California Water and Infrastructure Report for February 15, 2018

California Water and Infrastructure Report for February 15, 2018

http://www.californiadroughtupdate.org/pdf/20180215-California-Water-and-Infrastructure-Report.pdf

The only solution is to go back to what Franklin D. Roosevelt did in 1933: implement Glass-Steagall, end the casino economy, and then go to a Hamiltonian banking system—call it what you want, you can call it the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, or you can call it the German Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau. Once you make the financial system sound again in this way, there would be absolutely nothing standing in the way of the full cooperation of Western countries with the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, the Silk Road Fund, and all the other financial institutions which are backing the Belt and Road Initiative. That is the only way to avoid complete disaster— that is what people should really help to implement.

The New Silk Road is Changing the World– America Must Join

Helga Zepp-LaRouche’s weekly webcast for Feb. 1 can be seen at:  

https://larouchepac.com/20180201/global-policy-increasingly-shaped-chinas-new-silk-road-time-us-join

A Note To Readers

The best response to the Trump administration’s announced infrastructure policy on Monday is the above quotation from Helga Zepp-LaRouche. A more detailed analysis of that policy is the first item below this week’s introduction.

Begin with this: The building and rebuilding of the nation’s infrastructure; in fact moving to a new, higher productive platform that is led by fusion power, the space program and a nation-wide high speed rail system, is an existential necessity. It is only in that way that unemployment, poverty, drug addiction, crime, immigration and everything else can be addressed.

What we can say that what is positive about the administration’s focus on infrastructure is that by putting the discussion of the nation’s broken-down and backward infrastructure on the front burner, the real solution and policy has now a place at the table. Good. The more discussion, the more we will be able to make clear the difference between the Goldman Sachs policy as announced, and a real American System policy that Alexander Hamilton, Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt would support.

Speaking of Abraham Lincoln, whose birthday was just three days ago, he was a president who acted on his determination to get things done. That is why he initiated the building of the Transcontinental Railroad in the midst of the Civil War. That war would end he knew, and the future of the nation for the next 50-100 years required that railroad. It is that sense of a mission for the nation– the building of what the nation must have 50-100 years into the future– that must define the President’s policy.

Do not be distracted by anything else– not a school shooting, a wife-beater in the White House, or any single issue like immigration. Unless our people are focused and determined to rebuild the nation’s industry and infrastructure, nothing will change, especially not for the better. The President knows this.

In This Week’s Report

Look at the U.S. Drought Monitor on page 5, and then note the headline of the first article: “Paltry snows could send state ‘screaming into a drought.’” There were so many articles this past week on how the state is in a new drought that I shall just include the links for most that I cite.

The “Oroville Dam Update” this week continues reporting on the fallout from the disintegration of the main spillway and the near catastrophe as the auxiliary spillway threatened to collapse one year ago. First, now there is a $51 billion dollar lawsuit for damages filed. Yes, that is $51 billion. Next is a summary report of the affects and developments one year later, which gives many personal stories, but covers much more. Finally, the disaster has prompted a complete overhaul of the monitoring of all the dams in the state. That is reported in the article entitled, “Memo Shows Seven State-Operated Dams Need a Closer Look in Wake of Oroville Dam Incident.”

In addition, in January, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the Federal agency with oversight for hydropower, sent a letter to the owner-operators of the entire U.S. inventory of 1,700 hydropower dams, calling on them to inspect and monitor their structures.

Our more extensive reporting this week is on the outrageous action by the California Water Commission in rejecting all 11 proposed water storage projects authorized by the 2014 vote by California voters. As I wrote last week, while the ballot initiative made damn clear voters expected dams and reservoirs to be built, the commission’s criteria for approval, in the words of one commission staffer does not include water storage, but that all the projects must be graded on how much they add to conservation, alleviate climate change, protect the environment and fish and enhance recreation.

There is strong opposition and protests to this abomination from especially the agricultural sector of the state, but it is largely impotent. Either it is weak complaints about the criteria or a capitulation to it. There is not, yet, the required uproar and challenge required, like a march on Sacramento with torches and pitchforks.

The final section on water covers the recent developments around the California WaterFix– the tunnels under the Delta, again to protect the environment and fish. It looks like the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California may move in and take the whole thing over after the governor cut back the project from two tunnels to one two weeks ago.

The Feature this week covers more on the President’s infrastructure proposal and related areas.

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