DiFi Does a Pombo on Salmon, Jobs Bill Amend Guts EndSpecAct

( – promoted by buhdydharma )

Dianne Feinstein is doing a Pombo on the Endangered Species Act, with an Amendment to gut it in an upcoming Democratic “Bipartisanship Enhanced” jobs bill.  

Like Salmon ?  Too bad !  McClintock’s in on it, too.

Hey, this even makes the Kansas City Star.  Everything’s up to date in Kansas City.   Dead silence at a certain other “Democratic” blog.

http://www.kansascity.com/400/…      Feinstein plan would loosen Endangered Species Act to pump more water    2/11/2010

Yes, our northern CA based Sen. DiFi thinks Billionaire Business Water Brokers in Kern County of Southern CA Who Donate To Her Campaign Are More Important Than Salmon.  So Does Tom McClintock.  

She intends to put an amendment that says we can ignore the Endangered Species Act, onto the upcoming jobs bill to let more water be pumped out of the Sacramento- San Joaquin Delta.   Why does this matter ?  Because at certain times of the year, the nursery fish need the water to swim and feed in.   And the West Coast salmon runs are at the brink of going away. Forever.

{{{  “This came as a bit of a shock that she did this,” said Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Calif.

He represents California’s North Coast, which has been hurt by two years of bans on commercial salmon fishing stemming from collapsing salmon stocks.

“If this were to go through, it would have a devastating impact on Northern California and other jobs and other economies in the state,” Thompson said.  }}}

Where the hell have you been, Blue Dog Rep. Thompson ?   Didn’t you notice the real reason so many people up here in northern CA 04  DIDN’T WANT Carpetbagging Tom MCCLINTOCK of Southern CA pimping for these Southern CAL business sharks to take water out of Norcal and kill off our agriculture and wildlife ?    He’s running the exact same playbook that former Republican Rep. John Doolittle ran with Dick Cheney and the suckerfish up in the Klamoth river drainage.  

During the 2008 campaign, I personally observed candidate McClintock lying his a$$ off at any and every opportunity.  I concluded, after watching how his screeds bore striking resemblances to Jerome Corsi and World Net Daily offerings,  or ex Rep. John Doolittle’s,  and having to spend time debunking them,  he was either dumber than dirt and didn’t have any in depth knowledge of his pet topics, or that he was a cynic who found it more expedient to lie to the voters, which he considered to be dumber than him.  

Here’s Republican Carpetbagger Tom McClintock, R, Elk Grove Automall, just making up crap again back in January, pretending the state of CA is turning into a Dust Bowl.  It’s all astroturf for Resnik and the Kern County water district powerbrokers.  His friends at the Republican swiftboating PR firm of RussoMarsh&Rogers did phony protests on behalf of the “Latino Water Coalition,” and Fox News ran phony stories on this last year, claiming that the water was shut off- when it wasn’t, because other water agencies like the Placer County Water Agency sold their excess water down to SoCal, even in a dry year.   He’d kill off all the salmon on the Pacific Coast to get a political donation.

 “The Agony of the Central Valley”  from McClintocks dot gov website.

http://mcclintock.house.gov/20…

{{{   For many months, the Republicans on the Water and Power Sub-Committee of the House Natural Resources Committee have implored the majority Democrats to hold a hearing in the Central Valley of California to see and hear for themselves the damage that the federal government has caused by diverting 200 billion gallons of water away from Central Valley farms in order to indulge the environmental Left’s pet cause, the Delta Smelt.

Congress has thus made clear its intention to sacrifice the people of the San Joaquin Valley on the altar of environmental extremism

Had the Democrats come to Fresno, they would have heard and seen the anguish of the people of the Central Valley of California.  The water diversions have destroyed a half-million acres of the most productive farmland in America and thrown 30,000 Central Valley families into unemployment.

Madam Speaker, I assure you that it is not only the Central Valley that is suffering.  The willful destruction of 500,000 acres of American farmland by these massive water diversions – all for the enjoyment and amusement of the three-inch long Delta Smelt — is reflected in the rising prices for produce that families are feeling far beyond the Congressionally created dustbowl of California’s Central Valley.

Meanwhile, Mr. Nunes of California has introduced HR 3105, the “Turn On the Pumps Act,” which does exactly the same thing that Congress did under far less severe circumstances several years ago in New Mexico.  }}}

“Mr Nunes” is Republican Representative Devin Nunes of Visalia,  who is the Republican Rep that Mr McClintock likes to hide behind when he’s up to his dirty work.

The SacBee, aka the Republican Nuevo Lite CrapBee, dutifully ran a story this January on the September 2009 Fox News astroturfing production, when Fox News windbag Sean Hannity went to an empty field with the Republicans like Devin Nunes, and blamed the Endangered Species Act for the almond farmers first overplanting lots more acres of almond trees so the price fell, then letting some fields go dry and fallow.  Only it wasn’t a half million acres, as McClintock claimed.  It was about 156,000 acres.  And it wasn’t even that many acres of almonds, as you will see below.   Less than 3,000.  There’s still a plentiful supply of almonds.    It also neglected to mention that this area has NEVER RECEIVED its full Federal water allotment, because it hasn’t got the reservoir capacity.  And it’s not protecting the estuary delta nursery fishes that’s causing the decreased water flows, as much as overall drought in the past years in CA, combined with more and more water being taken out of the rivers for development before it reaches the delta.  

 Tapping Into Anger   Jan 31, 2010, by Matt Jenkins, Sacramento Bee (subscription req’d, so I pulled the 3 important paragraphs)

http://www.sacbee.com/325/stor…

{{{ (Sean) Hannity and many others quickly blamed the crisis on the Endangered Species Act. His retinue set up camp on a fallowed field, clipped microphones to the area’s congressional delegation and began beaming the farmers’ plight to the world. As a boom cam floated over the sign-toting, flag-waving throng, Hannity said, “The government has put the interests of a 2-inch minnow before all of the great people that you see out here tonight.” He brandished a blown-up photo of a smelt and said: “This is what this comes down to: No water for farmers, because of this fish.”

The crowd gave a hearty boo, and the cameras turned to the darling of the hour: Rep. Devin Nunes, the hot-headed 37-year-old Republican who represents the neighboring congressional district. “The liberals and the radical environmental groups have been working on this for decades: They’ve been trying to turn this into a desert,” Nunes fumed, warning viewers: “This could happen to you.”

/snip

What has been lost in much of the coverage of the water crisis is the fact that the drought, not fish-protection restrictions, is the main factor behind the water cutbacks. Lester Snow, California’s top water regulator, and David Hayes, the deputy secretary of the U.S. Interior Department, have pointedly noted that fish-related pumping restrictions accounted for only a quarter of the reduced exports from the Delta last year. An independent report by the Public Policy Institute of California puts the number as low as 15 percent. }}}  

It is a desert.  I live in Northern CA, in an area with a lot of orchards.  It’s six months of moisture and six months of bone sucking dry, when the orchards need some irrigation water.   In Southern CA, it’s maybe 2 to 3 months of moisture, and 9 to 10 months of bone sucking dry.

You just noticed this, Nunes ?

McClintock campaigned in 2008 on getting rid of all environmental regulations, claiming that doing so would free up enough water for vastly expanded development.

He’s nuts, and I don’t mean almonds.

________

Want backstory ?  Go here, and check out the comments, with a big hat tip to Dr. Kirk Murphy :

http://seminal.firedoglake.com…   FDL-   Will Obama and Harry Reid back DiFi’s secret deal to sell billions of publicly owned water to her wealthy donor ?

by Kirk James Murphy MD 2/12/2010

DiFi takes $29,000 in donations from Paramount Farms billionaire owner Stewart Resnik of Kern County.  Resnik gives $246,000 more to Dems pacs during DiFi re election years, according to California Watch, published in the Chronicle in December.

Resnik owns a private water company called Westside Mutual Water Co, which owns 48% of  Kerns Water Bank

DiFi demands National Academy of Sciences review of water pumping in the Delta in September 2009 on behalf of Resnik

DiFi plans to put AMENDMENT onto the Dem’s JOBS BILL that would suspend Endangered Species Act so that more water could be pumped out of the Delta, killing the endangered Delta smelt, a small native fish that eat zooplankton, and in turn are eaten by larger fish.  (note. lying wing nuts have been repeatedly effing with wikipedia article on delta smelt. )

__________________

2/12/2010  NYTimes

Sen Feinstein Steps into Califs Farmer’s vs. Fish Fight with Jobs Bill Rider

http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2…

“Feinstein’s office yesterday announced plans to attach a rider to the jobs bill, calling it the “Emergency Temporary Water Supply” amendment. It would seek to ensure that farmers and water districts get between 38 percent and 40 percent of their normal allocations.

The rider tactic comes as the fight over Northern California’s water continues to simmer in federal court. This past week has seen Judge Oliver Wanger of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California issue several rulings related to the pumping restrictions, resulting in his denial of a restraining order attempt by the farmers that would have suspended a biological opinion on the smelt to open water pumps on the south end of the delta to maximum capacity.

Dead smelt have been salvaged this week at the pumps, prompting the Fish and Wildlife Service to order the flow restrictions that went into effect yesterday under the biological opinion. The restraining order would have blocked those limits from taking effect for 14 days (Greenwire, Feb 10)  Environmental groups were critical of Feinstein’s proposal, saying it would be a disaster for fishing communities that depend on a healthy delta ecosystem for their catch. Commercial fishing for salmon has been canceled for two years running and may be restricted again this spring.”    

Yet the above NYT Article neglects the incestuous donor relationship between billionaire Resnik and DiFi.   Article also neglects to mention that California has had SO MUCH rain from El Nino this year that the reservoirs are filling up.

Here’s a handy twitter for a great conservation group:

http://twitter.com/RestoretheD…

Myths and Facts about San Joaquin Valley Job Loss   –  From Restore the Delta , Feb 12, 2009    

http://archive.constantcontact…

{{{ 

Myth: Westside San Joaquin agricultural contractors normally get 100% of their contracted water. 

 

Fact: This happened in 2006, due to an extraordinarily wet year and an administration that allowed so much pumping that it caused the complete collapse of the Delta ecosystem. Normal deliveries to the West side of the San Joaquin Valley averaged approximately 64% of contracted amounts in the 1990s, and 61.5% in the 2000s. 

Myth: Environmental protections for the Delta cost jobs. 

 

Fact: The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta is the most important estuary on the West Coast. It is the nursery for many fish species of commercial importance. A study commissioned by Southwick Associates showed that the 2008-2009 salmon fishing closure has cost an estimated 23,000 jobs and $1.4 billion annually to the California economy. California has over 2,000 businesses that derive most or all of their income from the recreational and commercial salmon industry.4 

 

Myth: A large number of almond orchards in the Central Valley have been cut down. 

 

Fact: The California almond industry had record shipments of 1.39 billion pounds in 2008-2009, up 10% over 2007-2008. footnote #5, almondboard.com.   Farmers in Westlands Water District went from 48,325 acres of almonds in 2005 to 70,252 in 2008. They planted 4,042 acres of almond trees between 2007 and 2008. Westlands Water District reported excess water in 2008 enough to export 50,000 acre feet  footnote #6, CA Dept of Water Resources, 7/2/2008.  In 2009 they stopped irrigating 2,389 acres of almonds.  footnote #7, Westlands Water Distict 2005 -2009 Crop Reports

}}}}  

_____________________

It’s so bad that even the MSM has been running stories and opinion editorials about this, and against the Feinstein anti- Salmon pro billionaire desert dry farmer donor contingent/

The Merced CA SunStar  “Our View: Feinstein could spoil years of work ”

http://www.mercedsunstar.com/1…

{{{ Feinstein is grossly oversimplifying the water situation in the delta and the Valley.

At certain times of the year, juvenile salmon and other fish need adequate flows to reach the ocean or to avoid being sucked into the giant pumps that deliver water to Southern California, the Bay Area and the San Joaquin Valley. Feinstein’s amendment threatens those fish. It could be especially harmful to California’s salmon runs, which shrank to record low numbers in 2009, according to a report last week by the Pacific Fisheries Management Council.

Feinstein’s action poses other threats. For the last two years, moderate environmental groups have been working with water exporters on a conservation plan for the delta. This coalition helped pass water legislation last year and is studying plans for a canal, tunnel or other form of conveyance for the delta. That could possibly reduce conflicts over fish and produce more reliable water supplies for exporters.

Yet if Feinstein’s amendment were to pass, it would likely end this delicate detente and lead to years of more litigation and fighting over the delta. }}}  

this editorial was written by our sister newspaper the Sacramento Bee

The SacBee has taken a horrible right wing tilt after purging many of its long time writers and staff in cost cutting moves since 2008, and their commentary is frequently run over with Schwarzenegger sycophants and teabaggers, so if you’ve lost the SacBee, you’ve really screwed up.

Feinstein’s hometown paper in SF wasn’t much kinder:

The San Franciso Chronicle-  Feb 14 2010-   Senator Dianne Feinstein’s Fishy Water Deal

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/…

Sen. Dianne Feinstein should drop her end-run bid to ship delta water south for farming. Her plan defies court rulings, endangered-species protections and scientific studies.

The water grab disrupts years of negotiations over balancing the state’s needs by rewarding one group – drought-stricken farmers – at the expense of fishing and environmental groups, also living with declining water supplies. Worse yet, Feinstein’s action short-circuits a study she ordered up by the National Academy of Sciences on river-flow rules designed to safeguard smelt and salmon.

But her suggestion couldn’t come at a worse time. Last year, Sacramento leaders reached a bipartisan solution on improvements to the delta’s depleted water levels, a breakthrough deal built on concessions from all sides. Feinstein’s push to reward one interest group is “like throwing a grenade into everything we worked on last year,” said Assemblyman Jared Huffman, a San Rafael Democrat who played a key negotiating role.

In addition, a fishery management report last week found that Sacramento River salmon stocks are at a record low point, a level that may lead to the third straight canceled fishing season. The fish depend on steady flows in the river, a main source for water Feinstein wants diverted.      

Here’s another editorial from the Chronicle, by Zeke Grader , on Feb 14, 2010

“Insight: Ruling to save tiny fish aids salmon”

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/…

{{{ The tiny delta smelt came to the rescue of California’s once-mighty salmon last week in a Fresno federal courtroom, possibly saving the thousands of jobs that depend on the iconic salmon. Much maligned, the tiny smelt is part of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta ecosystem and food chain and a key indicator species of the health of the San Francisco Bay and delta, one of the most important estuaries on the West Coast of the Americas.

U.S. District Judge Oliver Wanger’s refusal to lift the protections for the endangered smelt will save millions of baby, ocean-bound salmon that had lost their legal protection from the massive delta pumps only the Friday before in that same court. In his first decision, the judge had allowed the Bureau of Reclamation’s Central Valley Project pumps near Tracy to operate at full throttle. Pumping at this level kills fish, including the endangered Sacramento River winter-run chinook salmon — and the once-abundant fall run salmon that supports the coastal fishery. That order had turned on the bureau’s failure to comply with paperwork requirements. This end run to the courts by California water super-powers makes clear their disregard for the Schwarzenegger administration’s “win-win” delta solution hammered out in November.

Meanwhile, we learn that the high unemployment in the Central Valley is caused by the bust of the housing construction boom, not from water supply issues……..

agricultural employment this past year was at a record high in the Central Valley, the very place the water powers’ PR firms and Fox News are calling a “dust bowl” caused by a “congressionally created drought.”Yet the very same growers complaining about their deliveries of taxpayer-subsidized “farm” water are turning around and selling that water for obscene profits to wealthy developments in Southern California and golf courses in the desert.  }}}

What should be the best way to let Senator Dianne Feinstein know that we don’t want to let her new Republican Bipartisanshipthingee Southern CA Congress Comrades like Carpetbagger Tom McClintock and Devin-  Devil Nunes  drive the salmon to extinction on the Pacific Coast ?  Quit sucking the baby fish into the pumps for billionaires, DiFi !    “Bipartisanship” doesn’t mean we see how many species we can kill per administration !

With Democrats like these, who needs Republicans ?   Be a Democrat !  Act like you sort of care !  What sort of favor do you think Republicans like McClintock and Nunes are going to do for you, in return ?

Senator Feinstein’s contact page:

http://feinstein.senate.gov/pu…