Dianne Feinstein: “I regret that I have to strongly oppose the amendment of the distinguished Senator from Alaska. I recall both in the…”

“I regret that I have to strongly oppose the amendment of the distinguished Senator from Alaska. I recall both in the committee and in the Senate Chamber hearing the distinguished Senator from Alaska talk about supply, particularly in view of the electricity and natural gas portion of the energy crisis that faces this Nation. One of the things we in California have learned is that the electricity crisis is a forerunner of what is going to happen with water. California has 35 million people. It is the largest high-tech State and the largest agricultural producing State. It has a need for high-quality water for high-tech, and it does not have enough water. Just last week, this Senate debated the Klamath with an endangered species issue involving both the coho salmon and the suckerfish. The Bureau of Reclamation had to cut off water for farmers, and 1,500 farmers on both sides of the Oregon-California border essentially could not plant. This is not going to be an isolated incident. We are going to see this happen up and down the Central Valley if we do not act smart, if we do not work smart, if we do not move to improve the water supply, to work smarter on the big pumps on the California Water project, if we are not able to recharge our ground water and, respectfully, if we are not able to take from the wet years and store that water to use in the dry years. The Senator is precisely going after this money so that we cannot build the storage we need.”