For every $2.50 spent building the Delta conveyance tunnel proposed by the BDCP, we can expect to see $1.00 of economic benefits. That’s the conclusion of a new report by Dr. Jeffrey Michael, Director of the Business Forecasting Center at the University of the Pacific. The report notes that other economic analyses have tended to...Read More
The “BDCP Plus” conveyance plan is now proposing three rather than five intakes – at a savings of $1 billion per intake – for a total of 9,000 cubic feet per second (cfs) instead of 15,000 cfs. But before anyone gets the idea that this involves any real intention to limit export flows, you need...Read More
The Delta Stewardship Council (DSC) will remain independent after all, despite efforts by the Brown administration and the advice of the Little Hoover Commission to move it under the umbrella of the Resources Agency. Chair Phil Isenberg made the case for continued independence before an Assembly Special Committee on the Governor’s Reorganization Plan last week....Read More
The Delta Plan is moving toward its final version, and the revision process is proving troublesome for staff and the public. At the Delta Stewardship Council (DSC) meeting last week, council members were irate with staff for not following some of their directions regarding revisions of the sixth staff draft. Some changes labeled “errata” were...Read More
Senator Michael Rubio pulled his SB 250 before it could be heard by the Assembly Water, Parks, and Wildlife Committee last week, even though Chair Jared Huffman had made it clear that it was then or never. This is the bill that would have called for the completion of the BDCP process by 2013 and...Read More
When Alex Hildebrand passed away in January, Restore the Delta heard from dozens of people who wanted to participate in the comments that we made about Alex’s life and work. While many of those comments were sincere and praised Alex’s fine accomplishments in ways that we did not, we resisted making further commentary because we...Read More
Recently, 18 south-of-the-Delta and Southern California senators and assembly members wrote a letter to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, Resources Secretary John Laird, and Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Mike Connor complaining about delays in the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) process. They said the process has been open and transparent (not true); that the threat of...Read More
The Hanford Sentinel reports that Kings County agriculture had a record-setting year in 2011. The annual crop report showed an agricultural output of $2.2 billion, considerably higher than the previous record of $1.76 billion set in 2007, before the recent drought. One crop that saw a major rebound was cotton, which jumped from $244 million...Read More
This week, the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) had a meeting to introduce its new publication, “Water and the California Economy.” This publication was funded (as the PPIC’s other water-related think-tank efforts have been) by the S. D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation, which has an ongoing interest in the kinds of analysis that make Delta...Read More
