February 7th 2009
A Little Stimulus, Please
A
mong the more paltry cuts from Porkasaurus was $50 million that would have gone to the San Joaquin Delta, the key to any solution to California’s water mess. We have to have new infrastructure to move water through the Delta without killing the little fishies that are holding California’s water users hostage.
I understand the cut; it wasn’t money that would generate jobs. But the Parkasaurus largess has overlooked the necessary, job-generating fixes to California’s water infrastructure entirely. That hasn’t happened because it’s not essential to fix it, or because it won’t generate jobs – but because of the iron grip the Green lobby has on California’s Dem legislators.
GOP congressman Devin Nunes, who represents ag communities in the Central Valley, has had enough of the eco-politicization of our future and told Obama and Schwarzenegger as much in a letter released yesterday.
After explaining the two primary water conveyance systems within the Central Valley (the CVP and the SWP, never mind what they stand for) that provide water to 25 million people and three million acres of the nation’s most productive cropland, Nunes launches into his plea to the prez and the gov:
Recapping: Half a million acres out of production, 40,000 jobs for already-poor people lost, and huge consequences to the California economy – the largest in the nation. But because of the dominant influence of the environmentalist lobby on CA Dems, Nunes pleas will go nowhere. Remember who leads the House: California’s preeminent Green, NanPo, Gaia’s own handmaiden.
Nonetheless, Nunes soldiers on with a good idea: Maybe we could note that the economic downturn is having a huge, negative impact on the human species and waive for a moment some of the more onerous environmental restrictions on building new water infrastructure.
Vitter’s amendment went down on a 32-65 vote, meaning every single Dem and a big chunk of “moderate” Republicans voted for the critters, not the people. If there was ever a sign that even the Dems aren’t ready to respond intelligently to the “greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression” meme, this is it.
Meanwhile, unless we get a miraculously wet winter, cash-strapped Californians will be facing increases of 30 percent or more on their water bills, and will face mandatory rationing in at least the 20 percent range. That’s OK with me as an individual; I can cut back my sprinkler timers and shorten my showers. But for ag and industry – and the people they employ – it will take an economic and human toll.
Posted in California, Economic Policy, Environmentalism, Water | No Comments yet » | |
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