As the Denver Post reports:
U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman on Monday unveiled a proposal to give tax breaks to people who buy water-saving toilets, sprinkler systems and other items for their houses.
Coffman said he hopes the proposed credit, which was formally introduced earlier this month and has bipartisan support in Congress, will spur a greater culture of conservation in Colorado. He noted the state faces an estimated 630,000-acre-foot water-supply shortfall by 2030. One acre-foot could serve the needs of about eight people for a year.
“This legislation will help conserve one of our most precious resources,” said Coffman, an Aurora Republican. “Conservation has got to be our first line of defense in our ability to meet our future water demand.”
Dubbed the Water Accountability Tax Efficiency Reinvestment Act, the measure would provide a tax credit equal to 30 percent of the cost of each purchased item bearing the Environmental Protection Agency’s WaterSense label. WaterSense products, including toilets, faucets and sprinkler systems, are at least 20 percent more efficient than average ones.
The credit amount would be capped at $1,500 per year.
Obviously a fine idea. Why doesn’t Doug Lamborn ever come up with anything noncontroversial and feel-good like this? No love until that whole Mount Democrat/Republican Mountain switcheroo thing is resolved, we guess.
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This may seem like a great idea and a way that Coffman is pandering to the conservation/environmental community BUT, I could easily see this becoming some sort of offset that developers and water managers use to claim they have instituted water conservation measures before seeking new water sources. The bottom line: conservation is a good idea but severely curtailing unnecessary development south of Denver is an even better one.
Stats from 2000:
http://pubs.usgs.gov/circ/2004…
Total water use in CO: 12.6 billion gallons
Water used for irrigation: 11.4 billion gallons (90.5%)
Add to that the 30% of residential use for irrigation (love that Kentucky bluegrass!)
Maybe we should be giving tax credits to farmers that conserve instead of homeowners.
Or maybe (more radically) we should stop subsidizing ethanol.
Or maybe (most radically) we should raise cows where it rains enough for grass to grow without irrigation (most irrigation water goes to alfalfa and pastures).
While Coffman’s proposal is nice, it won’t do squat to increase available water.
That would be like asking Californians to live where there’s enough water to supply them. Stupid idea, really… </snark>
Something like 85% of the water in CA goes to ag, most of the to cows.
I don’t have anything against ag, we’ve all got to eat after all, but a 10% savings in water on the farm nearly doubles the amount of water available for urban users. It’s kind of hard to argue against that sort of math (though people do all the time).
Mike Coffman has now, officially, done something in Congress. It only took him 4 months, but he finally got around to it.
Any news on the Independent Ethics Commission investigation?
In 2030, apparently,
as I recall, just a couple of years ago, one acre-foot could serve the needs of a family of four for a year.
So, are we assuming that the demand per person will be cut in half in the next 20 years ?
That sounds ambitious.
.
RSB complains that he didn’t also cure heart disease.
He literally didn’t do anything. For months.
When Rep. Coffman cures cancer–or does the legislative equivalent–I’ll give him the accolades he deserves. So far he’s giving Wayne Allard a run for his money for the title of most useless Colorado legislator in recent memory.