Leftist Lawmakers and Enviro-Extremists Created CA Water Crisis

by Assemblyman Tim Donnelly 30 Aug 2014, 8:34 AM PDT at http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-California/2014/08/30/Corruption-and-Mismanagement-Created-California-Water-Shortage

On Friday, the California State Assembly outdid itself. You can always count on the leftist leaders of what is supposed to be the “people’s house” never lets a crisis go to waste.

With the passage of AB 1739 (Dickinson-D), SB 1168 (Pavley-D), and SB 1319 (Pavley-D), 100 years of history was reversed. The authors painted a grim picture of California’s groundwater future. Most of what they said is true. The only problem they didn’t bother to tell you two key truths:

1.It was these same so-called leaders who give up our seat—the property owner and the farmer’s place at the table—to the enviro-extremists. The fish now have more water rights than do the farmers and ranchers who by making a living off the land, feed this state and this country.

2.By wasting surface water and letting 800,000 acre-feet go out to sea instead of capturing and storing it for the bad years, California’s dysfunctional policies combined with uber-restrictive Federal endangered species protections have created over-dependency on groundwater.

These bills, which obliterate private property rights and local control, are being sold as a port in a storm, when the reality is that they are the recipe for the perfect storm. By granting the State Water Resources Control Board, the last vestige of control over all our water, the farmers and ranchers who were denied their allocation of water from the State Water Project, will be at the mercy of a merciless government. The tactics of the left never vary. They use a government created crisis such as the drought, which is the culmination of years of their own mismanagement and corruption, to consolidate power.

Now, the basic right of a citizen to draw water for support of himself or his family is non-existent. Once a state agency gets control over something, they are like a great white shark. They never let go. Now a board that sits just a few blocks away from the State Capitol will have more say than your local governing body over how much groundwater you can use. Don’t be fooled by the proponents of this bill who are doing this to “help recharge the groundwater.” There is nothing in this bill that will address the groundwater crisis facing California. Almost every one of the provisions of these bills will not be in force for years to come.

This is about power and government control. Whoever controls the water, controls the people. Every time the government takes more control over a natural resource, the price goes up. In this case, the cost of food and energy will be inflated by government, not the marketplace. When government is the source of inflation, it is only a matter of time until cheaper sources make their way to market from less-regulated states or nations.

California has long been known as the “bread basket of the world.” If Governor Jerry Brown signs into law this evil trifecta, the government that created a dust bowl out of the once-fertile Central Valley, will preside over the death of agriculture as the number one industry in our state.