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Liberals blamed for California drought
 [WASHINGTONTIMES] With everyday Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party,ns now on the hook for drastic conservation measures, Republicans say the time has come to focus on the real culprit: a state and federal regulatory framework, fueled by environmental litigation, that requires a certain aquatic environment for at-risk fish while making it nearly impossible to build dams and other water-storage projects.House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy ...the GOP house majority whip. He replaces Eric Cantor, who got whupped because his politix are like Kevin McCarthy's... described Mr. Brown's April 1 executive order as the "culmination of failed federal and state policies that have exacerbated the current drought into a man-made water crisis." "Sacramento and Washington have chosen to put the well-being of fish above the well-being of people by refusing to capture millions of acre-feet of water during wet years for use during dry years," the Bakersfield Republican said in a statement. "These policies imposed on us now, and during wet seasons of the past, are leaving our families, businesses, communities and state high and dry." Environmentalists have long blamed agriculture for absorbing more than its share of water, but figures from the California Department of Water Resources show that farming accounts for about 41 percent of applied water usage. Fully 48 percent is reserved for environmental purposes, which includes improving the health of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and its most famous inhabitant, the delta smelt. So far Republicans, farmers and business interests have been unable to drum up much outrage over the situation, but that may change with the Democratic governor's historic restrictions, prompted by a record low snowpack and fourth year of drought. The order calls for urban water agencies to achieve a 25 percent reduction through methods such as increased rates, reductions in kitchen and bathroom faucet flow rates and converting 50 million square feet of lawn into "drought-tolerant landscaping." Environmentalists laud the stricter conservation order. "The days of casual waste and inattentive consumption are over in California," Steve Fleischli, water program director of the Natural Resources Defense Council, said in a statement. "Now everyone will be expected to do his or her part to help save water." Posted by: Fred 2015-04-16 |
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