Olsen tackles enviro regs

 Assemblywoman Kristin Olsen focused on environmental regulations and their impact on business and development in a speech Friday at the Calaveras County Taxpayers Association luncheon.

“I spend a lot of time up there telling environmentalists that human beings are more important than fish, fowl, elderberry bushes and creepy little things,” Olsen, R-Modesto, said.
   

Olsen said she could scarcely believe the tale Calaveras County Sheriff Gary Kuntz told her of the holdups and $12,500 in architectural re-design costs imposed on the county jail construction project last year due to the presence of an elderberry bush. Developers of the Sonora Lowe’s also had to pay $40,200 to have some of the bushes relocated to a French Camp sanctuary in 2010.

“You’ve got to be kidding me that we’re giving that much priority to a bush,” Olsen said.

Olsen told a crowd of about 50 attendees at the Murphys Hotel that she is proud to be the lone Assembly member to garner a 0 percent rating from the Sierra Club last year.

She said she wants to “roll back the excessive regulatory climate” in the state to boost the economy.

“It’s hard for businesses to survive, much less thrive,” Olsen said.

Olsen touted the Assembly’s passage, on a 54-9 vote, of Bill 890, which she introduced to exempt addition of guardrails and minor roadside repairs from California Environmental Quality Act review. She said she engaged Democrats to achieve bipartisan support for the bill while making clear she sticks by her conservative principles.   

“What they’re learning about me in Sacramento is I’m very consistent,” Olsen said.

The bill is now in the Senate, where it faces intense scrutiny from the chamber’s environmental review committee, she said.

She added that while the state has codified numerous environmental goals, it lacks official economic development and job creation objectives.

“We all want to protect the environment, right?” Olsen asked. “The best way to preserve our natural resources is to manage them wisely, not to say never get near them.”

Olsen said she is also pushing for “bold reforms” like a unicameral legislature that she said would eliminate 20 legislators and streamline government and elimination of some of California’s 550 agencies, boards and commissions.

She expressed some enthusiasm for Gov. Jerry Brown’s efforts to tackle the litany of agencies, but said reviewing each one will take years.

“Some of them we just need to eliminate (but) this is one of the few areas where I give Governor Brown some credit,” Olsen said.

She fielded audience questions at the end of her speech, including one from former Calaveras County Republican Party chairman Adrian Nestor on whether online voter registration will be available by spring.

Olsen said it is doubtful, given rampant website glitches experienced by the Secretary of State’s office.

The assemblywoman will represent Tuolumne and Calaveras counties until January 2013, as the Mother Lode is shifted to a newly drawn 5th Assembly District in the 2012 election. Five candidates have announced their intentions to seek the open seat in the June primary.

Olsen said she will “continue to be a champion” of the region’s issues and an “unofficial” representative of the area if re-elected in the new Central Valley district where she resides, working alongside the Assembly member elected to represent the foothills in November.
   
Contact Sean Janssen at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or 890-7741.