News

At the urging of the Alliance for Water Efficiency (AWE) and other industry partners, the U.S. House of Representatives' Interior Appropriations Subcommittee, which oversees funding for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), has issued its Fiscal Year 2018 agency funding report rejecting the proposed elimination of the EPA's WaterSense® program.

AWE is pleased to announce that it has begun negotiations with the California Water Efficiency Partnership with the goal to formalize a relationship between the two organizations.

In the wake of flat or falling sales revenues, many a water (and energy) utility have turned to the idea of raising fixed charges. This might seem logical, given that water services require substantial fixed infrastructure costs; that is, they are particularly capital intensive. Monopolies are drawn to the idea of loading more costs on less price elastic usage, and welfare economics lends some support to this strategy (the inverse elasticity rule or Ramsey pricing). From a utility’s viewpoint, fixed charges look like a great deal. They primarily reduce revenue risk, shielding finances from...

The U.S. Senate has joined the House in authorizing a WaterSense® program at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to identify products and services that conserve water and promote stormwater management.