Ballona Activists Demand UCLA Stops Taking Fossil Fuel Money

PLAYA DEL REY, CA — Ballona Wetlands activists are demanding that the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability stop taking fossil fuel company money, protesting an upcoming virtual event this week.

A symposium on Zoom planned for April 13 from noon to 1:15 p.m. with the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability titled "Ballona Wetlands and the Future of Southern California Coastal Conservation," will feature the following speakers: Dr. Richard Ambrose, Professor, UCLA Department of Environmental Health Sciences and Institute of the Environment and Sustainability; Dr. David Jacobs, Professor, UCLA Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology; Dr. Shelley Luce, President and Chief Executive Officer, Heal the Bay; David McNeill, Executive Officer, Baldwin Hills Conservancy.

Activists want a second symposium from UCLA to feature leading opposition groups to discuss what environmentalists call a counterfeit "restoration" project, said Marcia Hanscom, a Sierra Club leader and wetlands activist for the Ballona Wetlands since 1995, in a statement to Patch.

"The virtual symposium will be moderated by someone known to be a strong supporter of a highly controversial plan at the Ballona Wetlands and will feature two scientists who have been paid with public funds to devise the destructive plan," Hanscom said.

Several groups such as the Sierra Club, Climate Reality Project, the Los Angeles County Democratic Party, In Defense of Animals and Food & Water Watch oppose the project, which they say is called a “restoration,” but many believe will mostly benefit SoCalGas and its methane gas storage facility under the wetlands.

They are calling on the public institution to stop taking money from fossil fuel interests, including Chevron and SoCalGas, both of which would benefit from the project planned for the Ballona Wetlands. Activists believe this would include massive excavation and bulldoze parts of the ecological reserve.

“We object strenuously to this biased panel being promoted as if this destructive project is a scientifically sound one, when it’s not; in fact, numerous scientists who know the latest science know it’s not even a ‘restoration,’ but a construction project,” stated environmental scientist Robert "Roy” van de Hoek.

One of the serious potential flaws of the project, which was approved by the State of California in December, and is now the subject of at least four lawsuits challenging the adequacy of the environmental review documents, is that climate activists have explained are the project’s terrible contributions to climate change impacts.

“Shame on UCLA for not only promoting a project that misrepresents the greenhouse gas contributions in the environmental documents and would destroy hundreds of acres of plants and soils that are storing and sequestering carbon now, but would also contribute to new fossil fuel infrastructure planned to be installed at the SoCalGas storage facility at the Ballona Wetlands as part of the ‘restoration' project," said Molly Basler, a Climate Reality Leader and candidate for Los Angeles City Council District 5, in a prepared statement.

"Now we discover this Institute that has been held up by opinion leaders as being important for the environment is sponsored by Chevron and SoCalGas. Shocking,” Basler said.

The symposium will be convened virtually due to the pandemic and questions must be submitted before the event. Activists sense that the panel interactions with the public will be highly controlled and censored.

Activists encourage community members to learn more and make their voices heard, encouraging people to send their complaints to UCLA Chancellor, Gene Block, the President of the UCLA Alumni Association, Dr. D’Artganan Scorza, and Tree People CEO Cindy Montañez, one of the UCLA Institute of the Environment Advisors.

Environmentalists are "hoping that these allies of the environment who are also UCLA leaders will be able to correct the problem of this biased event and fossil fuel donations," Hanscom said.

People are urged to email, call or use social media to ask UCLA to sponsor another panel about the resistance to the proposed project and to pledge that the university will stop accepting money from fossil fuel companies, including SoCalGas and Chevron.

“We are outraged that UCLA would abandon its educational ethics and be used by the fossil fuel industry to support such an ecologically illiterate project at the Ballona Wetlands. We sincerely hope that the leadership of this university comes to its senses and corrects this egregious departure from its mission,” Hanscom said.

Seven endangered species rely on the Ballona Wetlands Ecological Reserve, as do dozens of rare species the state is required to protect, including some on the California List of Species of Special Concern.

Activists say that the Great Blue Heron, White-tailed Kite, Least Bell’s Vireo, El Segundo Blue Butterfly, California Coastal Gnatcatcher, Belding’s Savannah Sparrow and numerous other imperiled species’ habitats would be decimated by the proposed construction project at the Ballona Wetlands.

They've proposed an alternative, 20-point plan for a gentle restoration: http://bit.ly/20PtGentle. Visit the website for more information: defendballonawetlands.org.

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