Archives › 2009 › November
A pattern is definitely developing for American Water Co. We have been tracking their activities through news releases since earlier this summer. Already, we have blogged about the large increases requested of the utility commissions in Illinois, Indiana, and Missouri. Now, we can add the company’s Arizona affiliate to the list of suspects. Water rates [...]
I’m not sure what’s going on in Naples, FL when their water rate consultant is telling the City Council that the City’s water rates are not legally defensible, but we can speculate if only to illustrate a point. There are lots of reasons why utilities should address their rates on an ongoing basis, but legal [...]
It looks like American Water Co. is out to get back in the black on a national scale. We now have three examples, all within the last 30 days, of subsidiary companies of American Water seeking very large rate increases in different service areas. Add the Veolia case from Indianapolis, and we have four examples. [...]
When considering the total costs of the crumbling “wet” infrastructure (water/sewer utility infrastructure) around the US, the financial cost of actually repairing and replacing the assets is something that all by itself is able to cause severe sticker shock. Estimates from the American Society of Civil Engineers show that our drinking water infrastructure is underfunded [...]
City governments have long admired the money making ability of a water or sewer utility. The enterprise funds are not tax based and, after all, they are natural monopolies where the cities could charge nearly anything they wanted. Plundering enterprise funds to shore up budgets elsewhere is an old practice, and it’s one of the [...]