How a Saudi firm tapped a gusher of water in drought-stricken Arizona

[jc456]

it is the truth, google does not prove or disprove, many times google is nothing more than paid propaganda

they do remove content.

 

[jc456]

How about links for both your claims?

"Unfortunately, however, determining the average electric bill in Phoenix during the summer is tricky given a lack of specific data. We can speak empirically, however, having been servicing air conditioners in Phoenix for more than 35 years. People living in 2,000 square foot homes (just slightly larger than the city’s average of about 1,600) typically spend within the ballpark of $450 per month during the peak summer months."​

Average Electric Bill in Phoenix During the Summer (Plus, How to Save)

If you live in Phoenix, you probably know that summers here can be very expensive. Temperatures can climb as high as 105°, which will send even the most season

americanhomewater.com

"Monthly electric bills are a product of how much electricity you use per month and your electric rate. In Phoenix, AZ, the average monthly electric bill for residential customers is $181/month, which is calculated by multiplying the average monthly consumption by the average electric rate: 1,199 kWh * 15 ¢/kWh." ​

Electricity Cost in Phoenix, AZ: 2024 Electric Rates | EnergySage

How much does electricity cost in Phoenix, AZ? Learn what average electric rates and electric bills looks like in Phoenix, AZ.

www.energysage.com

If folks paid $600/m for 6 months and the rest of the year was free, the monthly average would be $300.

I really don't understand why this is so complicated for you?

Monthly Utility Costs In The U.S. By State

Get expert advice on improvements to your home, including design tips, how much you'd expect to pay for a pro and what to ask when hiring experts.

www.forbes.com

 

[Crick]

it is the truth, google does not prove or disprove, many times google is nothing more than paid propaganda

My information did not come from Google. It came from the energy departments of the two states in question.

The point is that you're claim that Arizonans are paying $600/month for air conditioning fails.

 

[jc456]

My information did not come from Google. It came from the energy departments of the two states in question.

The point is that you're claim that Arizonans are paying $600/month for air conditioning fails.

Off google

 

[elektra]

My information did not come from Google. It came from the energy departments of the two states in question.

The point is that you're claim that Arizonans are paying $600/month for air conditioning fails.

that you found with google, nice try

Post a bill. Or better yet, calculate the cost for 24 hours of central air, Guaranteed the central air alone is 485 a month.

 

[jc456]

that you found with google, nice try

Post a bill. Or better yet, calculate the cost for 24 hours of central air, Guaranteed the central air alone is 485 a month.

They don’t use air conditioners they use swamp coolers

 

[elektra]

They don’t use air conditioners they use swamp coolers

you are right, many do, those that do use air conditioners add an extra $400 a month to the bill. And we need to see the bill because there is at least another $100 in "fees".

 

[Crick]

that you found with google, nice try

Post a bill. Or better yet, calculate the cost for 24 hours of central air, Guaranteed the central air alone is 485 a month.

Do you actually think that if I were looking for the average cost of electricity in a given state for a given month that it would be more accurate to look at an individual bill vice looking at the figures maintained by the utility per statutory regulation? And if you want to do your own figuring, the state numbers include detailed cost/kWh.

 

[elektra]

Do you actually think that if I were looking for the average cost of electricity in a given state for a given month that it would be more accurate to look at an individual bill vice looking at the figures maintained by the utility per statutory regulation? And if you want to do your own figuring, the state numbers include detailed cost/kWh.

There are many charges on the bill that are not in your figures. Further, it is a three tiered structure so that the more you use the more you pay.

My electric bill include a delivery fee, some other solar and wind fee, and even more. The delivery fee is $85 a month.

And, I know that running central air conditioning all day and all night is expensive. It will be about $450 just to operate the air conditioning. Add that to your normal bill .

I travelled a lot. Worked on the Palo Verde Nuclear power site. I talk to the people, I ask them questions. Many have stated their bill is $500 a month once the heat hits.

 

[Crick]

There are many charges on the bill that are not in your figures. Further, it is a three tiered structure so that the more you use the more you pay.

My electric bill include a delivery fee, some other solar and wind fee, and even more. The delivery fee is $85 a month.

And, I know that running central air conditioning all day and all night is expensive. It will be about $450 just to operate the air conditioning. Add that to your normal bill .

I travelled a lot. Worked on the Palo Verde Nuclear power site. I talk to the people, I ask them questions. Many have stated their bill is $500 a month once the heat hits.

If the entire normal bill is $185, the air conditioner cannot have cost $450 to operate. Capiche?

 

[elektra]

If the entire normal bill is $185, the air conditioner cannot have cost $450 to operate. Capiche?

If is a big word, the internet is not reality. How much energy does Central Air use in the summer, in Arizona.

I already have the answer, wait for it...

 

[Arlette]

A megadrought has seared Arizona, stressing its rivers and reservoirs and reducing water to a trickle in the homes of farmworkers near this desert valley.
But green fields of alfalfa stretch across thousands of acres of the desert land, shimmering in the burning sunlight. Wells draw water from deep underground, turning the parched earth into verdant farmland.

For nearly a decade, the state of Arizona has leased this rural terrain west of Phoenix to a Saudi-owned company, allowing it to pump all the water it needs to grow the alfalfa hay — a crop it exports to feed the kingdom’s dairy cows. And, for years, the state did not know how much water the company was consuming.
The lack of information was a choice.

Soon after the company, Fondomonte Arizona, arrived in the Butler Valley in 2015, state planners suggested asking the company to install meters and report its water use...

But the proposal “hit a stone wall,” John Schneeman, one of the planners, told The Post. It was spurned, he said, by officials in the administration of then-Gov. Doug Ducey (R) who were “cautious of tangling with a powerful company.” The proposal also ran headlong into a view, deeply held in the rural West, that water is private property that comes with access to land, rather than a public resource.
The inaction was an early sign of how state officials gave leeway to Fondomonte as a global fight for water took root in the Arizona desert. Leaving water unprotected amid a drought worsened by climate change has been a boon to Saudi Arabia, where industrial-scale farming of forage crops such as alfalfa is banned to conserve the Persian Gulf nation’s limited water supply.

A Post investigation — based on government documents and interviews with public officials, ranchers in the valley, farmworkers, and townspeople who live near the alfalfa fields — found that Arizona’s lax regulatory environment and sophisticated lobbying by the Saudi-owned company allowed a scarce American resource to flow unchecked to a foreign corporation. To advance its interests before the state, Fondomonte hired an influential Republican lawyer as well as a former member of Congress. And it sought to win over its rural neighbors, providing a high school with donations that included Fondomonte-sponsored sports bags and face masks emblazoned with the company logo to protect students from covid.

Last month, the new governor, Democrat Katie Hobbs, unveiled a long-awaited study showing that groundwater in parts of the Phoenix area was insufficient to meet projected demand over the next century. Her administration also recently sought details about water use on state-owned land. Only after the state threatened to cancel Fondomonte’s leases last month did the company disclose how much it pumps annually in the Butler Valley, according to communications released as part of a public-records request. Its consumption is equivalent to that of a city of more than 50,000 people, experts said.
The governor’s aides are now preparing plans not to renew Fondomonte’s leases in the Butler Valley when they expire next year

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/07/16/fondomonte-arizona-drought-saudi-farm-water/

---

How can a state that is starving for water allow outsiders to siphon off its precious resources? Guess, you grease enough palms and you can literally steal the farm or in this case water!

You are right about greasing palms. Arizona has to get out of that lease.

 

[elektra]

You are right about greasing palms. Arizona has to get out of that lease.

Why just that lease, it is one of over 15,000 leases?

 

[Arlette]

Why just that lease, it is one of over 15,000 leases?

Because this particular one is the topic of this thread.

 

[elektra]

Because this particular one is the topic of this thread.

It is just propaganda, attempting to show a Republican politician being corrupt with the evil Saudi Empire.

The Saudi Farm is .03% of Arizona's farmland. You are worried about .03%

 

[Arlette]

It is just propaganda, attempting to show a Republican politician being corrupt with the evil Saudi Empire.

The Saudi Farm is .03% of Arizona's farmland. You are worried about .03%

No, it has nothing to do with Saudi Arabia. It has to do with water.

 

[elektra]

No, it has nothing to do with Saudi Arabia. It has to do with water.

.03% of the water

 

[surada]

Thanks for posting this. I have seen the article and was interested, but could not get past the paywall. Hopefully, you did not go beyond recommend copy/paste guidelines, but what you did post is more than I had access to by the link on Drudge Report, and the alternate discussions linked with the WaPo article, did not actually discuss the article.

I am not from the Southwest, but aware of the growing water shortage in that region. I too, wonder how that Governor or any since could not or should not deal with it for the long term stewardship to the benefit of citizens of that state, just so Saudi cows can be fed in Saudi Arabia, on the water resources here. OPEC certainly had no qualms of shutting off oil to the world to protect or at least get more out of its resources.

What year did the Saudis contract to lease this farmland? Was it ten years ago?

Saudi Arabia hasn't shut off oil sales.

 

[ReinyDays]

The tofu-puking liberal media would have been screaming about "special tax status" if such existed ... Arizona doesn't collect property tax money from open hostile barren unforgiving deserts ... if we install $100,000,000 irrigation system, Arizona assesses our property at $100,000,000 ... and taxes us accordingly ... both whities and these filthy Arabs ...

It was Saudi Arabians using Saudi Arabian money that crashed jets into the WTC, Pentagon and an open field in Pennsylvania on September 11th, 2001 ...

Arizona couldn't wait to forget ...