French Laundry lobbyist’s second-biggest client? Poseidon Water, a Gavin Newsom funder

If Gov. Gavin Newsom can afford the $450 cost of having dinner at the exclusive French Laundry restaurant in Napa, he probably won’t bat an eye at increases in water bills like the ones residents in Orange County would experience due to Poseidon Water’s desalination project proposed in Huntington Beach. But for Californians on low and fixed-incomes, and those already suffering terribly from the health and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, an unnecessary hike in water bills is a cruel and undeserved burden.

The French Laundry dinner Newsom attended in November was a birthday celebration for lobbyist Jason Kinney, a partner in the Axiom Advisors lobbying firm. Poseidon has already paid Axiom Advisors more than $500,000 over the past year and a half to lobby Newsom (not to mention a $25,000 contribution to Newsom’s inauguration) and other state officials to secure approval of its boondoggle desalination project.

Poseidon, owned by an equity firm, is spending heavily to buy state approval because its troubled project does not make economic or environmental sense. It is strategically designed to suck water from the ocean and money from the pockets of ordinary Californians to further enrich this massive corporation and its international financiers.

The unneeded project would enrich lobbyists and foreign corporate interests while eroding the human right to water and decreasing water affordability for low-income communities for the next half century. According to a study from UCLA’s Luskin School of Innovation, “the Poseidon agreement will likely make drinking water for disadvantaged households in Orange County moderately to severely less affordable. It would yield no offsetting HRW (Human Right to Water) benefits as compared to the continued pursuit of alternative local water supplies and demand management options which have historically proven to be more efficient and affordable.”

It is a classic case of environmental injustice: a reverse Robin Hood where the project would steal from the poor to give to the rich.

Poseidon proposes to sell its water to the Orange County Water District, which would use the water to replace existing water supplies that cost roughly a third as much as the desalinated water. The independent Municipal Water District of Orange County estimates the Poseidon water will cost about $2,100 per acre foot (an acre-foot of water meets the needs of three average households for one year). OCWD would use that expensive water to replace water it currently purchases from MWDOC for only $777 per acre foot.

What’s more, MWDOC analyzed alternative ways to meet future water supplies. The analysis shows the Poseidon project is not needed, is the most expensive of all alternatives reviewed and is the most financially risky.

In reality, the Poseidon project in Orange County is likely to cost a lot more than current estimates. Because the desalinated water would pollute groundwater supplies with boron, it will require additional expensive treatment before it can be delivered to consumers.

The water from the desalination project that Poseidon built in Carlsbad is instructive. That desalinated water sells for $2,800 per acre foot — nearly four times the amount that OCWD currently pays for MWDOC water, a source that is not in short supply.

In addition to polluting groundwater, the Poseidon project is an energy hog dependent on fossil fuels that pollute the air and emit massive carbon emissions, violating California’s core principles and goals to tackle climate change.

The environmental disaster doesn’t stop there. By sucking in ocean water through its intake pipes, the project would also kill 108 million ocean organisms each year. This goes against sourcing water with nature-based solutions that protect biodiversity, a goal Newsom promotes in his water portfolio.

Adding insult to injury, Poseidon is counting on taxpayers and ratepayer-supported dollars to fund this catastrophe. Poseidon is asking the State Treasurer’s Office to approve $1.1 billion in taxpayer supported bonds for this project, funds that would be diverted from affordable housing projects. Poseidon is also seeking an additional $400 million subsidy from Southern California ratepayers to build the project, on top of the $585 million loan Poseidon got from Trump’s EPA as a taxpayer-subsidized WIFIA loan.

Poseidon is owned by Brookfield Infrastructure Partners, a giant global private equity firm. The project makes huge financial sense for Poseidon and Brookfield. The project makes no sense for California taxpayers, water ratepayers or our environment. The only reason this project is still alive is because Newsom is placing pressure on state environmental protection agencies to approve this terrible project.

Californians need Newsom to stand up to special interests and protect taxpayers, ratepayers, low-income communities and the environment — even it means telling his friends “no.”

This story was originally published January 1, 2021 at 5:00 AM.