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Feinstein's Big Checks From Corporate FarmerPublished on The Big Money (http://www.thebigmoney.com) By dan.mitchell U.S. Sen. Diane Feinstein, D-Calif., supported California farmers over California fishers by asking the Obama administration to re-examine the science behind a federal plan to protect a giant river delta in her home state. Feinstein did so after having received "check after check" from Stewart Resnick, a billionaire corporate farmer who has been highly critical of the federal plan, according to the Center for Investigative Reporting. An investigation by the CIR's California Watch initiative [2] shows just how much largess Resnick has bestowed on Feinstein, as well as many other politicians. In September, Feinstein forwarded a letter from Resnick to two Cabinet secretaries and urged the Obama administration to reconsider the plan—which it did. Resnick's letter complained that the federal plan to rescue endangered fisheries in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta was "exacerbating the state's severe drought" because it favors fisheries over farms. Resnick said the plan was based on "sloppy science" and has caused "regulatory-induced water shortages." This is the controversy that Sean Hannity and other media circus acts tried (somewhat successfully) to paint as a matter of wacky liberals protecting a "tiny fish" (delta smelt) at the expense of hardworking farmers. In the reality-based world, the drought is forcing a choice between hardworking farmers and hardworking salmon fishers. (Smelt, which the federal plan protects, are salmon food.) It's not an easy problem, and there can be no easy solution. Nobody in the media explicated Hannity and Co.'s soulless hypocrisy better than Jon Stewart did in September. But even before the right-wing pundits started bloviating, some Democrats were already folding and depositing checks from weathly donors. Upon receiving Feinstein's entreaty, the Obama administration authorized the re-examination of the restrictions on pumping irrigation water, which were meant to save the fisheries, and were based on exhaustive studies. "The results could delay or change the course of the protection effort," California Watch reports. "To environmentalists concerned with protecting the Delta, it was a dispiriting display of the political clout wielded by Resnick, who is among California’s biggest growers and among its biggest political donors," writes Lance Williams of California Watch. Resnick is the owner of Paramount Farms, the holder of 118,000 acres of orchards in California, which rely heavily on irrigation. Feinstein's office told California Watch that Resnick's donations had no effect on her decision to seek the environmental re-review. It's true that farmers in the state's Central Valley are hurting, and Resnick is far from the only farmer to complain about the water restrictions. But it's also true that fish populations in the delta are, as Williams put it, in "catastrophic decline." But farming interests have much more power than fishing interests in California. The reason the government conducted scientific studies of the fisheries' troubles was a series of lawsuits from environmental groups. Those studies were the basis for a restoration program restricting irrigation to boost water flows for migrating fish. Because it was environmentalists who started the ball rolling, when the three-year drought hit a crisis point last year, it was easy for right-wing pundits to characterize the situation as a battle between tree-huggers and real Americans. It could well be that, given conditions, a review of the restrictions is necessary. The unemployment rate among Central Valley farmers has recently been as high as 40 percent. But there are real Americans suffering on both sides. In a perfect world, science alone—and not wealthy campaign donors or loud-mouthed TV personalities—would determine which group of real Americans should get how much water. See the California Watch post [9] for a breakdown [10] of how much Resnick gives to politicians—both state and local Democrats and Republicans—who have power over water and agricultural policy. The site also features the document trail [11] it followed. Hardworking Farmers Versus Hardworking Fishers in California * About Us ©2009 WashingtonPost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC Links:
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