Drier
weather for a week in forecast; snowpack 150 percent above normal [Redding
Record Searchlight]
A
drenched north state may finally get a break from the string of storms that
left thousands without power, closed Interstate 5 and pushed the snowpack
levels to more than 50 percent above normal. "We're actually getting into
more of a dry pattern that's setting up," said Craig Shoemaker, a
forecaster with the National Weather Service's Sacramento office. Only 0.023
inch of rain had fallen on Redding Wednesday morning. He said a light system
may move in Friday evening and drop a small amount, but the earliest a storm
could drop an inch of rain on Redding appears to be Wednesday.
Siskiyou
farmers win court battle over water; judge says DFG oversteps authority in
requiring permits [Redding Record Searchlight]
In
a decision that farmers say could have statewide implications, a judge has
ruled that the state Department of Fish and Game cannot require ranchers in
Siskiyou County to obtain permits to take water from the Shasta and Scott
rivers. Siskiyou County Superior Court Judge Karen L. Dixon ruled the DFG
overstepped its authority in requiring the permits, according to the Siskiyou
County Farm Bureau. "This ruling establishes an important statewide
precedent," farm bureau President Jeff Fowle said. "There is no doubt
that if the DFG had been able to expand its authority here, it would have tried
to regulate water rights elsewhere in the state."
A
gallon of milk could cost $8 in 2013 [Washington Post]
There’s
one potential casualty of the fiscal cliff that hasn’t gotten much attention at
all: the price of milk. Come Dec. 31, Washington’s inaction could push the
country’s milk prices to as much as $6 to $8 per gallon unless Congress passes
a farm bill renewing federal support for agriculture programs. Here’s how that
would happen: Without legislative action in the next five days, the government
will have to revert to a 1949 dairy price subsidy that requires the Agriculture
Department to buy milk at inflated prices. Much like the current fiscal cliff,
the law was left on the books “as a poison pill to get Congress to pass a farm
bill by scaring lawmakers with the prospect of higher support prices for milk
and other agriculture products,” as Vincent Smith, a Montana State University
professor, told the New York Times. The Farm Bill isn’t technically part
of the fiscal cliff. Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio.) has resisted the call by
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack (D) to incorporate it into the budget
negotiations — to avoid complicating the budget talks and losing GOP votes, a
Boehner aide told Politico last week. Legislators from rural districts are also
worried that crop subsidies could be a tempting target in the fiscal cliff
negotiations, so they’ve been trying to push Congress toward a separate
resolution, to little avail. Although producers would temporarily benefit from
the hike in milk prices, it would hurt processors and consumers, and the dairy
industry would prefer a long-term resolution as well.
Commentary: Estate Tax Increase
Jeopardizes Future of Family Farms [Agri-Pulse]
Congress
is now convened in a lame duck session, dealing with a host of issues that were
postponed or bypassed in regular order earlier this year. The farm bill
is one of them. So is essentially two years’ worth of federal
budgeting. This perpetual postponement comes at a steep price. Congress’s
failure to reach a $1.2 trillion deficit-reduction package last year leaves in place
the automatic across-the-board spending cuts known as a sequester. Those
cuts, like the sword of Damocles, hang over all federal programs - good and bad
alike - unless Congress can devise a more sensible budget plan that funds
priority programs and weeds out unnecessary and wasteful spending. Total
cuts to federal spending in 2013 would be $110 billion. Moreover, a number of
tax provisions expire at the end of this year. These expiring tax
provisions are largely the culmination of temporary tax and budget bills that
have deferred rather than dealt with policy differences. The tax bill on
January 1, 2013 will be $514 billion higher because of these expiring
provisions.
California
law tests company responses to carbon costs [New York Times]
The
Morning Star Company’s three plants in California emit roughly 200,000 metric
tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year — about the same amount as
the Pacific Island nation of Palau — as they turn tomatoes into ketchup,
spaghetti sauce and juice used by millions of consumers around the world.
Beginning Jan. 1, under the terms of a groundbreaking California environmental
law known as AB 32, Morning Star and 350 other companies statewide will begin
paying for those emissions, which trap heat and contribute to global warming.
Companies are trying to figure out how this will affect their bottom lines and
have lobbied state regulators to minimize the costs. In the meantime they are
weighing their options. Should they stay and adapt or move operations
elsewhere? Should they retrofit and innovate to reduce emissions? Should they
swallow the regulatory costs or pass them on to customers?
Delta
disputes could affect Solano’s water [Fairfield Daily Republic]
Barker
Slough and the North Bay Aqueduct pumps that bring Delta water to local cities
sit amid an eastern Solano County region targeted by California to become a
rare fish paradise. That has local water officials concerned. They fear
creating rare fish habitat near the North Bay Aqueduct pumps could make it more
difficult to deliver water to more than 400,000 people in Fairfield, Vacaville,
Vallejo and Napa. This is water that helps keep the local economy flowing.
Tidal wetlands are going to be restored in eastern Solano County, Solano County
Water Agency General Manager David Okita said. “It’s just a matter of when and
how big they are and whether we get adequate protection,” Okita said. “That is
a real threat.”
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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