California Governor Gavin Newsom Is Creating a Water, Energy, and Food Disaster by Michael Shellenbverger – SubStack
California Gov. Gavin Newsom yesterday claimed he was taking major action to address the drought affecting California and the West. More than 90% of California is in severe drought, up from 65% just one year ago. He said he had created an agreement that was a win-win-win for residents, farmers, and conservationists.
In truth, Newsom is starving California of both water and energy. We are in the worst energy crisis in 50 years and yet Newsom is planning to shut down the largest single source of energy in California, Diablo Canyon nuclear plant. Meanwhile, he has failed to build a single new large water project, despite the fact that California voters in 2014 passed a $2.7 billion water bond to pay for them.
Can’t water conservation save us? It can’t. Newsom declared a drought emergency last year and urged residents to reduce our water use by 15%. We only did so by 6%. It’s true that mandatory restrictions between June 2015 and April 2016 reduced water use by 25%. But the state was ultimately rescued in 2017 by large atmospheric river storms, not conservation.
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People think California’s water scarcity is natural but it’s actually the result of opposition by Malthusian “environmentalists” @SierraClub @NRDC et al. who have blocked water recycling, storage, & desalination projects for decades https://t.co/5RhwenkkOm
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) February 22, 2022
Energy and water are related. Energy can create freshwater through desalination. Israel has built so many desalination plants that it is now replenishing the Sea of Galilee. Just nine desalination facilities the size of the Carlsbad Desalination Plant near San Diego would be enough to offset the 2022 loss of water from the Colorado river, calculates Doomberg, a must-read blog for anyone concerned with energy.
The same company that operates Carlsbad has been trying to build another desalination plant one hour up the coast, but has failed to do so, despite our historic megadrought. Newsom says he supports the desalination facility but has refused to waive the regulations blocking it.
Reactors could also be added to Diablo Canyon to desalinate gigantic quantities of water. Indeed, that was the original plan.
My colleagues & I unearthed the blueprints showing that there were supposed to be 6 reactors at Diablo
Thanks to @JerryBrownGov & the Getty oil-backed dad of @GavinNewsom there’s just 2
We should build the 4 new reactors to create electricity, hydrogen, and fresh water pic.twitter.com/oQ7N9GuqPs
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) February 22, 2022
The result of Newsom’s leadership failures could be catastrophic. California is the fifth largest producer of food in the world. We are the largest producer of dairy and food in the U.S. Over a third of America’s vegetables and two-thirds of its fruits and nuts are grown here.
