The Most Powerful Californian is Three Inches Long

The most powerful Californian is not the former body-building governator. Here's a photo of the most powerful Californian:

If the fish is three inches long on your screen the photo is actual size.

Thanks to this fish and the lame brains that make up the EPA, huge sections of the nation's best farmland are drying up and blowing away, reminiscent of the Dust Bowl of the 30's. From the Wall Street Journal:

California has a new endangered species on its hands in the San Joaquin Valley—farmers. Thanks to environmental regulations designed to protect the likes of the three-inch long delta smelt, one of America's premier agricultural regions is suffering in a drought made worse by federal regulations.

The state's water emergency is unfolding thanks to the latest mishandling of the Endangered Species Act. Last December, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued what is known as a "biological opinion" imposing water reductions on the San Joaquin Valley and environs to safeguard the federally protected hypomesus transpacificus, a.k.a., the delta smelt. As a result, tens of billions of gallons of water from mountains east and north of Sacramento have been channelled away from farmers and into the ocean, leaving hundreds of thousands of acres of arable land fallow or scorched.

For this, Californians can thank the usual environmental suspects, er, lawyers. Last year's government ruling was the result of a 2006 lawsuit filed by the Natural Resources Defense Council and other outfits objecting to increased water pumping in the smelt vicinity. In June, things got even dustier when the National Marine Fisheries Service concluded that local salmon and steelhead also needed to be defended from the valley's water pumps. Those additional restrictions will begin to effect pumping operations next year.

The result has already been devastating for the state's farm economy. In the inland areas affected by the court-ordered water restrictions, the jobless rate has hit 14.3%, with some farming towns like Mendota seeing unemployment numbers near 40%. Statewide, the rate reached 11.6% in July, higher than it has been in 30 years. In August, 50 mayors from the San Joaquin Valley signed a letter asking President Obama to observe the impact of the draconian water rules firsthand.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has said that he "doesn't have the authority to turn on the pumps" that would supply the delta with water, or "otherwise, they would be on." He did, however, have the ability to request intervention from the Department of Interior. Under a provision added to the Endangered Species Act in 1978 after the snail darter fiasco, a panel of seven cabinet officials known as a "God Squad" is able to intercede in economic emergencies, such as the one now parching California farmers. Despite a petition with more than 12,000 signers, Mr. Schwarzenegger has refused that remedy.

There's more here.

While driving through the Central Valley of California a week or so ago I saw a number of signs posted along I-5 that read "Congress Created the Dust Bowl". History is repeating itself.

At what point do we start caring more about people than 3" fish? Whole communities in the Central Valley are dying because their principle industry, farming, is dying. This is just stupid.

If I was the governor, authority or not, I'd go wherever those pumps are and I'd get them turned on, even if I had to bring the National Guard with me to get the job done. Governors don't let their people's lives and livelihoods end because of such stupid rules.