California is growing. Our population growth remains steady, as more people want to live and work here each year. And our economy continues to expand at a rate that would be the envy of many states in our nation, not to mention nations around the world. That growth comes with responsibilities, including the important task of ensuring the people of our state can continue to rely on the water and energy supplies and services that utilities in California provide. Water and energy utilities have long shared a symbiotic connection: the “Water-Energy Nexus.”

Times are dry in California, which is finishing its fifth consecutive year of drought. Cynthia Chen, 14, began to wonder what she could do to help. After doing a little background research, she found out that 80 percent of the water people use in California goes to farming. So Cynthia — now in ninth grade at the Harker School in San Jose, Calif. — decided to attack the problem by building a water-saving seed pod that keeps seeds moist until they sprout.

California voters have rejected Proposition 53, a November measure to limit the state’s use of revenue bonds to pay for large public works projects that could have undermined Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposed twin water tunnels under the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The ballot measure was trailing by more than 200,000 votes, or 49 percent to 51 percent, when The Associated Press called the race Tuesday night after two weeks of counting late-arriving mail and provisional ballots.