Newsom and Biden would allow farms to die so some fish can live

It is once again time for a round of water wars in California, as Gov. Gavin Newsom and President Joe Biden prepare to battle former President Donald Trump to strangle farms and protect fish.

Biden and Newsom are “ racing ” to place more environmental protections on fish in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta in order to prevent Trump from helping farmers in Central Valley receive more water. Environmentalists have long prioritized the Chinook salmon and Delta smelt over the farms and farming communities that feed the country.

This is not an exaggeration. California’s Central Valley makes up 1% of U.S. farmland but produces a quarter of the country’s food, including 40% of “fruits, nuts, and other table foods.” The Central Valley grows more than 250 different crops with an estimated value of $17 billion per year. The region is critical to the U.S. food supply and to California’s economy.

California has been willing to deprive the valley and its residents of water, though, to fulfill its environmental agenda. Around 50% of water in the state is set aside for environmental use and flushed out to sea to preserve these species of fish whose populations are in decline even with these protections in place. Biden is looking to add more federal protections for those fish, on top of Newsom’s existing state protections, to put more legal obstacles in Trump’s way so he won’t be able to get farmers the water they need and ruin California’s environmental dream system.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

In the meantime, California is doing next to nothing to solve its water storage crisis. Water projects voted on in 2014 remain untouched, thanks to burdensome regulations and Newsom’s apathy toward the problem. Without sufficient water storage, the state allows rainwater to wash out to sea in wet years, leaving farmers (and residents up and down the state) to struggle in dry years. California Democrats are also cracking down on farmers who use what they decide is too much groundwater, even as they deprive those farmers of existing and potential water sources.

Biden and Newsom are choosing to prioritize fish over the millions of people who rely on Central Valley agriculture for their jobs (both directly, in farmers, and indirectly, in all the people who live and work in ag-dependent towns) as well as the people across the country who rely on food produced in California. It is an environmental fever dream and a nightmare for everyone who thinks people should matter just a little bit more than fish.