Joe Nation’s Environmental ProblemsPaul Hogarthbyline‚ Apr. 22‚ 2008Ex-Marin Assemblyman and State Senate candidate Joe Nation is working to stay above the fray between Mark Leno and Carole Migden. Despite his moderate record on other issues, he speaks earnestly about the environment and climate change. But why hasn’t the Sierra Club endorsed him, and why is he not popular with environmentalists in Marin County? It may be because when Nation was on the Marin Municipal Water District in the late 1990’s, he proposed bottling water from Mount Tamalpais, voted for a pipeline to siphon water from the Russian River and supported widening the US-101. Today, Nation is a climate change consultant for ENVIRON, where he primarily advises Coca-Cola – whose environmental record has spawned protests across the globe. Now Coca-Cola runs a corporate green-washing campaign that pushes “water stewardship” – which is code for privatization of a natural resource, while running bottled water plants in California. |