Obama is going to give $1 billion to farmers from a "climate resilience fund" to help them combat the devastating effects of the drought in California. But do you know what has really caused the drought in California?
Government regulation -- California’s water storage and transportation system includes 1,200 miles of canals and nearly 50 reservoirs that provide water to about 22 million people and irrigate about four million acres of land throughout the state.
In May 2007, a Federal District Court Judge ruled that increased amounts of water had to be re-allocated towards protecting the Delta smelt – a three-inch fish on the Endangered Species List. Because of this ruling, in 2009 and 2010 more than 300 billion gallons of water were diverted away from farmers in the Central Valley and into the San Francisco Bay – eventually going out into the Pacific Ocean.
This man-made drought cost thousands of farm workers their jobs, inflicted up to 40 percent unemployment in certain communities, and fallowed hundreds of thousands of acres of fertile farmland.
The House of Representatives is trying to remedy the situation, but don't count on Harry Reid to let it even come up in the Senate as long as Obama wants to throw some more of your money at a problem he created in the first place.
"'Climate resilience fund' proposed for drought victims." The Dallas Morning News; February 15, 2014; p. 11A.
http://naturalresources.house.gov/issues/issue/?IssueID=5921
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