Jeff Hughes is a Faculty member at the UNC School of Government and the Director of the UNC Environmental Finance Center.  Note: This post was cross-posted in the School of Government Community Development Blog. Much of the year, the focus on water finance seems … Read more

Jeff Hughes is a Faculty member at the UNC School of Government and the Director of the UNC Environmental Finance Center. Jeff is also the Principal Investigator for the Water Research Foundation’s “Defining a Resilient Business Model” Project (#4366). Conventional … Read more

Jeff Hughes is the Director of the Environmental Finance Center. Ask any utility manager to list the top business drivers and the “R-word”, Regulation, is likely to be near the top.  Given the financial implications of many regulations, it’s not … Read more

Jeff Hughes is the Director of the Environmental Finance Center. “How much should our utility maintain in reserves?”  This is one of the most common questions I get from utility managers during my finance courses. It is also one of … Read more

Jeff Hughes is the Director of the Environmental Finance Center. Remember the good ‘ole days when a billion dollar price tag for addressing a local environmental problem was relatively rare?  Those days appear to be gone and much to the … Read more

Jeff Hughes is the Director of the Environmental Finance Center. I’ve come to the opinion that rate structures, particularly those that are designed to promote conservation and water efficiency, may be getting a bad rap or at least getting more … Read more

Jeff Hughes is the Director of the Environmental Finance Center and the Principal Investigator for the Water Research Foundation project mentioned in the post. A recent report estimated that water utilities across the country will need $1,000,000,000,000 (count the zeros…) … Read more