Facing a Western water crisis, Trump turns to Democrats’ climate lawAs Colorado River water levels reach disastrous lows, the administration l...
Published by Water Network Research, Official research team of The Water Network
Facing a Western water crisis, Trump turns to Democrats’ climate law
As Colorado River water levels reach disastrous lows, the administration looks to draw cash from the 2022 law it sought to neuter.
As the drought-stricken Colorado River faces record-low flows that could set off a sprawling water and power crisis across the West, the Trump administration is opening the federal cash spigot.
In recent weeks the Interior Department has contacted farm districts, cities, tribes and other water users in Arizona, California and Nevada looking to extend Biden administration contracts that paid out nearly $1.4 billion from Democrats’ signature climate law to entities that agreed to fallow fields, tighten conservation measures or otherwise forgo water deliveries.
At the same time, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum ordered up a list of projects from the region’s seven governors to address the river’s long-term problems, for which the federal government could be a “potential cost-share partner.” The menu of proposals they delivered a week ago includes 85 projects totaling more than $50 billion — a price tag that far exceeds what Interior currently has in its coffers.
The sudden willingness to open the federal wallet marks a sharp U-turn for the Trump administration, which froze funding for some of the same efforts last year and has overall sought to claw back billions of dollars of spending from Democrats’ 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.
That Interior is now quietly tapping those funds underscores the dire crisis facing the Colorado River, which serves 40 million people, a blossoming tech sector and 5.5 million acres of irrigated farmland from Wyoming to Mexico.
But the one thing that could actually solve the waterway’s fundamental problem is missing from the conversation, former officials and water experts say: permanently reducing the amount of water that farmers and ranchers draw from a river that has been dramatically shriveled over the past quarter-century due to climate change.
SOURCE: https://www.politico.com/news/2026/06/02/trump-biden-climate-money-colorado-river-ee-00944211?utm_source=flipboard&utm_content=politico/magazine/Politics
As Colorado River water levels reach disastrous lows, the administration looks to draw cash from the 2022 law it sought to neuter.
As the drought-stricken Colorado River faces record-low flows that could set off a sprawling water and power crisis across the West, the Trump administration is opening the federal cash spigot.
In recent weeks the Interior Department has contacted farm districts, cities, tribes and other water users in Arizona, California and Nevada looking to extend Biden administration contracts that paid out nearly $1.4 billion from Democrats’ signature climate law to entities that agreed to fallow fields, tighten conservation measures or otherwise forgo water deliveries.
At the same time, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum ordered up a list of projects from the region’s seven governors to address the river’s long-term problems, for which the federal government could be a “potential cost-share partner.” The menu of proposals they delivered a week ago includes 85 projects totaling more than $50 billion — a price tag that far exceeds what Interior currently has in its coffers.
The sudden willingness to open the federal wallet marks a sharp U-turn for the Trump administration, which froze funding for some of the same efforts last year and has overall sought to claw back billions of dollars of spending from Democrats’ 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.
That Interior is now quietly tapping those funds underscores the dire crisis facing the Colorado River, which serves 40 million people, a blossoming tech sector and 5.5 million acres of irrigated farmland from Wyoming to Mexico.
But the one thing that could actually solve the waterway’s fundamental problem is missing from the conversation, former officials and water experts say: permanently reducing the amount of water that farmers and ranchers draw from a river that has been dramatically shriveled over the past quarter-century due to climate change.
SOURCE: https://www.politico.com/news/2026/06/02/trump-biden-climate-money-colorado-river-ee-00944211?utm_source=flipboard&utm_content=politico/magazine/Politics
Tags
- Produced Water From Oil & Gas Industry
- Water Supply
- Water Security
- Colorado, United States
- Health consequences from Toxic Water
- Water from Air
- Water from Urine