The Energy 202: 'California, get on the ball.' Trump threatens to withhold funds to state over fire and water policy

“California, get on the ball,” Trump told a crowd of local officials from California and other states visiting Washington. “Because we're not going to hand you any more money. It’s ridiculous, okay?"

The comment marks another escalation of tensions between the president and officials in the nation’s most populous state, which voted against Trump in favor of Hillary Clinton by a more than 2-to-1 margin.

Trump re-upped criticism of California’s forest fire prevention policy following a historic wildfire season. And he also took aim at its management of the water flowing through the Central Valley, the state’s farming hub and a rare Republican stronghold in the otherwise blue state.

As he has in the past, Trump criticized the state  for letting water flow into the Pacific instead of allowing Central Valley farmers near the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers to use it to grow crops.

Californians have long debated how to best allocate California’s finite freshwater in the Sacramento-San Joaquin river system between upstream farms and downstream fisheries that include both caught salmon and endangered delta smelt.

“They send it out into the Pacific Ocean,” Trump said, even though that is how rivers naturally flow — from highlands into the ocean. He added that "nobody knows what a smelt is." (The smelt is a tiny fish that wildlife experts say is nearing extinction.)

Tuesday's comments are just the latest in a long pattern of jabs at California -- and a week after he signed a memorandum asking federal agencies to consider removing water regulations on federal water projects in the state and others in the Western states.

In the courts and the state legislature, California has pushed back against the Trump administration’s climate, immigration and labor policies. But no issue may define California more than water. Though California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) declared an end to its historic drought emergency in 2017, 48 percent of the state is still experiencing drought conditions as of last week, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.

Trump, however, suggested that same day that California has “so much water they don’t know what to do with it.”

More dubiously, Trump on Tuesday tried to tie the state’s water management to the historic wildfires that raged through the state this year. His administration and Republicans in Congress have called for granting forestry officials more discretion to thin dried trees that fuel wildfires. Many conservationists counter that the policy is a pretext to allow for more logging.

“We're tired of giving California hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars all the time for their forest fires when you wouldn’t have them if they manage their forests properly,” Trump said.

But the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection has repeatedly said it had enough water to fight the blazes.

"We're having no issues with water supplies," Scott McLean, a deputy chief with the agency, told The Washington Post in August when about a series of tweets from Trump that also tried to make that connection.

“I don't understand it,” McLean added then.

— “He's doing well, right?" Trump on Tuesday signaled that he may tap acting Environmental Protection Agency chief Andrew Wheeler to become the permanent head of the agency.

“He’s acting, but he’s doing well, right? So maybe he won’t be so acting so long,” Trump also said at the White House as he called Wheeler to the stage. Wheeler would have to go through another Senate confirmation round if he were to be nominated for the permanent role.

There’s more: During his remarks, Trump suggested that Wheeler could improve his chances of becoming the permanent EPA head if he helped address getting a Texas harbor dredging project approved, something Trump said the oil industry brought to his attention. 

Here’s the problem: The Army Corps of Engineers, not the EPA, usually have final say over such projects. 

— Corn wars: Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) called on the EPA to speed up its move to allow year-round sales of a high-ethanol blend of gasoline called E15 to keep up with the president’s promise to corn farmers. “EPA ought to speed it up. Otherwise it is going to look like the president wasn’t serious in his announcement,” the Iowa Republican told reporters on a conference call, according to Reuters. Trump announced during a rally in the state this month that he would direct the EPA to allow for year-round E15 sales, saying his “administration is protecting ethanol.”

— Trump v. Puerto Rico: In a tweet, Trump accused Puerto Rico officials of using disaster funding to pay off the U.S. territory’s debt rather than for hurricane relief.

What actually happened:   “A federally appointed oversight board on Tuesday approved a fiscal reform plan for Puerto Rico over opposition from the island’s elected government,” Reuters reports. “The plan calls for a range of fiscal and structural reforms, reduces government spending and takes into account an additional $20 billion in federal disaster relief funds.”  

— "Oh my God, it’s gone": A tiny 11-acre island in the Hawaiian archipelago was washed away this month as a result of Hurricane Walaka, the Honolulu Civil Beat reports. Federal scientists confirmed Monday that the island had basically been erased by the Category 4 storm. The island is a critical habitat for endangered Hawaiian monk seals and green sea turtles. One University of Hawaii climate scientist told the publication he had a moment thinking "Oh my God, it’s gone."

— Back on the East Coast: Computer models reached a consensus that a nor’easter will drench the East Coast by the weekend, a remnant system from Hurricane Willa that has impacted Mexico’s west coast, The Post’s Jason Samenow reports. “Between late Friday and the weekend, windswept moderate-to-heavy rain will stream north from the Mid-Atlantic into New England,” he writes, adding “Central Texas will first face the storm’s effects Wednesday as Willa’s remnant moisture surges north of the Mexican border.”

Today

• The World Resources Institute’s Washington Forest Legality Week 2018 continues.
• Acting EPA administrator Andrew Wheeler is scheduled to speak at the Shale Insight 2018 conference.
• The Women’s Council on Energy and the Environment holds an event."
• American University hosts an event on “The Private Governance Response to Climate Change."
• The American Council on Renewable Energy holds a webinar on “US Cities are Driving Demand for Renewables."
• The Natural Gas Roundtable holds a panel discussion.

— "Space is a war-fighting domain": In an interview with The Post's Robert Costa at the newspaper's headquarters on Tuesday, Vice President Pence left open the possibility the United States would put nuclear weapons in space. The 1967 Outer Space Treaty currently bans weapons of mass destruction in space.