One Guy's Opinion on the Political Scene By: Jim Herndon
Economy versus the Smelt
Another one of those pop-up environmental groups, “The National Resources Defense Council” got a liberal judge who has never been near a farm to accommodate them with a ruling that took a big step toward crippling California farmers and our state economy by taking away their lifeblood - water.
They did this in the name of protecting the Delta Smelt, whatever that is. I commented earlier that any oddball collection of enviro-wackos can string three official sounding words together and come up with an important sounding environmental group; this one went that extra step and strung four words together. A recent report said that if water normally allocated to productive California farms is re-directed to insure protection of the Delta Smelt, California farmers will have to take 82,000 acres out of cultivation, miles of orchards will simply die, and the economy will suffer a $69 million hit. If I met a smelt, I probably would like the little critter and approve ruining the California economy for his protection, but right now this feels like another case of pseudo-science armed environmental cultists taking advantage of the national hysteria about the environment to save an organism that may or may not even be in danger.