Your friendly neighborhood Greenius has been waiting for awhile now to see which of the candidates for Henry Waxman’s 33rd District seat was going to step up environmentally. Today that person turned out to be Wendy Greuel.
My good friend, Dency Nelson, tells me Ted Lieu was already that guy and that Ted’s strong record speaks for itself. And it’s true that Ted has come out against fracking and is signing on to Holly Mitchell’s strong anti-fracking bill and reportedly has called “climate change” his number one priority. And yet…
I’m just not feeling Ted Lieu. I never have in the 21 years I’ve lived in Torrance, which is where Ted is from and started on his road to higher and higher office. I’ve never personally witnessed any passion out of Ted or felt that he had the fire in his belly on the environment or was any kind of climate action hero.
Maybe I’m wrong about Ted, like I was several years ago about then Manhattan Beach City Council Candidate, Wayne Powell, who I didn’t think was much of an environmentalist the first time I met him, but who has turned out to be the most reliable and thoughtful issue guy on the Manhattan Beach City Council.
But Ted hasn’t come out against oil drilling and in favor of keeping the ban on oil drilling in Hermosa Beach, which would seem like a no brainer if you’re a South Bay native and supposed to be the green candidate worthy of Henry Waxman’s mantle.
But today Wendy Greuel came out and did exactly that – and it wasn’t the first green leadership Wendy has displayed locally.
When we held our MB2025 events in Manhattan Beach last month to unveil the 100% renewable energy vision and honor Congressman Waxman Wendy Greuel was there. It was Ted Lieu’s bithrday and he had a fundraiser. So he couldn’t be at the Forum or with 500 plus community members who were on the Pier that night.
Then Wendy reached out to local environmental leaders, myself included, to schedule a lunch meeting to discuss our local issues and initiatives. She impressed more than one of the people at the table.
I know that Ted Lieu’s people were aware of Wendy’s outreach, but he himself doesn’t feel the need to sit down and talk about local South Bay environmental issues.
I’d like to know what Marianne Williams has to say on our local green issues and I’d sure dig talking with her about where she stands on the big three –
- Oil Drilling in Hermosa Beach
- The fossil fuel power plant in Redondo Beach
- The MB2025 plan to make Manhattan Beach a 100% renewable energy powered city by 2025
We now know where Wendy Greuel stands on #1 which puts her way out in front of Ted and Marianne.
But frankly, I’d like to know where all three of them stand on all three of these issues. And I’m going to keep asking until we find out.
Creative Greenius 