[supernova87a]

I'm afraid that the dispersal of responsibility among many different parties who benefit under archaic "riparian rights" laws that are totally outdated and unable to be changed because no one cares enough to build the political momentum means that this issue will fester like climate change. And even more than climate, the emotions driving the issue (such as in California) are tangible and exploitable to favor incumbent users.

In the meantime as long as it continues, the situation be taken advantage of by those who know how to find holes in the system for concentrated private gain.

[dcolkitt]

Nat gas is subject to pretty wild discrepancies between regional markets. It's not unusual for the price to go negative in the Rocky Mountain region during many summers.

The market mostly seems to work fine. Henry Hub is somewhat arbitrarily picked as the most canonical price point. And then a lot of price discovery occurs in robust "basis" markets (i.e. region-specific contracts).

[maxbond]

It's no picnic out west under the Colorado doctrine either. The Colorado River Compact was drafted during an unusually wet period, in absolute rather than relative terms. Now from tree ring studies we know that, not only does the amount of water allocated not generally flow through the river, but the river system can experience "megadroughts" that can last for decades or even centuries.

And we're about twenty years into a drought.