Saying California was "back" and "on the move," a chipper Gov. Jerry Brown urged lawmakers in his annual State of the State speech January 24 to streamline funding for schools, focus on implementing federal health care reform and keep a tight rein on spending so the budget stays balanced. He addressed the following issues by stating:

 

Water

 

Central to the life of our state is water and one sixth of that water flows through the San Joaquin Delta. Silicon Valley, the Livermore Valley, farmers on the East side of the San Joaquin Valley between Fresno and Kern County and farmers on the West side between Tracy and Los Banos, urban Southern California and Northern Contra Costa, all are critically dependent on the Delta for Water.

 

My proposed plan is two tunnels 30 miles long and 40 feet wide, designed to improve the ecology of the Delta, with almost 100 square miles of habitat restoration. Yes, that is big but so is the problem.  The London Olympics lasted a short while and cost $14 billion, about the same cost as this project. But this project will serve California for hundreds of years.

 

Climate Change

 

When we think about California's future, no long term liability presents as great a danger to our wellbeing as the buildup of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. According to the latest report from the World Bank, carbon dioxide emissions are the highest in 15 million years. At today's emissions rate, the planet could warm by more than 7 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the century. California is extremely vulnerable because of our Mediterranean climate, long coastline and reliance on snowpack for so much of our water supply.

 

Again California is leading the way. We are reducing emissions as required by AB 32 and we will meet our goal of getting carbon emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. Key to our efforts is reducing electricity consumption through efficiency standards for buildings and appliances. Over the last three decades, these pioneering efforts have saved Californians $65 billion dollars. And we are not through yet.

 

We are also meeting our renewable energy goals: more than 20% renewable energy this year. By 2020, we will get at least a third of our electricity from the sun and the wind and other renewable sources-and probably more.

 

High Speed Rail

 

Last year, you authorized another big project: High Speed Rail. Yes, it is bold but so is everything else about California. Electrified trains are part of the future. China already has 5000 miles of high speed rail and intends to double that. Spain has 1600 miles and is building more. More than a dozen other countries have their own successful high speed rail systems. Even Morocco is building one.

 

The first phase will get us from Madera to Bakersfield. Then we will take it through the Tehachapi Mountains to Palmdale, constructing 30 miles of tunnels and bridges. The first rail line through those mountains was built in 1874 and its top speed over the crest is still 24 miles an hour. Then we will build another 33 miles of tunnels and bridges before we get the train to its destination at Union Station in the heart of Los Angeles.   It has taken great perseverance to get us this far. I signed the original high speed rail Authority in 1982-over 30 years ago. In 2013, we will finally break ground and start construction.

 

Bryce Lundberg of Butte, and Miles Reiter of Aptos were appointed this week to the California State Board of Food and Agriculture. Lundberg has been owner and partner at B and E Lundberg Farm since 1985 and has held multiple positions at Lundberg Family Farms since 1985, including owner, vice president of agriculture, director of organic certification and board member. He currently serves as chair of the Northern California Water Association and is a government affairs committee member at California Certified Organic Farmers. Lundberg is also a board member of the Western Canal Water District and of the California Farm Water Coalition.

 

Reiter worked at Driscoll Strawberry Associates Inc. as chief executive officer since 2000 and chairman since 1988. He was president at Aptos Berry Farms Inc. from 1977 to 2000. Reiter served on the Produce Marketing Association Board of Directors from 2007 to 2010 and on the retail board from 2003 to 2006. He served on the Western Growers Association Board of Directors from 2002 to 2009.

 

 

 

This week, Sen. John Kerry (D, MA), Obama's nominee to succeed Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, underwent his first confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, a panel he chaired. Former Sen. Chuck Hagel (R, NE) is the nominee to replace departing Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, and his confirmation hearings will begin next week. White House Chief of Staff Jack Lew has been nominated to replace Secretary of the Treasury Tim Geithner, and John Brennan, a former CIA operative, has been nominated to head the intelligence agency. This week, Obama also nominated Mary Jo White, a former federal prosecutor and lawyer, to head the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC).  

 

Members of Obama's cabinet who've announced they're staying include Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, who said in a statement he shares the President's "deep appreciation for rural America...(and) I am pleased to continue working alongside President Obama to grow more opportunity in rural America." Others include Attorney General Eric Holder, who's said he'll stay on for at least another year; Secretary of Health & Human Services Kathleen Sebelius; Secretary of Housing & Urban Development Shaun Donovan; Secretary of Education Arne Duncan; Secretary for Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki, and Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano.  

 

Announced departures, but without replacement nominees, include EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson; Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar; Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis; Secretary of Energy Steven Chu; U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk, and FBI Director Robert Mueller whose 10-year term expired in 2011, but who stayed on for two years at the President's request. Filling the EPA, energy and interior slots is critical to the President's energy and climate change priorities.  

Nine ag input and producer groups, including the American Feed Industry Assn. (AFIA), the National Grain & Feed Assn. (NGFA) and The Fertilizer Institute (TFI), this week signed a letter to House Agriculture Committee Chair Frank Lucas (R, OK) and committee ranking member Rep. Collin Peterson (D, MN) pledging support for HR 349, a bill by Rep. Martha Roby (R, AL) to reform the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) and asking the committee leaders to include the bill as part of the committee's Farm Bill efforts. The bill would reduce the annual acreage cap in the CRP over a five-year period to 24 million acres, down from the current 32 million. It would also better target the CRP to truly environmentally fragile lands by removing Class I and Class II land capability classes from eligibility and exempt land enrolled as buffers, filterstrips and wildlife habitat. Finally, the bill would mandate USDA for FY2014 give existing contract holders the freedom to begin restoring production - before contracts expire and without penalty - on CRP acres enrolled for at least five years. The groups urged the committee to consider extending this "early out" provision beyond FY2014.

Now that Congress has extended most 2008 Farm Bill authorities through the end of September, this week the Farm Service Agency (FSA) announced it is extending deadlines for program sign-up beginning in February. Included as "extended programs" are the direct and counter-cyclical payment programs (DCP), the Average Crop Loss Election Program (ACRE) and the Milk Income Loss Contract Program (MILC). Signups for DCP and ACRE - with no changes in program provisions - for 2013 crops will be on February 19; DCP sign-up will end August 2. The ACRE sign-up will end June 3. All dairy producer MILC contracts are automatically extended to September 30. House Agriculture Committee Chair Frank Lucas (R, OK) praised the announcement, saying it gives producers "certainty for the 2013 crop year."

USDA's Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) this week announced it signed a deal with its Russian counterpart to facilitate feed imports by Russia. The deal follows congressional enactment of the Russia permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) agreement, and will facilitate the sale of animal feeds and ingredients, particularly feed supplements and vitamin premixes containing plant-based carriers. The feeds will be for cattle, pigs, poultry, sheep, goats, horses and other animals.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce this week urged President Obama to be more aggressive in seeking expanded U.S. trade, urging him to prioritize his request for fast-track trade promotion authority. Trade promotion authority or "fast track" as it's also known, allows the President to negotiate directly with other nations on trade treaties, calls for expedited congressional consideration within 90 days of a treaty being submitted, but restricts the House and Senate to voting on the finished product on straight up or down votes - no amendments allowed. The Chamber's request comes as the White House is moving to complete negotiations on the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement, its top trade priority, but the business group says the Administration should push for fast track authority before the deal is done, expected by October. Trade promotion authority for the President lapsed in 2007.

Controversial federal "oil spill" regulations will be modified as they pertain to farms and ranches under legislation introduced this week by Rep. Rick Crawford (R, AR) and 33 bipartisan colleagues. Basically the Crawford bill would require certification of compliance with EPA's spill prevention, control and countermeasure rule by a professional engineer only if the farm's aboveground storage tank holds more than 10,000 gallons, aggregate aboveground storage is more than 42,000 gallons or the farm has a history of spills. Owner/operators can self-certify if aggregate aboveground capacity is greater than 10,000 gallons but less than 42,000, and there is no history of spills. Exempt would be farms where storage is less than 10,000 gallons and there is no history of spills.