“Cali has too many people living in a semi-arid location.”
Exactly. The same is true of much of the west. We built in spots that couldn’t come close to supplying the water we needed to support our settlements. We continue to grow in our usage while at the same time depleting some of the aquifers and squeezing existing resources to the breaking point. At some point we will probably see growth stop out there because they aren’t building in places that can support them.
California just keeps packing people into the state with not a care about resources (water and electricity). They expect other people in other states to give away their resources. Tough luck. Figure out another way. There's a big ocean and plenty of room for nuclear reactors to supply electricity and run desalinization plants. The construction might even perk up the economy.