California Governor Gavin Newsom is taking "unprecedented steps" to block President Trump's attempts to send water to San Joaquin Valley's agriculture interests. In the fight to protect the Delta's water, fishery and ecosystems, not to mention the drinking water of 25 million Californians, California has temporarily stopped deferring to the federal government on environmental rules, and is drawing up its own regulations. Newsom's move will potentially add a court showdown over whether the federal government has to comply with state law to the 45 lawsuits the state has brought against the Trump administration on other issues.

The question has also gone to the Legislature, with California Senate Bill 1 requiring the federal government's actions on water to comply with the state's Endangered Species Act. You can read more here, including how some federal environmental officials feel caught in the middle between the state and the White House.

Newsom's focus on protection hasn't gone unnoticed. In this commentary by Don Nottoli, a Sacramento County supervisor and chair of the Delta Counties Coalition, and Bill Dodd, a CA senator representing the Delta, Newsom is praised for rejecting the twin tunnels proposal and thereby calling for a more thoughtful process to conserve water and preserve the Sacramento Delta while also addressing irrigation needs. They praise Newsom's openness to "a more holistic approach that could include alternatives like water use efficiency measures, levee restoration, additional storage and other local projects supported by the Delta Counties Coalition."
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They note that while the two-tunnel project was rejected, a single tunnel plan is still on the table, though its impacts have not been studied and there are no details about its size, location, cost or operation. What is certain, though, is that a tunnel alone won't be a sustainable solution for California water needs. "The funds allocated for tunnels would be better spent on regional portfolio-based measures, including strengthening levees, restoring ecosystem habitat, increasing water use efficiency, developing local and regional water supplies, and providing additional surface and groundwater storage and recharge." they write. "This winter’s storms underscore how much excess runoff we could have captured for future droughts and retained if we had more reservoir and groundwater recharge projects completed."

by Jim Tarbell

It is going to be a busy spring for the Grassroots Institute in Mendocino County, California. We are working toward introducing our solidarity economy mapping project to the public. This interactive, online map, detailing the Economy for Our Common Good in Mendocino County, features the business, non-profit, government and citizens groups that are already at work supporting a local economy that works for both people and planet. We are also planning how we can best introduce this mapping tool into neighboring counties.  In order to accomplish our first goal we are finalizing the data on over five dozen organizations that will be on the initial map. That is only a small portion of the over 200 organizations that have been nominated to be on the map. Adding and updating the map will be an on-going, ever-changing process.

In order to share this process with citizens and groups across the country we are finishing up a study guide on the year-and-a-half experience of creating the map. We will put that up on our website at grassroots-institute.org along with a link to the map, a sample video of the interviewing process for map-worthy organizations, and information on two upcoming events where we will be introducing the Economy for our Common Good mapping project and discussing how to incorporate more geography and data.

The first event will be the conference on "Post Capitalism: Building the Solidarity Economy" at Humboldt State University in Arcata CA on April 26 and 27. Emily Kawano, the founder of the US Solidarity Economy Network and our adviser on our mapping project, will be a keynote speaker at that conference. The Grassroots Institute will also present a workshop to help communities map their local solidarity economy that is already in existence.

Then Emily Kawano is coming down to Mendocino County for the grand public presentation of our map and all the organizations on it that are building an economy for the common good.  We'll also be holding a roundtable community discussion on building co-ops and collectives in Mendocino County. We are excited to be able to bring the diversity and vitality of our local solidarity economy into clearer view for Mendocino residents, and we hope that what we've done will be an inspiration to activists in other parts of the country to do the same where they are.

Jim Tarbell is editor of the Alliance journal, "Justice Rising: Grassroots Solutions to Corporate Power," a former host of "Corporations and Democracy" and a facilitator and instructor at the Grassroots Institute.