Trump dumps more water into California’s farms
“It’s wonderful to see our President prioritize people over baitfish.”
Check off another campaign pledge fulfilled by President Donald Trump.
The Trump administration, teeing up a fight with California regulators, is trying to pump more water through the fragile Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to the southern half of the state despite fresh evidence of the estuary’s shrinking fish population.
A proposal by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to “maximize water deliveries” represents the administration’s first concrete effort to make good on a promise Donald Trump made while campaigning for the presidency in Fresno, where he vowed to deliver more water to San Joaquin Valley farmers and derided protections for endangered fish species.
As I noted in a New Year’s Day post, when politicians are members of the #Resistance at all times, the President and his representatives have absolutely no reason to negotiate, compromise, or otherwise try to obtain their cooperation.
I suspect California is about to be flooded with quite a bit of attention from federal representatives and rule-makers that it may not like.
A decade ago, federal biologists found that water withdrawals are jeopardizing smelt and other species and put in place a set of rules determining how much water can safely be pumped south. Doug Obegi, a senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council environmental group, contended in an email Friday that the new announcement represented “the latest attempt by the Trump administration to roll back protections for salmon and other endangered native fisheries … in order to increase water supplies” for the state’s agricultural water agencies.
Erin Curtis, a U.S. Bureau of Reclamation spokeswoman, called the effort a priority for the current administration and indicated the agency is seeking comment through the month of January.
Cutbacks of water deliveries for the project’s customers during the recently ended five-year California drought — including cutbacks prompted by rules protecting endangered native species also struggling in the drought — helped prompt the decision to look at possibly redoing the rules for operating the water project, Curtis said.
So did new U.S. legislation last year that encouraged more big water construction projects and water deliveries for Western farmers, Curtis said.
The response from the state’s environmental activists is as rational and profound as you would expect:
Delta smelt numbers reach new low. Now they could be finally made extinct by Trump administration plan to take more water from their habitat for corporate agribusiness: https://t.co/Jcyd2Z0d66
— Extinction Symbol (@extinctsymbol) December 30, 2017
However, many Californians are thrilled. Dawn Wildman, Director of the Coalition for Policy Reform, had this response:
For California, this act is on par with the withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accord and the ending of the WOTUS rules, in terms of freeing our farms and small businesses from the tyranny of environmental extremists.
I am encouraging Californians across the state to support this move. It’s wonderful to see our President prioritize people over baitfish.
For those Californians who wish to comment, the link to the Reclamation regional office is HERE.
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Comments
They’re all gonna DIE!!!11! (the Delta Smelt)
… And the fish that eat them.
Prioritizing fish over people refutes your statement below and proves JOHN B correct.
… prioritizing the environment.
How do think we got the Salton Sea?
What you wish to prioritize is the short term without regard to the long-term consequences.
Look who’s back … YellowTroll. Please oh Please God of all that is known in the future, what might these terrible consequences be? Please tell us how bad we are and that we might flagellate ourselves to be as good and fine as you oh YellowTroll.
The modern Salton Sea was formed when a break in a water diversion canal filled a dry salt flat in the desert.
CA Delta Smelt are really delicious in a hot Patty Melt
I hear!
Snark!
But seriously why aren’t they being farm raised in mass already for the nation’s pet stores?
This is heartening.
The leftist devastation of central valley farming is hard to believe without seeing it first-hand.
Moreover, many of us in California would view a Trump administration attack on our state as a magnificent thing.
Ah, so it is in the interests of Democrats to ensure people keep feeling pain eh? Because if this was a success that would be the worst outcome for the Democrats as it would pain Trump in a good light.
Yes.
Leftist ideologies NEED government-dependent peasants. Independent, successful, self-sufficient individuals are their worst enemy.
That is an ‘ad hominem attack’.
No, actually, it’s a historically demonstrated truth.
“The worse, the better.” — Lenin
About Lenin. If you wish to link Lenin with Progressives, you are certainly free to do so. But it is BS and it ad hominem.
Socialists believe in Central Planning of the economy Lenin believed in Central Planning of the economy. Does that work?
Lenin would have already shot you as one of the useful idiots.
Sorry, you’re not entitled to your own history.
No. This is an ad hominem: you are a leftist moron and you are unwelcome everywhere you go.
*spikes ball in endzone*
You win! 🙂
YellowTroll you are nothing but a Troll. All Trolls are disgusting and live under bridges and eat their young.
THAT YellowTroll is an ad homenim attack.
This however is a real attack … you come here YellowTroll in all of your college gained social science “knowledge” and you can’t even form a coherent argument. And when someone shoves some facts down your throat with a side of logic you resort to being a shamed elementary school kid in your comebacks. I can only wonder if you are some sort of masochist.
I wish Rags would just post under one name.
What about Darwinism? The left treats Darwin’s theories as a secular religion – except when it comes to reality or when it shows their policies to be garbage.
Darwin declared that natural selection would eliminate some species and preserve others.
Our governments should not be anti-Darwin and play God to decide which species should survive – even though natural selection shows those species should die out.
Making this even worse – the governments decided the delta smelt should be preferred over another species – human beings. Food for humans over a few delta smelt? An easy choice for the left.
Trump deserves a Nobel Prize for this decision.
Darwin’s Theory is not applicable to this. The time scale is simply too short for species to adapt. That would be like claiming that the vermin released by whalers and the subsequent destruction of the flora and fauna on the Galapagos Islands should simply be allowed to happen.
In the name of your beliefs and what you wish to be true, you can declare that there is such a thing as ‘secular religion’. Using the term is an admission that what you cannot refute secular reasoning directly and can only disparage reasoning by lowering it to your level. “Their ideas cannot be refuted by us. So lets just reduce them to our level. Hey, they are as stupid as we are.”
If there were reasoning involved in Leftism, it might be refuted. Since there isn’t, why bother?
That you cannot, or prefer not to, discern the reasoning doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist. As I have to pointed out, you need to reduce ideas to your level because you can’t deal with the truth. Whether you are a sophist or just ignorant is not for me to determine. That you simply believe something because it makes you comfortable is clear.
Darwin’s theory was the antithesis of religion. If you wish to deny that, I can’t stop you from ignoring facts. Just don’t think you could win this argument in a neutral forum. As Churchill said:
Ideas != Truth … just sayin’
This fun.
Darwin was Catholic.
How is an evolutionary THEORY the antithesis of anything. Was Darwin’s theory the antithesis of Islam? How about Hinduism? Toaism? Communism?
Gawd it is like talking to an automaton. Ask Socrates what he thought of Democracy.
You are a child YellowTroll … go outside and play.
“Darwin’s theory was the antithesis of religion. ”
Since when? I read Darwin’s book. It is a long, exhaustive, detailed collection of descriptions of events that happened in our world, with some theory that elucidates what the underlying rules are. Darwin’s theory describes what happens. That is all. It is no more anti-theology than the laws of classical physics or mathematics. Specifically, it does not even purport to say what God did, or what God has to do with setting the rules by which this world runs.
There’s a small book titled “Your God is too small” that deals with the arbitrary restrictions people have been known to place on their own idea of God. You might try reading it. It is available for free as a download.
Here’s one quote:
“God will inevitably appear to disappoint the man who is attempting to use Him as a convenience, a prop, or a comfort, for his own plans. God has never been known to disappoint the man who is sincerely wanting to co-operate with His own purposes.”
Except that there is nothing in the theory of evolution that directly contradicts Genesis.
“….simply too short for species to adapt.”
Yup. That’s what the dinosaurs complained about when that giant meteor slammed the planet, and caused the Cretaceous–Tertiary extinction.
Your argument is specious, yellow snake. Try again.
Just remember, “He who smelt it, dealt it.”
I might suggest Aquarium Hobbyists could collect and breed these tiny fish in captivity. Worked for the White Cloud Mountain minnow. IF, that is so important to secure this critter species.
Sorry CateDean they’re endangered so you can’t get them out of the wild and only trained, educated and really really really smart people can raise them. The average hobbyist is too dumb to really do anything right, so we can’t let them be a part.
Actually, they are.
By the reasoning of lefty environmentalists, people should be eliminated from the Earth entirely, as they negatively impact other species in their natural habitats. This is, of course, suicidal insanity. If these people were really serious about conservation, they would start by eliminating themselves. Yet, this doesn’t seem to be happening.
Remember the big spotted owl controversy in the 1980s? Environmentalist groups conducted a comprehensive survey of spotted owl populations in logging areas surrounding a town in Northern California. It showed that the spotted owl population had significantly decreased in these areas. However, when two additional surveys were conducted which included the town, the number of spotted owls was higher than it had been in the past. It seems that a number of owls had mover to town and taken up residence there. Then we had the same environmentalist groups demanding that the barred owl be killed off in Northern California, as it was displacing the spotted owl [this in 2008-2007]. These people are insane and suffering from a God complex where they are given the power to decide the fate of all the species of the world.
If they can not survive in the delta, the smelt will move to a location where they can survive. On the other hand, if the farmers of California can not grow food for human beings, then those human beings will end up eating environmentalist fresh off the barby.
In SoCal, the cougar issue was addressed by the Left…. eliminate humans to improve habitat for cougars.
Humanitarian before vegetarian!
Good, hopefully over the next couple of years we’ll see some better produce prices when we go grocery shopping as a result of this decision.
First things first: Has California settled which bathroom the endangered fish will use??
I understand the fish are pretty small, so they can be flushed down either toilet.
I lived in California during the ‘great drought’. Our water was being shipped south during the time and the LA basin folks were filling their pools, washing their cars, and watering their lawns while we could do none of those things. If the water goes to agriculture, I am all for it. If it goes to fill the pools of the south part of the state then I am against it. Kill the Delta Tunnels.
A human first policy. Gaia is ambivalent.
Haven’t you heard?
Gaia has changed sexes!
“…freeing our farms and small businesses from the tyranny of environmental extremists.”
Funny how those extremists make sure there is plenty of water flowing to San Francisco where they all live.
The Bay Area has it’s own reservoir called Hetch Hetchy in Yosemite National Park. It flooded and destroyed Little Yosemite Valley of which John Muir considered even more striking and beautiful than Big Yosemite Valley in it’s own way. When the Democrats squawk about dam removal, they go silent when Hetch Hetchy is mentioned. If it ever fails and has to be rebuilt, watch for all their calls for special Endangered Species Act, OSHA, etc waivers because Silicone Valley, San Francisco and the rest of the Bay Area are too important to be subject to the laws that the rest of us have to struggle with.
Another fake controversy.
to roll back protections for salmon and other endangered native fisheries
A “fishery” is not a “fish”. A fishery is an industry; so this is a choice of benefits for one industry vs. benefits for another industry.
If this policy goes thru, this huge for me, my family, my community and the farm economy of the Central Valley. The Democrats been letting our most precious state resource drain to the ocean needlessly for close to a decade, just look at the smelt number trends. The Democrats want to destroy us, they are only using the Endangered Species Act as as a tool. They don’t really care about animals, look at all the wildlife that have been harmed by windmills and solar panels, etc (of which they given themselves and their cronies ESA exemptions!). Please add your support to this on the USBR comment section if you want more affordable food and clothing and want to spur the economy.
Even though I voted for him, I was skeptical of Trump due to his inconsistent past history and thought he’d be another RINO. But with this, the tax cut, rejecting the Paris agreement, cutting regulations, standing up to the corrupt Democrat media, stomping ISIS, enforcing immigration laws, etc he’s really winning me over.
Ok so Delta Smelt numbers hit new lows … According to link above … After 5 years of greatly increased water flow … Hmmmmm
Who cares? Fish speciate very quickly. By the next ice age they’ll be extinct anyway. If not then they deserved to make it.
I would be impressed if the Federal Government announced that it was starting a project beginning with SoCal coastal region regarding the restoration of Pre-Columbian era populations of bears, mountain lions, bobcats and venomous snakes. If dogs & coyotes can ride the BART transit system by themselves I am sure bears can figure it out too.
The more Trump does wonderful things like this the harder it is to remain opposed to him.
The water can go where ever … but not at the expense of the survival of animal species.
People are animals, so people come first.
Can someone explain exactly why it is that every species must survive? What would be so terrible if some species of no known use to humanity were to go extinct, especially if there are many species similar enough that if we should one day discover a use for them those other species will probably serve just as well?
The bizarre thing about the left is that they are wedded to Darwinism yet reject one of its main premises. They also reject that global warming and cooling cycles are a part of the natural order, yet insist that evolution is the answer. Without substantial and sustained climate fluctuations that preceded mankind’s industrial presence, what would prompt a species to evolve? File under: questions that make lefties squirm.
Shrug, what can ya do?
@Milhouse It is a pure form of conceit to think that only human life has a right to survive. I’d go so far as to say it’s immoral.
@Fuzzy Slippers Sure … global warming and cooling are part of the natural order … yet man’s activities (natural as they may be) has an effect. It has to be looked at as a system. The earth and life thrives under some conditions and less so under others. How much does man effect it? Beats me … but that there is an effect is real … as man is part of the system. Climate fluctuations are not the only reason for species evolution.
Ah, yes, the same old stuff. Okay, man affects climate, so, we are told, do cows because they emit toxins when they fart. The solutions? Taxation and scientifically-creating smaller cows.
Seriously, that’s the deal you are buying into. Cap and tax is about “spreading the wealth,” not about the climate, and new, smaller, less-farty cows is about advancing . . . oh, who knows what.
When progressives and lefties want to step down from their self-constructed sand-pedestal of ethical, scientific, and moral superiority, we may have a discussion. Until then, I scoff at your lunacy that insists that making massive corporations pay higher taxes somehow saves the planet from farting cows.
@Fuzzy Slippers You’re reading too much into my response. I said absolutely nothin’ about taxation, corporations or whatever you dream I said or believe I subscribe to. All I’m sayin’ is man lives on the earth … just as cows do … or squirrels etc … therefore man has an impact on the earth that has to be considered. Period. Anything more is an artifact of your own assumptions and biases.