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IN THIS ISSUE – “It’s Going to be A Wild Year”

RECALL

PANDEMIC

  • Democrats Angry at Governor’s Sudden Reversal of Pandemic Order
  • State’s Economy Hit “Full Reverse” in December

NEWSOM EMBRACES BIDEN ON ENVIRONMENT

POTUS HIRES ANOTHER CA OFFICIAL

  • Biden Taps CA Official as Labor #2; Faces Scrutiny Over EDD

Capital News & Notes (CN&N) harvests California legislative and regulatory insights from dozens of media and official sources for the past week, tailored to your business and advocacy interests.  Please feel free to forward.

READ ALL ABOUT IT!!

FOR THE WEEK ENDING JAN. 29, 2021

 

Newsom Recall “A Wake-Up Call for Sacramento”

Sacramento Bee

So far, recall supporters say they’ve collected 1.2 million signatures — though the state has verified only about a third of them. That’s still short of the 1.45 million minimum to qualify in a state with more than 22 million voters, and well below the estimated 2 million they’ll need to turn in to state officials by March 17 to ensure they have an adequate number of valid signatures.

Many political experts saw the effort as a longshot from the outset. Yet the progress the largely volunteer group has made now alarms some California Democrats, suggesting an anger about the establishment’s liberal politics and handling of coronavirus closures that isn’t going away.

“However it ends up, they’ve collected a lot of signatures,” said Michael Arno, who runs a professional signature-gathering firm. “That’s a lot of people saying, in one way or another, and a lot of people volunteering to do this, saying that they’re very dissatisfied with the job that he’s doing… This is a wakeup call, not just for Newsom, but for Sacramento.”

The California Democratic Party signaled it was taking the effort seriously earlier this month, when it held a press conference about the campaign and compared it to a “coup.”

Garry South, a Democratic strategist who worked for Democratic Gov. Gray Davis when he was recalled, said California Republicans have used recalls for years in an effort to remove Democrats they couldn’t beat in a regularly scheduled election. But the Democratic Party’s recent messaging was a mistake, he said.

“That was a misfire in a lot of ways,” South said. “It’s not a coup. This is a valid process under the California Constitution.”

Stephanie Suela, who organizes recall volunteers in Sacramento county, says they typically host four to seven petition events a week like the one in Rancho Cordova, collecting about 100 signatures in a six-hour period. After the first 90 minutes of the Saturday event, volunteers had gathered 15 signatures, with several people taking stacks of blank forms home for their friends, neighbors and coworkers to sign.

“There’s no way that this is a coup,” Suela said in between greeting signers. “We are just citizens. It’s a grassroot movement, and we want him out of office.”

The California Republican Party has seized on the support for the recall as evidence of Newsom’s failures. On Monday, when Newsom lifted the stay-at-home orders, party chair Jessica Patterson tweeted that the decision was fueled by his fear of recall.

“This Governor’s decisions have never been based on science,” she wrote. “Him re-opening our state is not an attempt to help working Californians, but rather an attempt to counter the Recall Movement. It’s sad and pathetic.”

Newsom pushed back against that accusation, calling it “complete, utter nonsense,” during a Monday press conference, insisting he based his decision on scientific projections of how full intensive care units will be in the coming weeks. The state’s top health official released the detailed formulas the state used to make its decision on Tuesday.

As of Jan. 6, the Secretary of State’s office had verified 410,000 signatures, less than one-third of the amount needed to trigger a recall vote. Officials rejected about 15% of the signatures that the campaign turned in for verification, according to the Secretary of State’s office.

Signatures come in one of three ways: individuals can print, sign and mail it into the campaign themselves, the campaign sends out petitions in mailers that voters return to them, or they can sign one at an event like the one in Rancho Cordova.

You must be registered to vote in California to sign the petition, and the recall campaign vets signatures for accuracy and duplicates before sending them off to a third party for another screening. Then, the signatures are sent to volunteers in each county who take them to county election officials for verification. The counties then report their results to the state.

Counties will have until April 29 to verify the signatures, after which the Secretary of State’s Office has 10 days to determine if there are enough to qualify the recall for the ballot. The Department of Finance then estimates the costs of such an election and runs it by the Joint Legislative Budget committee, the governor, lieutenant governor and Secretary of State. After a 30-day review period of the costs, the lieutenant governor must call a recall election between 60 and 80 days from the date of certification.

If all goes to plan, campaign organizers say they hope to have a recall election in July or August.

So far, the committees raising money for a recall effort have reported raising $2.4 million. That’s short of what many political experts say they need for a big statewide signature gathering effort.

The recall saw its biggest donation in late December: $500,000 from Orange County investor John Kruger, who said he opposed the governor’s decisions to keep churches closed during the pandemic. Last week, the campaign reported another round of six-figure donations, including $150,000 from both DGB Ranch of Los Angeles and Geoff Palmer of Beverly Hills. Palmer, a real estate developer, has donated millions to former President Donald Trump in the past.

Rob Stutzman, a Republican consultant who worked on the successful effort to recall Davis, said so far the effort appears to have an impressively high validity rate for its signatures. But he cautioned that it doesn’t seem on track to actually qualify the measure for the ballot. In California, it’s unheard of for a campaign to qualify a measure for the ballot without a multi-million dollar paid signature-gathering effort.

To do that, the campaign would need to raise more money, Stutzman said.

“I think it’s more likely to qualify than it was a few weeks ago, but still it’s a less than 50% chance… There’s never been a successful petition effort without having gatherers out on the street collecting signatures,” he said.

The effort hired Dave Gilliard, another Republican political consultant who worked on the successful Davis recall. So far, Gilliard says the only paid signature-gathering work the effort has funded is to mail petition packages to voters. He said that’s largely because the pandemic has made it harder for signature gatherers to solicit signatures on the street and outside big stores the way they typically do.

According to state records, the recall effort has spent about $50,000 on consultants like Gilliard. Another large cost is signature verification, which has cost the campaign at least $75,000. The effort runs mostly on the power of volunteers, and has few paid employees. Most of the funds go toward things like postage, website hosting, and, in one case, $315.73 for new tires for a campaign trailer.

Many petitioners say they want to recall Newsom because of his governing style and political beliefs, but others say it’s also a way to tear down part of a corrupt political regime that exists in the highest levels of the federal government.

Gilliard pointed to the party Newsom attended at the French Laundry even as he encouraged other Californians to avoid gatherings as the biggest change in fortune for the recall effort.

“When that news broke, we saw a big uptick in interest in people signing the petition,” he said.

Since then, bad news about the pandemic in California has continued to plague the Newsom administration. Now, frustration over the slow vaccine rollout is spurring more people to sign, Gilliard said.

Arno noted that the recall effort could hurt Newsom in the long run even if it isn’t successful.

“If you look at most recalls, they don’t succeed. But the person is tarred with that, and they don’t have a very long political life,” he said. “If Newsom had national political aspirations, people would think twice because he almost got recalled.”

https://www.sacbee.com/article248759175.html#storylink=cpy

 

Some Tech Industry Execs Contribute to Recall

Vox

Some major Silicon Valley donors are mobilizing behind a plan to recall California Gov. Gavin Newsom, using their money to turn what was a quixotic attempt into a looming political threat to Newsom’s career.

In recent weeks, leading tech figures have started flexing their political muscle by funding Rescue California, a group financing the effort to collect enough signatures to force a recall vote later this year. The stature of Newsom, once a mayor of San Francisco and a favorite of the tech industry, has fallen in the eyes of some as California’s vaccine rollout has lagged the rest of the nation. And the recall appears increasingly likely to at least qualify for the ballot, though Newsom’s opponents aren’t yet known.

To be sure, Newsom remains liked by many tech industry leaders. But now, some people from that same industry are proving to be a political thorn — with some supporters even turning on him.

Some of the money is coming from conservative tech leaders: Famed tech investor Doug Leone, one of the few major Silicon Valley supporters of Trump during his presidency, and his wife donated about $100,000 to the recall effort late last month, according to state records. Another $100,000 came from venture capitalist Dixon Doll, a longtime GOP donor, and his wife.

Other money has come from Newsom’s earlier supporters: David Sacks, a prominent tech executive, donated about $60,000 when Newsom first ran for governor a few years ago. Now he’s supporting a recall, and his wife, Jacqueline, contributed $25,000 to the recall effort last week. Chamath Palihapitiya, a former Facebook executive and a major Democratic donor, has said publicly that he is a supporter of the effort, although the billionaire has yet to make a donation to it.

The other tech leaders, though, rank among the biggest overall donors to the recall effort, which has raised about $1.5 million to date. That could all presage real money in a recall campaign that would likely cost more than $100 million in total.

“Certainly they wouldn’t be upset to have some buy-in from Silicon Valley, but I don’t know if I’d say that their involvement would be ‘crucial’ during this initial qualifying stage,” said Rob Pyers, research director for California Target Book, which analyzes money in California politics. “Once it’s at that point, then just by virtue of their deep pockets, Silicon Valley becomes an important player.”

The moves come as some leading tech industry figures — especially those with a conservative bent — are rebelling against a tax system, Covid-related policies, and a broader culture that they see as repressive. Elon Musk, the billionaire founder of Tesla, has been sharply critical of California’s policies on the coronavirus and how the state treats the tech industry, so much so that he moved last year to Texas. Some other tech leaders have flocked to Miami, where leaders have tried to capitalize on the disgust and recreate Silicon Valley’s magic.

Anne Dunsmore, a Republican fundraiser who is leading the recall effort, said that is precisely the type of Silicon Valley donor she is pursuing to finance her effort.

“It’s a cautious industry. And historically, it’s been very Democratic,” she said. “Now, when you start talking about lost business in the state of California and facing the idea that you might have to move out and move your entire business, people start taking a different view of where they stand.”

Dunsmore said the fundraising effort in Silicon Valley consisted largely of “major donors reaching out to other major donors.”

https://www.vox.com/recode/22245414/gavin-newsom-recall-silicon-valley-money

 

“It’s Going to be A Wild Year”: Silicon Valley Billionaire Declares for Governor

Politico

Silicon Valley billionaire Chamath Palihapitiya may be the first political neophyte to make a big splash this year declaring he’s a gubernatorial candidate, and is backing the recall of sitting Gov. Gavin Newsom. He won’t be the last.

The uber-confident CEO of the venture capital firm Social Capitalhit CNBC’s airwaves on Wednesday to call for Newsom’s recall and argue that he’s the antidote to California’s problems.

“I think Gavin Newson has done a terrible job,’’ he told host Scott Wapner. “People are leaving in droves. The crime is really high. Our education outcomes are the worst of any state, our taxes are the highest of any state, our air quality is the worst of any state.”

California “is being run off the rails,’’ he added. “And to the extent that we can recall him, and to the extent that my agenda resonates with people … It would be a renaissance in California that would just be glorious.”

So what’s the Palihapitiya agenda? Zero state taxes, a minimum teacher salary, school choice vouchers and $2,000 for every kid born in-state. He’s since tweeted out a tease: “Wet your beak California.”

Democratic strategist Roger Salazar dryly noted on Twitter Wednesday that such an ambitious, crowd-pleasing wish list isn’t new from ultra-rich candidates, like would-be “Governors Whitman, Kashkari, Westly, Simon, and Checci.”

Palihapitiya may well be their 2022 successor, but he’s got more social media muscle. He’s known as @Chamath to nearly a million Twitter followers; he’s a star player in the “All In” podcast, which explores tech and politics and a regular on CNBC, thanks to his deep financial and tech knowhow; and he has a knack for showmanship.

Mark Thompson, the veteran KGO radio host, says he used to play cards with Chamath and calls him “a wild man … with more money than God.” But Thompson notes Chamath also has something that Newsom should worry about — “access to media that a lot of others don’t — even celebrities,’’ he says. “And he can talk about that platform … a lot of ideas that might sound good to people … and media will give him time to lay out a lot of the specifics.”

Valley insiders, even admirers, describe the billionaire as having an outsized ego — even by Silicon Valley standards. “Is he a visionary? Yes. Is he ballsy? Yes,’’ says one who knows him. And like many newcomers to the brutal ring of politics, he may also be naive, thinking, “these guys are idiots, and I can do better.”

This is where Newsom has an advantage: The former San Francisco supervisor and mayor comes from one of the toughest political rings in the country, where survival is a blood sport. Still, since the heady days when Newsom enjoyed a 60-plus approval rating with California voters, he’s taken a beating. The California governor’s missteps and Covid challenges have been in the headlines almost weekly.

WORD IS THAT A NEW POLL IS IN THE FIELD NOW … but no one needs a poll to see the tech billionaire’s bold throwdown means: People smell blood in the water. Even some Democrats are throwing out feelers, we’re told, about possibly getting on that recall ballot — if the recall effort gets that far.

Remember, that’s still a big ‘if.’ Proponents now say they have 1.3 million valid signatures in hand — but so far, the secretary of state’s count is under 500,000, which means they have two months left to get the 1 million they still need to qualify the recall by mid-March.

SHOW ME THE MONEY: If Palihapitiya is really in the game, he’ll have to put up some of his billions. First, to help qualify the recall — then, to introduce himself to millions of voters. And then he’ll need to prepare himself for the kind of battle he’s never faced — a political demolition derby. It’s going to be a wild year.

Democrats Angry at Governor’s Sudden Reversal of Pandemic Order

CalMatters

Gov. Gavin Newsom delivered an unexpected thunderbolt Monday, announcing that he was lifting California’s stay-at-home order. And clearly, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle didn’t appreciate being caught off guard with the news.

Newsom said the move is warranted, as positivity rates have declined and California is projecting four-week ICU capacity above 15 percent in all five regions — a “light at the end of the tunnel,’’ he suggested.

The governor also formally announced the state’s one-stop vaccination hub, MyTurn, which remains in its pilot stages, with scheduling services available only in Los Angeles and San Diego counties. Newsom is aiming for a statewide launch in early February.

But as Politico reported, Newsom’s lifting of the stay-at-home order also spurred bewilderment and concern. Lawmakers from both parties and both ends of California noted that Newsom’s action included hard-hit Southern California — a region that still has no intensive care unit capacity.

Among Democrats who hit the Twittersphere to make their dissatisfaction known were Assemblymember Evan Low, who posted a stinging GIF. State Sen. Susan Rubio tweeted that it was “extremely frustrating & disappointing that we keep learning about COVID policy changes by press release.” And Assemblymember Laura Friedman groused, “If you think state legislators were blindsided by, and confused about, the shifting & confusing public health directives, you’d be correct.”

Republicans like state Sen. Melissa Melendez suggested the timing of the Newsom announcement was no coincidence: “And just like that, the health threat of the virus became less important than the political threat of a recall,’’ she tweeted.CAGOP’s take: “It’s time for the Wizard of California to come out from behind the curtain and let Californians see the data and science behind his decisions.”

 

State’s Economy Hit “Full Reverse” in December

CalMatters

California’s economic recovery is trending in the wrong direction.

The Golden State’s unemployment rate grew to 9% in December, triggering the first month-to-month increase since April 2020, according to figures released Friday by the Employment Development Department. While the nation’s unemployment rate remained static in December, California’s rose 0.9% as the state shed 52,200 jobs — a staggering 37% of all U.S. jobs lost that month.

Scott Anderson, chief economist of the Bank of the West in San Francisco: “The full reverse in California’s recovery in December was largely responsible for the poor national job performance last month.”

California’s economic recovery lags behind the country’s: Although the United States has regained nearly 56% of jobs lost since the pandemic hit, California has only recovered 44%.

California’s strict stay-at-home orders have exacerbated its growing divide between the haves and have-nots. The professional and business services sector gained 29,600 jobs last month, while the leisure and hospitality sector hemorrhaged 117,000 jobs and the “other services” sector, which includes hairdressers and nail salons, lost 11,000 jobs. The latter two sectors may not recover until 2025 or 2026, “if ever, given … accelerated automation and alternative sales channel development trends,” according to a report from the California Center for Jobs and the Economy.

The state is rolling out an unprecedented small business rescue plan, but owners say their survival will depend more on reopening rules and resolving unemployment chaos, CalMatters’ Lauren Hepler reports. A small number of businesses, unable to obtain or survive on loans, have decided to remain open in violation of health regulations.

 

Governor & Cabinet Secretaries Welcome Biden Environmental Partnership

Governor’s Media Announcement

On the same day the Biden Administration announced a series of actions on climate, California environmental officials convened hundreds of stakeholders to begin advancing Governor Gavin Newsom’s first-in-the-nation goal to protect 30 percent of the state’s land and coastal waters by 2030 to fight species loss and ecosystem destruction.

Last year, California joined a global effort than now includes more than 50 countries to protect 30 percent of our planet’s land and waters by 2030. Today’s announcement by President Biden means the United States is now added to the list as well.

“California has long taken on the mantle of global climate leadership advancing bold strategies to fight climate change – including committing to protect 30 percent of our land and coastal waters by 2030,” said Governor Newsom. “It’s great to have a partner in Washington, D.C. once again that listens to science and is ready to take on this existential threat and get to work to help slow and avert catastrophic climate change.”

California committed to protecting 30 percent of land and coastal waters by 2030 last October when Governor Newsom signed an executive order directing state agencies to accelerate actions to combat climate change, protect biodiversity, expand equitable access and build resilience through nature-based solutions.

The agencies convened a public webinar today to kick off a collaborative effort to advance the 30 by 30 commitment and begin work on a Natural and Working Lands Climate Smart Strategy to be delivered later this year.

“Nature-based solutions to combat climate change have long been a missing piece of our climate agenda, and we are closing this gap in California,” California Secretary for Natural Resources Wade Crowfoot said. “The science is clear that our iconic landscapes remove carbon from the atmosphere and protect people and nature from the impacts of climate change – reducing risk of catastrophic wildfire, absorbing floodwater, cooling communities, providing habitat, and more. While the portfolio of nature-based solutions is vast, they all support healthy ecosystems on which all our wellbeing depends.”

“Today’s action from the Biden Administration marks a commitment to elevating climate and environmental justice to the top of our collective agenda. Protecting nature and restoring our lands and waters is fundamental for life on this earth – everything from clean air and drinking water to our shared food systems and the biodiversity that keeps our planet health,” California Secretary for Environmental Protection Jared Blumenfeld said. “We also know that preserving these invaluable resources means little if people are still left with the burden of polluting industries in their neighborhoods and without access to the same investments made elsewhere. That’s why we are equally proud and excited to see the Administration’s focus on 40 percent of all investments going to the most disadvantaged communities and the integration of not just climate, but racial justice, into all federal agency actions. We welcome the Biden Administration’s partnership in taking bold action now.”

“We welcome a strong and renewed partnership with the federal government to scale-up climate smart agriculture, not just in California but across the country,” California Secretary for Agriculture Karen Ross said. “California’s record of investment in climate smart agricultural practices to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and sequester carbon demonstrates the possibility of a vibrant future led by farmers and ranchers in creating an agri-food system that produces abundant and nutritious food, natural fiber, and clean energy to achieve prosperity for our rural communities.”

Examples of nature-based solutions include:

  • Prescribed low-level fire—emulating tribal traditional practices— that reduce catastrophic risk, restore forest health, and protect habitat.
  • Restoring wetlands and riparian areas to reduce flooding in coastal communities, protect biodiversity, and sequester carbon.
  • Introducing more natural vegetation in cities, including trees and parks.
  • Improving richness and diversity of our soils.
  • Conservation of our natural and working lands.

The California Natural Resources Agency has launched the California Biodiversity Collaborative to develop a statewide, inclusive and equitable approach to protecting the state’s natural richness. To reach that goal, the agency is developing a geospatial information system called CA Nature that will bring together existing data on biodiversity, climate change and recreational access into one integrated place.

https://resources.ca.gov/Newsroom/Page-Content/News-List/California-Welcomes-Biden-Administration-Actions-on-Climate-Change

And a Newsom Tweet:

Newsom in a Wednesday tweet: “Hey, Toyota, Fiat, Hyundai, and Subaru — hope you watched (Biden’s) remarks. … Now, before all you companies start talking about national emissions standards, why don’t you start with DROPPING your climate killing, Trump-era lawsuits against CA?”

 

CalEPA to Reverse Trump “Vandalism”

CalMatters

Like a defeated and retreating army, Trump administration officials left Washington, D.C., burning and shredding environmental laws and policies even as they walked out the door.

The scorched earth policy of unraveling Obama-era initiatives in favor of widespread deregulation began four years ago, and entailed many dozens of rules and policies. Included are rollbacks of regulations that protect endangered wildlife, migratory birds and wetlands, and regulate clean air, planet-warming gases and energy efficiency.

California Environmental Protection Secretary Jared Blumenfeld called it “vandalism.”

“We thought the world had ended after (President George W.) Bush, but it looks like a picnic compared to what Trump’s done,” Blumenfeld told CalMatters. “It’s been very surgical, very intentional and incredibly comprehensive.”

Now President Joe Biden’s cabinet is left with the task of eliminating so many environmental rollbacks that it will have to perform triage: The Trump administration and Congress took at least 175 actions to roll back climate change rules and policies, plus several dozen that regulate other environmental problems, according to trackers compiled by Harvard and Columbia University.

The president suggested that nearly every move by the Trump administration related to the environment merits a second look: He immediately ordered federal agencies to review scores of federal actions taken during the last four years to determine if they harmed public health or the environment.

“It is…the policy of my Administration to listen to science; to improve public health and protect our environment; to ensure access to clean air and water; to limit exposure to dangerous chemicals and pesticides; to hold polluters accountable…,” Biden wrote in an executive order on his first day in office.

Biden immediately rejoined the Paris climate agreement for cutting greenhouse gas emissions. And he reconstituted a governmental group to examine the impacts of greenhouse gases on public health and social justice.

He also issued a directive to his staff to “consider revising vehicle fuel economy and emissions standards.” California has the nation’s worst air quality, so this issue is arguably one of the most pressing environmental problems facing the state.

He also ordered a review of Trump rules that relaxed limits on methane leaks from oil and gas operations and loosened some energy efficiency standards.

The cascade of rollbacks in Trump’s last days in office left plenty for the new president to undo. The feds have an ally in their coming work: California backstops some of the regulatory unraveling with its own laws.

The state also has been leading the legal charge to halt many of them, including relaxed air quality and pesticide regulations. On a single day — the day before the inauguration — California filed suit against the Trump administration nine times, seeking to overturn its last-minute moves to weaken national environmental laws and policies.

“In the past few years, the White House abdicated its responsibility on key issues like climate change, wildfires, and infrastructure. But every time we lacked for a partner, California stepped up anyway. We accelerated our clean car efforts and made record investments in wildfire mitigation,” Gov. Gavin Newsom wrote in a letter to Biden the day before his inauguration.

How long and how difficult will it be for Biden to reverse rollbacks and fix the environmental damage they have caused? There’s no easy answer.

Midnight mischief — last-minute actions by a lame duck — can generally be undone quickly through executive order or sometimes swift congressional action. In addition to the directives he issued in his first day in office, Biden pledged to freeze the last-minute “midnight regulations” that had yet to take effect.

Other policies and guidance documents can be rapidly rewritten via executive order. But some will need to follow new federal rulemaking procedures and public comment periods that can take years.

The Biden administration also can stop defending cases in which the Trump administration has been sued, and then begin the process of remaking a new rule.

For instance, with only days left, the Trump administration proposed to undo a California desert protection plan that took decades to develop. The changes would remove protection of more than 2 million acres, allow for mining operations and strip additional conservation safeguards from another 2 million acres near Death Valley and Joshua Tree national parks.

The new administration can simply allow an unfinalized, last-minute proposed rule like this to wither on the vine.

What about the first 100 days? Biden’s campaign laid out a 100-day to-do list and pledged to fund nearly $2 trillion in environmental initiatives. Among the elements of the Biden environmental agenda:

  • Achieve 100% clean energy and net-zero emissions by 2050
  • Include climate change considerations in foreign policy and national security plans
  • Focus on environmental justice and public health
  • Reduce emissions from cars and trucks and encourage fuel efficiency
  • Wean the country off fossil fuels and discontinue new domestic oil and gas drilling

https://calmatters.org/explainers/biden-presidency-california-environment/?mc_cid=7d44862fab&mc_eid=2833f18cca

 

Feds Support Increasing River Flows for Habitat

Modesto Bee

A federal agency has ruled that the state can continue to seek higher flows on the Tuolumne River than planned by the Modesto and Turlock irrigation districts.

The Jan. 19 ruling drew cheers from environmental and fishing groups that have long sought larger releases from Don Pedro Reservoir into the lower river.

MID and TID vowed to appeal the ruling within the required 30 days. It involves a pending license from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to operate Don Pedro for up to 50 more years.

The districts contend that the higher releases would take too much water from their customers. Don Pedro supplies about 210,000 acres of farmland and a treatment plant that supplements the city of Modesto’s wells. A plant under construction could do the same for Turlock and Ceres by 2023.

The Tuolumne River Trust points out that about 80% of this waterway is already diverted by the districts and for use in part of the Bay Area.

The group supports the proposal from the State Water Resources Control Board. Its key element is to have the river carry at least 40% of the natural flow from February to May, when young salmon are preparing to swim out to sea.

Summer river levels would be much lower than spring but still enough to support canoes and other non-motorized craft in dry years. This last stretch of the Tuolumne runs 52 miles from La Grange, past Waterford, Modesto, Ceres and other riverside locales.

“The FERC ruling was a big victory for us because it keeps the state involved,” said Peter Drekmeier, policy director for the trust, in a phone interview.

MID and TID applied in 2011 for a license to replace the one that led to the completion of Don Pedro in 1971. The process involves detailed study of the effects on fish, recreation and other issues.

Last July, FERC agreed to the districts’ proposal to boost Don Pedro releases at a volume much less than sought by the state board and environmentalists.

The districts argue that non-flow measures, such as restoring floodplains and spawning gravel, would better serve fish than simply releasing huge amounts of water.

They also note how the upcoming treatment plant will benefit salmon. The diversion for irrigation takes place at La Grange. The plant will be fed by water drawn out near the Geer Road bridge, allowing it to remain in the river for another 25 miles.

The state board seeks higher Tuolumne flows as part of a process than also would increase them on the lower Stanislaus, Merced and San Joaquin rivers.

FERC’s latest ruling was on the districts’ argument that the state board had not acted in time to affect the license. The federal body voted 5-0 to let the state continue to press its conditions on Don Pedro.

“We’re disappointed in FERC’s decision …,” the districts said in a joint statement to The Modesto Bee, “but it only strengthens our resolve and determination to secure a license that balances water supply reliability for our community with scientifically based enhancements to the ecosystem.”

The state board reaffirmed its plan on Jan. 15, despite earlier suggestions that it would seek voluntary agreements with users of the Tuolumne and other rivers. Those are still possible.

MID and TID have support from allies who see Don Pedro as a foundation of the area’s vast food-processing sector. The districts also get cheap hydropower, but it is a small percentage of the total supply for their 220,000 or so electricity customers.

In an average year, MID and TID use about 917,500 acre-feet of water from the Tuolumne, according to FERC records.

The districts have little trouble meeting the current river flow requirements in average or wet years. In especially wet 2017, for example, they released 166,364 acre-feet from Don Pedro to aid downstream salmon from fall to spring.

The state board seeks 259,091 acre-feet of releases in wet years, reducing the districts’ ability to carry over storage to the next year.

Dry years provide less water for both people and fish. In 2015, for example, the districts delivered only about 40% of the accustomed amount to their customers. Only 11,091 acre-feet was released to help salmon develop.

The state board seeks 116,364 acre-feet for this purpose in dry years. This would not be required in a second consecutive year of drought.

The California Sportfishing Protection Alliance welcomed the latest ruling in a blog post. It noted the state board’s finding that increased summer flows would help keep the water cool for fish and repel water hyacinth, a non-native plant that can impede boating and fish movement.

https://www.modbee.com/news/business/agriculture/article248718325.html?ac_cid=DM372222&ac_bid=-745387149#storylink=cpy

 

Biden Taps CA Official as Labor #2; Faces Scrutiny Over EDD

CalMatters

Yet another Californian is on track to join President Joe Biden’s administration: Labor Secretary Julie Su has accepted Biden’s offer of the No. 2 position at the U.S. Labor Department, Bloomberg reports. If she’s confirmed by the Senate, Newsom will get to make yet another high-profile appointment. But Su will likely face scrutiny for her oversight of the beleaguered Employment Development Department, which on Monday confirmed that nearly 10% of all unemployment claims it’s paid so far have been fraudulent. That amounts to nearly $11.4 billion — more than California spends annually on community colleges, workforce development and homelessness. EDD also said that another 17% of payments, or $19.4 billion, may have gone to fraudulent claimants. More details could be revealed this morning, when the state auditor is expected to release the first report in a series of investigations into EDD.