There are 1400 Desalination Plants in the USA

[red]

It amazes me there are 1400 Desalination plants in the US , most treating brackish water.  There are 17,000 desalination plants world wide. 
We take our fresh drinking water for granted.

[Don P]

A chemist I knew said "We think the big fight will be over oil, it will be over water". I think there is a lot of truth in that.

How come when I was growing up it was a desalinization plant and about the time of the first gulf war somebody couldn't pronounce that big a mouthful so it has become forevermore a desalination plant  :.

[peakbagger]

Large parts of Maine are tapped aggressively by Poland Spring (formerly owned by Nestle) for bottled water. They have been very careful to spread the money around to politicians and site plants in just enough rural areas that the state doesnt get a dime for the water they pump. 

[Nebraska]

I don't know of anyone else paying the state for water. (Maybe my ignorance, but it doesn't  really happen here i sure don't for my well.)  Some irrigated farming operations probably complete with the water bottling  plants as far as the amount of fresh water used. (This is my perspective living here in the middle) Fresh water is constantly recycled just some places do it better than others... The bottling plants provide jobs and grow a tax base so they are giving something back in fees.

[SwampDonkey]

I'm on a well here that great grandfather dug. My real cost is power to pump it, line filter and water softener salt and I suppose the water heater. Water itself is free, but all the add-ons ain't. ;)

What is alarming right now is the number of households that can't pay the utility bills. Gonna be a lot of 'do withoutters' or 'make doers'. The days of cheap are coming to a halt.

[Walnut Beast]

They actually said on fox news radio today that it's estimated at 16 billion that people are behind on their energy bills in the US and I'm sure that includes utility 

[Roxie]

Jimmy Dore broke it down to 1 in 6 are behind in their electric bill.  

[SwampDonkey]

Yes, and his source was Bloomberg. Same is happening in the UK. Protesters have a 'Don't Pay UK' campaign going on and trying to get 1M customers to refuse payment of gas and electric bills. It's posted in several media sources.

"Don’t Pay UK said it would only take action if one million people signed up to the mass non-payment of energy bills by 1 October and the government failed to “adequately address the crisis”."  [The Guardian]

[beenthere]

Jimmy Dore broke it down to 1 in 6 are behind in their electric bill.  

They don't have to worry, as the rest of us who pay our taxes will pick up the tab. Along with the telephone bill the other day, came a listing of 5 different programs to assist with the billing. One was you get off paying if your annual salary was less than 135% of the average family income. 
Covering their loss with increased rates. The utilities will not operate in the red and really cannot shut off your power. 

[SwampDonkey]

I know it was reported that increased rates for the ones who can pay will cover the loss. And that is besides any government relief.

[Southside]

This past week 18% of our food sales were food stamp paid. I don't think a single customer was driving a vehicle as old as ours. 

We're not talking burger and London Broil, oh no, it always ribeye, brisket, chicken tenders, chicken breast, with 6 kids in tow who has time to cut up a whole chicken? 

[barbender]

Yep. You know, I really wouldn't have an issue at all with social safety net type of programs, but in our country they all seem to devolve into the worst types of abuses. I'd be ashamed if I was driving a new rig and using food stamps.