Heal the Bay Blog

December brings connotations of the holiday season. Office parties, vacations, holiday shopping, football bowl games, family gatherings, overeating, lighting the menorah, and Christmas lights and trees. For Heal the Bay, this December is anything but a time to ease into the new year. As always, there is our push for year-end giving. Tis the season for charitable write offs. Also, once again, Heal the Bay is spearheading the Day Without a Bag event. Over 30,000 bags will be given away at over 60 locations throughout LA County on December 16th as a reminder to bring reusable bags whenever you go shopping. Once again, partners include LA County, Los Angeles, other cities, retailers, grocers and other environmental groups. This year, the event has spread across much of the state with counties from San Diego to San Francisco participating.

However, this December is as busy as any previous December I can remember.

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Recently, the Los Angeles City Council voted for three supposed Department of Water & Power reforms:

• Creating an Office of Public Accountability with a ratepayer advocate;
•  Requiring DWP’s budget to be submitted earlier, with a guarantee that “surplus” funds will come to the city of L.A. for general fund uses;
• Granting the City Council the authority to remove the DWP’s  General Manager or DWP Commissioners with a two-thirds council vote.  The council could also override the mayor’s removal of the GM or commissioners with a two-thirds vote.

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Looking for a way to give back to the community this holiday season? Need to meet community service hour requirements? Just want to meet some like-minded new friends? Volunteering for Heal the Bay is a great way to meet people and earn CS hours while doing something that helps us out at the same time. We truly have a volunteer opportunity for every schedule and interest. Below is a sampling of how you can get involved. View all of our volunteer opportunities.

Don’t have a lot of time but want to make a big impact? Participate in a cleanup.

Like the office environment and have time on weekdays? Join our Wednesday office volunteers.

Enjoy speaking with people and going to events? Become an Ambassador.

We’ve been bombarded with half-page Chevron ads in the Los Angeles Times for over a month and a half now. I guess with the current financial state of the Times, any ad is a good for them. At least Clippers owner Donald Sterling’s hokey-looking award announcements can’t fill up the entire front section.

The ubiquitous ads highlight common-sense advice about renewable energy with compelling stills of indigenous people, children and everyday people like you and me.  Then the “We Agree” tagline follows with signatures from Chevron’s CEO or some other corporate executive.

The campaign spawned a brilliant parody from The Yes Men working with The Rainforest Action Network and Amazon Watch.  There’s even a contest for the public to come up with even funnier parody ads.

The spot featuring the little girl and the tag line “It’s time oil companies get behind the development of renewable energy” pisses me off the most.  After all, Chevron, along with big alcohol and big tobacco, bankrolled Proposition 26.  So I guess Chevron is behind the development of renewable energy as long as it is voluntary and maximizes shareholder profits.

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