The problem with empty threats is, after a while, people just stop listening.
When it comes to water usage, Gov. Gavin Newsom is learning that lesson the hard way.
Newsom on Monday urged Californians to cut water consumption or face mandatory water restrictions as the state heads into its third summer of severe drought.
The organization responsible for North American electric reliability warned energy shortfalls were possible this summer in California, Texas and the U.S. Midwest where extreme heat from a severe drought could cause power plants to fail.
In 2021, numerous extreme weather events stressed the U.S. power grid, including the February freeze in Texas that knocked out power to millions after freezing natural gas pipes, and record heat, drought and wildfires in the West.
Conditions in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and its watershed are changing as droughts become warmer and more intense. But as our new study highlights, California is not doing a good job of tracking these changes. That’s making it even tougher to manage the water that is available for the benefit of the state’s communities, economy and environment.
A strong case can be made that modern environmentalism was born in California. In 1864, Yosemite Valley and a nearby grove of sequoias became the nation’s first publicly protected wilderness area. Exactly 100 years later, after many other environmental landmarks, the state issued the world’s first tailpipe-emission standards.
Kudos to Gov. Gavin Newsom for increasing his support for the $1.4 billion Poseidon Water desalination in Huntington Beach. “We need more tools in the damn tool kit. We are as dumb as we want to be,” he said Friday in a meeting with the Bay Area News Group editorial board. “What more evidence do you need that you need to have more tools in the tool kit than what we’ve experienced? Seven out of the last 10 years have been severe drought.”
California is thirsty. And another drought is making us thirstier.
Heat waves. Severe drought. Extreme wildfires.
As Southern California braces for unprecedented drought restrictions, long-range forecasts are predicting a summer that will be fraught with record-breaking temperatures, sere landscapes and above-average potential for significant wildfires, particularly in the northern part of the state.
“The dice are loaded for a lot of big fires across the West,” said Park Williams, a climate scientist at UCLA. “And the reason for that is simple: The vast majority of the western U.S. is in pretty serious drought.”
0.02 inches.
Pinch your fingers together and try to imagine 0.02 inches.
That’s how much rain fell at San Diego International Airport in April. 30 days in San Diego and the airport measured 0.02 inches of rainfall.
With long-term severe drought continuing to take a toll on the Colorado River, the federal government is expected to announce on Monday that it will retain some water in one of the river’s major reservoirs to temporarily stave off what it called increased uncertainty in water and electricity supplies.
The anticipated decision to keep more water in Lake Powell on the Arizona-Utah border, rather than releasing it downstream to the other major reservoir, Lake Mead near Las Vegas, comes as both are at record-low levels after 20 years of drought.
Mired in an extreme drought, California lawmakers on Thursday took the first step toward lowering the standard for how much water people use in their homes — a move that won’t be enforced on individual customers but could lead to higher rates even as consumption declines.
California’s current standard for residential indoor water use is 55 gallons (208 liters) per person per day. The rule doesn’t apply to customers, meaning regulators don’t write tickets to people for using more water than they are allowed.
As severe drought persists in Northern California and southern Oregon, the federal Bureau of Reclamation announced Monday that farmers and ranchers will be allocated a limited amount of water in the Klamath River Basin this summer.
Water is at the center of bitter disputes between growers, the federal government and tribes over how much should be allocated for food production, flows in the Klamath River and the health of threatened fish.
