Dan Morain: Oceans protector gets tossed off ship
Dan Morain
Sacramento Bee
07/29/2010
Don Benninghoven is an unlikely martyr to the cause of ocean protection.
He built a solid reputation for honesty as director of the League of California Cities for three decades, retired a decade ago to Santa Barbara, and was working on his tennis game when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger enlisted this fellow Republican to become immersed in ocean issues.
Now 76, Benninghoven is a convert to the concept of marine reserves – coastal waters where fishing is banned so depleted stocks can regenerate, as required by the Marine Life Protection Act of 1999.
"The act is horribly important. I want it to be successful," Benninghoven said.
He won't be around to carry it out. Senate Democrats who lay claim to be environmentalists should have embraced him. But this is election season in a term-limited era. Legislators who championed ocean protection in the 1990s are long gone.
Facing a well-orchestrated lobbying effort by an organization out of Virginia, the Senate refuses to confirm Benninghoven to the five-member California Fish and Game Commission, where he almost surely would have cast a deciding vote in favor of greater marine protection.
From the start of Schwarzenegger's tenure, officials viewed the Marine Life Protection Act as a "major legacy piece," said Mike Chrisman, Schwarzenegger's resources secretary before taking a job earlier this year at the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.
"The goal is to bring back sustainable fisheries so there can be robust recreational and commercial fishing," Chrisman said.
Chrisman asked Benninghoven in 2007 to serve on a task force set up to study implementing the law. A year ago, after the task force had called for greater protection, Schwarzenegger appointed Benninghoven to the Fish and Game Commission.
Before Benninghoven's appointment, the commission had banned fishing in 13 reserves covering 85 square miles off the Central Coast, 7.5 percent of state-controlled water in the central zone.
With him aboard, the commission was preparing to vote for reserves off the Southern California coast, and in Northern California waters. All of that is on hold.
The Senate decision to sink Benninghoven's appointment will delay creation of new sanctuaries at least until the next governor takes office, perhaps beyond.
You've heard of Astroturf – slick public relations campaigns that try to leave an impression there is a grass-roots reaction to an issue.
Benninghoven's fell victim to such a campaign – the Partnership for Sustainable Oceans. Perhaps we should call it a form of Astrokelp. This partnership is a creation of the American Sportfishing Association, a $5 million-a-year operation in Virginia funded by anglers and the multibillion-dollar industry that sells them reels, rods and other gear.
The sport fishing association called on its members to press for Benninghoven's rejection, saying he has "consistently ignored the interests of California's anglers, exhibiting a clear lack of objectivity in the California Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) process of establishing marine protected areas." The effort generated hundreds of e-mails to the state Senate opposing him.
Gordon Robertson of the American Sportfishing Association told me his organization got involved because California's ocean protection movement is "precedent setting" and could spread to other coastal states.
He notes that the no-fishing zones are in the best fishing areas. Closing them would "cost a lot of jobs."
Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg ordinarily would push to confirm someone like Benninghoven. There is no hint of scandal, and environmentalists support him.
"Don Benninghoven is not an ideologue," said attorney Michael Mantell of the Resources Law Group, which advocates for marine sanctuaries. "He's is not in anybody's pocket."
But some moderate Democrats criticize the marine sanctuary process. And though he's a Republican, Schwarzenegger cannot persuade Senate GOP leaders to support pro-environment appointees. Without confirmation, Benninghoven's appointment will expire on Tuesday.
Adding to the pressure, Commission President Jim Kellogg sides with the industry. Kellogg leads the California plumbers union, and is a Democratic heavyweight. Gov. Gray Davis was first to appoint him to the commission, and he was among Davis' most loyal supporters.
As momentum for the recall mounted in August 2003, Kellogg showed up at a Davis fundraiser at the Fairmont in San Francisco, telling me back then: "I have in my pocket a check for $1.023 million. If he loses, he'll know that the United Association was with him all the way. If he wins, he'll know the UA was with him."
Kellogg is a politico who can thrive no matter which party is in control. Schwarzenegger reappointed him to the commission in 2006.
On the commission, Kellogg butts heads with environmentalists. His union is the only one that has donated – $25,000 – to Proposition 23, the oil industry-backed initiative that would reverse California's law to reduce greenhouse gases.
