In 1849, the discovery of shiny ore in the streambeds along California's American River drew 80,000 Forty-Niners from China, Europe, Mexico and the eastern United States to the Sierra Nevada and its gold fields.
In 2009, the protection of a shiny bait fish in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta has cost California's Central Valley farm economy more than 35,285 jobs; $1.6 billion in revenue and a 40-percent unemployment rate in towns surrounded by parched fields.
On Nov. 8, supporters of the Tea Party Patriots™ the "official grassroots American movement", will launch the "Farmer Relief & Freedom Relay" to focus national attention on how environmental policies and court rulings have devastated California's Central Valley. These "Tea-Niners"
"The insanity must end," says attorney Mark Meckler of Sacramento, a national coordinator of the Tea Party Patriots™. "It is devastating California's economy. We are being crushed by burdensome regulations and taxes imposed by politicians who care more for causes and political gamesmanship than people."
In 1849, a tidal wave of Forty-Niners came to California by three routes: Through the Isthmus of Panama, around Cape Horn or overland by way of the Oregon-California Trail with a combined distance of 25,000 and a time range of 3 to 8 months.
In 2009, thousands of "Tea-Niners"
In 1849, the Forty-Niners used individual liberty, property rights, free-enterprise and bone-weary work to create dry streambeds, divert waters with dams or dig shafts into bedrock. Land and water meant life, especially human life.
In 2009, government and judicial decisions--based on restrictive environmental laws--have shut off (from December through July) pumps that bring delta water to the Central Valley, creating a man-made "Dust Bowl" that protects a fish and abandons farmers.
"Government is choosing the environment over human life," says Ben Bergquam, media and public outreach coordinator for the Central Valley Tea Party, a branch of the Tea Party Patriots™. "We need to take the message nationally. We need to get people to stand up on one issue. We need laws that stop favoring radical environmentalists and support the productive people in this country."
In 1849, few fortune hunters struck it rich in the wild, roaring country where towns had names like Hangtown, Skunk Gulch and Murderers Bar. The land has since reclaimed those places, most of which are ghost towns now.
However, the Forty-Niners did have some advantages: No state version of Cap-and-Trade (AB 32), no Endangered Species Act, no San Joaquin River Settlement, no political water fights between Democrats and Republicans in Congress and no conflict of interest between farm families and radical environmentalists.
In 2009, the final leg of California's Cap-and-Trade law (AB 32), the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, creates standards that regulate refrigerant gases, the kind usually found in air-conditioning or HVAC-R systems, which are found in food processing, storage or transporation sites and industrial facilities. The cost to upgrade diesel trucks (an estimated $20,000) will drive transportation and food prices up.
"I have fought aggressively to bring our water crisis to the attention of Congress and the American people," says Rep. Devin Nunes, (R-Visalia), whose district nestles in the heart of the Central Valley. He has offered legislation to Congressional committees to turn the pumps on permanently or get a waiver on the Endangered Species Act (ESA), which has the Delta Smelt, a 2-inch minnow, on the endangered list.
"The legislation I have been offering to my colleagues is virtually identical to legislation passed in 2003 for the people of New Mexico," Nunes says. "That bill passed the Senate unanimously and passed the House with an overwhelming bipartisan vote."
In the Rio Grande silvery minnow case, competing water projects ignited a battle between the Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) on the Middle Rio Grande and conservation groups asserting that the minnow was protected under the ESA.
In that case, Sen. Diane Feinstein, Sen. Barbara Boxer and Rep. Nancy Pelosi voted to support a temporary waiver of the ESA in Albuquerque, NM.
"Why was an ESA waiver good enough for the citizens of New Mexico but not California?" Nunes asks. "I will continue to force (Sen.) Feinstein and others to vote with or against the people of California."
In 2009, Democrats passed the San Joaquin River Settlement, which will dry up farming communities on the East side of the San Joaquin Valley, to create a man-made Salmon run, which will add even more stress to the shriveling Central Valley economy.
A spokesman for Rep. Nunes' office says Californians can help turn the water in the Central Valley back on by contacting their elected officials and pressing support for a 2-year waiver of the ESA on the Delta Smelt (the same treatment given to CA residents as those in NM), and the repeal of the San Joaquin River Settlement.
"We've got to get the information out to the people," says Bergquam of the Central Valley Tea Party. "People in the Central Valley have been fighting for water for years. What are they going to do next, out-source farming?
"It's really an outrage to see farmers in food lines getting cans of carrots packed in China," he adds, "when they don't have the water they need for their own land.
"We are the people," Bergquam adds, voice raising. "We can support our own. We don't need subsidies or government handouts; just stop the radical environmental policies and turn the water on."
In 1849, a Forty-Niner, standing at a bar in the local Odd Fellows Hall, would raise his glass to that comment.
For information on the "Farmer Relief & Freedom Relay", including the stops and schedule of events, go to www.teapartypatriots.org.
