Contra Costa Times colleague Mike Taugher has just posted a story about a new report from the Public Policy Institute of California where experts conclude that the highly prickly proposed Peripheral Canal offers the best option for the failing Delta environment:

A team of experts says the best way to fix California’s troubled water system is to build a controversial peripheral canal that would deliver water around the Delta rather than through it.

Their report concludes a canal would be the cheapest economic alternative and the best choice for the environment short of cutting off altogether Delta water shipments to the Bay Area, San Joaquin Valley and Southern California.

“Ultimately, there are two choices here: no exports or a peripheral canal. If there are no exports, the biggest losers are the Bay Area (residents),” said Jay Lund, a UC Davis engineering professor and one of the report’s co-authors.

Click here to read the full report.

Historically, Contra Costa County politicians have vehemently opposed such a canal on the grounds that it would allow saltwater intrusion into the water its residents drink.

Also, as Taugher writes, voters rejected a canal in 1982 because of overwhelming opposition in the Bay Area and the rest of Northern California, where there was deep concern the canal would allow Southern California to greatly increase the amount of water it imports from the north.

But California is grappling with a drought, a Delta in crisis and an ever-expanding population, all factors that could alter the politics around state water policy.

Gasoline doesn’t come in red or blue and with folks of all political stripes paying high prices at the pump, Rep. Jerry McNerney, D-Pleasanton, (pictured on the right) and his GOP challenger Dean Andal of Stockton (pictured on far right) are both talking this week about how to ease the pain.

McNerney repeated this week his call for President George Bush to open up the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve and dump more oil on the market in an effort to drop prices.

The reserve was created after the gas crisis of the 1970s and is intended to help the U.S. survive a major interruption in the supply of oil. It holds roughly 700 million barrels of oil.

“President Bush is sitting on over 700 million barrels of oil, purchased with tax dollars, in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve,” McNerney said. “Releasing oil from the reserve will help bring down the cost of gasoline and aid families who are struggling with the cost of filling up their tanks.”

Andal also called on the president to release some of the reserves and immediately embark on an increase in domestic drilling and exploration. Bush recently lifted a moratorium on offshore oil drilling although it was a symbolic gesture as Congress has maintained laws barring the practice.

Andal does not, however, support drilling off the California coastline where it is highly unpopular but said the nation should focus on areas where public support is attainable.

McNerney opposes any expansion of domestic drilling, arguing that oil companies already hold leases on 68 million acres that contain 81 percent of untapped U.S. oil supplies in the ground.

Unfortunately for the campaigns of McNerney and Andal and everyone who buys gasoline, neither of these options, more drilling or opening the spigot at the reserve, will lower prices at the pump, says UC Berkeley Energy Institute Director Severin Borenstein.

Oil prices are determined on the global market, and the Petroleum Reserve holds about a relative pittance, or about eight days worth of the world’s oil consumption.

“You might drive prices down a bit, probably less than $10 a barrel, but you would begin to deplete the supply rather rapidly,” Borenstein said. “The reserve wasn’t designed to control high prices.”

Expanded domestic drilling won’t add a single drop of oil to the supply for at five to 10 five years and probably far longer if expected lawsuits hold up projects, Borenstein said.

“Everyone wants to appear to be doing something,” Borenstein said.

Check out JibJab’s new campaign animated song video based on Bob Dylan’s famous tune, “The Times, They Are A-Changin.”

It’s hilarious.

It starts with a banjo-playing President Bush and a heart-clutching GOP nominee John McCain and goes on from there. But I especially love the part where Obama is skipping through the forest with Bambi and Thumper, singing about change as he leaps on the back of a unicorn flying under a rainbow.

The power of the Internet continues.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger unveiled today the California School Finder, a web site that allows you to compare side-by-side schools’ test scores, graduation rates, course offerings and other data. It’s all information that was previously available to the public but not in a single location.

The state partnered with Microsoft and Google to put it together.

Read more for the governor’s press release. Read the rest of this entry »

Rep. Jerry McNerney, D-Pleasanton, (pictured on the far right) continues to outraise GOP challenger Dean Andal of Stockton (pictured on the immediate right) in one of the most competitive congressional races in the nation.

McNerney raised $2.1 million for his re-election as of June 30, according to federal campaign finance documents filed today. Andal amassed $829,000 in the same time period.

Click here to read McNerney’s report to the Federal Election Commission.

Click here to read Andal’s report to the Federal Election Commission.

The men are running in congressional District 11, which stretches from Danville to Morgan Hill, through the Tri-Valley and into Tracy and western and central San Joaquin County. (Click here to see a map of the district.)

Taking advantage of his incumbent status, McNerney has successfully collected cash from party and political action committees totalling about a third, or $768,000, of his contributions.

Andal has also harnessed the financial power of such groups, reporting contributions of $254,000 or slightly less than a third of his contributions.

The Republican challenger’s viability came under fire earlier this year when his fundraising numbers were lackluster for a major race.

But Andal raised $171,000 in the last reporting period, a nearly tenfold increase over the prior one. Andal spokesman Richard Temple said the Republican has four times more cash on hand than McNerney had at this point in the congressman’s successful 2006 race against then-Rep. Richard Pombo.

Andal reported $663,038 in the bank as of June 30 compared with $1.4 million for McNerney.

Despite the cash gap four months before Election Day, both men are expected to have plenty of money in a contest that national political experts and the two parties consider one of the top five most competitive congressional fights in the country. There’s also no way to know at this point how money special interests groups such as business and environmental organizations will spend independent of the candidates.

Good morning, satire … but that New Yorker front page cartoon about Barack Obama is stirring up a furor. Have you seen it? (Click here to visit the New Yorker web site and see the full version on the magazine’s page.)

The Huffington Post’s “Eat the Press” feature has a very interesting interview with New Yorker editor David Remnick about the nature of satire and the publication’s decision to use the cartoon cover.

It’s a provocative illustration, no question about it. Obama’s campaign is calling it “tasteless” while the magazine says it points out the absurdness behind the anti-Obama rumors and stereotypes.

But does it advance political discourse? What do you think?

The pitiful turnout in the California June primary election produced at least one notable statistic: The highest percentage of voters on record cast their ballots by mail rather than at the polls.

Secretary of State Debra Bowen certified the election results and reported a 58.7 percent vote-by-mail rate, which topped the previous record of 46.9 percent in June 2006.

The growing numbers of voters who cast their ballots through the mail is raising questions about the increasing cost of funding two elections, one at the polls and one through the mail. It is also dramatically changing campaign dynamics as candidates must find ways to put out their messages to a bifurcated audience.

Here’s Bowen press release: Read the rest of this entry »

Brentwood Mayor Bob Taylor, in his trademark “third person” voice, sent me an email this morning letting me know that he plans to run for re-election in November.

“Rumor has it, the mayor of Brentwood is seeking re-election for a second term … having checked with the source, it is totally true,” Taylor wrote. “A side comment, if Mayor Robert ‘Bob’ Taylor is elected, he will be Brentwood’s last two-year term mayor and will be the first four year term mayor due to a ballet initiative making the term a four-year obligation.”

The filing period opens today for nonpartisan seats on dozens of East Bay boards, including most of its city councils, school boards, special districts, BART and the East Bay Regional Park District.

California is no New Jersey, it seems.

Rep. Jerry McNerney of Pleasanton, (pictured on the right) after hearing about a New Jersey sting operation that found hundreds of inaccurate gasoline pumps, fired off a letter to California Attorney General Jerry Brown a few weeks ago asking the state’s top lawyer to launch a similar investigation in the Golden State.

After all, with gas at $4-plus-a-gallon, mispriced pumps, out-of-calibration equipment and even outright efforts to to defraud motorists of the nectar than feeds their automobiles is beyond heinous.

Brown’s office, so far, has politely declined to start such a probe given the existence of the state’s ongoing enforcement programs.

That’s all fine and good but I suspect such a move would meet with widespread huzzahs from consumers who simply do not believe that a single tank of gas could possibly cost $75. Read the rest of this entry »

Conservative think tank folks at the Los Angeles-based Reason Foundation created their own television show complete with host comedian Drew Carey.

The show starts out with “Whether you love it, hate it, or have never thought about it, chances are some politician wants to ban it. Welcome to the Nanny State Nation … where the government minds your own business.”

It’s pretty funny. Check it out.