anyone got a spare $1.43 Billion?
Anyone out there with a spare billion or so?
oh, and no, it’s not simply for a Barry Bonds’ contract extension…
While many Bay Area desert rats congregated to spend hundreds while committing acts of hedonistic arson outside Reno, a local conservation group wants just $4 a year per citizen, for 50 years. Oakland based “Save The Bay” released an estimate of $1.43 billion representing the cost over a half century to “fully restore” some 36,176 acres of shoreline. That’s a large portion of the marshes & muddy tidal areas that are already in public domain and slated for wetland restoration. The environmentalists have a wish list that includes grabbing up to 100,000 acres total including south bay salt ponds, with no price tag mentioned or source of obtaining additional funding in the plan.
Reality checking their eco-dream was a statement by democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein, released on Monday saying
“I do my level best to get funding for wetlands restoration every year, and I will continue to do so,” she said. “But there is only so much federal funding. Wetlands restoration is very costly, and additional federal dollars are very difficult because you have to take it from other projects.”
[note: So far the estimates of the Bay Area’s collective contribution for the federal project known as Operation Iraqi Insurgent Riling and Oil Liberation is well over 15 Billion …]
Some links to Bay Area wetland conservation and environmental groups after the jump…
A PDF with a poll purporting to show tax payer support for a $10 Bay Restoration Tax
Isn’t this just a gambit to get people to think about the effects of global warming on the Bay? If scientists are correct, the restored areas would be under water a few years after the plan is complete, if not sooner.