Articles

Author: Brandon Middleton The Obama administration has previously had trouble admitting that the Endangered Species act has prevented water from flowing to the Central Valley. The last week has seen this disturbing trend continue. The Interior Department's Sept. 17 "Reality Check" merely states that "the temporary restrictions th ...

Author: Brandon Middleton Judging by the reaction of some environmentalists, you might think that Sean Hannity's visit to the Central Valley last month was the beginning of the end. According to Patriot Daily, Hannity's appearance was simply an attempt to "scare and divide Americans." To Dan Bacher (via Aquafornia), the thousands ...

Author: Brandon Middleton Last week a federal district court in Fresno rejected Pacific Legal Foundation's constitutional challenge to the federal government's devastating delta smelt water restrictions. Even though the delta smelt is a noncommercial species that is found only in California, the court ruled that the U.S. F ...

Author: Brandon Middleton While the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service authored the controversial delta smelt biological opinion, the Bureau of Reclamation is the federal agency responsible for its implementation and severe restriction of water deliveries. In implementing the delta smelt biop, Reclamation failed to prepare a critical Environmental Impa ...

Author: Brandon Middleton Via Aquafornia, we learn of a recent statement by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar concerning new California water legislation and the forthcoming National Academy of Sciences reviews of the delta smelt and salmon biological opinions. Secretary Salazar's statement begins as follows: Today, Governor Schwarzenegger is sign ...

Author: Brandon Middleton Today, Pacific Legal Foundation attorneys will file an appeal to the Ninth Circuit, asking the court to invalidate the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's delta smelt water cutbacks as unconstitutional. The appeal will be filed not only on behalf of PLF's farming clients (Stewart & Jasper Orchards, Arroyo Farms, a ...

Author: Brandon Middleton Big Government's John Loudon has a great article on why it's important for the entire country to wake up and realize that the Obama administration is putting fish before people. Loudon explains that the ramifications of cutting off water to the San Joaquin Valley go far beyond California: As for the rest … ...

Author: Brandon Middleton The Natural Resource Defense Council's Barry Nelson doesn't like what Pacific Legal Foundation is doing when it comes to California's water. (See his NRDC Switchboard blog post, "Facts are stubborn things"). According to Nelson, PLF and others have been "particularly careful to ignore facts that ...

Author: Brandon Middleton With Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s proposal to increase water deliveries to the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California, there’s been a renewed discussion of the “fish vs. people” theme that accompanies the debate on California’s water policy.  For example, the Fresno Bee’s Jim Boren sugg ...