… This is Governing Gavin. There is no greater example that has revealed the two Newsoms than one of California’s most contentious issues: Water. … Governing Gavin was proposing some additional environmental flows combined with more habitat restoration. It was a proposal backed by various water users known as the Voluntary Agreements. These water users were also threatening to back away from this plan if SB 1 passed and Trump’s new operating rules for the Delta were blocked by the Legislature. Newsom wanted his Voluntary Agreements. While it was clear that Newsom did not want SB 1 to reach his desk, Atkins moved it there anyway, all but daring the governor to veto the bill. Which he did. Newsom attempted to belittle the legislation. It, for example, did not “provide the state with any new authority to push back against the Trump administration’s environmental policies.” Yet how precisely can any state legislation magically increase a state’s authority against any federal government? 
-Tom Philp is an editorial writer and columnist for The Sacramento Bee