He does have a point or two.
There is political power to be had in scarcity and need, and none to be had in abundance and prosperity. This applies to a lot of areas besides water.
California's government has basically squelched any new infrastructure in this area for years. In fact, some of them are trying to dismantle existing water infrastructure.
Ironically, the original massive government water subsidies of years ago created the state-dependent farm industry in the first place. They built the agri-monster, and now don't want to feed it any more.