As many as twenty desalination plants are planned for California. Sure, the state needs water, lots of it. But desalination is extremely expensive and uses lots of fossil fuels and electricity in the process. Then’s there’s the whole question about the wisdom of dumping all that salt back into the ocean.
A better idea might be conservation, “reducing irrigation waste, fixing pipeline leaks, and making toilets and laundry rooms stingier users of water.” Do homeowners and golf courses in semi-arid areas of California during droughts really need lush, green lawns?
Unlike energy, where theoretically at least, you can create more of it (hopefully clean), you can’t do that with water. We can’t make more of it or force the rains to fall.
Another solution is recycling gray and black water into clean, drinkable water, something California is starting to do.