The Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies (AMWA) has spent $60,000 in taxpayer funds on a biased, laughable study claiming global warming entitles water companies to more federal tax dollars.
To provide cover for its attempt to hop on board the global warming gravy train, AMWA contracted with a consulting firm guaranteed to deliver AMWA’s pre-determined outcome. To prepare its study, AMWA hired Stratus Consulting, whose lack of objectivity is clear from its Web site supporting “a bold framework for climate change action.”
Not surprisingly, Stratus Consulting gave AMWA exactly the kind of report it wanted: one supporting AMWA’s claim that it needs more funding from the public trough.
The Stratus/AMWA study claimed global warming will cause up to 6.6 degrees Celsius of warming by 2100, despite the fact that even the alarmist United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) projects only about 2.5 degrees of warming. Moreover, temperatures are currently rising at only half the pace of the IPCC projections.
The Stratus/AMWA study also claims global warming will cause more drought, even though scientists have proven global warming has resulted in more precipitation, an increase in soil moisture, and less frequent drought.
Not surprisingly, the publicly funded water companies are now citing the flawed, $60,000 taxpayer-funded study to justify their demands for still more taxpayer dollars.
“This report shows that climate change may pose great challenges to delivering limited amounts of clean and safe water to a rapidly growing population,” AMWA Executive Director Diane VanDe Hei asserted in a press statement accompanying the study.
“[A]n increased federal investment in water infrastructure is needed to help offset the costs of new supply development and capital projects to ensure that all Americans continue to have access to safe and affordable drinking water,” VanDe Hei predictably argued.
AMWA is the only association of the largest publicly owned drinking water systems in the U.S.
James M. Taylor ([email protected]) is senior fellow for environment policy for The Heartland Institute.
