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In
a blow to environmentalists and other opponents of the project,
California's Senate Appropriations Committee held Bill AB 1000,
known as the California Desert Protection Act, instead of
advancing it.
“I'm deeply disappointed that the state legislature is actively
blocking a bill to prevent Cadiz - one of the Trump
administration's pet projects - from destroying the Mojave
Desert," U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat, said in a
statement.
AB 1000 would require additional state government certifications
that could stop plans by Cadiz to capture groundwater that it
says would otherwise evaporate under 34,000 acres of land it
owns in the eastern Mojave Desert.
Aimed at supplying water for 400,000 people, the Cadiz Water
Project has already been approved by two California public
agencies and withstood court challenges.
"The Cadiz Project will add a new reliable water supply in
Southern California and safely and sustainably manage
groundwater that is otherwise lost to evaporation," Cadiz
spokeswoman Courtney Degener said in a statement after the
committee's decision.
Under President Donald Trump, the Bureau of Land Management in
March undid two Obama-era directives preventing Cadiz from using
a federal railroad right-of-way to build a water pipeline.
Cadiz's stock had lost a fifth of its value earlier in Friday's
session ahead of the Senate committee's meeting. Its
after-the-bell surge following the committee's decision more
than made up for that loss.
California Governor Jerry Brown on Thursday sent a letter to
legislative leaders urging them to pass the bill and California
Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom sent a similar missive.
Had the Senate Appropriations Committee approved the bill, it
would have faced additional legislative hurdles before Brown
could sign it.
(Reporting by Noel Randewich; Editing by Alistair Bell and James
Dalgleish)
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