Dem Sell-out Dianne Feinstein Attempts End-Run to Hand California Water to Billionaire Farmers

AlterNet / By Yasha Levine

Feinstein is trying to ram through a massive transfer of public water into the private pockets of a clique of billionaire corporate farmers.
February 13, 2010 |

California's Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein showed Californians who she really serves this past Thursday, when news emerged that she was trying to ram through a massive transfer of precious water out of the hands of millions of state residents, and into the private pockets of a clique of billionaire corporate farmers.

Here's how the San Francisco Chronicle described the swindle:

Feinstein wants to attach the proposal as an amendment to a fast-tracked Senate jobs bill. She is pitching the plan as a jobs measure to address the economic calamity in the Central Valley. It would increase farm water allocations from 10 percent last year to 40 percent this year and next, an amount that farmers say is the bare minimum they need.

Bay Area Democrats were livid, accusing Feinstein of concocting the plan in secret, upending fragile water negotiations that Feinstein has supported and pitting California's Central Valley against its coast.

They were right to be upset. The water transfer would decimate Northern California's already fragile ecosystem, threaten endangered species of fish and decrease its scarce drinking water supply.


remainder in full: http://www.alternet.org/story/145661/

keeping her in office, no matter how livid the Bay Area Democrats may be.

Both are a disgrace to 'd'emocrats and their party.

sorry, it's too late.

New leadership might actually get important things done.

like for the president to have shown more fire than let (or agree with) Max Baucus on HCR and spending so much time with Ollie Snowe.

They've ALL been gutless.

Every time she does something nutty like this, it puts money in his pocket.

Arrrrnold wants ALL of Northern California's Water to go to LA so they can water their lawn

That water is not from the Bay Area, you merely share in it. The ecosystems that will be harmed are to the north of the City, places most residents of the Bay Area will never even see.
Cheney did a similar service in the North West. The harm was great. So I'd advise that the bitter North/South routine is probably not worth the destruction of rivers and streams and fish which belong to neither urban center.

you would be concerned too

Actually I live in the Valley - North of Sacramento, some 1/4 from the edge of the 100 year flood plain of the Sacramento and Bear Rivers. I only moved down here (we are not originally "Flat-Landers") so my sons could live close by a descent college. We used to live in the Town of Clipper Mills along the head waters of the Yuba River.

Southern California's economy is non-sustainable uncontrolled GROWTH. More Houses, more Shopping Malls, more Freeways, city streets, sewers, infrastructure, ....more, more, more. They don't produce any thing there, they just consume. And they want our water so they can continue their unsustainable uncontrolled growth.

While Northern California is on water restrictions during drought years, Southern California residents will be oblivious to rationing and watering their lawns and golf courses

DiFi is also the one who attached the reauthorization of the Patiot Act to the Jobs Bill. Busy, isn't she?

Privatizing water is the next phase of gaining further control of the planet.

Even the Dems seem fond of Fascism.

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.

California water policy needs a political champion willing to take on a complicated issue. That means adopting a balanced approach, not one that bails out one side at the expense of all others.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/02/14/EDT61C0P8K.DTL