The Nevada Conservation League has started a petition to repeal SB271, a measure which would remove Nevada from the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency if the state does not meet conservation efforts for the lake by 2015.
“SB271 passed with almost no analysis of its impact on the Tahoe Basin,” wrote board of directors Jennifer Taylor in an email. “This bill passed the Legislature in the last 15 minutes of the 2011 session, putting in motion a timetable to strip all environmental protections from one of our nation’s treasures, one of the special places of the world, as Governor Sandoval has called it. The very features that make Lake Tahoe so unique are those that are most threatened by this bill, but these impacts have not been fully analyzed. The bill was an irresponsible developer’s dream, stripping away regulatory authority and taking a hard-line approach on future negotiations.”
The NCL argues that of four conditions Nevada must meet by 2015, only one is attainable, according to TRPA community liaison Jeff Cowell—the water quality restoration plan of the Lake Tahoe Regional Plan (“Lakeside view,” Jan. 3). The regional plan—along with Mobile 2035, which seeks to improve sustainable transportation at the lake—aims to improve existing structures to reduce pollution of the lake’s water. The regional plan went into effect on Feb. 10.
View the petition at www.tinyurl.com/SB271Petition.