Meg Whitman Announces Water Deal for California
***Press Release***
MEG WHITMAN MAKES STATEMENT ON WATER LEGISLATION
For Immediate Release
Wednesday, November 4, 2009 CONTACT: Sarah Pompei 408.457.1369
CUPERTINO - Meg Whitman, Republican candidate for Governor, today issued a statement on the state Legislature’s approval of a plan to address the state’s water crisis:
“Finally, we have a water deal. It’s a good start to solving a crisis years in the making. Looking ahead, it’s clear that the hardest work is yet to come, including keeping close tabs on how the bond money is spent. We must ensure that this deal in fact delivers what Californians expect: A real fix to our outdated water delivery system that includes new dams to capture and store runoff and a new delivery channel around the Delta to give farmers and cities an affordable, safe supply of water while protecting the Delta’s ecosystem. I am troubled by the last-minute additions to increase the size of the bond, another example of legislators’ bad habit of bending to entrenched interests. We need new leadership in Sacramento that will curb excessive spending and focus on real solutions to our infrastructure crisis and other big challenges.”
November 5th, 2009 at 9:29 am
Ok, this is a nice story about smart government working to meet the long term resource needs of an area responsibly. It reminded me of a story I heard on MPR yesterday.
A little background. South Dakota and Minnesota have for years been working on a new clean coal fired electrical plant to be built just across the border in South Dakota called Big Stone II. This project was permitted, and “shovel ready”, and had cleared all environmental and legal hurdles. Indeed the surrounding communities wholeheartely welcomed this for the boon to the local ecomony.
However, in September, one of the major members of the consortium, Otter Tail Power Company, withdrew along with their $400 million of the $1.6 Bn budget, citing concerns with the new Obama administrations stance on energy policy:
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2009/09/11/big-stone-2/
The remaining members of the group decided to press on, if they could find additional financial backing to make up for the loss. Alas, yesterday, they announced the project was cancelled.
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2009/11/02/big-stone-demise/
Here’s the most telling soundbite from the second story talking about why Otter Tail pulled out:
“The Minnesota company also said it was unsure how the debate over global warming would affect coal plants like Big Stone II. Big Stone II spokesperson Mark Hanson would not say whether those same concerns prevented new companies from joining.”
Think about that.
The next time you hear the fictive spin from the Obama administration about the number of jobs “saved” (how do you do the math for such a bogus number?), think about the number of jobs this clueless administration’s policies have “prevented”. Here’s another 2000 jobs over the next several years down the drain.
Don’t believe the spin, people. This administration knows nothing about job creation, and the job “savings” they fancifully tout merely masks some significant job “prevention”. As we march on into our jobless recovery, keep that in mind, and message this to all your friends.