Lloyd G. Carter newsletter

Who needs a cost-benefit analysis of a Peripheral Canal? Not Southern California. Not now and not 50 years ago

Submitted by Lloyd Carter on Wed, 01/25/2012 - 18:31.

By Lloyd G. Carter When Assembly Member Alyson Huber of El Dorado Hills failed to get an economic feasibility analysis bill of the controversial proposed peripheral canal out of committee recently, she was probably unaware that a similar challenge had been made to the finances of the State Water Project in 1960 by the late George “Elfie” Ballis, a legendary figure in Central California water and farmworker politics. Huber’s bill (AB 550) would have required express approval of the Legislature for any “conveyance facility, an honest cost-benefit analysis of a peripheral canal or tunnel around the Delta” (which proponents claim would help the Delta) and prohibit any diminishing or negative impact on Delta water supplies, water rights, or water users. It failed to clear the Assembly Committee on Water, Parks and Wildlife, failed on a 7-5 vote. But the vote was not along party lines. It was based on geography. North State legislators, including committee chairman Jared Huffman voted for it. The Southern California Committee members voted against it. READ MORE »

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Monthly Radio Show

Submitted by Lloyd Carter on Thu, 12/08/2011 - 20:46.

Folks,

My monthly radio show will air tomorrow (Friday, Dec. 9) at 3 p.m. on KFCF, 88.1 FM in Fresno. If you are out of range of the radio signal you can listen to live streaming at www.kfcf.org. Among other things, I plan to discuss the Wanger/Westlands imbroglio and Peter Gleick's testimony Thursday before the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on water and power. If you get the time, tune in.

LLoyd

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Freezing Out Fish in Whine Country

Submitted by Lloyd Carter on Wed, 10/05/2011 - 06:53.

Freezing Out Fish in Whine Country

By Lloyd G. Carter

Do not expect the State Water Resources Control Board’s recently adopted frost prevention self-monitoring program to halt the Russian River fishery’s slow slide toward extinction. If anything, the new regulations may hasten extinction, given the wine growing industry’s practice of virtually drying up the river on occasion. Almost everybody is mad at the Water Board’s bumbling effort to shift its regulatory responsibility to protect and monitor the fishery onto the wine industry, which is the very industry causing the problem. Fishing interests and environmentalists contend precious little time is left to solve a problem the water board has ignored for decades. Growers, on the other hand, claim they are voluntarily solving the problem and that the new water board regulations are onerous, expensive and unnecessary. One thing is certain. Fish and wine may go together at the supper table but wines grown in Sonoma and Mendocino counties come at a terrible environmental price for Coho and Chinook salmon and steelhead trout, which once filled the Russian River and its tributaries by the tens of thousands. READ MORE »

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Budgets, Billionaires, Bonds, Big Profits and the Brown Family

Submitted by Lloyd Carter on Tue, 08/02/2011 - 09:51.

By Patrick Porgans and Lloyd G. Carter

Part One READ MORE »

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Friday, March 11, 2011 Radio Show

Submitted by lgc_admin on Tue, 03/08/2011 - 17:11.

On Friday, March 11, at 3 p.m. on KFCF, 88.1 FM, Lloyd interviewed Dr. Peter Gleick, co-founder and president of the Pacific Institute about current issues in California water politics. Dr. Gleick is an internationally recognized water expert. The show will be posted soon to this website.

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Updated: Interview with Delta Watermaster

Submitted by lgc_admin on Fri, 02/11/2011 - 13:15.

The previous email blast sent out did not include the time of today's radio show. Down in the Valley airs at 3 PM on KFCF, 88.1 FM and streams live via http://www.KFCF.us. You will also be able listen to the show in the next couple of days as archived audio available on http://www.LloydGCarter.com

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Interview with Delta Watermaster

Submitted by lgc_admin on Fri, 02/11/2011 - 12:28.

Lloyd will interview new Delta Watermaster Craig Wilson on his radio show today (Friday, Feb. READ MORE »

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RADIO SHOW REMINDER : Friday, January 14, 2011 @ 3PM

Submitted by lgc_admin on Thu, 01/13/2011 - 11:43.

Lloyd will interview UC Geography Professor Richard A. Walker on Friday, January 14, at 3 p.m. on KFCF, 88.1 FM, or streaming live at www.kfcf.us. Professor Walker is the author of the 2004 book, “The Conquest of Bread: 150 Years of Agribusiness in California.” Lloyd and Professor Walker will talk about agrarian capitalism and the continuing exploitation of farmworkers in the fields of the San Joaquin Valley.