State regulators are considering re-opening the Aliso Canyon natural gas storage facility without knowing what exactly caused the blowout in the first place.  That’s like taking an airplane that just crash landed and sending it aloft again without knowing if the engine’s loose.

But that’s what State Oil and Gas Supervisor Ken Harris said today in a briefing with legislative staff in Sacramento who were asking tough questions about the state’s proposal to reopen 34 of the 114 wells at Aliso—albeit at reduced pressures and with continuous monitoring.

Governor Jerry Brown appointed Cliff Rechtschaffen as a Commissioner to the scandal-plagued Public Utilities Commission, along with another current Brown staffer, Martha Guzman Aceves. This gives Brown power for the next six years over the PUC, even though he will be leaving office in two.
 
It's a deeply troubling appointment given Rechtschaffen's role in carrying out the demands of the oil industry in the firing of two tough wellhead regulators at the Department of Conservation and Department of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources (DOGGR) in 2011.  
 

In a closed session of the Lands Commission in Sacramento Tuesday,  in what is likely to be a windowless room, the frontrunner for Democratic governor of California will make a decision that speaks to whether Democrats will play hard ball with billionaires to the protect  the coast.
 
Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom, who sits on the Lands Commission, along with Democratic Controller Betty Yee and Finance Director Michael Cohen, could give a billionaire major donor party donor the ability to privatize Martins Beach in Northern California.