The Pacific Institute just released a report that evaluates how California’s drought has resulted in less energy produced by hydroelectric dams and a greater reliance on the more expensive process of burning natural gas.

The current severe drought has many negative consequences. One of them that receives little attention is how the drought has fundamentally changed the way our electricity is produced. Under normal conditions, electricity for the state’s millions of users is produced from a blend of sources, with natural gas and hydropower being the top two. Since the drought has reduced the state’s river flows that power hundreds of hydropower stations, natural gas has become a more prominent player in the mix. This is an expensive change.

According to the Institute’s report, between October 2011 and October 2014, California’s ratepayers spent $1.4 billion more for electricity than in average years because of the drought-induced shift from hydropower to natural gas. In an average year, hydropower provides around 18 percent of the electricity needed for agriculture, industry, and homes. Comparatively, in this three-year drought period, hydropower made up less than 12 percent of total California electricity generation. The figure below (Figure 6 from the new study) shows the monthly anomalies in state hydropower generation in wet and dry years, and the severe cuts over the past three years.

California litigation attorney is suspicious that aerosol geoegineering and covert weather manipulation is responsible for California’s record drought.

Ellen Brown: 

“What makes me suspicious is this wall of weather that prevents the jet stream from pushing storms that usually come from the Pacific Ocean across California, Oregon and Washington State.  So, that’s been going on for 4 years, and nobody knows what causes it.  It is highly suspicious, and it may be caused by HAARP (High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program).  That’s the military use of Tesla technology, or it could be caused by geoengineering, which is chemtrails.  A lot of people call this conspiracy theory, but if you look up in the skies, you can see them.  The skies are crisscrossed, and they are dropping aluminum and barium on the land.  California supplies the nation with 50% of their produce.  Most of the organic produce comes from California.  So, if you are putting aluminum on all the land, there is going to be no such thing as organic anymore.  All food and all crops are being poisoned by this aluminum.”

http://growholdings.com/quay-valley/about-quay-valley/

About Quay Valley- New Ruralism in the Heart of the Central Valley

In the heart of the Golden State not far from the Pacific shores lies Quay Valley, a new, undiscovered California alternative in the Great Central Valley, and a modern frontier offering new values and ways of living.

Quay Valley will be a model town for the 21st century, a self-sustaining community that seamlessly melds the best qualities of new urbanism with the traditions of the San Joaquin Valley’s small rural towns – evolving into a concept that we call New Ruralism – while carefully preserving the natural surroundings of the area. The community will operate on 100% solar power as its energy source and set new standards in self-sufficient energy use, water conservation, resource reuse and environmental responsibility.

Our vision is an integrated stewardship process of conservation, protection, enhancement and regeneration that balances the social, technical, economic and environmental needs of the community.

The five main components of Quay Valley Ranch are:

• A world class Sustainable Community run entirely on clean power and that will provide energy efficient homes for to up to 75,000 permanent residents in 25,000 dwellings, and become a global showcase for sustainable energy, conservation, pollution reduction and a higher quality of life.
• A vibrant family oriented Entertainment Destination featuring exciting and unique retail outlets, themed resort hotels, museums, an action sports complex, a water park, gardens, a convention hotel and facilities, cafes, restaurants and other unique destination attractions.
• A significant Business Infrastructure to create employment opportunities, including offices, business parks, a distribution hub, an industrial and transportation center, retail outlets, hotels, entertainment centers, tech hubs, manufacturing hubs, a research park, educational institutions and nature parks, golf courses, other commercial areas and public utility and public service infrastructure.
• Sustainable Permanent Agriculture in California integrated into areas of wildlife and habitat management and for passive recreation.
• An Embrace of the Environment that will feature recreational waterways, wooded areas, walkways, nature strolls and which will re-introduce habitat and species indigenous to the area.

Quay Valley will be the city of the future and one of the most modern, environmentally responsible communities in the world, destined to be a top place to see in California.

Gardens stayed lush and lawns verdant as citizens paid tanker trucks to deliver thousands of gallons to homes in the seaside suburb of Santa Barbara. They drilled in back yards, driving the county’s tally of new wells to a record. Some simply paid fines for exceeding allocations, padding the water district’s budget by more than $2 million.

“People feel strongly about their landscaping and want to keep their homes beautiful,” said Patrick Nesbitt, who drilled a well to hydrate parts of his 70-acre estate but let his polo field go dry. “Why should anybody object?”

Flush a toilet and you destroy the planet

Most eco-conscious Californians are unaware that the energy they use comes predominantly from fossil fuels. (See source.) Natural gas — which produces carbon dioxide when burned — generates almost half the state’s electricity. Coal generates another eight percent or so, meaning that fossil fuels provide the majority of California’s electricity. (Renewables only provide about 18 percent, and nuclear provides another nine percent or so.)

What this means is that as more and more desalination plants come online, they’ll be using primarily fossil fuels to process water — an energy-intensive operation.

“A $1 billion desalination plant to supply booming San Diego County is under construction here and due to open as early as November, providing a major test of whether California cities will be able to resort to the ocean to solve their water woes,” reports the New York Times. “Plans are far along for a large plant in Huntington Beach that would supply water to populous Orange County. A mothballed plant in Santa Barbara may soon be reactivated. And more than a dozen communities along the California coast are studying the issue.”

As each of these plants comes online, they will add an extremely high energy cost to the water consumed by California residents. Every act that consumes water — washing your hands, watering a garden, flushing a toilet — will carry a heightened ecological cost. When water simply falls out of the sky, consuming that water is ecologically sound. But when water has to be procured using extremely energy-intensive desalination systems, it can no longer be considered a “green” resource.

“[Desalination plants] will use a huge amount of electricity, increasing the carbon dioxide emissions that cause global warming, which further strains water supplies,” writes the New York Times, reiterating what the liberal media calls “concluded science” which claims modern-day global warming is almost entirely caused by human activity. If that’s the case, however, then Californians who consume water produced by desalination plants must categorize themselves as global warming sinners who are destroying the planet every time they drink a cup of water.

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/049338_desalination_global_warming_California_drought.html#ixzz3XLb4TBgs

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/049338_desalination_global_warming_California_drought.html#ixzz3XLZmDjau

The Arab countries face numerous environmental challenges and have to reconcile many conflicting priorities, from promoting economic diversification, ensuring water supply and food security, and furthering environmental protection and conservation to adapting to the impacts of global warming.

Such wineries over-use precious, limited resources—such as water, “air”, and land—which threatens the environment and the quality of life in our semi-rural region. The contiguous Napa, Lake, and Mendocino Counties have also recently experienced over-expansions of wineries and vineyards, as well as growing efforts by residents to reign them in. In Napa, large wineries are already trucking in water and trucking out wastewater.

Brown said, “This executive order is done under emergency power. It has the force of law. Very unusual. It’s requiring action and changes in behavior from the Oregon border all the way to the Mexican border. It affects lawns. It affects people’s — how long they stay in the shower. How businesses use water.”

Brown said to enforce his order, “Each water district that actually delivers waters — water to homes and businesses, they carry it out. We have a state water board that overseas the relationships with the districts. Hundreds of them. If they don’t comply, people can be fined $500 a day. Districts can go to court to get a cease and desist order. The enforcement mechanism is powerful. In a drought of this magnitude, you have to change that behavior and you have to change it substantially.”

Guest host  host Martha Raddatz pointed out, “More water used for almond production than is used by all residents and businesses in San Francisco and Los Angeles combined.”

Brown countered by saying, “Farm workers who are — very low end of the economic scale here, are out of work. There are people in agriculture areas that are suffering. Who are providing food.” adding, “They’re not watering their lawn or taking long showers. They’re providing most of the fruits and vegetables of America. And a significant part of the world.”