Despite its status as an agricultural superpower, eclipsing every other U.S. state in farm output, California’s farming sector wields relatively little influence in Sacramento. When you evaluate the state’s GDP components, the sectors that dominate are financial, IT, and services, at around a half-trillion each, followed by manufacturing and government at around $400 billion and $300...
There is a good chance that a Californian is going to be nominated to become the new Commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation. One source of opposition to his confirmation could be senators representing states that share with California the waters of the Colorado River, concerned that a Californian will not sufficiently take into account...
Governor Newsom’s priority constituency is now located outside of California and shaded purple, and a new team occupies the White House that is as red as red can be. So it is probably safe to say that even here in deep blue California, many of the policies governing energy and water are about to be...
A March 5 “Perspective” in the Manteca Bulletin highlights a chronically underemphasized problem impacting every Californian. Bass, as editor Dennis Wyatt succinctly explains, are a “destructive, invasive species, that are a serious threat to the sustainability of the ecosystem.” Wyatt proposes a solution that has been implemented in Oregon, a bounty system. As he puts it, “The state would...
On May 22, 2022, the California Coastal Commission voted unanimously to deny final approval for a desalination plant in Huntington Beach. It would have produced 56,000 acre feet of fresh water per year, and would have been privately financed. To describe in detail the 20 year and roughly $100 million ordeal that federal, state, regional,...
Coming up with a plan to find sufficient water to maintain 100 percent of existing irrigated farm acreage in the San Joaquin Valley the next time a multi-year drought strikes is not impossible. We can pipe water from Lake Roosevelt in Washington all the way down to Lake Mead in Nevada. From there, modest expansion...
There are two ways we can respond as Californians to the wildfires in Los Angeles, and for those who share this concern, to the climate crisis which they cite as an underlying cause. We can ration our consumption and retreat into increasingly dense urban cores. That’s one option. Or, alternatively, we can adapt and advance,...
The more we learn about the Los Angeles-area wildfires, the more caution is called for when assigning blame. When the Santa Ana winds periodically sweep down from California’s eastern deserts and rip through the mountains surrounding the Los Angeles Basin at up to 100 MPH, sparks don’t go up, they go sideways, and turn entire...
A respected advocate for farming interests in California once explained to me that every acre of lawn requires 5 acre feet of water per year. The unsubtle implication was that the more lawn we kill, the less water we waste. But this is zero sum thinking. How much lawn are we talking about, and how...
Farmers in the San Joaquin Valley require roughly 15 million acre feet of water per year to irrigate their crops. In return they produce more than half of all California’s agricultural output. But everything is changing. Since 2000 the amount of water the farmers receive from the State Water Project and the Central Valley Project has...
A few years ago a group of volunteers, myself included, attempted to qualify a state ballot initiative called “The Water Infrastructure Funding Act.” Those of us involved with this project remain convinced that had it qualified for the ballot and been approved by voters, it would have solved water scarcity in California forever. Included within...
There isn’t a major water project in California in the last 30 years or more that hasn’t been subject to relentless litigation. Usually the litigators represent powerful environmentalist organizations, sometimes they represent social justice groups, and sometimes they represent labor. But in every case, they hit water projects from every legal angle imaginable, either completely...