Cutting off access [Stockton Record]
The
skirmish over a scarce amount of water intensified Tuesday as state water
regulators considered emergency rules that would allow them to cut off Central
Valley farmers without the usual formal process. To date, only those growers
with junior water rights have been told to stop taking water, and only about 30
percent of them have responded, officials said. Tuesday's proposal would speed
up financial penalties in the hope that more farmers will comply. But as
drafted, the rules would also expand possible "curtailments" to
growers with older, more senior water rights - including Delta farmers. The
board put off a decision Tuesday night and is expected to discuss the matter
again this afternoon….However, board members informally indicated Tuesday night
that they were willing to consider other options, including leaving the senior
water-rights holders out of the new rules for now.
In
dry California, water fetching record prices [Associated Press]
Throughout
California's desperately dry Central Valley, those with water to spare are
cashing in. As a third parched summer forces farmers to fallow fields and lay
off workers, two water districts and a pair of landowners in the heart of the
state's farmland are making millions of dollars by auctioning off their private
caches. Economists say it's been decades since the water market has been this
hot. In the last five years alone, the price has grown tenfold to as much as
$2,200 an acre-foot — enough to cover a football field with a foot of water.
Unlike the previous drought in 2009, the state has been hands-off, letting the
market set the price even though severe shortages prompted a statewide drought
emergency declaration this year.
Speaker
Atkins: Water bond deal has stalled [Capital Public Radio, Sacramento]
There
will be no California water bond deal this week at the state Capitol, despite
hopes of legislative leaders that an agreement could be reached before
lawmakers go on summer recess Thursday. In an interview with Capital Public
Radio, Assembly Speaker Atkins (D-San Diego) blamed outside interest groups for
blowing up negotiations to replace the $11 billion water bond currently on the
November ballot….Atkins specifically said water storage supporters and
environmental groups that oppose money for dams won’t get everything they want.
“Storage is absolutely a part of our package, but it can’t be at the 2009
level, Atkins said….Her message to environmental groups: “There are opponents
to dams – which is a piece of storage – that are gonna have to realize that
some of the storage needs need to be part of the solution. So blowing up a
water bond b/c it includes storage will actually sacrifice long-term
environmental gains.”…The speaker says she still believes a water bond deal can
be reached in August, but the interest groups will need to accept less money
than they want.
Gas
station event to decry law's 'hidden tax' [Bakersfield Californian]
Business
and political leaders plan to gather at a Coffee Road gas station Wednesday to
call attention to a state law they say will significantly raise pump prices
early next year. Organized by the California Independent Oil Marketers
Association, the "Fed Up at the Pump" event is expected to criticize
rules geared toward reducing the state's greenhouse gas emissions to 1990
levels by 2020, as required by 2006's landmark Assembly Bill 32. The trade
group says the rules will impose steep new costs on wholesale fuel
distributors, who will have no choice but to raise gasoline and diesel prices
on consumers…."This increase in fuel prices is just another increase in a
farmer's budget," said Beatris Sanders, executive director of the Kern
County Farm Bureau. As an alternative, she proposed government incentives to
persuade farmers to trade in their old tractors for more fuel-efficient
equipment.
Forget
dinner. It's always snack time in America [Wall Street Journal]
Americans
are becoming serial snackers. What started as grazing more than three decades
ago has turned into willy-nilly consumption patterns, disrupting of the
American diet of three meals a day and making the pillars of peanut-butter and
jelly sandwiches for lunch and bacon and eggs for breakfast a part of the
past—and roiling the food industry in the process….Once considered an
indulgence—a few cookies or handful of potato chips—a snack now seems to be
anything small, increasingly nutritional and
portable that complements or replaces a meal. U.S. retail sales of soups
averaged 0.4%, while pasta averaged 1.3% annual growth between 2008 and 2013,
according to Euromonitor International. At the same time sales of chips rose
4.2%, and snack bars and nuts jumped 5.4% and 7.8%, respectively.
Editorial: Oysters evicted in
Point Reyes - a fair outcome [San Francisco Chronicle]
The
saga of an oyster farm facing ouster from federal land made for a difficult
choice between two distinct and cherished values. A small business growing a
delightful delicacy wanted to extend its lease within Point Reyes National
Seashore while environmentalists wanted to return the coastal spot to nature.
Should it stay or go? The decision was passed all the way up the legal tree to
the U.S. Supreme Court, which refused to hear the case, meaning an eviction
order for the Drakes Bay Oyster Co. stands….The Lunnys have run an honorable
and popular business, and the stridency of some of their adversaries made it
all the easier to empathize with the family's fight against a government
bureaucracy and self-righteous environmental
activists. But a lease is a lease - and a commercial inholding in a federal
park designated as a wilderness area doesn't make much sense. Once the conflict
entered the legal system, this week's result seemed inevitable - and justified.
Ag
Today is distributed by the CFBF Communications/News Division to county Farm
Bureaus, CFBF directors and CFBF staff, for information purposes; stories may
not be republished without permission. Some story links may require site
registration. To be removed from this mailing list, reply to this
message and please provide your name and e-mail address. For more
information about Ag Today, contact 916-561-5550 or news@cfbf.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment