Will gas be the same as water.?

Question

Why when we have a drought, everyone tells us the conserver water ( I understand that part), when we do and the drought is over the water company says we conserved to good and now they have to raise the water rates up because we did a job at coervering, do you think the gas companies are doing the same thing, so even if the price of oil goes down, they can cry we conserver to good so they can keep the high prices?

Answer 1

water will always be water,droughts are generally a localized issue(in the grand scheme of the earth)the problem with water is the cleanliness of it to drink pollutants are the biggest problem man faces with water.Water is renewable it is in either liquid or vapour form.Washing your car or watering the lawn are forms of wasting,remember it takes time to filter water to be drinkable and if it gets wasted faster than the plants can purify it than that is were the shortages happen and also droughts prevent the refilling of lakes and reservoirs for our use

Answer 2

4 years ago, the US used 20 million barrels of oil a year, so a reserve of 112 million barrels is not a lot.

water is different.  it rains and snows.  however, there will be water rationing in Calif this year because of water shortages.

when the water company raises rates because folks are using less, keep in mind, they don't buy the water.  they pay for delivering it to you, and, in most cases, for maintaining the sewage system, all of which costs the same, no matter how much water you use.  when customers use less, their costs remain the same, so to cover those costs, they need to charge more per gallon.  they're not getting rich, just covering their expenses.

oil is different.  they have to buy it.  if demand went down, then the price would go down.  it's not the same at all.  however, there is a limited supply, and demand around the world is increasing, so you should expect that the prices will continue to increase for many years --- as long as you, and i, and China, and India, and everyone continues to buy more and more of it.

Answer 3

The issue with water is pollution, but in the US pollution levels have been decreasing steadily for the last 20 years.

There are always times of less water and more usage, but that doesn't last long.  In Australia, for example, there are drought seasons and there wouldn't be a problem if people collected and stored water during the rainy season.

As to oil, in the US we're basically floating in the stuff.  There is an estimated 200 billion barrels of oil available just in North Dakota alone - if we are allowed to drill for it.  Until then we must live with high prices and shortages.  We also have to import refined oil since we haven't built a new refinery in 32 years.  Hopefully that will change.

But you're right about one thing.  Conservation is a scam.  The people who use less end up having to pay more for it in the end.  We can't exist by conserving alone.  We have to drill for more oil since it is the lifeblood of a progressive society.

There are some possible alternatives to oil, but they will take years to develop and will be extremely expensive to start with.  So my solution is to continue to drill for oil, build new refineries while looking for alternatives to oil.  I hope they come soon.

Answer 4

It sure does sound like a scam to me and it makes no sense--great point!  And WE pay for the operations--it's tax payer run water companies!  That's why I'm against this GW scam--it all about artificial scarcity and charging higher prices as a result.

Can anyone explain this to me (I don't get it)?

“If I reduce my water use, local utilities will have to raise water rates to pay for system operations.”

"Because utilities generally set rates based on water usage, the high fixed costs of local water systems can create a disincentive for conservation. Conservation may result in higher rates to users to meet fixed costs. For example, after successfully encouraging conservation during a drought in Seattle, Washington in 2001, the local utility announced that it may need to increase water rates to recover lost revenue."

http://www.gemi.org/water/challenges.htm

I thought that reduced demand means you can also reduce volume and inventory needed for production--which should lead to lower cost and lower prices...not higher prices.  Water companies are supposed to be public and shouldn't have profits in mind.

Answer 5

Well, water is a scarce resource like oil is.  Especially in the western US, prices for water will be going up dramatically as the population continues to rise, more and more people need fresh water, and the fresh water they do have becomes more and more scarce.  It's just like oil, when the supply goes down but demand remains the same or rises, the price will rise.  Economics 101.