Shibley appears before state committee for UAS
By Jack Barnwell
jbarnwell@ridgecrestca.com
SACRAMENTO — A sense of underlying tension filled the room Tuesday during a meeting of the state Assembly Select Committee on Aerospace in Sacramento as two competing groups addressed the matter of securing a test site for unmanned aircraft systems.
Eileen Shibley, representing the Cal UAS Portal based out of Inyokern Airport, and Bill Buratto of the Ventura Economic Development Association both presented their cases to the committee.
In the process, Buratto sounded off his frustration regarding the lack of state attention the UAS matter since it began circulating last year.
“Where were you when we were trying to get a letter out of the governor’s office to try and support this,” he said. “We did what we could to get Sacramento to pay attention and we got none until March 19, 2013.”
The underlying factor of the meeting was that California was fractured at different levels regarding UAS test sites.
