On June 20, Resources Agency staff and consultants held one of their periodic meetings to brief the public on the progress of the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP).  We still don’t know exactly what Governor Brown and Interior Secretary Salazar will be announcing next month in the way of conveyance in the Delta, except that...Read More

Dr. David Sunding and the Brattle Group did a good job of producing what they are being paid to produce: an economic justification for exporters to pay for BDCP and Delta conveyance.  To do that, the Brattle Group had to ignore the economic effects of this project on the rest of California, including the Delta. ...Read More

The biggest difference between Sunding’s and Michael’s analyses is that Sunding’s analysis took a lot of economic credit for “regulatory certainty” under BDCP.  Sunding assumed that under BDCP, exporters could make plans without having to worry about regulations changing in response to changing conditions. Now remember that decision tree?  Resources Secretary Jerry Meral said there’s...Read More

If the decision tree led to different water supply yields, they could, said Meral, augment water supplies by buying upstream.  With this strategy, irrigators in the north are paid to use less of the water they have rights to so that those in the south can use more.  What often happens is that irrigators in...Read More