Coast for $ale

Obama is now open to limited off shore drilling

Once again, Congressional leaders have demonstrated that they will do anything for a vote. The latest demonstration was provided by the “Gang of Ten” senators that came up with a “compromise” energy policy that compromises the environment.

The proposal includes a lot of good stuff, such as huge investments in renewable energy, conservation and alternative fuels, but it calls for expanding offshore oil leases in the Gulf off of Florida, new investments in nuclear power (radioactive waste storage TBD . . . again), and the “green” coal conversion to liquid fuels (Who needs mountain tops? They just block the view of the power plants).

The Poseidon Misadventure

Desal: heading for a fall...

Remember Shelly Winters swimming through the tunnel of wreckage on the tsunami-flipped ocean liner in the ‘70s cult classic “The Poseidon Adventure”?  Although she tried valiantly to swim through the tunnel of water, she didn’t make it through alive. The proposed Poseidon Resources desalination project in Carlsbad is very similar to the doomed ship.  Instead of Shelly Winters’ character, it is the fish and marine larvae that just can’t make it through the seawater intake without dying.

If the Coastal Commission approves the revised findings for the project on Wednesday, the giant desalination project will suck the life out of 300 million gallons per day (MGD) of seawater from the Agua Hedionda Lagoon, one of the few remaining coastal estuaries left in Southern California. That’s 300 million gallons a day of estuarine water to provide only 50 MGD of potable water!!

Living Within Our Means

California: permanent drought

Governor  Schwarzenegger and U.S. Senator Feinstein wrote an op-ed in Thursday’s Los Angeles Times that pitches a $9 billion water bond as the best way to “solve” California’s water crisis.  If this sounds familiar, that’s only because every day is Groundhog Day for California’s water supply.  We heard similar pitches for propositions 13, 40, 50, 84 and 1E. All those initiatives accomplished some great things, but they did NOT solve our water crisis.

As I’ve said before, California is not in a seasonal drought.  We are in a time of permanent water scarcity due to climate change and justifiably reduced supplies from the Delta, Eastern Sierras and the Colorado. Another water bond will not get us out of the crisis.  Just like the legislators wrangling with the state budget, we’ve overdrawn the account and we’re living on credit.  And we can’t rely on the same old sources of revenue to balance the budget — or in this case, to balance the water budget.