The San Diego County Water Authority is displeased with the state of California’s decision to set the starting point for its water conservation mandate at 2013, arguing that it rewards communities that ignored the need to conserve until recently, and penalizes those that have been at the conservation game for a while:
For example, water use in San Diego declined 20 percent from 2007 to 2013. By failing to account for this conservation, the proposed regulations punish those who have conserved and rewards communities that did not make such early and sustained commitments to conservation.
When I first saw the title, I thought “There will always be people that are unhappy.” However, I think that the full post reveals one of those instances where folks have responded to “crisis” without considering all of the variables first. Another however: the flexibility to act when in a “crisis” also means that you can reverse and modify things that you have already done. I wouldn’t be surprised if CA will throw a carrot to communities that have previously conserved, and maybe even to communities that start deciding to be proactive.