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Saying he wants to “change the narrative” about California water, U.S. Rep. Jerry McNerney will introduce legislation today that he describes as an alternative to Gov. Jerry Brown’s controversial Delta tunnels. The bill focuses on making the far reaches of the state more self-reliant — and therefore less reliant on the Delta — by recycling wastewater, purifying saltwater and more aggressively searching for and fixing leaky pipes, a summary shows. The bill would cut tax breaks for the oil and gas industries, providing money to fund new research and grants into smarter water management.

After weeks of closed-door talks and days of intense debate, a proposal to extend California’s signature program for regulating global-warming greenhouse gases through the end of 2030 finally faces a showdown today in both the Senate and the Assembly. Gov. Jerry Brown, who has been making a name for himself as an international climate leader, is under tremendous pressure to pass this cap-and-trade deal — brokered by his office — over objections from some on left and the right. He has been fighting hard to win support for Assembly Bill 398, telling lawmakers last week that “This is the most important vote of your life.”

California lawmakers voted Monday evening to extend the state’s premiere program on climate change, a victory for Gov. Jerry Brown that included unprecedented Republican support for fighting global warming. In a break with party leaders and activists in California and Washington, eight Republicans joined with Democrats to continue the cap-and-trade program, which requires companies to buy permits to release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. The legislation would keep the 5-year-old program operating until 2030, providing a key tool for meeting the state’s ambitious goal for slashing emissions.

Many Californians have fond memories of landing their first decent-paying job, working long hours to save enough for a down payment, and finally buying a family home. Many of us poured our weekends and hearts into repairing beautiful old houses. Now imagine, after years of paying your mortgage, raising your family, and upgrading your property, that the state government chooses your neighborhood to become a vast industrial site–for more than a decade.

In June, two federal agencies gave their blessings to the controversial project to build two water conveyance tunnels under California’s Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Environmental groups promptly sounded the alarm that the state’s so-named WaterFix project would not, as its backers claim, solve the matrix of problems plaguing the Delta and the people and creatures relying on it. The existing pumps that export Delta water have drastically upset the balance of the estuary’s ecosystem, causing fish declines and the intrusion of saltwater from San Francisco Bay.