Cadiz Inc. has been called a “zombie,” a “poison pill” and a scheme to “suck the desert dry” by draining a delicate groundwater aquifer north of Joshua Tree National Park and selling the water to wealthy coastal cities. … Cadiz announced a deal to supply groundwater to Spanish developer RIC Energy. RIC would build a solar farm at Cadiz’s Mojave Desert Ranch, 160 miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles, and use the electricity to split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen atoms. The energy developer would sell the clean-burning hydrogen for combustion in cars, trucks and power plants, to replace planet-warming fossil fuels. Oh yeah, the icing on the cake — this week, Cadiz agreed to buy 180 miles of steel pipe from the failed Keystone XL oil pipeline …  Cadiz will use the pipe for its groundwater project, which it now says will be majority Indigenous-owned and largely supply water to low-income and tribal communities. … This is too good to be true. Right? 
— Written by Sammy Roth, climate columnist for the Los Angeles Times