Date: Wednesday, October 14, 1998 9:02 AM Subject: Message from Larry Fahn 72 on Dan Lungren Encina alumni, Larry Fahn '72 asked me to forward this memo to the Encina alumni on my distribution list. Larry Fahn lives in Mill Valley and practices law in San Francisco. He serves as Chairman of the Sierra Club California Political Committee. I'm always glad to forward Encina related news to the mailing list. This is the first political emailing I have done and I'm not sure how I feel about it or whether this is an appropriate forum. If you have strong feelings let me know. Harlan Encina webmaster +++ Dear Friends From Encina, Attached to this brief memo is the latest version of an Op/Ed piece that I wrote earlier this year for distribution to various newspapers around the state, exposing Dan Lungren's pathetic environmental record. As far as I know it has run in two papers so far, the Marin and Sonoma County Independent Journal, in January, and the San Francisco Examiner, in March. It was written before I knew that Gray Davis would be the Democratic opponent.   Hopefully a few more papers will follow in the next few weeks. Let me know if you would like a hard copy of one of the newspapers' versions. As Chairman of the Sierra Club California Political Committee, I have become acutely aware of the disasterous ramifications which would result from a Lungren administration in Sacramento. His votes against the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act are only part of the picture. Given that record, his stance against wilderness and in favor of more offshore oil drilling, and his friendliness with mining, logging, chemical manufacturing, and development interests, its pretty clear what kind of appointments he would make to the Coastal Commission, the Board of Forestry, and dozens of judgeships. Environmentalists would be frozen out. Please take a few minutes to read the following piece. If you find it important and/or persuasive, forward it on to any e-mail lists you may have. Better yet, print it out, and make some copies for your parents, your kids, your friends or colleagues at work...anyone who might vote. And don't forget to vote yourself on November 3. There are some very important issues at stake. ---Larry Fahn, class of ‘72, lfahn@aol.com (415) 391-3246 p.s. The Sierra Club is strongly supporting the re-election of Senator Barbara Boxer, and Bill Lockyer for Attorney General.  It is urging everyone to vote YES on Proposition 4 (banning the cruel trapping of animals for their fur), YES on Prop. 7 (the clean air intiative) and Yes on 9 (ending the financial bailout for nuclear power utilities). --LEF DAN LUNGREN: AWOL ON THE ENVIRONMENT As the 1998 political season winds down, it is important that California citizens consider the nefarious environmental record of Dan Lungren, who was pre-anointed as the Republican Party's nominee for Governor of California. As a five-term Congressman from Long Beach, and eight years as state Attorney General, it is clear that Lungren is no friend of this state's (or the nation's) natural heritage. When it comes to environmental protection, he's been missing in action. Best known for his repeated advocacy for increasing the drilling for oil off California's priceless coast, in 1982 Congressman Lungren voted to permit mining and oil drilling, including using explosives, in designated wilderness areas (H.R. 6542, 8/12/82). That same year he joined the timber industry in opposing a modest Oregon wilderness bill (H.R. 7340, 8/11/82). A proclaimed advocate of state's rights, Lungren voted against a bill (H.R. 5203, 8/11/82) to restore the ability of the states to regulate pesticides and herbicides. He opposed legislation to restrict dumping of plastics and other synthetic material into our oceans, and would not support legislation to study and deal with or control the problem of acid rain. He voted repeatedly against family planning assistance to the U.N. Fund for Population Activities. Mr. Lungren co-sponsored a bill with Alaskan Congressman Don Young to open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (our nation's largest and most pristine wildlife habitat--the U.S. version of the Serengeti) for exploitation by oil and gas drillers. He opposed the California Wilderness Act (H.R. 143, 9/12/84) and the Columbia Gorge Protection Act, which was a compromise bill to protect and enhance the resources of the Columbia River's magnificent gorge (H.R. 5705, 10/16/86). In January of 1987 Lungren voted to oppose a bill to reauthorize the Clean Water Act, one of this nations most effective pieces of legislation ever to protect our children and our families from the dangers of water pollution. He also voted against The Safe Drinking Water Act, against Superfund, and was against strengthening the Clean Air Act. His record as Attorney General, California's chief officer for the enforcement of the state's environmental laws and regulations, is equally deplorable. He has often let his hostility toward environmental protection interfere with his constitutional duty to represent the state agencies which are his clients. In one well known case from Marin County, Lungren sided with wealthy Seadrift property owners and refused to represent the State Coastal Commission in its effort to enforce the public's constitutional right to access to a 2-mile stretch of Stinson Beach. In another case where local governments were attempting to provide for more stringent regulation of harmful pesticides, Lungren was at odds with most of the states and the Federal Government when he took the position that such laws should be pre-empted by federal law. That view was unanimously repudiated by the U.S. Supreme Court. His anti-environmental stance in that case prompted the Sacramento Bee to label him a ‘friend of the chemical industry'. In 1991, Lungren was the only one of fifty attorneys general to object to federal legislation requiring military bases to comply with state environmental law! Apart from Prop. 65 enforcement, which was mandated by voter initiative, the number of environmental enforcement actions brought by Lungren's office has plummeted more than 80% from that of his predecessor John Van De Kamp. A recipient of major contributions from tobacco companies, he refused for years to join the other states in suing the industry to recoup the millions of dollars of costs the state has incurred to treat tobacco related illness, claiming a state law protected the cigarette companies, while vigorously raiding a San Francisco medical marijuana dispensary despite voter passage of Prop. 215. More recently Lungren sided again with business interests, and against the California District Attorneys Assn., in supporting legislation to weaken the California Corporate Criminal Liability Act, an innovative statute that protects employees from hazards in the workplace. In 1996 he championed an industry supported bill that would have made it more difficult for citizens to file suit under Prop. 65 and allowed his own office to determine who could bring citizens actions under the statute (AB 3160, introduced by Assemblyman Olberg). Californians should think very hard about voting for a candidate who is so extremely out of touch with most citizens when it comes to preserving and protecting our precious natural resources, including the air, land and water, and wildlife. With the countless important appointments made by the governor, such as Coastal Commisssioners, Forestry Board members and Superior Court Judges, and Mr. Lungren's tendencies to favor industries such as mining, chemical manufacturers, logging companies, and tobacco providers, over consumers and the environment, it is perfectly clear that a Lungren administration would be a disaster for California, for our children and their future. ----Larry Fahn Larry Fahn lives in Mill Valley and practices law in San Francisco. He serves as Chairman of the Sierra Club California Political Committee.