[env-trinity] Dan Bacher: Governor Jerry Brown tells tunnels critics to "Shut Up"

[Dan Bacher]

That comes later...

On May 7, 2015, at 12:39 PM, Kier Associates wrote:

> Well, at least he didn’t call us punks ….
> From: env-trinity [mailto:env-trinity-bounces at velocipede.dcn.davis.ca.us 
> ] On Behalf Of Tom Stokely
> Sent: Thursday, May 07, 2015 12:06 PM
> To: Env-trinity
> Subject: [env-trinity] Dan Bacher: Governor Jerry Brown tells  
> tunnels critics to "Shut Up"
>
> https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2015/05/06/18771989.php
>
> Governor Jerry Brown tells tunnels critics to "Shut Up"
> by Dan Bacher
> Wednesday May 6th, 2015 5:46 PM
> "Until you've put a million hours into it, SHUT UP!" said Brown,  
> referring to critics of his tunnels and Delta policies.
>
> Photo of Governor Jerry Brown after receiving a new bowl for his  
> dog, Sutter, from leaders of the Association of California Water  
> Agencies (ACWA) at their conference in Sacramento today. Photo by  
> Dan Bacher.
> <image001.jpg>
> 800_jerry_with_dog_bowl__...
> original image ( 960x640)
>
> Governor Jerry Brown tells tunnels critics to "Shut Up"
>
> by Dan Bacher
>
> In a moment of candor during a speech he gave at the Association of  
> California Water Agencies (ACWA) conference in Sacramento today,  
> Governor Jerry Brown told critics of his plan to build the twin  
> tunnels to "shut up" unless they have spent a million hours working  
> on the project like the state has.
>
> Brown told the crowd, “I asked my water man how many man hours have  
> gone into the Delta Project? One million."
>
> "Until you've put a million hours into it, SHUT UP!" said Brown,  
> referring to critics of his tunnels and Delta policies.
>
> He added that even that if the staff had "wasted" 25 percent of  
> their time, 250,000 hours, working on the project, that would still  
> be 750,000 hours they spent on the projecet.
>
> "Let’s assume they wasted one quarter of the time,” Brown noted.  
> “It’s still 750,000 man hours. That’s a lot of stuff. So it is  
> complicated. On this subject we want to be thoughtful. We don’t have  
> to do it (just) to have something to do."
>
> "We’re happy doing this Delta project because for 50 years people  
> have tried to figure out how to deal with the fish, conveyance of  
> water and the most efficient way to do it that protects all the  
> different interests," he stated.
>
> And those weren't the only bizarre things that Brown said in his  
> rambling speech. Reverting from "Big Ag Brown" to "Governor  
> Moonbeam" briefly, Brown talked about us being on "Spaceship Earth,"  
> how the astronauts recycled their urine and how "everything goes  
> somewhere."
>
> And he had the gall to spout this eco-babble while his  
> administration has pursued some of the worst policies for fish,  
> water and the environment in California history! (http://www.truth-out.org/speakout/item/30452-the-extinction-governor-rips-the-green-mask-off-his-tunnels-plan 
> )
>
> To watch the video of the speech by Gene Beley of the Central Valley  
> Business Times, go to: http://www.centralvalleybusinesstimes.com/stories/001/?ID=28289 
>  or https://player.vimeo.com/video/127131251
>
> Tom Stokely, Water Policy Analyst for the California Water Policy  
> Network (C-WIN), responded to the Governor's "Shut Up" comment:  
> "Money and time spent on a deeply flawed project is still a useless  
> exercise and a waste of ratepayer and taxpayer money."
>
> "They've spent $240 million and have nothing to show for it other  
> than a pile of documents 27 feet high," he stated. "The revised Bay- 
> Delta Conservation Plan is an act of desperation to try and save a  
> doomed project."
>
> Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, executive director of Restore the Delta  
> (RTD), vowed, "We will not go away, and we will not shut up.”
>
> She said that the Governor "has his fingers in his ears" and won't  
> listen to criticism.
>
> Caleen Sisk, Chief and Spiritual Leader of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe,  
> said, "A million hours is not enough obviously to know what's good  
> for the Delta because those million hours must not have included the  
> path to extinction of the Delta smelt and salmon. These fish are so  
> necesssary to the Delta - there won't be a Delta without the smelt  
> and salmon. The smelt and salmon have been here for over six  
> thousand years.
>
> "If people want to survive, they can't trust the Governor and staff,  
> who have only spent a million hours on this project," Chief Sisk  
> said. "The Delta has been dying since they've been doing what  
> they've been doing - and they don't even know that it's dying."
>
> During his speech, Brown quoted Edward O. Wilson, a preeminent  
> biologist and naturalist, as he did before during his inaugural  
> address this January:
>
> "Surely one moral precept we can agree on is to stop destroying our  
> birthplace, the only home humanity will ever have. The evidence for  
> climate warming, with industrial pollution as the principal cause,  
> is now overwhelming. Also evident upon even casual inspection is the  
> rapid disappearance of tropical forests and grasslands and other  
> habitats where most of the diversity of life exists. We are  
> needlessly turning the gold we inherited from our forebears into  
> straw, and for that we will be despised by our descendants."
>
> Osha Meserve, an attorney for Delta agricultural and environmental  
> interests, pointed out the irony of Brown proclaiming "small is  
> beautiful" and quoting from a notable biologist about the need to  
> preserve California and the planet for future generations while  
> promoting an environmentally destructive project like the Delta  
> tunnels.
>
> "Rerouting the Sacramento River into massive tunnels is an outdated  
> nineteenth century approach to water supply that will destroy the  
> largest estuary on the west coast," said Meserve. "We have an  
> obligation to future generations to come up with more effective,  
> long-term solutions using state of the art science to meet our  
> State’s water needs."
>
> Governor Brown continues to fast track his multi-billion dollar  
> project to build the twin tunnels under the Sacramento San Joaquin  
> River Delta to export massive amounts of water to Stewart Resnick,  
> owner of Paramount Farms, and other corporate agribusiness  
> interests, Southern California water agencies and oil companies  
> conducting fracking and steam injection operations.
>
> On April 30 at a press conference in Oakland, Governor Brown and  
> federal officials unveiled their revised plans for Delta conveyance  
> and ecosystem "restoration."
>
> One major difference between the previous version of the BDCP and  
> the latest incarnation is that it now calls for only "restoring"  
> 30,000 acres for wetland and wildlife habitat - down from the  
> 100,000 acres originally proposed.
>
> The other key difference is that the BDCP has been split into two  
> components - The "California Water Fix" component for the tunnels  
> and the "California Eco Restore" component for the habitat  
> "restoration" component.
>
> "We've listened to the public and carefully studied the science,"  
> Brown claimed at the press conference, echoing his comments that he  
> made regarding the tunnels plan at a news conference in Sacramento  
> in July 2012.
>
> However, as the Governor's call for tunnels critics to "Shut Up"  
> demonstrated, Brown neither listened to the public nor carefully  
> studied the science. Every group of scientists that has reviewed the  
> plan, ranging from the Delta Independent Science Board to the  
> federal Environmental Protection Agency, has slammed the terminally  
> flawed "science" behind the tunnels.
>
> There is no doubt that the tunnels will hasten the extinction of  
> Sacramento River Chinook salmon, Central Valley steelhead, Delta and  
> longfin smelt, green sturgeon and other species, as well as  
> threatening the salmon and steelhead populations on the Trinity and  
> Klamath rivers.
>
> While the Brown administration has mandated that urban families  
> slash their water usage by 25 percent, California almond growers  
> have expanded their almond acreage from 870,000 acres to 1,020,000  
> acres during the current drought. That's a 150,000 acre increase in  
> acreage for almonds, a water-intensive crop, since the drought  
> began. (http://www.nass.usda.gov/Statistics_by_State/California/Publications/Fruits_and_Nuts/201504almac.pdf 
> )
>
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