Off and running – after a halcyon week

Albatross taking off

Watching the current Administration’s strategy of looking straight ahead and not spitting out the windows, I found myself worried about sinking into the doldrums. When the folks handling the tiller of the Ship of State are headed in an approvable direction, I was worried that we would need to redefine OCR’s role in informing policy and practice around ocean noise issues.

That didn’t last long. The events of last week happened so fast I almost got whiplash. When we are all spending our days Zooming through a 2-dimensional field of screens, it becomes hard to differentiate one meeting or affinity groups from another. Oddly, this was aggravated by the major events and decisions that affected all of us in the conservation business.

The first volley came on Tuesday when President Biden and California Governor Gavin Newsom announced that they were moving fast on California leases for offshore wind. I think most of us were anticipating a lengthy slog over the long-planned East Coast wind farms before California came up on the screen.

But what did come up was the announcement of the Morro Bay “Call Area” (a designation the opens the area up for evaluation), the transition of the Humboldt call area into the planning phase.

Lest you think that announcements like these would be met with a collective sigh of relief (pivoting away from fossil fuels and all that implies), the offshore wind proposition will drive a significant alteration of offshore habitat with largely unknown biological consequences.

And then, just as my Zoom colleagues and I were recalibrating how to respond, on Thursday, the fossil fuel industry was delivered three “below the belt blows” that are still reverberating. Not in any particular order: After a contentious battle, hedge fund with significant holdings in Exxon placed two progressive – and conservation-advocate directors on their board, 61% of Chevron’s investors voted to force the company to do more to address their climate impacts, and a Dutch court ordered Royal Dutch Shell to cut 45% of their carbon omissions by 2030.

“Reeling” was a word used in the press about this trifecta of events – all on the same day! And while this change of state doesn’t add to our burden-labor, when the landscape changes this fast, one may need to sit down and catch one’s breath.

So here was I, wondering what we were going to be doing as we move forward; now  furiously dog-paddling to figure out how best to focus on all of these moving parts. (As I’m trying to get this out, I am in a Zoom meeting with BOEM and National Academies Committee on Offshore Science Assessment (COSA), and trying to keep my ear tuned into a call with the House Natural Resources Committee on the re-introduction of the Ocean Based Climate Solutions Act…).

Stay tuned!