Posts By: Dave Puglia
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State Water Board Staff Moves to Block Moderate Pumping Increase
Yesterday, the State Water Resources Control Board (Water Board) rejected a proposal by the California Department of Water Resources and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation that would have allowed limited increases in export pumping from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta under certain conditions. The rejected plan had the support of the California Department of Fish and ...
Bipartisan Protest by Members of Congress to State Water Board Denial of Delta Pumping Flexibility
A bipartisan, bicameral group of legislators has sent a letter to the California State Water Resources Control Board (Board) requesting that it reverse a recent decision by staff to block moderate pumping increases in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta under certain conditions. The letter, sent to the Board’s Chair, Felicia Marcus, was signed by Majority Leader ...
State Water Board Asked by WG to Reconsider Staff Denial of Temporary Pumping Modifications
Western Growers President and CEO Tom Nassif sent a letter to the State Water Resources Control Board (Board) on February 12, 2015, strongly objecting to a recent staff decision to deny limited increases in export pumping from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta under certain conditions and asked the Board to rapidly reconsider its decision on the ...
Feds to Farmers: Zero Percent Initial Water Allocation
Yesterday, the Bureau of Reclamation — managers of California’s Central Valley Project (CVP) — announced an initial zero percent water allocation for farmers and cities in the San Joaquin Valley following California’s driest year in recorded history. The zero percent allocation could increase and will be reviewed monthly by as we move deeper into the ...
Brown Reappoints Del Bosque to CA Water Commission
Yesterday, California Governor Jerry Brown announced the reappointment of Western Growers’ member Joe Del Bosque to the California Water Commission. Del Bosque, a member of Western Growers since 1996, has served on the commission since 2010. The position requires Senate confirmation. Western Growers strongly supports Del Bosque’s continued service on the commission. …
Western Growers Responds to Gov. Brown’s $1B Emergency Drought Legislation Package
Western Growers’ President and CEO Tom Nassif released a statement today following Governor Jerry Brown’s announcement that he will expedite the use of $1 billion in funding to help local communities cope with the effects of the ongoing drought. The funding was made available from a legislatively-referred water bond (Proposition 1) passed by voters this ...
Brown Announces Historic Water Restrictions for California
Today, California Governor Jerry Brown announced historic, statewide mandatory water restrictions aimed primarily at urban water users in response to California’s ongoing drought. Brown’s Executive Order mandates substantial water reductions for all Californians across the state. In his announcement, the governor acknowledged that agriculture has “borne much…
Gov. Brown Comments About Ag and Drought
As reported in yesterday’s special edition of Spotlight, California Governor Jerry Brown issued an executive order requiring new reductions in water use, especially in urban areas. In his statement, Brown said that farmers had “borne the brunt of the drought to date.” The Governor expanded on these thoughts yesterday in a segment that aired on ...
CA Farm Water Coalition Illustrates Severity of Drought on Farmers; Brown Holds Drought Meeting
Today the California Farm Water Coalition issued the results of a survey indicating that in 2015 over 40% of the state’s irrigated farmland will lose 80% or more of its normal surface supply. Coalition Executive Director Mike Wade issued a statement on the report which highlights some of the quantifiable effects the ongoing drought is ...
Brown Announces Revised Delta Recovery and Water Delivery System Plan
Today, Governor Jerry Brown announced a revised plan to accelerate Delta habitat restoration and fix the state’s aging water infrastructure. The Governor’s office issued a release saying “the revised plan is the absolute best path forward” for fixing California’s aging water delivery system, in addition to protecting the economy and public safety. The plan is…
California State Food and Ag Board to Hold Drought Forum May 5th
The California State Board of Food and Agriculture is hosting a Drought Forum on May 5, 2015, at the Fresno County Fairgrounds. The forum will allow farmers, farm workers and community stakeholders an opportunity to provide public comment. Prior to the public comment period, the board will receive an update from Director Mark Ghilarducci, Governor’s ...
Governor Newsom Appoints Karla Nemeth as Director of CDWR
Last Friday, California Governor Gavin Newsom announced that Karla Nemeth has been reappointed as director of the California Department of Water Resources, which is a position she has served in since 2018. Western Growers, as well as many other ag and water organizations, strongly supported Nemeth’s reappointment. Nemeth has extensive experience in the water industry. Her ...
The Labor Unions and “Groundhog Day”
The California Legislature is back for a new two-year session with dozens of newly-elected members and new leaders in both the Assembly and Senate. Reporters and pundits are busy speculating about their agendas, what issues will dominate attention and the role Governor Jerry Brown will play in all of it. For all the speculation, however, ...
Tax Reform in California? Brace for Impact.
Get ready to hear a lot about tax reform in California, but be warned: What most taxpayers would think of as reform may not be what we see from the California Legislature and the many interest groups that want to increase state spending. They will use the word “reform” all day long, which in a ...
Moderate Democrats on the Rise in Sacramento
By Dave Puglia In recent years, business and industry groups have been cautiously hopeful that as Democrats ran up their numbers in the California Legislature, a moderate faction would emerge within their ranks that could help deflect at least some of the annual barrage of legislation promoted by environmental groups, trial lawyers and labor unions. ...
Buzzing About Water Markets
By Dave Puglia The four-year drought that has hammered California may be easing this year, thanks to El Niño storms, but it will leave lasting scars—beyond any from prior droughts—on the state’s political, legal and even social landscape. For example, we have seen unprecedented media and political criticism of the water needed to produce food, ...
Dude, Where’s My Dam?
Where are the new dams? That question has been asked, often quite loudly, by many Californians in the months since voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition 1, the 2014 water bond that authorized $7.545 billion in funding for various projects and needs, and specifically allocated $2.7 billion for storage projects. Some have questioned whether the Brown Administration ...
Of Supermajorities and Moderates in Sacramento
An election year has concluded and while voters in most states signaled their desire to move (or stay) on the right side of the ideological spectrum, California held firmly to its position as the nation’s largest and strongest bastion of liberal policies and politics. Voters continued to pour cement on an already formidable foundation of ...
The Cold Partisan Reality of the California Gas Tax Legislation
We take a break from our regularly scheduled program, “California Needs More Moderate Democrats in Sacramento,” to bring you this news flash: California—and especially its private sector economy—needs more Republicans in Sacramento. As everyone now knows, the Democrats won two-thirds supermajorities in both houses of the Legislature last November. They briefly held a slim…
One Hundred Latino Republicans, and Counting
Observers of California politics often preface their analyses by reminding us that “demographics are destiny.” The original source of this quote is disputed, but few doubt its logic. In the last few years, Latinos moved past non-Hispanic whites to capture the largest share of the state’s population, and the trend appears to be increasing such ...