In order to make housing more affordable, we must lower the cost and increase the rate of new construction. We can address rising construction costs by reducing state regulation of new housing construction, by providing flexibility on materials used in housing construction and by attracting skilled labor to the construction field; I support career technical education in our high schools. I support limiting development fees in order to lower the cost of building new housing and reform of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) in order to reduce frivolous litigation that slows the speed and increases the cost of new housing construction.

Dependence on foreign energy threatens our national security, economic prosperity and access to reliable and sustainable energy. Development of energy that is independent from foreign sources is of strategic and livability importance. Recall recent summer rolling blackouts when the electric grid nearly collapsed? Part of the reason was the “slump” in renewable energy that occurs at night when solar panels don’t work and when wind turbines are not turning. California’s electric grid is highly dependent on solar and wind due to laws which prioritize those things and require California’s electricity to be 100% “carbon free” energy by 2045. The average US national electricity rate is less than half of that of California. If you think your bill is high and energy is unreliable now, just wait until 2045.

California is paying the price for abandoning reliable energy sources in favor of unreliable “green” energy sources such as wind and solar power. The sensible path forward for clean, affordable and reliable energy is hydro-electric and nuclear energy. Additionally, California must work towards developing new and innovative clean energy sources and then carry that effort forward throughout the country.

California's schools have deteriorated due to the systematic marginalization of involvement by parents in the education of California students. I support reasonable measures to strengthen academic standards and maximize the influence and involvement of parents in the schools. I support an education system that ensures access and opportunity for all children, blind to the color of their skin, the circumstances of their neighborhood, or the socioeconomic background of their home. Parents will make better choices than government in almost every case.

I support school choice programs, tax-credit scholarships, magnet schools, public charter schools, homeschooling, educational savings accounts and the right of parents to opt out of age inappropriate sexually explicit curriculum. The top priority of our schools should be learning basic competencies, not social engineering.

California’s reservoirs are near empty because water is not being saved in storage the way in which our magnificent water projects were built and designed. California's water shortage is completely preventable - derelict water management has produced instead:

Central Valley Project farmers north and south of the Delta will receive zero irrigation water.

State Water Project farmers were allotted 15% of their water in December, the Department of Water Resources reduced that to a mere 5% allocation.

Newsom's executive order dictates that 27 million State Water Project customers will be budgeted enough water for health and sanitation purposes only, or 44 to 55 gallons per person per day.

California has billions of dollars of unpaid water bills with penalty fines attached. Newsom's $5.1 billion Water Portfolio Package to make droughts survivable will pay those bills - no new water supply is created.

Newsom's executive order prohibits new wells from being drilled in the San Joaquin Valley without the approval of unelected local groundwater agencies.

President Biden has warned of an impending food shortage. Meanwhile, 130,000 acres of prime California farmland was not planted in 2021 because it was allocated 0% irrigation water.

As the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act is fully implemented, it is estimated as many as 1.5 million acres of the most productive farmland on the planet will sit idle. That is because no surface water is being delivered for recharge. That is enough land to feed about 40 million people for an entire year.

From December 2021, to through March 2022 environmental water policies have resulted in 3.1 million-acre feet of freshwater ocean outflow. Less than 600,000-acre feet of this was necessary to prevent saltwater intrusion into the Delta. That leaves at least 2.5 million-acre feet of wasted outflow to the Pacific Ocean which could have benefited the Delta, streams, rivers, and fish for hundreds of miles. The amount of wasted water is equal to the amount of water necessary to meet the needs of 24.8 million people for a year.

Wasted outflow in the last four months alone could have grown a year's worth of food for 25 million people. It could have recharged groundwater, diluted the concentration of toxic contaminants in well water in disadvantaged communities, and lowered water bills. It could have arrested the land subsidence that is destroying infrastructure like major conveyance canals, the California Aqueduct, bridges, and roads. It could have prevented the need to pump groundwater and further damage aquifers.

98% of California farmers are multi-generational family farmers. Once a family farm goes out of business and sells off land and assets, it does not come back. Gone with the families is more than a century of successful farmer know how, in a region that can grow more than 400 food and fiber crops in the only Mediterranean climate like it in America.

** Credit to Kristi Diener, “The CA Water for Food and People Movement” FaceBook page **