Archives › 2009 › October
Privatization is thought by many to be a panacea for lowering costs for water and wastewater systems. Yet, here we have again another example of how a private owner/operator, in this case Indiana American (subsidiary of American Water, NYSE: AWK), seeking a very large increase in rates (click here for the news story). We have [...]
The Illinois American water company serving about 10,000 customers in the Chicago area has asked the Illinois Commerce Commission to approve a 30% increase in water rates and a 50% increase in sewer rates. What the protesters probably don’t understand, and what everyone who thinks substituting public ownership of their water/sewer utilities with private (corporate) ownership needs to know is that the private utility owner has a constitutional right to charge rates that will allow it the opportunity to earn a reasonable profit.
We’ve been following the story in Oceanside, CA for several weeks now and were not surprised to awake to today’s headline that the city council rejected the water rate increases that had been proposed by the utility managers (Council Rejects Water, Sewer Rate Increases). As this story has unfolded, we’ve learned a few things: a) [...]
The typical thinking among most utility customers is that if they conserve their water use, they will save money. By extension, they believe also that the utility will save money resulting in lower water rates. The thinking isn’t irrational. After all, one might reasonably think that if the utility provides less of its water service [...]
We often hear how private utility companies can achieve efficiencies in their water and sewer operations that will result in community benefits (like lower water and sewer rates). For a period of time in the US there was an active market where major cities were selling their utility concessions to private corporations. Veolia was one [...]