As the wildfires in California rage on and leave thousands of Americans homeless, people are beginning to wonder what might be to blame for the relentless flames.
Allie Beth Stuckey of “Relatable” has some answers — though some might not want to hear them.
“I’m not trying to chastise people who politically disagree with me, but just to say that again, our political decisions, our worldviews, actually have consequences, and it’s really important that we look with specificity at the choices that have been made over the years that have led California to where it is now,” Stuckey says.
“Over the last 50 years, environmental-focused laws, both federal and state, have deeply impacted how that water, which California relies on for everything, is prioritized,” she continues. “One example of water policy that is currently being discussed by many, including President-elect Trump, involves this tiny fish called the delta smelt.”
The delta smelt is a small endangered fish in Northern California’s Delta region, and policies that are aimed at preserving the smelt’s habitat have led to water regulations that send excess water to the habitat rather than to storage for the state’s large population and agricultural uses.
Natural resource economist Dr. Scott Hamilton estimates that the amount of water supply that is restricted in order to protect the delta smelt exceeds 10 million acre feet — which is enough water to supply Los Angeles for about 15 to 20 years. The cost to replace that water is around $5 billion.
This all began in 1970, when President Nixon signed the National Environmental Policy Act, which requires federal agencies to fully determine the environmental effects of any actions they take, which are known as environmental impact statements.
Even President Ronald Reagan signed many policies into law that have laid the foundation for what Stuckey calls “bad things today” when it comes to immigration and environmental law.
“This law that Ronald Reagan signed is central to California’s regulatory landscape. The law’s purpose is to ensure projects with significant environmental impacts are mitigated or stopped. And that all sounds good until you realize that these regulatory agencies have so much power and are really able to make these kinds of arbitrary decisions that can greatly harm individuals, their businesses, their ability to farm,” Stuckey explains.
Because of all of these regulatory policies, no significant water storage products have been built in California in over 45 years, despite the state’s population increasing roughly 67% from 1980 to 2020.
“Then, if you look at the early 1990s, this period marks a critical shift in California water policy, with growing federal intervention and a stronger focus on environmental protections for endangered species,” Stuckey says, before focusing the conversation back on the delta smelt.
“So, apparently, they found two delta smelt in 2017 after all of these efforts, after all of the harm that they’ve done, they only found two of these fish. So there is actually no proof whatsoever that these regulations, that these programs, that all of these efforts, this blocking of water access, has actually helped the survival of the delta smelt at all,” Stuckey says.
“So that is at least partly, in large part, what has happened to the water supply in California. It is largely environmental. But, as we articulated, there are other factors playing into this, but none of that was inevitable, none of that was accidental. All of it was the result of a deliberate policy decision,” she adds.
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