Whether it is just politics or what one I not really sure, but President Trump has just put a huge spanner in the wheels of Gov. Jerry Brown’s ambitious plan – a proposed $16bn two giant-tunnel project.

This is the latest setback for the project that the Obama administration gave millions of dollars for. Russell Newell, deputy communications director for the US Interior Department, said in an email that “the Trump administration did not fund the project and chose to not move forward with it.”

Newell stated that the Interior Department shared California’s goals for a more reliable and environmentally friendly water supply but “does not expect to participate in the construction or funding” of the project in its current form.

Interior officials “will continue to work with the state and stakeholders as the project is further developed“, Newell added.

The state initiative would not require federal financing, but it would intersect with existing state and federal water projects, which is why it would require approval from the Interior Department to move ahead.

Another major obstacle is that two key water districts that Brown needed to fund the two 35-mile-long tunnels to divert part of the state’s largest river, the Sacramento, to supply water to the San Francisco Bay Area and central and Southern California, have opted not to help fund it.

The Trump administration has targeted a number of projects supported by Obama, from immigration initiatives to international trade deals, but this is the first time that the administration and Brown have gone head to head.

Lisa Lien-Mager, a spokesperson for the state Natural Resources Agency, said the statement from the Interior Department was good news for the project.

“The statement provided by the DOI confirms what the state and its water project partners already knew; while the federal government does not intend to fund the construction costs of the project they will continue working with the state and stakeholders to facilitate and permit WaterFix,” she wrote in an email, using the state’s term for the tunnel project.

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