By Rachel Clyde, EAC Legal and Policy Intern

On March 29th, our team participated in the 17th annual California Ocean Day. This is an incredible state-wide event that brings leaders, experts, and advocates together to discuss current ocean conservation efforts and how we can improve them.

There were a variety of panels and speakers made up of leaders in ocean conservation that shared their insight on 30x30 (state and national effort to conserve 30% of land and water by 2030), microplastics, Chumash tribal conservation work and more. We always appreciate opportunities to learn from our colleagues and advocate for ocean policy.

During Ocean Day 2022, we advocated for a variety of bills about plastic reduction and coastal preservation. The plastic reduction bills include AB 2026 which aims to reduce plastic waste in online shopping, AB 1724 which aims to add microplastic filters in washing machines, and AB 2787 which aims to remove microplastics in cosmetics and other products. There were many more coastal preservation bills that ranged from ending seabed mining (AB 1832) to ending offshore oil drilling (SB 953) to establishing the California Ocean Corps (SB 1036).

We also worked toward garnering support for the Pathways to 30x30 Strategy that will implement meaningful change to reach our goal of protecting 30% of California’s land, water and ocean by 2030. #30x30CA already has a lot of support from Governor Newsom and other state leaders, however now is the time to take the steps toward reaching these goals and there is no time to waste.

We met with several of our state legislators and their staff to discuss these important ocean-related bills. We met with a staffer for our very own Senator Mike McGuire, representing the North Coast and Marin County. His office was eager to hear about the bills as well as the 30x30 initiative. We also met with Assemblymember Gallagher’s office, Senator Skinner’s office, Senator Wieckowski’s office, and State Controller Betty Yee’s office.

EAC will continue to support these bills with our partners as they move forward in the legislative process.

More info.