The long-running debate over an historic oyster farm in Drakes Estero, within the  the Point Reyes National Seashore,  has jumped from western Marin County to Washington D.C., and shows few signs of cooling off.

Fredrick Smith, Executive Director of the Environmental Action Coalition of West Marin says that, Senator Feinstein's statements to the contrary, he fears that her legislative intervention on behalf of the Drakes Bay Oyster Company will set a bad precedent that could have wide implications.

The fate and future of the Drakes Bay Oyster Company and the Estero has been a long-running and hotly debated issue in the Point Reyes area for years. Recent developments have been chronicled by the Point Reyes Light.

The gorgeous airborne view of the estuary below was taken by Sonoma-based pilot and photographer Robert Campbell . See more of his work here .

Slathering on sunscreen may protect your skin, but it's not healthy for the world's water supplies, or the aquatic life within them.  

Overexposure to the sun’s ultraviolet rays causes increased risk of skin cancers: this medical message has been widely embraced, but the law of unexpected consequences has kicked in with regard to the increased use of sunscreen.

Sejal Choski, the program director for Baykeeper of San Francisco, also wrote about this issue here.

An oil industry leader and a major California environmentalist agree on the steps the United States must take to address climate change and increase national energy independence-but they have markedly different ideas about how long it will take to reach those goals. Today's North Bay Report is a preview summary of their conversation.

Chevron and the Sierra Club both see renewable fuels as a growing part of our future. Yet as the world transitions to a low-carbon economy, they have different views on how that change should occur and who should bear the costs. Higher taxes? Voluntary conservation and efficiency? Government mandates? In their first-ever public conversation, Chevron CEO Dave O'Reilly and Carl Pope, Executive Director of the The Sierra Club, discuss balancing energy and the environment in the 21st century.  The conversation,  which was recorded live on June 10, 2009, was moderated by Alan Murray, Deputy Managing Editor of The Wall Street Journal. Hear it in full here.

  Although the climate protection legislation passed by the House of Representatives includes a cap and trade provision, to "monetize" co2 emissions, both speakers said they favor a simple carbon tax or fee instead. Dave O'Reilly (left)  offered several reasons why that would be preferable.


Pope (right)  and O'Reilly were also in agreement on the desirability of quickly reducing our national dependence on coal to generate much of the country's electricity. Pope was adamant about the need to more strictly regulate the coal industry in many respects.

While O'Reilly agreed with Pope's forecast that this country and the world will need to move toward renewable fuels for vehicles and transportation, he expects the transition will take far longer than Pope's projections.
 

The near-absolute protection of all forms of speech by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution (see full text, at left)  is a rarity, not even shared by Great Britain, whose Magna Carta served as a model and inspiration for our Founding Fathers. Peter Scheer, Executive Director of the First Amendment Coalition in San Rafael, notes that other long-established western Democracies in Europe set tighter limits.

The risk inherent in attempting to legislate against hate speech, says Peter Scheer (right), lies in how it is defined, and who is doing the defining.

Even in thoroughly modern and democratic nations, attempts to limit hate speech have proven problematic. Scheer details a specific recent instance in Canada.