O.A., I bet that these drivers' licenses will turn into
voters' IDs before long. -- j

The argument is that it will be "easier than going through security at the airport"... but if you are going from northern CA to southern CA, you fly from Sacramento to Burbank or something. I go through security at Sac in less than 5 minutes and about the same at Burbank coming home. I can do a day-commute to the LA area via Burbank, leave the house around 6 AM, and pretty much be at an office in LA by 8 am... that includes getting a rental car and the drive from the airport to wherever I'm going. It's just not a credible argument.

You'll need a long hose, the water level in the lake is way down.

They can feel the pain well enough by having to pay for shipping water to them.

Credible estimates put the cost of CA HSR at a minimum of $130 Billion. Even then, of course, it will draw no riders because flying is cheaper.

I'll take a look.

OK; it's there. . might be interesting to some folks! Thanks for the reminder, sir! -- j

Then perhaps we need Hiraghm to do his part at Walmart to ... see that the water doesn't get to California so that Californians have to feel the pain associated with their decisions.

good idea, Rich;;; might just do it! -- j

p.s. this book actually proposes a solution to the
renewal of the U.S.!

I don't see how they could possibly succeed. Northern California is just as short of water as Southern, while Arizona and southern Nevada get most of theirs from Hoover Dam, which also sends some to LA. 15-20 million refugees trying to leave LA will never survive to get to places that could supply them.

It might be more productive to ship truckloads of bottled water from the central states. And I hear it's begun to happen (though for some reason Arrowhead is still being allowed to bottle water in CA and ship it elsewhere -- go figure). I'll bet Wal-Mart saves the day, just as it did after Katrina.

Both of those are parts of the problem, and so is not building enough dams as the population grows. But the real root of the problem is price. Agribusiness pays 1% of the residential price for water in California, mostly because of federal rules that came with federal funding for dams and aqueducts.

The right answer is to make them pay the full amount. Let food production move to Kansas or Nebraska, which suffer from periodic floods rather than droughts.

I think the guy nailed it in the article: "He criticized Californian officials for their lack of long-term planning for how to cope with this drought, and future droughts, beyond "staying in emergency mode and praying for rain."
This is what happens when you have air headed politicians who look to their own re-election, manipulate the voters, bring in millions of unauthorized people, just to stay on top and continue to be the idiotic gasbags they are.
I am waiting for the wagon trains to start showing up in Oregon, or California to try to annex us.
As pointed out, this is not a one size fits all problem, but the idiots we elect can only think in one size metrics. Add to that their arrogance and total living in their fantasy world, and you have disaster. First of many to come...

They're sitting on the Pacific Ocean, and they're about to run out of water. What's wrong with this picture?

High Speed Rail is $60 Billion... not $10 billion. $10B only covers the link between Fresno & Bakersfield for the commuter line for migrant farm workers.

So, actually, the US EPA doesn't really operate in California, we have our own, Cal EPA - one of 300'ish state departments and agencies when most states have maybe a dozen. We even have the "California Department of Aging"... and "The California Department of Rehabilitation" (and it's high-rise downtown for a lot of people that do...? - it's not prisons... we have that too... it's rehab... as in.. analyzing rehab for disabled people, and takes a cast of thousands to do that....)

We even have a contractor registry for in-home television repairmen... when's the last time you called a repairman to fix your TV? I'm sure they don't exist, and the agency never noticed the lack of applicants...

This is a great read...

http://www.ca.gov/Apps/Agencies.aspx

it would be reasonable to move money from a 10 billion dollar train wreck to privatized de-desalinization plants and say that the EPA has to stay out of CA for-EVER. but the crystal unicorn butterfly worshipers and alfalfa eaters don't want that.

rats, they are non-existent rats :)

Exactly, scojohnson. While there are other factors involved, the real cause of the current situation is a foolish decision to sacrifice California's people and farms in favor of a rather useless little fish. In time the other problems could be dealt with, but in the near term the answer is to stop flushing California's water to the sea for a fish that got by just fine before the current insanity.

Hello DaveM49,
Yes. Desalination plants. Residents would have to pay, but a market would be created and provide a solution. The major cities are near the ocean they have 840+/- miles of coastline. Of course the government has no foresight, will probably regulate the profit out of the investment and they would apparently rather ration and fine people for taking showers than provide incentive for a permanent solution to living in what was naturally more of a desert... Of course governor moonbeam will call the drought a result of global warming geologic history notwithstanding. http://www.monolake.org/mlc/outsidebox
And yet they see no conflict with putting out the welcome mat, including issuing drivers license to untold thousands of illegal immigrants to share what little water they have remaining... http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/imm...
Respectfully,
O.A.

Comments on same topic:
http://www.galtsgulchonline.com/posts/2b...

It isn't Mother Nature that's to blame, it is environmental mismanagement. When disputes over territory and taxation become more important than managing the water supply, this is the sad result. California, arguably the most beautiful of the 50 states is turning into the example set by Detroit.

I have heard it stated that after the exodus of the Okies to California because of the Dust Bowl - it raised the IQ's of both states.

The other challenge is that the expensive crops in terms of water, is what grows best in a mediterranean climate. I actually experimented with corn, couldn't get it to grow at all in my backyard garden. Grape vines grow like weeds and I pretty much need my chainsaw to cut them back every year. Tomatoes, no problem, San Marzano's no problem... We have very rocky soil, not much nutrient in it, if you dig 12 inches down you hit solid granite and the only way you are going farther is with dynamite or heavy equipment..

I suspect the heat in the summer, we usually have about 30-40 days that are over 115 here.

Fortunately, I'm a couple of hundred yards from Folsom Lake, things get too bad and I'll roll out a hose and a pump, or talk my wife into leaving (which I've been trying to do for years).