Because People Matter

Action Alert: Don't let Senator Steinberg rush a bad decision on water!

by Dan Bacher

Below is an urgent action alert from Friends of the River to make phone calls and emails to Senator Darrell Steinberg to urge him not rush into the kind of potential policy disaster that created California’s unsuccessful and costly experiment in energy deregulation! The link is: https://secure2.convio.net/fotr/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=225

After you make your phone call and emails, please sign the petition against the peripheral canal on the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA) Website at www.calsport.org.

Please send this to everybody that you know! We must stop Steinberg's attempt to fast track water legislation that will lead to the construction of a peripheral canal or tunnel, a government boondoggle costing $23 billion to $ 53.8 billion.

Stop the Canal - comment on SF Chronicle editorial

August 30 S.F. Chronicle editorial: A $54 billion water bill:
My Letter in Response

By DAN BACHER, Sacramento

It is absurd for the state to authorize a water project that could cost up to $54 billion (editorial, August 30) at a time when our state parks, teachers and childrens’ health care are in great jeopardy because of budget cuts.

I find it appalling that Senator Joe Simitian and Assemblyman Jared Huffman are sponsoring legislation that serves as a road map to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's peripheral canal. This proposed government boondoggle wouldn't create any new water - it would only take water from senior water rights holders to be delivered to junior water rights holders on the San Joaquin Valley's west side.

In spite of the Governor’s claim that the canal will result in “ecosystem restoration," this dangerous bill package will only exacerbate the unprecedented collapse of Central