by Patrick Ruckert
www.californiadroughtupdate.org/20210923-California-Water-and-Infrastructure-Report.pdf?_t=1632520641
“How did two political opposites—New Deal President Franklin Roosevelt and GM President William Knudsen—come together to carry out the industrial mobilization which won World War II? Therein lies the secret of the American System. This class is a prelude to LaRouchePAC’s new series: ‘How to Re-Americanize the U.S. Economy.’”
A Note to Readers
Most important in this week’s report is the video that is linked right after this introduction. It is from LaRouche PAC and begins a series of Zoom meetings on the topic of “How to Re-Americanize the U.S. Economy.”
Then it is on to the drought, with the U.S. Drought Monitor showing no significant change in the West or California this past week.
Under the title, “The PR Stunt by the Governor” I provide some perspective on both the results of the governor’s call for a voluntary cutback of water use by 15%, and what that means in terms of having any affect on the water supply available to Californian’s today or perhaps in the next few years. That introduces this article, “As California’s drought deepens, water use drops only 1.8%.”
Three articles report on the Colorado River, beginning with the Bureau of Reclamation’s new forecast of what the next few years may look like. I found most interesting the third article, “Colorado River can no longer sustain Western thirst,” which presents a good analysis of the connection and interrelationship of the Colorado River system and the California water management system.
Our coverage of the wildfires this week includes, first, an article which summarizes the status of the major fires now burning in the state. Then two items on forest management, continuing our coverage of that topic, which is the only sane approach to bringing the fires under control.
Two days after the Recall election ended on September 14, ABC10 ran a piece on how the Governor’s office not only undermined the Public Utility Commission, violating the state constitution, but did so to corruptly waive the $200 million fine PG&E had been assessed for the Paradise fire that killed 95 people. Here are some quotes from the article. The entire article is the last item in this report:
“ABC10 sued the CPUC under state transparency laws, seeking messages between CPUC President Marybel Batjer and key Newsom staffers who worked on PG&E policy.
“The records could reveal new details about what the leader of the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) and top officials in Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration said to each other as the state executed a complex plan to bail the power company out from the financial consequences of crimes.
“The California Constitution specifies that the CPUC is supposed to operate independently, but Newsom’s office micromanaged the agency, according to the executive director who ran the agency during the Camp Fire and PG&E’s subsequent bailout.
“During that time, the CPUC waived PG&E’s obligation to pay a $200 million fine and approved the company’s plan to exit bankruptcy. ABC10 also found that the plan, which won both the approval of Newsom and the CPUC, prioritized payment to clients of the governor’s close friend ahead of PG&E’s wildfire victims.
