Groups Decry Schwarzenegger Timber Plan

[Lori Price CLG]

Groups Decry Schwarzenegger Timber Plan

(GOP-installed) Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants to make it easier for California timber companies to get their logging plans approved - in exchange for paying $10 million more in fees to the state.

The proposed tradeoff drew fire Friday from environmental groups and the timber industry.

Schwarzenegger's plan amounts to "massive regulatory relief for the industry," said the Sierra Club's Paul Mason, who also said the plan could lead to lax forest practice rules.

<snip>

[SharonAnn]

1. Well, isn't that special! Just what was needed.

Regulatory relief for industries that have to operate under regulations intended to prevent them from behaving badly.

[leesa]

2. Regulatory relief is what has gotten this country into the mess it is in!

Screw the corporations.

[stepnw1f]

3. Hey Arnold... Was This A Last resort Solution or The First...

one your dogs came up with?

[Democat]

4. Next you will be able to rape and murder in California - just pay the fee!

As long as you've got $10,000,000, rape and murder permits will be issued quickly and without question.

Democrats better rally to protect the California forests. Arnold will be gone someday, but you can't get the old growth forests back.

He wants to sell off the forests so the children of California never get to see them.

Fight Democrats!

[Piperay]

5. But but but

arnie claimed that he was making the environment a priority. :shrug: Ops, sorry, my mistake (I interuppted it wrong) cause I guess he is making the RAPE of the environment a priority, so I guess he was telling the truth. :argh:

[AZCat]

6. I'm fine with this proposal!

$10 million per tree? Sounds about right to me...

Sarcasm aside, I noted that farther down in the article it says this:
In exchange for imposing the higher fees, the state should cut its ``overly burdensome'' bureaucratic reviews of logging plans, emulating the one- or two-page applications and one-stop reviews in neighboring Oregon, the Republican governor said in his revised budget plan Thursday.

The typical California timber harvest plan now runs 100 to 500 pages, costs about $43,000 and waits 65 days for state approval.
<snip>

Does anyone know anything about the success or failure of Oregon's policies regarding applications and reviews of logging plans? I suspect Arnie isn't concerned about that and is just kowtowing to his backers, but it would be nice to see an analysis of the effects.