Under a draconian, Depression-era regulatory scheme, California raisin farmers are required to hand over a portion of their crop to the “Raisin Administrative Committee” (RAC), rather than selling it on the open market. The RAC is an unelected board overseen by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) that has the authority to ...
Pacific Legal Foundation attorneys represent some of the farmers in San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water Authority v. Jewell who are challenging the Delta smelt biological opinion as an abuse of federal power based on questionable science and shoddy regulatory procedures. Damien Schiff, a principal attorney with PLF who represents Stewart & Jaspe ...
Author: Reed Hopper For decades, the Corps of Engineers has exempted from federal regulation so called prior converted croplands. These are wetlands that have been put to agricultural use prior to 1986. In 1993, the Corps issued a formal rulemaking that stated these wetlands would continue to be exempt from federal regulation unless t ...
Author: Anne Hayes PLF Consultant and former environmental attorney Anne Hayes was interviewed by host Rob Johnson of KMPH 840AM about the recent resignations of Drs. Glibert and McGuire from the Committee on Sustainable Water and Environmental Management for the Bay-Delta. Dr. McGuire's resignation letter makes it clear that these two w ...
Author: Brandon Middleton Much has been made about the Bureau of Reclamation's announcement last week that farmers in the western San Joaquin Valley will receive 30% of their contractual water allotments if 2010 is an average water year. As I mentioned earlier this week, that's a very big "if." The San Francisco Chro ...