Hacker News Reader

Comment by jonchang | Hacker News Reader

Got any sources for that?

In 2020 federal memo and regulatory changes under Trump's first administration to send more water from Northern California to Central Valley agriculture via federal projects were ignored by the governor of california, and instead of allowing the water to flow into southern california, his office sued over those Trump-era water rules, arguing they violated environmental protections for endangered fish.... had he done what the current administration forced him to do, there would be no drought in 2020, there would be no empty reservoirs in 2020. So given those facts, I would argue that yes the current Governor is responsible for what happened 100%.

take a look at SB 79 is a 2025 California state law (Senate Bill 79, authored by Sen. Scott Wiener) that overrides local zoning limits to allow higher-density multifamily housing near major public transit stops, signed into law by Governor Newsom on October 10th 2025, despite local resistance by residents.

All urban use is 11% of California water.

SB79 has nothing to do with the drought.

Gavin Newsom ran on building housing, and SB79 is him fulfilling his mandate from voters, "local resistance by residents" is why California has some of the most expensive housing in the world.

Gavin Newsom also vetoed AB 2903, the bipartisan bill for auditing of California's $24 billion spent and squandered on fixing the homeless problem, which only got worse. SB79 is another example of Newsom intent to change zoning laws to allow developers to build high density housing which is what the parent comment was about. if you want to be a shill for the governor, thats your business. It looks like willfull graft to me.

there would be no drought if the 2020 Federal regulations were followed. the only reason there's no drought today is because the federal government stepped in and finally opened up the water lines in the North coming south.

keep in mind there used to be a big freshwater lake (Tulare Lake) in the middle of California for at least ten thousand years.....

> In 2020 federal memo and regulatory changes under Trump's first administration to send more water from Northern California to Central Valley agriculture via federal projects were ignored by the governor of california, and instead of allowing the water to flow into southern california ... had he done what the current administration forced him to do, there would be no drought in 2020, there would be no empty reservoirs in 2020.

How would diverting water from Northern California, where drought was the worst in 2020, to the Central Valley possibly end the drought?

Filling up reservoirs that are upstream by moving water downstream sounds like quite the magic trick.

1. Trump’s order in 2020 had nothing to do with fire, so it doesn’t support your position that this has anything to do with fires.

2. The water management plan has nothing to do with where water flows to fight fires.

3. A legal fight in 2020 is not caused by a bill that was passed in 2025.

> there would be no drought in 2020

That’s not how droughts work. A drought is a lack of rainfall. Moving water can reduce the problems caused by a drought, but it cannot prevent a drought.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com