One of the most significant agenda items for California Tea Party groups has always been getting the spigot turned on again to the state’s breadbasket, the Central Valley.
Authorities diverted massive amounts of water to protect the smelt and appease eco-activists. Now, President Donald Trump has signed a memorandum directing more of the water to farmers and other agriculture interests in a prime agricultural area during a stop in the nation’s bluest state.
Speaking alongside House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy in the lawmaker’s hometown of Bakersfield, Trump boasted of how his administration reworked environmental rules to assure more water gets to farmers, while also taking shots at his political rivals – from California Gov. Gavin Newsom to Democratic presidential primary hopeful and former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg.“For too long water authorities have flushed millions of gallons into the Pacific,” Trump said. “I ordered the administration to update outdated opinions which determined water allocation in this state.”Trump added that he is going “to put a lot of pressure” on Newsom to enact the changes and if the California governor doesn’t follow through then “you’ll get a new governor.”
The President’s memorandum pairs with his infrastructure plans due to regulatory flexibility.
The new rules change how much water is stored in the reservoir to prevent it from running out of cold water. Ernest Conant, regional director for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, said the new rules will result in more cold water storage than under the current rules.The plan would give water agencies more flexibility on how much water they can pump out of the state’s rivers. When it’s raining a lot, agencies can pump more. When it’s dry, less would be pumped.
During the stop in Bakersfield, Trump took the opportunity to mock the leaders of the state’s anti-Trump #Resistance.
After focusing on water Wednesday, Trump rolled through several of his anti-California greatest hits. He called San Francisco “worse than a slum” and said “the federal government’s going to have to step in,” apparently referring to taking action on homelessness.He then mocked Gov. Gavin Newsom and state officials for fighting his administration on auto emissions rules and high-speed rail. Trump said a car made under his rules “would be safer because it would not be made out of papier-mache.” He also joked that state leaders would eventually shorten the San Francisco to Los Angeles line so much that “pretty soon it’ll be like a mile long,” referring to Newsom’s announcement a year ago that the state would focus on a track running from Merced to Bakersfield.
The #Resistance plans to strike back.
“California won’t allow the Trump Administration to destroy and deplete our natural resources,” California Attorney General Xavier Becerra (D) said in a statement after the speech. “We’re prepared to challenge the Trump Administration’s harmful attack on our state’s critical ecosystems and environment.”Critics fear the new plan, which would allow large quantities of water to be diverted from the San Francisco Bay Delta to the Central Valley in order to irrigate farmland, would ultimately harm chinook salmon and the delta smelt, a finger-sized fish that for three decades has stood in the way of the diversion.
Despite being in deep-blue California, the event drew quite a crowd.
It looks like Trump may be making some serious plans to purple up the Golden State in 2020!
Finally, it looked like Trump may have handed the signing pen to a future POTUS!
This move is smart on Trump’s part. He can focus attention on all of California’s progressive failures as a warning about Democratic policies. The President can build up the popular vote numbers, which will add to his mandate when he is re-elected, and he contrasts himself from the urban-oriented Democratic presidential candidates.
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