It’s axiomatic that leftist leadership is always in favor of sacrificing for the environment if someone else is doing the sacrificing. This double-standard hypocrisy is nowhere more evident than in California’s water problems.
I’ve written before about how the drought is affecting residents and agriculture; and also how the failure of California Democrats to prepare for drought conditions in a state that has always been semi-arid has resulted in devastating cutbacks to farming and the loss of business and people to other, better managed states like Texas.
(For what it’s worth, Texas is also suffering from a drought but it’s lack of water is not combined with complete Democrat control of all state offices.)
The latest statistics put 90 percent of the state in the severe drought category. But that, like many other rules the little people must follow, does not apply to Nancy Pelosi and her constituents in San Francisco.
The Washington Times has discovered that while drought, combined with the Endangered Species Act, “has wreaked havoc for decades on rural communities,” San Francisco is exempt from the water rationing imposed elsewhere.
To make matters even worse, water from the Tuolumne River is diverted 167 miles to refresh the residents of Baghdad by the Bay. As the Times points out, “Without that diversion, about 15 percent more water would flow to the Sacramento Delta, which is critical habitat for threatened fish like the delta smelt, the green sturgeon, and several species of salmon.”
As a result of this drought disparity, Craig Manson, head of the Center for Environmental Science, Accuracy and Reliability (CESAR), has filed a lawsuit “aimed at addressing the double standard that forces farmers to give up water in the name of species conservation — without requiring Bay Area residents to do the same.”
Winning is not going to be easy. Even the environmental community is not falling into line to support the effort because winning would make a powerful enemy in Pelosi. She may not read the bills before one achieves passage, but she has a long memory.
The green lobby is willing to accept a bit of hypocrisy at home in return for her support for the iron fist of “environmental justice” in other sections of the state with less political influence.
Which brings us to the operational definition of shared sacrifice for the affluent environmentalist: we share the sacrifice with you, while we take all the credit for our environmental concern.
Michael Reagan is the son of President Ronald Reagan. He is president of The Reagan Legacy Foundation and chairman of the League of American Voters. Mike is an in-demand speaker with Premiere. Read more reports from Michael Reagan — Go Here Now.