Sweet potato farm. (Photo: Katy Grimes for California Globe)
California Farmers are Being Left Out to Dry
The Governor has openly boasted about removing dams across California to please environmental activists
By Mike Garcia, September 18, 2025 7:00 am
By Tate Bennett and Mike Garcia
California’s water wars have always been contentious, but what is happening in Potter Valley right now is an assault on common sense and a direct threat to rural families, food security, and wildfire protection.
Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E), the state’s largest utility, has filed plans with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to decommission the Potter Valley Hydroelectric Project. That project includes Scott Dam, which forms Lake Pillsbury, and Cape Horn Dam, waterways that divert water through a tunnel into Potter Valley. If those dams are removed, the lake will disappear and more than 600,000 northern California residents, including hundreds of family farms, will lose a century-old water supply.
State policymakers support these efforts. The Governor has openly boasted about removing dams across California to please environmental activists. Similarly, the Governor-appointed board of the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), which regulates PG&E, is eager to comply. Their justification is salmon and steelhead restoration. The effect they are not acknowledging is the devastation for the farmers and ranchers who provide food and jobs in Mendocino, Sonoma, and Lake counties.
The Potter Valley Irrigation District is the lifeblood for many family farms that produce and raise crops and livestock, including pears, wine grapes, cattle, and lamb. Many of these operations have been passed down through generations of families for over 150 years. Although these farms depend on this irrigation system for survival, they have no voice in whether it continues to operate — even though their livelihoods are directly tied to its waters. Without ample water, these farms will collapse. Earlier this summer, PG&E secured permission from FERC to cut already low water flows from Lake Pillsbury, just two months before harvest season.
Farmers have been left scrambling. Kay Eckels, a Potter Valley cattle rancher said it bluntly: “This shuts us down.”
California agriculture has already been shrinking under pressure from short-sighted policies. The number of farms has fallen 10 percent in the last decade and more than 20 percent since the early 2000s. Instead of preserving farmland, state leaders have made it harder to sustain.
And this isn’t an isolated incident. It’s just the latest salvo in a decades-long pursuit by California policymakers and environmental activists to weaponize water to destroy farmers and ranchers’ lives— all at the altar of environmentalism. California built impressive infrastructure to support agricultural production during the 20th century, resulting in a large boon for the state’s economy. Now, they want to decommission it all, despite severe consequences to the economy, working families, and public safety.
It’s baffling to anyone with common sense.
Here is the nation’s top agriculture producing state, whose production is significantly higher that of any other state in the Union, yet their own policymakers systematically leave them out to dry when it comes to providing the resources needed to continue production.
In the case of Potter Valley, there is some reason for hope though. In August, the Department of Interior (DOI) intervened in yet another attempt by PG&E to further reduce Potter Valley Hydroelectric Project water flows, giving the agency the right to appeal and participate in settlement talks. That decision aligns with President Donald Trump’s policy of prioritizing people and ensuring ample water resources in California. This executive order was signed in the spirit of honoring, respecting and protecting the American farmer. In fact, this administration has already been incredibly active in the fight to protect small family farms across the country, from rerouting projects that would destroy farmland in Tennessee to fighting state level eminent domain abuse in New Jersey.
Even with these promising steps, the long-term consequences of losing this water resource extend far beyond agriculture. Potter Valley is where two of the three worst fires in California history began. In those moments, Lake Pillsbury was a crucial water source for firefighting. Drying it up removes a lifeline in one of the most fire-prone regions in the country. That is not only reckless, but also dangerous. The decommissioning of Potter Valley would be catastrophic. It cannot be allowed to happen.
Farmers, ranchers, and residents cannot fight this battle alone. They need partners willing to stand up for them, their proud agricultural heritage, and for the safety and prosperity of all Californians. The federal government must not let up now. FERC must reject PG&E’s plans to further restrict water in Lake Pillsbury and ultimately dump the dams—and instead work to find short and long-term solutions for the community. State officials must get on board, now.
Tate Bennet serves as director for Rural Policy at the America First Policy Institute.
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March 13, 2025
This is completely outrageous and unacceptable. AGAIN!
More destruction under the rule of Mr. Destruction Himself: The Worst Governor Ever, Gavin Newsom.
I’d say what the hell is wrong with this guy and his “friends.” But I think we know the answer to that already.
I think if we contact America First Policy Institute maybe we can add our voice to the opposition. I’ll try to find the link and the information to do that.
In the meantime….
“While the dam removal is being framed as a financial decision by a private company, the fact that PG&E is a state-regulated monopoly with a history of political influence, and that taxpayers will be forced to pay to destroy their own water source in a decision approved by the state, complicates that narrative.”
Sound familiar?
https://www.americaunwon.com/p/americans-last-the-environmental
This is orchestrated destruction of California Farmers and Ranchers.
The globalist, “enviroterrorists” came for suburban neighborhoods with the 2030 agenda, initiated by WEF guidelines. Now they come for our rural areas.
Newsom and other political operatives roll out the plan.
We do not have a water scarcity problem, we do no have a climate change problem, we do have a power struggle . There is a group of powerful people that want to rule the world.
We are in a soft civil war which has been in the making for decades. We have bought in and bought off politicians implementing the plan!
Link below “Tate Benett from America First Policy Institute” on Larry Marino 9/14/25 – about 12 mins.
Good stuff here if you want to get more involved or just increase and spread awareness of this latest outrageous attempt to remove dams that provide vital irrigation for farmers and residents under bogus cover of “enviro,” “Green,” “salmon and trout,” and “Native American issues.” Interesting, it appears I’m being blocked on the web in my attempt to get more info about Tate Benett and the Potter Valley dam removal issue.
Tate Benett on Larry Marino – 12 mins.
https://am870theanswer.com/all/sunday-morning-newsmakers
Please NOTE: Testing the link I see that Tate Benett is interviewed in SEGMENT 3 of the Larry Marino show. Scroll down a bit and you’ll see it. The interview begins within a few minutes. sigh
Removal of Scott Dam will further suppress salmon & steelhead fisheries. The Biological Opinion protecting fisheries in the Eel River depends on thousands of acre feet of water stored in Lake Pillsbury!
Steven Elliott, Retired Superintendent – 37yr.
So PG&E secured permission from FERC to cut already low water flows from Lake Pillsbury, just two months before harvest season, that has caused devastation for the farmers and ranchers who provide food and jobs in Mendocino, Sonoma, and Lake counties with their justification being salmon and steelhead restoration? Hopefully the Trump administration will step in and reign in the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission from allowing this to happen?
Hair-gel Hitler Newsom, the traitorous WEF globalist stooge, along with the criminal Democrat thug mafia that controls this state are deliberately creating water and energy shortages in their quest for ever more power and control over Californians under the guise of protecting the environment.
I have to say I’ve never understood people’s mentality in regards to the environment and water in California. Seems as though in decades past folks said, Ya know this place would be a great place to live but it has no water. Someone else said? Hey, lets get water from 10’s or 100’s of miles away. Then they did just that. Building cities where abundant water was not naturally available. Ca. has had water shortage/supply issue for many years now. What I have not seen is any jurisdiction clamping down on some of the biggest demands for water, private pools, spa’s, etc. I know a family in So. Cal that changes out their 500 gallon spa every month even if they don’t use it. Have we not learned from what happened to the Inca’s and Maya’s of South America? The environment changed and their water supplies dried up and all the canals they built to channel water to their communities all ran dry.
@Mitch, We are not indigenous people of South America. This is a First World Country (although lately it is feeling more like a Third World Country in California). We build things. There is no shortage of water. There is a shortage of leadership. We don’t have to live in poverty.
This is beyond disgusting. Yet a Berkeley IGS Poll from late August 2025 showed 51% of California voters approved of Newsom, with 56% approval among regular voters.
What is the matter with people in this state? Are they really that brain dead?
Berkeley…. consider the source….
over sampled liberals….
ignore…..