SACRAMENTO, California — Sen. Jerry McNerney is laying down the gauntlet against Gov. Gavin Newsom’s budget proposal to fast-track a controversial Delta water tunnel.
What happened: McNerney said he has the votes to defeat Newsom’s bid last week to speed up the permitting for a tunnel underneath the state’s main water delivery hub, the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, if it came to that.
“I’m confident that we do,” the former House Democrat said in an interview following a press conference on the issue.
Why this matters: A version of the proposed project has been floating around — first as a canal, then a pair of tunnels — for more than a half-century, during which it has reliably brought out opposition from environmental groups and elected officials in the Delta region concerned about habitat loss and construction impacts.
