President Obama is expected to spend the weekend golfing in the lush environs of Southern California’s verdant desert resorts near Palm Springs — resorts that are among the state’s top guzzlers of water.
If he does indeed hit the links, the outing would take place during California’s record drought, on the heels of a Democratic fundraiser at the home of billionaire climate change activist Tom Steyer, and just days after Obama welcomed Pope Francis’ encyclical warning about the dangers of human-caused climate change.
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White House officials are neither confirming nor denying the golf outing, even though the Palm Springs airport is readying itself for Air Force One’s arrival Saturday. But when pressed on the weekend itinerary, White House deputy press secretary Eric Schultz hinted that golf was in the works, although he only referred to golf courses the president “may visit” over the next few days.
There’s good reason for the caginess, as Obama’s likely golf destination seems to fly in the face of the environmental causes Obama supports.
Amid California’s epic drought, Palm Springs residents and the area’s vast expanse of golf resorts are among the state’s heaviest water users, sucking up more than 200 gallons per person each day. That number doubles during the summer months, according to the California Water Resources Control Board.
Teeing off environmentalists even more, golf resorts and their surrounding retail shops are the prime water-consuming culprits, draining a huge percent of the area’s total water usage but providing 40 percent of the jobs in the valley, according to a report last December in the Los Angeles Times.
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Those defending the local golf resorts — which make up 14 percent of state’s total — say the area’s water usage helped make it a tourist destination and argue that the region mainly relies on a massive underground aquifer.
But the nearly 37 billion gallons of water the area’s golf courses use annually is a hot topic in the parched state’s north-south water wars. That fight could weigh on Obama during his visit to this area of the state, when he is expected to face 115-degree temperatures.
Schultz defended Obama’s visit by noting that many golf courses have taken “water-mitigation steps.”
“In terms of courses that the president may visit over the next few days, I know that many courses have taken water-mitigation steps aimed at water conservation so I’d refer you to them for those details,” he said. He also added that the Obama administration is doing what it can to help farmers, ranchers, small businesses and communities facing the severe impacts of the historic drought.
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“Just last week, the administration announced new actions and investments of more than $110 million to support these communities suffering from drought and combat wildfires,” he said. “This new funding announced last week builds on the more than $190 million that federal agencies across the government have invested to support drought-stricken communities so far this year.”
Schultz, however, did not elaborate on the water conservation differences between public and private golf courses.
Public courses use recycled water, which is not subject to Gov. Jerry Brown’s executive order requiring a 25 percent cutback in potable urban water usage. But the private courses tap into underground aquifers.
There’s a good chance Obama, along with a few golfing buddies, are headed to the ultra-exclusive and private Sunnylands resort on the Annenberg estate.
It would be the president’s fifth trip to the sprawling estate and former home of billionaire Walter Annenberg. It’s known as the “Camp David of the West” for its popularity among U.S. presidents, as well as the British royal family, and previously such legendary celebrity icons as Bob Hope and Frank Sinatra.
At the White House’s suggestion, the Washington Examiner asked the Sunnylands estate, funded by the deep-pocketed Annenberg Foundation, about its water-mitigation efforts. A foundation employee provided a link to a frequently asked questions page on their website titled “Saving Water at Sunnylands.”
The Sunnylands website has another full page dedicated to its water-conservation efforts, including a “first-time decision not to over-seed fairways and to maintain a wall-to-wall carpet of green grass on the golf course.”
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The changes, the website states, have brought “an array of new colors to Sunnylands’ grounds.”
“The sweeping fairways, normally seeded with ryegrass to replace the Bermuda grass that goes dormant in winter, have sported tones of pale green, gold and yellow, contrasting sharply with the deep green of the ryegrass in the rough,” the website states.
Additionally, in the patchwork of 60 acres where the estate removed turf in previous years, tan wood chips and stands of tall grass reside with trees “to add a new, earthy color palette to the landscape.”
Sunnylands Director of Operations Pat Truchan said he and others are still calculating the amount of water savings but noted that the estate and golf course used roughly 28 percent less water last year that what had been historically consumed each year.
Still, Obama’s retreat may be particularly jarring for environmentalists who have targeted wealthy areas, golf resorts and celebrities for their water-rationing wrath. It may also be seen as ironic.
On Friday, Obama is scheduled to headline a fundraiser at the San Francisco area manse of billionaire former hedge-fund manager and climate-change activist Steyer. Earlier this week, White House press secretary Josh Earnest said he believes Steyer sought to host Obama because of their common interests in environmental issues.
“Mr. Steyer is a well-known advocate for policies that are good for the environment, particularly policies that will limit carbon pollution and other contributors to climate change, and obviously the president has an exceedingly strong record, maybe even a historically strong record in confronting those issues,” Earnest said.
Thursday afternoon, the president also issued a statement heaping praise on Pope Francis’ dire warnings about climate change and his open embrace of the view that humans are largely to blame. Obama said he welcomed the pontiff’s decision to make the case “clearly, powerfully, and with the full moral authority of his position.”
