Testimony by Wayne Crews on the Water Desalination Act of 1996

CEI’s Wayne Crews testified before the House Subcommittee on Water and Power on Thursday, May 23, 2013 on the subject of the Reauthorization of Water Desalination Act of 1996.

Desalination policy suffers from the premise that government-directed coordination is automatically preferable. In an alternative scenario, private innovators might pool efforts, and in so doing make risky or uncertain technology a better target for investment. America’s great infrastructure firms are artificially segregated into regulatory silos (telecommunications,electricity, water, sewer, cable, railroad, airline, satellite, air traffic control, roads). In a free market, they could collaborate to expand infrastructure wealth development, but it would require a mindset wholly different from the constricted legislative one that sets terms today.