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Current Blog Posts
A Win-Win-Win: Regulation, Use, and Pricing of Reclaimed Water in Arizona
By Cole Wilhelmi and David Tucker Ongoing severe drought conditions in the American Southwest offer the powerful reminder that our water resources should not be taken for granted. With increasing environmental pressure comes greater demand…
CAPped: Five Examples of Customer Assistance Programs for Water Utilities
Water pricing is a delicate art, as utilities often must balance competing priorities when setting rates. How can the utility set rates that ensure financial sustainability for the system while also balancing affordability concerns for…
Financing Water Management in a Caribbean Setting – A Case Study of Trinidad and Tobago: Part 2
With their lush vegetation, high annual rainfall levels, and panoramic views of water, you might think that Caribbean islands have escaped many of the water management problems that other communities experience. But managing water in this setting has many…
Property Assessed Clean Energy: North Carolina, PACE-ing Itself
Property Assessed Clean Energy, or PACE, is a useful tool for any innovative financier’s toolkit. Today, we’re taking a closer look at PACE specifically in North Carolina. PACE 101 But first: A quick recap on…
Paying for Clean Energy and Global Climate Change: Sweden and the Road to Paris, December 2015
When I was growing up, my family would drive up each summer to the northeastern United States to visit my paternal grandparents. My grandmother grew up in a Swedish-speaking household, with Swedish immigrant parents, in…
Key Financial Indicators for Water and Wastewater Systems: Current Ratio
In previous posts, we outlined how to use the financial statements of a water or wastewater system to calculate the key financial indicators of operating ratio (a measure of self-sufficiency), debt service coverage ratio (a measure of…
Fitting Together the Puzzle Pieces: Developing a Sustainable In-Lieu Fee Program for Wetland Mitigation
Depending on where you live, you might have wandered through scaffolding that supports new high-rises in a rapidly-developing city, or driven past brand new housing developments cropping up where wetlands used to thrive. You might have…
Four Trends in Government Spending on Water and Wastewater Utilities Since 1956
According to data collected and published by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), federal, state and local governments in the United States spent more than $2.2 trillion in the last 59 years on operations, maintenance and…