Gov.
Brown puts a price tag on protecting major water supply [Southern California
Public Radio KPCC-FM/Pasadena]
In
his State of the State address Thursday, Gov. Jerry Brown reiterated his pitch
to protect California’s water supply. But in a speech lawmakers repeatedly interrupted
with applause, Brown’s plea to spend billions on water elicited silence. He was
speaking to a joint session of the legislature, but his message is really for
consumers — and the agencies that supply water to them. “My proposed plan is
two tunnels, 30 miles long and 40 feet wide, designed to improve the ecology of
the Delta, with almost 100 square miles of habitat restoration," Brown
said. "Yes, that’s big, but so is the problem.” Brown said the plan is
designed to protect the Delta’s water supply from an earthquake, a hundred-year
storm or a rise in sea levels. The project would cost an estimated $14 billion
to construct the tunnels, and $5 billion to operate them. So who foots
the bill?...Consumers would pay, but they don’t get to decide whether to build
the Governor’s tunnels. Water suppliers make that call and pass the cost on to
their customers.
Opinion: If Jerry Brown
wants a legacy, he'll have to work for it [Sacramento Bee]
Gov.
Jerry Brown uttered more than 3,000 words in just under 25 minutes Thursday,
telling the Legislature – and 38 million other Californians – that the state is
in good shape, getting better every day and can look forward to a bright
future. "Two years ago," Brown concluded his State of the State
speech, "they were writing our obituary. Well, it didn't happen.
California is back, its budget is balanced, and we are on the move. Let's go
out and get it done." And what would "it" be? The politician who
once spoke disparagingly of "multipoint plans" offered a lengthy
agenda Thursday, including changing school finance, bringing the poor into
Obamacare, building water tunnels under the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta,
starting a bullet train line, overhauling environmental laws and reducing
carbon dioxide emissions.
Drakes
Bay Oyster Co. goes to court to fight closure [Santa Rosa Press Democrat]
Lawyers
for the Drakes Bay Oyster Co. and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar will square
off today before a federal judge in Oakland in the first round of a legal
battle over the commercial oyster operation in the Point Reyes National
Seashore. At stake is Salazar's decision in November not to renew a 40-year
lease that gave oyster farm operator Kevin Lunny the right to commercial
operations in 2,500-acre Drakes Estero, a five-fingered estuary that features
extensive eelgrass beds and a harbor seal colony. The decision, hailed by
wilderness advocates, gave Lunny's company 90 days to shut a business that
plants and harvests 8 million oysters -- worth about $1.5 million a year --
from the near-pristine estero. The deadline was subsequently extended to March
15.
Tomato
crop projected to remain steady [Stockton Record]
California
tomato processors expect to contract with farmers for 13 million tons of
production this year, up slightly from the 12.9 million tons in contracted
production reported in 2012, federal and state farm officials recently
reported. If accurate, it could signal the second-largest processing crop for
the state. And while it would be a big crop historically, it's not much
different from what California has seen since 2007, as the processing tomato
harvest has run roughly from 12 million to 13 million tons annually. "When
you look at it year over year, it's just steady as she goes," said Mike
Montna, president and chief executive of the California Tomato Growers
Association.
U.S.
groups fear big price hikes, trade war over Mexican tomatoes [Reuters]
U.S.
business groups warned on Thursday of skyrocketing tomato prices and a damaging
trade war if President Barack Obama's administration follows through on a
preliminary decision to end a long-standing tomato trade agreement with Mexico.
"We are concerned as U.S. distributors about the ability to continue to be
able to sell Mexican tomatoes with the tomato trade dispute that's going on
between the United States and Mexico," said Lance Jungmeyer, president of
the Fresh Produce Association of the Americas. He said a new pricing study had
found that U.S. consumers would be hit with huge premiums for fresh tomatoes,
with prices doubling or worse, if distributors were forced to withdraw Mexican
tomatoes from the marketplace.
New
wine group gaining steam in Mendocino County [Ukiah Daily Journal]
Six
months after the Mendocino Winegrape and Wine Commission was voted down, a
group poised to take over many of the commission's functions is taking shape.
"We're picking up the banner, and there has been a lot of
enthusiasm," said Zac Robinson, family owner of Husch Vineyards, who said
that the biggest change between the commission and the new Mendocino
Winegrowers, Inc., (MWI), is that participation is now voluntary. "By
state law, everyone had to join (and contribute to) the commission," Robinson
said. "We'll make some changes from what the commission did."
Ag
Today is distributed to county Farm Bureaus, CFBF directors and CFBF staff, for
information purposes, by the CFBF Communications/News Division, 916-561-5550; news@cfbf.com.
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