“Just get it done” – Expediency over extinction
Posted on | October 1, 2009 | 8 Comments
Map of the Bay Delta watershed. Source: NRDC
The Chronicle also reports today that Feinstein has plans for her own package of sweeping Delta legislation in the US Congress, effectively overriding the Obama administration’s previous stance that the California State legislature should produce its own package of water bills, including Bay-Delta management reforms.
This proved impossible when the legislature’s season closed in deadlock on September 11th.
Looming over last-ditch efforts to pass a package of water bills was Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who pledged to veto all state bills that did not contain provisions for more than $5bn worth of dam projects.
Left with a Schwarzenegger-enhanced impasse in the California legislature, the Obama administration yesterday announced formation of a Federal Bay-Delta Leadership Committee to be led by the Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar.
This marks a sharp turn-around in Obama administration policy, which had been to defend the biological opinions of scientists from within the US Fish and Wildlife Service and National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration that indicated protection was in order for fish such as the Delta smelt, Chinook salmon and green sturgeon.
“What is at stake here is not just the survival of species but the health of entire ecosystems and the economies that depend on them,“ said Rod Mcinnis, southwest regional director for NOAA’s Fisheries Service when the opinion concerning the green sturgeon was published last June.
An Interior statement that followed as recently as two weeks ago underscored that reductions in water deliveries to Central Valley farmers were not primarily caused by fish protections but by drought, the reason for 75% of the cuts.
However, appearing on a broadcast by Fox News commentator Sean Hannity, Schwarzenegger continued to blame the federal government for protecting fish before farmers. For one of the better analyses of Hannity’s recent rally in the Central Valley, see Jon Stewart on the Daily Show.
Feinstein’s announcement that she intends to author her own package of sweeping Delta legislation in the US Congress effectively overrides Interior’s pressure on Schwarzenegger to work with the California legislature on its own package of water bills. However, in reversing its position, Interior still “urged” Schwarzenegger call a special session of the California state legislature to resume negotiation on the water bills.
Feinstein is chair of the Interior appropriations committee.
For a full round-up of press reports of today’s events, go to Aquafornia.
For an earlier story on California’s assault on the Endangered Species Act, click here.
This post has been lightly edited since the original posting and links have been added.
Tags: Arnold Schwarzenegger > chance of rain > Dianne Feinstein > Emily Green > Endangered Species Act
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October 1st, 2009 @ 1:55 pm
wow — so much for the 10th amendment…
October 1st, 2009 @ 5:02 pm
Way too quick and way, way too dirty. Sort of suggests we are well into a Neo-Dark-Ages period. No chance, I suppose that the National Academy will simply tell the pols to go to Hell is there?
October 1st, 2009 @ 5:07 pm
I agree. NAS might well back the Fish and Wildlife and NOAA biologists, which is why I think the real battle line is on the ESA. This could have incredibly far ranging consequences.
October 5th, 2009 @ 5:15 pm
[…] Emily Green linked to John Stewart’s massacre of Sean Hannity (savior of Westlands farmers?) AND the clean coal people. […]
October 9th, 2009 @ 9:25 am
Dave, what’s the 10th Amendment to do with any of this? NOAA, USFWS, ESA, CVP – all Federal. Who pays the piper, calls the tune. Farmers have enjoyed nearly-free Federal water for decades, and now they want to howl about “government interference.” Ya dance with the Devil…
October 11th, 2009 @ 6:16 pm
[…] Emily Green reported, Dianne Feinstein, California’s senior senator, has decided to introduce her […]
December 17th, 2009 @ 4:32 pm
[…] “Just get it done” — Chance of Rain, October 1, 2009 […]
January 27th, 2010 @ 12:01 pm
[…] to the Central Valley and Southern California. For previous coverage from this site, click here. For a full round-up of press coverage, go to […]