Political leaning influences city water policies as strongly as climate
Urban water conservation policies are reflecting the nation’s political polarization, with a new report demonstrating that a city’s water ordinances can be as much related to whether it leans left or right as to whether the climate is wet or dry.
Vanderbilt University environmental researchers found Los Angeles ranks No. 1 for number and strength of policies, followed by six other left-leaning California cities along with Austin, Texas. It takes until San Antonio, Texas, at No. 8 to find a right-leaning city with strong water conservation policies—probably because the amount of water it can withdraw from the Edwards Aquifer is strictly limited, said the study’s lead author, Jonathan Gilligan, associate professor of earth and environmental sciences.