I heard a great talk this afternoon by Laura Paskus, a journalist here in New Mexico who recently launched a climate change project under the umbrella of New Mexico in Depth, a non-profit news organization. I also made a financial contribution to support the work, and I would encourage others to do the same. Here …
Continue reading ‘Journalism, “public goods”, and climate change in New Mexico’ »
Despite drought, the value of California cropland land has risen 5.4 percent this year, according to the latest U.S. Department of Agriculture survey data. No doubt my economist friends can help me here with an explanation of what this says about how the market is pricing questions about uncertainty, water supply and risk. Looks like …
Continue reading ‘Another indicator of the resilience of California agriculture’ »
Matt Weiser takes us into the strange world of California municipal water infrastructure finance, where costs are relatively fixed and vendors are trying to sell less of their product: [M]any water agencies are feeling the strain because they had already delayed imposing rate increases for a number of years due to the drought and a …
Continue reading ‘Conservation and the municipal water finance dilemma’ »
I sometimes think that, in trying to understand the impacts of drought, we pay too much attention to the water numbers. It’s not that it doesn’t matter how much is in the reservoir, or is being pumped from the ground, but it’s only the first link in the chain of impacts. California economist Jeff Michael …
Continue reading ‘Despite drought, California farm employment rising’ »
Lauren Steely: For a century, water management in the West was an engineering profession. Now it must be an economics profession.
Some useful insights from Dustin Garrick on water management lessons the western United States can learn from Australia: Australia’s experience shows that water markets have an important role to play. But they are a servant of sound governance, not the master. Above all, markets are certainly not free, nor are they self-sustaining. Like a marriage, …
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The Imperial Irrigation District’s board tomorrow will consider an expanded agreement with the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California that would provide additional flexibility for water conservation in the big desert agricultural district and move water to meet near term drought response needs in the region’s coastal cities. The deal uses the “Intentionally Created Surplus” …
Continue reading ‘Another Southern California ag to municipal water sharing deal takes shape’ »
The idea of installing smart water meters is in vogue these days, with the idea that water users, if made more aware of how much water they’re using all the time (rather than just when they get their monthly bills), will use less: In the spring of 2005, the City of Aurora, Colorado offered residents …
Continue reading ‘Real time water meter data causes people to use more water, not less’ »
The pictures out of Durango today of mine waste in the Animas River are horrifying, and the federal Environmental Protection Agency is rightly taking a beating for the catastrophic mine waste leak: The overall message from federal regulators was “we’re very sorry.” “This is a huge tragedy and it’s hard being on the other side …
Continue reading ‘Governance and the Animas River mine waste mess’ »
The latest analysis by a University of California team has concluded (pdf) that agriculture in that state is doing pretty well in the current drought, all things considered: The current drought is causing large economic losses but given innovative responses by farmers and others, those losses have been manageable and California agriculture is positioned to …
Continue reading ‘UC team: California ag “positioned to weather this drought”’ »