To no one's surprise, NYT, once again has a long piece on the water wars of the West; just have a gander at the graph of the pumping by the Barrick mine. The aspect of which that is so stupid is, in the states mentioned, the largest slurpers of that finite resource are the ones making the rules regarding how much and who can do the slurping.
And, while we're here, is a massive example of the effects of the Tyranny of Average Cost, to wit: we spent a lot of money on capital (which we intend to recoup with a healthy profit) in anticipation that the past would continue undiminished forever, so we have the right to slurp as is most profitable to us:
Ms. Erling testified at the committee meeting, expressing deep concern. She told lawmakers that "massive investments" had been made based on existing Nevada water law and that "massive pieces of our economy have grown up around those investments."This is the exact same excuse for stopping alt-energy initiatives: if the Damn Gummint allows roof top solar, for example, only the rich will benefit and we'll have to increase prices to the poor because we have all that expensive plant and equipment to pay for, bought on the assumption that we'd be pushing so many more wee little electrons on those big fat wires.
What's so pathetic about rampant capitalism, unlike the variety sold by neo-con econ types, is that real capitalists slough off as many externality costs as they can buy off the Damn Gummint to permit. Now, one might ask, why are they so short-sighted? Do they not care about their kids and grandkids and further generations? Ah, no, they don't. So far as the water crises go, the rich (farmers, miners, industrialists) will simply abandon the burned out land, take their piles of cash, and move to some place that does have water; the real owners may well be living in the well watered Northeast, anyway. They and their spawn will have plenty to continue to waste.
The story in Montana is even more grotesque.
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