With a finite supply of water and a booming population, conflicts over water in the Sunshine State have become more regular, more intense, and more costly in recent years. Water markets, which allow competing users to trade water voluntarily, offer Florida the best hope of aligning economic growth, water conservation, and ecosystem health.
This study explains how water markets can help resolve Florida’s most pressing water issues. It also describes several policy reforms Florida’s lawmakers and regulators should consider if they hope to tap water markets in the future. Fortunately, Florida law already embraces several elements needed to foster water marketing. With relatively minor policy modifications — not overhauls — Florida can harness property rights and markets to make the most of its water resources.
Read “Tapping Water Markets in Florida” here.
Sal Nuzzo — Executive Director, Consumers Defense, Senior Fellow, The James Madison Institute
Reed Watson — Director, Hayek Center for the Business of Prosperity and Professor of Practice at Clemson University’s John E. Walker Department of Economics, Former Executive Director, The Property and Environment Research Center (PERC)
