When the real price of water is established by including environmental costs, then farmers will subdivide and sell their land to developers so that millions more Californians can come and use water for human consumption and we can buy lettuce from Mexico.

Vote for your boy Charlie Brown next time and hope many more do. I hate to see him become the perennial loser and you the perennial whinner. Are you going to be in the Parade?

Well, at least McClintock is right about the Valley water issue....I guess the adage about the blind pig applies here.

Your post criticizes Rep. McClintock’s opposition to the so-called Small Business Financing Investment Act of 2009, and his support for water relief to Central Valley farmers. Here is some perspective.

The first measure puts American taxpayers on the line for loans so risky that no bank will go near them. It was this same attitude that left taxpayers holding the bag for risky mortgages (through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) last year, and has already cost taxpayers $2.7 billion from failures of a virtually identical “Participating Securities Program.” It leads me to wonder if the Left has learned anything from all of our economic suffering. Let me put it simply: every dollar the government borrows for high risk loans is one less dollar available for credit-worthy (albeit less politically connected) enterprises.

The other criticism is equally misguided. The diversion of 200 billion gallons of water from the Central Valley for the Delta Smelt has utterly devastated the economy – and according to the latest studies done nothing to help the Delta Smelt. A half-million of the most fertile and productive agricultural acreage in the nation is unnecessarily fallowed and unemployment rates are approaching 40 percent in some communities. You believe this is good for the economy. Rep. McClintock does not.

Hi Bill George,

What about the closure of the commercial salmon season for 2 years in a row? Doesn't that industry get some credit for driving part of the CA economic engine? What about unemployment in those north coast fishing communities? Agriculture can adapt by growing more drought resistant crops, using more efficient irrigation techniques and recharging groundwater during the rainy season. If there are no fish what can the commercial fishing boat owners do? Everyone needs to work together to find solutions to our water/environmental crisis. There will be no solution until we all come to that realization IMHO.

peace, how about reducing the seal population in SF Bay? They eat a couple hundred thousand salmon a year.

Hi Jon,

Can you do some research for us on the possibilities for predator control? If your research shows that the seal population is stable and there is a way to create a legal opening for some kind of a take of seals, and there is some scientific inquiry that could be funded to provide a basis for an argument to create a season and establish a number of seals that could be taken which would help relieve pressure on salmon populations, it might be a good idea. Everything worthwhile takes effort on someones part and the imbalances occurring in our marine environment will require all of us to pitch in and help out by really committing ourselves to sacrifice some of our most precious commodity, our time, to find ways to be effective in bringing about positive change.