by Patrick Ruckert
www.californiadroughtupdate.org/20220526-California-Water-and-Infrastructure-Report.pdf
A Note to Readers
The U.S. Drought Monitor for California this week shows a somewhat dramatic shift toward a more intense drought. From almost zero percent being in the “Exceptional Drought” category last week, this week that number is more than 11 percent this week. This is the first time in the present drought that any of the state has been in “Exceptional Drought.”
Following the U.S. Drought Monitor our first item discusses the State Water Board and its “do something, even if it does nothing” approach.
With the announcement this week by the State Water Board of somewhat mandatory water conservation measures, Governor Newsom and the board continue to pretend they are serious about the water crisis the state now finds itself in. The problem remains that today’s political leaders and most of the water managers are dedicated to “managing the crisis,” but have no intent to solve it. Thus, the farmers of California are on the receiving end of the “management,” by, in this case, this year, receiving zero to a minuscule delivery of the water they need. Meanwhile the Board makes a big deal of those in the cities conserving water, as if cutting 15-20% of urban water used will be a serious response. Recall, that less than 10% of the water of the state goes to the cities. So, thinking that conserving 15-20% of 10% will be less than a drop in the bucket.
Agriculture and water are inseparable. We have an interesting article this week, which is a part of a series by Edward Ring. The article, “The Abundance Choice, Part 5: California’s Fractured Farmers,” begins on page 6.
Next four articles on the Colorado River underline just how extreme the crisis of water supply for 40 million people is becoming. The third article, especially, reports on the actions taken by the Bureau of Reclamation to manage the crisis. Now, whether deep cuts to water deliveries can be avoided appears to not be possible over the next few years.
The Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant and its contribution of 10% of the electricity generated in California, scheduled to be completely shut down in 2025, continues to generate more and more articles favoring keeping it open. This follows Governor Newsom’s backpedaling on the question two weeks ago. He has long promoted shutting it down, but now says he has second thoughts.
Why? It is simple, whether or not he is running for U.S. President or not, blackouts for years to come in the state will not look good on his resume.
It is not only California that is facing electricity shortages this summer and blackouts, Texas and other southwest states face the same.
Of course, if the nation, and the state of California, are ever to begin to once again lead the nation in building great projects that solve problems for decades into the future, then the present Federal Reserve and Central Bank control over the financial system and the economy must be broken. Then replaced by a return to policies like that of Abraham Lincoln and President Franklin Roosevelt, whom used the power of national banking to unleash the greatest industrialization and infrastructure building policies in our nation’s history. We should welcome then the hysteria and panic that the globalists are now expressing, as seen at the Davos conference this week. My colleague Robert Ingraham reports on it in his article: “World Economic Forum 2022: Arrogance Fades as Elite Panic Begins” I include just the opening paragraphs of the article on pages 14-15.
Our Feature this week is from our archives. Almost nine years ago I began to study the California water management system. That was in 2013, the third year of what would be a five-year drought. The following feature for this week is my first report of that topic. The original title was: “The California Water Crisis, the California Water Management System, and the Solution—NAWAPA.”
I include just the title page, the table of contents and a photo or two. You can go to the link for the full report.
