VX News is the editorial voice of the annual VerdeXchange Conference, featuring in-depth interviews with industry leaders and policymakers driving innovation in clean energy, water, transportation, and climate policy.
California Needs Water. El Niño Might Bring Too Much.
California enters what forecasters expect to be one of the strongest El Niños on record. The season will test a decade of state investment in stormwater capture and groundwater recharge, after Governor Newsom declared an early state of emergency. VX News here republishes The New York Times reporting on whether the state can bank a potential deluge underground rather than lose it to the Pacific, as recharge has fallen sharply since 2023 and groundwater storage remains 8.1 million acre-feet below 2019 levels. Read the article here.
California’s future water supplies depend on the outcomes of four intertwined battles
With the Colorado River nearing a breaking point and the state weighing mandatory San Joaquin River curtailments, California faces a pivotal stretch in water policy. VX News here republishes CalMatters columnist Dan Walters' commentary on four intertwined fights over the Colorado River, Sites Reservoir, the Delta Conveyance tunnel and San Joaquin diversions, and how they will determine the state's water allocation for decades. See original article here.
Felicia Marcus "A New Bridge With Another Expiration Date"
In conversation, Felicia Marcus, the William C. Landreth Visiting Fellow at Stanford's Water in the West program and former chair of the California State Water Resources Control Board, assesses the plan federal officials have just accepted to cut Colorado River use through 2028 which she calls a large band-aid rather than the tourniquet the basin needs. She reflects on 25 years of living beyond the river's means, the compact arithmetic that set the overallocation in motion, and the shift required from two-year interim patches toward a durable post-2026 framework. Drawing on service at the federal, state, and municipal levels, Marcus argues that Washington has abandoned the "800-pound gorilla" role that once produced the Bay-Delta Accord and the Quantification Settlement Agreement. Her prescription rests on financing and inclusion – capital to scale conservation and retrofits, and negotiations that reach past the seven state delegations to local agencies, academics, and tribes.
