The huge winter storms in California and out West produced a significant snowpack across the region and increased lake levels, setting the stage for major hydropower generation this year. Yet analysts say the boom in hydroelectricity could further depress power prices, which might be good news for rate payers but bad news ultimately for independent power producers, or IPPs. “The more hydro generation you have the less [natural] gas generation you should have,” Citi analyst Anthony Yuen told CNBC in an interview.

The number of “For Sale” signs compete with “Open” in the storefronts along the main street in this hilly town, where fortunes evaporated with the silver and zinc mines that created it. There’s no bank or grocery store. Mining has mostly vacated the area, leaving a clutch of retirees, some county workers, and not too many others. But this part of Nevada still has one resource that residents to the south in glitzy Las Vegas desperately want and need – water.

One of the worst storms in a decade pounded the Santa Ynez Valley and surrounding areas Friday, dumping more than 4 inches of wind-lashed rain, downing trees and power lines, sending mud and water into homes, flooding roadways, and contributing to a slew of vehicle crashes, highway closures, flash flood watches and evacuation warnings. The Valley was expected to get a brief respite from rain midweek, but forecasters said a low pressure area could drop down from the north Saturday, bringing another round of high winds and heavy rain.

California has always been a battleground for water. From Central Valley farmers to thirsty Southern Californians, our state is full of folks vying for their share of our most precious resource. Back in the state’s infancy, our leaders recognized this issue and took action to address it. They built an impressive network of dams and reservoirs, along with an unprecedented water-conveyance system to move water from the soggy north to the parched and populous southern regions. California was an innovator in technology even back then, when technology meant dams, aqueducts and other infrastructural modernisms.