Viewpoints: Water barons will corner market in new 'Chinatown'

[XemaSab]

There is more money in selling water in California than there is in farming.

A one-sentence provision inserted in the 2012 budget bill by U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein will allow a handful of powerful San Joaquin Valley water oligarchs to sell federally subsidized agricultural water in a private market for as much as 150 times more than what they pay for it.

This relaxation of publicly owned water supplies for private gain strips out protections approved by Congress in 1992.

They call them "water transfers," and for the last 15 years California has been quietly edging into a very lucrative privatized water sales market that seeks to expedite the movement of cheap agricultural water from Northern California to thirsty Southern California and Bay Area cities.

http://www.sacbee.com/2012/01/08/4168916/water-barons-will-corner-market.html

[Nihil]

1. They're sneaking this one under the fence aren't they?

> A one-sentence provision inserted in the 2012 budget bill by U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein
> will allow a handful of powerful San Joaquin Valley water oligarchs to sell federally subsidized
> agricultural water in a private market for as much as 150 times more than what they pay for it.

Totally criminal behaviour (and I don't care which nominal party she belongs to).

If there is no outcry (up to tar & feathers level) on this then there is truly no hope for the people there.

[XemaSab]

2. DiFi... might not be getting my vote next time around

[miyazaki]

3. Government created dustbowl.

As the signs say along interstate 5.