial polluters, including the local sawmills and pulp mills.“Through clever accounting, Humboldt County is proposing a Climate Action Plan that fails to actually reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” Matt Simmons, staff attorney at the Environmental Protection Information Center (EPIC), says in Wednesday’s press release.“In other words,” adds Humboldt Waterkeeper in a release of its own, “the county wants to take credit in the Climate Action Plan for plant closures over the last three decades that the county government had nothing to do with.”Read More
Big changes are coming to the old Brainard Mill Site. This week, Sequoia Forest Products LLC — which is in the process of buying the site from the California Redwood Company — got the green light from the California Coastal Commission to revamp the 78-acre property, located along the eastern shoreline of Humboldt Bay across Highway 101 from Mid-City Motor World, to make way for industrial development and manufacturing.The project proposal includes demolition and removal of 16 industrial buildings, as well as several improvements to the existing lumber mill “for continued use in lumber production as an ultra-high fiber recovery sawmill producing redwood fence boards,” according to the staff report. “Internal modifications are planned within Building FF to support use of the site, including remodeling of a restroom, and the installation of a lunch/break room, a programmable logic control (PLC) room, and small office spaces. These improvements require no additional foundation work or expansion of the building envelope.”Read More
Pressure is mounting on the Humboldt Bay Harbor, Recreation and Conservation District to reconsider its relationship with Crowley Maritime, its partner in the rush to develop a marine terminal to serve the proposed offshore wind farm, or at least to hold off on consummating the partnership.The first official salvo came Aug. 20 in the form of an op-ed Yurok Tribal Chair Joseph James published in a local paper calling on the district to “reconsider” its exclusive right to negotiate agreement with the international maritime industry giant due to a “rotten company culture” evidenced by two federal lawsuits. The latest, meanwhile, hit Aug. 31, with news that Crowley Wind Services Vice President Jeff Andreini had left the company amid sexual harassment allegations with ties to Humboldt County, as first reported by the Lost Coast Outpost.Read More
A top Crowley executive working on offshore wind and port development efforts on the North Coast parted ways with the company this week. Crowley, a private marine services and logistics company, has faced increased scrutiny in recent months – both locally and nationally – following allegations of sexual harassment and assault within the company.The company recently received a complaint against Andreini alleging sexual harassment of “a subordinate Crowley employee” at a bar during an offshore wind conference in Sacramento earlier this year.In an email correspondence between Redwood Coast Energy Authority Executive Director Matthew Marshall and Crowley’s Chief People Officer Megan Davidson, which was obtained by the Outpost through a Public Records Act Request, Marshall states Andreini’s behavior “was egregious enough that [he] felt compelled to personally intervene and stop the behavior.”Read More
Mike Wilson, Humboldt County 3rd District Supervisor and California Coastal Commissioner, was interviewed on KINS Talk Shop. Discussion includes updates on construction along the Highway 101 Safety Corridor between Arcata and Eureka, including the "Final Four" miles of the Humboldt Bay Trail, the Indianola overpass, and plans to convert the former Arcata Redwood Co. lumber mill into a fence board factory.Tune In
