Gov. Gavin Newsom has vetoed a bill that would have allowed California to preserve Obama-era endangered species protections and water-pumping restrictions for the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta should they be dismantled by the Trump administration.
Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill on Friday that would have allowed California to preserve Obama-era endangered species protections and water-pumping restrictions for the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta should they be dismantled by the Trump administration, a move scorned by environmental groups that have been among the governor’s most important political allies.
Kassie Siegel, director of the Climate Law Institute at the Center for Biological Diversity, said California’s environmental leaders still “hope for great things” from Newsom, but that“Newsom capitulated to Trump’s cronies and corporate interests and threw endangered species and Californians under the bus,” she said..Kathryn Phillips, director of Sierra Club California, rejected the notion that there was a major rift with Newsom, but didn’t spare her criticism over his veto.
The bill added fuel to the ongoing clash between water users — primarily Central Valley farms and Southern California cities — and environmentalists over efforts to protect delta smelt, Chinook salmon and steelhead trout in the delta by limiting the amount of water that can be siphoned away from their habitats.
The influential Metropolitan Water District of Southern California also opposed the bill. Leaders of the agency, which provides water to tens of millions of Southern California residents, feared they might be forced to reduce water supply from the delta that is sent south by a separate state water system.
The Westlands Water District, a San Joaquin Valley irrigation district led by some of the state’s wealthiest growers, would be one of the biggest beneficiaries of Trump’s proposal to allow more water to be withdrawn from the delta.
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