Good News, for Once, on Water
Kevin Drum links this:
The city of Palmdale is running out of water, and as a result prices are going up. Way up:
"My bill went from $12.80 to $185," [Tracey] Summerford, a Neighborhood Watch captain, told the water board.
"My water bill went from $139 to $468," Sanchez said at that meeting. Since then Sanchez received another monthly bill, one for $324. Together that meant she owed the water district $792, plus a prior balance that brought her total to $924. "That's my two car payments," said Sanchez, who moved into her home in November....I feel discouraged. I feel like we should have stayed in Santa Clarita and lived in our apartment."
I wrote in the comments:
This is really good news. For years California has claimed to have water shortages, but municipal water prices never reflected that shortage. Politicians would prefer to use command and control allocation and rationing powers than just let price do its work.
It is really good to see some California communities price water in line with its scarcity. Under-pricing water has always provided an implicit subsidy for building and farming in certain areas. I wish all California water would be priced on the basis of supply/demand clearing rather than political patronage.
By the way, the author later calls Santa Clarita "the city." That is pretty hilarious to anyone who has been there. Santa Clarita sure looks like the burbs every time I have been there.
