Rep. Nunes Turns On California Spigot
Politics: Is sanity finally coming to California's Central Valley? America's breadbasket has long been victim of capricious water cutoffs to "save" the environment. A bill in Congress puts an end to this man-made drought. It should pass.
Rep. Devin Nunes of Visalia, Calif., has come forward with a legislative remedy for the policies that have turned fertile fields into hollowed-out dust bowls in the name of "being green."
Nunes' Sacramento-San Joaquin Water Reliability Act goes to a vote in the House Wednesday and if it passes, it will guarantee that water the farmers paid for finally gets to the parched Central Valley. It will put an end to the sorry stream of shriveled vineyards, blackened almond groves and unemployed farm workers standing in alms lines for bagged carrots from China.
The insanity of the current policies against some of America's most productive farmers in one of the world's richest farm belts is largely the work leftist politicians from the wealthy enclaves of the San Francisco Bay Area. This group has exerted its political muscle on the less politically powerful region that produces more than half the fruits and vegetables consumed in the U.S. — with $26 billion in annual sales.
"The bill restores the flow of water and establishes a framework for meaningful environmental improvements. It is a repudiation of the left's assault on rural communities, which began with the decimation of the West's timber industry and now is focused on Central Valley agriculture," Nunes told IBD.
The stand-alone bill, H.R. 1837, marks the first time Central Valley water shortages and the federal role in creating them will be considered directly in Congress.
In the past, said Nunes' spokesman Andrew House, these water bills have been buried in omnibus spending legislation. Forcing politicians to stand up and be counted should end the backroom deals that benefit special interest groups.
House also said the bill has bipartisan support and should pass in the House. Maybe that's why the left is screaming bloody murder and rousting its environmental allies for a scare campaign about "agribusiness" and the supposedly omnipotent hand of "Big Almond."
In reality, even local environmental groups and the scientific community are on board, as well as the moderate Democratic Congress members whose districts are most directly affected by the policies.
That said, it might face a battle in the Democrat-controlled Senate, where both of California's senators — Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer — legislate as Bay Area Democrats. Their opposition stands in stark contrast to the absurdities the current policies have wrought. Here are five:
• Fresh water is dumped into the sea. Environmental rules force water-rich Northern Californian farmers to flush 70% of their fresh water into the ocean, supposedly to help the Delta smelt, instead of selling it to San Joaquin Valley farmers. The practice hasn't done a thing to help the smelt.
• Federal protection of non-native species. Yep, environmental laws as they stand protect non-native species such as the striped bass, at the expense of farmers.
• Expropriation without compensation. California farmers' water rights date back centuries. They are billed for 100% of the allocations, but their allotments can be as low as 9%, depending on what regulators rule.
• Fake endangered species numbers. While the federal government forces taxpayers to fund fish hatcheries to beef up endangered species, their numbers aren't counted even as they teem in California's streams.
• Junk science rewarded. A federal judge denounced the lies of Fish and Wildlife Service employees on the Delta smelt count. After that reprimand, they were last heard from getting "distinguished service" awards from their bureaucracy.
All of these follies and more will end with this bill. With California's water wars now a threat to America's food supply, both chambers should pass it.
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