California legislators have had multiple opportunities to create genuine plans for water to help all residents and plan for the future. Instead they have indulged in tedious political infighting. Worse, Sacramento legislators have twice attempted to foist water bonds on the public that were so pork-filled and corrupt that the stench drove everyone including themselves from the room. That’s the kind of “leadership” Californians have now in Sacramento. Cowardly, venal legislators beholden to special interests do everything except serve the public. That’s why, for several decades now, California has done little to prepare for the obvious eventuality of severe, lasting drought.
The tendency of politicians, however, has been to take symbolic steps so that they can’t be accused of ignoring water, but not face it squarely. Brown’s recently published Water Action Plan is more a wish list of outcomes than a specific blueprint.
It’s been a case study of how multiple “stakeholders” on any major issue cancel each other out and freeze an unsatisfactory status quo – in the case of water, leaving the state vulnerable when another drought strikes.
While our politicians can do little to alleviate the current drought, they can damn – or dam – well prepare for the next one. And if they don’t, they’re not fit to hold office.