A star-studded line-up of speakers — at least by party standards — includes Gov. Gavin Newsom, Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins, Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, Attorney General Rob Bonta and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass.While Hicks said climate change, health care and housing are some of the key issues facing Californians, tackling policy isn’t on the agenda. That’s partly because voters in different parts of the state are facing various problems.
“Despite acknowledging the need to do so more than a decade ago, DWR has not fully updated its forecasting model and related procedures to better account for the effects of climate change,” the auditor said. His report cited two instances, in 2008 and 2018, when the department admitted that climate change was affecting water supply management and reducing forecasting accuracy.
Central to the dispute is the 2021 water year, a time of drought in which the department “significantly overestimated the State’s water supply,” according to the auditor. Because of this expected inflow, releases from reservoirs were increased, sending stored water downstream toward the ocean. When the predicted mountain snowmelt did not arrive — partly due to higher temperatures, dry soils and increased evaporation — California entered summer with less water than it would have under more accurate forecasting.
In their response, department officials said they are in the process of honing their forecasting capabilities but that accurately understanding novel and unprecedented climate patterns “requires time, because new tools must be developed to characterize conditions and shape forecasts in meaningful ways.