California lawmakers block Mojave water bill, Cadiz surges (updated)

Cadiz

01/09/2017 23:21

(Adds company comment) 
    By Noel Randewich 
    SAN FRANCISCO, Sept 1 (Reuters) - Shares of water resource 
developer Cadiz Inc  CDZI.O  surged 32 percent in extended trade 
on Friday after a bill aimed at clogging up its plan to pump 
water from California's Mojave Desert failed to make it past a 
state Senate committee. 
    In a blow to environmentalists and other opponents of the 
project, California's Senate Appropriations Committee held Bill 
AB 1000, known as the California Desert Protection Act, instead 
of advancing it. 
    "I'm deeply disappointed that the state legislature is 
actively blocking a bill to prevent Cadiz - one of the Trump 
administration's pet projects - from destroying the Mojave 
Desert," U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat, said in a 
statement. 
    AB 1000 would require additional state government 
certifications that could stop plans by Cadiz to capture 
groundwater that it says would otherwise evaporate under 34,000 
acres of land it owns in the eastern Mojave Desert. 
    Aimed at supplying water for 400,000 people, the Cadiz Water 
Project has already been approved by two California public 
agencies and withstood court challenges. 
    "The Cadiz Project will add a new reliable water supply in 
Southern California and safely and sustainably manage 
groundwater that is otherwise lost to evaporation," Cadiz 
spokeswoman Courtney Degener said in a statement after the 
committee's decision. 
    Under President Donald Trump, the Bureau of Land Management 
in March undid two Obama-era directives preventing Cadiz from 
using a federal railroad right-of-way to build a water pipeline. 
    Cadiz's stock had lost a fifth of its value earlier in 
Friday's session ahead of the Senate committee's meeting. Its 
after-the-bell surge following the committee's decision more 
than made up for that loss. 
    California Governor Jerry Brown on Thursday sent a letter to 
legislative leaders urging them to pass the bill and California 
Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom sent a similar missive. 
    Had the Senate Appropriations Committee approved the bill, 
it would have faced additional legislative hurdles before Brown 
could sign it. 
 
 (Reporting by Noel Randewich; Editing by Alistair Bell and 
James Dalgleish) 
 ((noel.randewich@tr.com; Twitter handle: @randewich)(415)(677 
2542; Reuters Messaging: 
noel.randewich.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)) 
 
Keywords: CALIFORNIA WATER/CADIZ