State Water Resources Control Board

California Governor Creating Energy Poverty with 3,200-foot Setbacks Around Oil and Gas Wells

April 17, 2025 12:01 pmApril 19, 2025 9:25 am

As of 2024, more than 1 out of 6 households, or 21.12 million Americans are behind in energy bill payments. In California, energy poverty is real and pushes people further down into poverty. The Globe reported Wednesday on a new...

Valero Announces it Will Shut Down Benicia Refinery April 2026

April 16, 2025 12:39 pmApril 17, 2025 12:05 pm

California Democrats’ war on the oil and gas industry is working, but not for the people. In another blow to California’s oil and gas industry, and the state’s fuel; supply, Valero Energy Corporation announced Wednesday it will shut down its...

State Water Board Held Hearing Concerning Placing Kern Subbasin Under Probation, Part I

February 25, 2025 9:31 amFebruary 25, 2025 9:31 am

The State Water Resources Control Board, State Board, held a hearing concerning placing the Kern Subbasin under probation for not having an adequate Groundwater Sustainability Plan (GSP) under the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA). The hearing was held Thursday, February...

Ringside: Quantifying the Upside of More Lawns

January 22, 2025 2:47 pmJanuary 22, 2025 2:47 pm

A respected advocate for farming interests in California once explained to me that every acre of lawn requires 5 acre feet of water per year. The unsubtle implication was that the more lawn we kill, the less water we waste....

Ringside: Finding Water for the San Joaquin Valley

December 5, 2024 10:43 amDecember 5, 2024 10:43 am

Farmers in the San Joaquin Valley require roughly 15 million acre feet of water per year to irrigate their crops. In return they produce more than half of all California’s agricultural output. But everything is changing. Since 2000 the amount of...

Ringside: Would Suing the Bureaucracy Bring Us More Water?

October 17, 2024 6:30 amOctober 17, 2024 6:31 am

There isn’t a major water project in California in the last 30 years or more that hasn’t been subject to relentless litigation. Usually the litigators represent powerful environmentalist organizations, sometimes they represent social justice groups, and sometimes they represent labor....

Ringside: AB 460 Hands Water Bureaucrats Even More Power

September 12, 2024 2:55 amSeptember 12, 2024 6:26 am

Siskiyou and Modoc counties have a combined population of 52,700 people and combined area of 10,227 miles. That’s less than the population of Yucaipa in a territory the size of Massachusetts. It’s a big place with almost no political clout. That’s why back...