* . *
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact
Tuesday, October 7, 2025
Earth-News
  • Home
  • Business
  • Entertainment
    Row K Entertainment Emerges as Major New Hollywood Buyer With Splashy TIFF Shopping Spree – TheWrap

    Row K Entertainment Emerges as Major New Hollywood Buyer With Splashy TIFF Shopping Spree – TheWrap

    Charlie Hunnam Reflects on Playing a Serial Killer in Monster: The Ed Gein Story – Yahoo

    Charlie Hunnam Reveals the Dark Challenges of Playing a Serial Killer in Monster: The Ed Gein Story

    “Reba” cast, then and now: See the stars 24 years later (and who’s reunited for another show) – Yahoo

    “Reba” cast, then and now: See the stars 24 years later (and who’s reunited for another show) – Yahoo

    Why Taylor Swift Name-Dropped Elizabeth Taylor in Her New Album – Yahoo

    Here’s Why Taylor Swift Dropped Elizabeth Taylor’s Name in Her New Album

    Al Roker Gives Olivia Dean an Unexpected ‘New Job’ on the ‘Today’ Show – Yahoo

    Al Roker Shocks Olivia Dean with an Exciting New Role on the ‘Today’ Show

    Books about the arts and some haunts for a Denton October – Denton Record-Chronicle

    Uncover Artistic Treasures and Spooky Adventures to Experience in Denton This October

  • General
  • Health
  • News

    Cracking the Code: Why China’s Economic Challenges Aren’t Shaking Markets, Unlike America’s” – Bloomberg

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Trending Tags

    • Trump Inauguration
    • United Stated
    • White House
    • Market Stories
    • Election Results
  • Science
  • Sports
  • Technology
    ARM Institute opens technology project call to speed submarine manufacturing – The Robot Report

    ARM Institute Unveils Cutting-Edge Technology Project to Revolutionize Submarine Manufacturing

    Forget Cowbells. Cows Wear High-Tech Collars Now. – The New York Times

    Ditch the Cowbells: Discover the High-Tech Collars Transforming Cattle Care

    What the Recent Price Surge Means for Figure Technology Solutions After SEC Settlement – Yahoo Finance

    What the Recent Price Surge Reveals About Figure Technology Solutions Following SEC Settlement

    MAC Brings iPad Technology to Football Sidelines Across All 13 Member Schools – Sports Video Group

    MAC Brings iPad Technology to Football Sidelines Across All 13 Member Schools – Sports Video Group

    Technology Is Becoming More Important Than Humans In CX – No Jitter

    Technology Is Becoming More Important Than Humans In CX – No Jitter

    A Tech Expo Shows What China Can Make, but Not Who’ll Buy It All – The New York Times

    Inside China’s Tech Expo: Cutting-Edge Innovations Face Uncertain Demand

    Trending Tags

    • Nintendo Switch
    • CES 2017
    • Playstation 4 Pro
    • Mark Zuckerberg
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Business
  • Entertainment
    Row K Entertainment Emerges as Major New Hollywood Buyer With Splashy TIFF Shopping Spree – TheWrap

    Row K Entertainment Emerges as Major New Hollywood Buyer With Splashy TIFF Shopping Spree – TheWrap

    Charlie Hunnam Reflects on Playing a Serial Killer in Monster: The Ed Gein Story – Yahoo

    Charlie Hunnam Reveals the Dark Challenges of Playing a Serial Killer in Monster: The Ed Gein Story

    “Reba” cast, then and now: See the stars 24 years later (and who’s reunited for another show) – Yahoo

    “Reba” cast, then and now: See the stars 24 years later (and who’s reunited for another show) – Yahoo

    Why Taylor Swift Name-Dropped Elizabeth Taylor in Her New Album – Yahoo

    Here’s Why Taylor Swift Dropped Elizabeth Taylor’s Name in Her New Album

    Al Roker Gives Olivia Dean an Unexpected ‘New Job’ on the ‘Today’ Show – Yahoo

    Al Roker Shocks Olivia Dean with an Exciting New Role on the ‘Today’ Show

    Books about the arts and some haunts for a Denton October – Denton Record-Chronicle

    Uncover Artistic Treasures and Spooky Adventures to Experience in Denton This October

  • General
  • Health
  • News

    Cracking the Code: Why China’s Economic Challenges Aren’t Shaking Markets, Unlike America’s” – Bloomberg

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Trending Tags

    • Trump Inauguration
    • United Stated
    • White House
    • Market Stories
    • Election Results
  • Science
  • Sports
  • Technology
    ARM Institute opens technology project call to speed submarine manufacturing – The Robot Report

    ARM Institute Unveils Cutting-Edge Technology Project to Revolutionize Submarine Manufacturing

    Forget Cowbells. Cows Wear High-Tech Collars Now. – The New York Times

    Ditch the Cowbells: Discover the High-Tech Collars Transforming Cattle Care

    What the Recent Price Surge Means for Figure Technology Solutions After SEC Settlement – Yahoo Finance

    What the Recent Price Surge Reveals About Figure Technology Solutions Following SEC Settlement

    MAC Brings iPad Technology to Football Sidelines Across All 13 Member Schools – Sports Video Group

    MAC Brings iPad Technology to Football Sidelines Across All 13 Member Schools – Sports Video Group

    Technology Is Becoming More Important Than Humans In CX – No Jitter

    Technology Is Becoming More Important Than Humans In CX – No Jitter

    A Tech Expo Shows What China Can Make, but Not Who’ll Buy It All – The New York Times

    Inside China’s Tech Expo: Cutting-Edge Innovations Face Uncertain Demand

    Trending Tags

    • Nintendo Switch
    • CES 2017
    • Playstation 4 Pro
    • Mark Zuckerberg
No Result
View All Result
Earth-News
No Result
View All Result
Home News

What’s Really Wrong with Thames Water?

May 23, 2024
in News
What’s Really Wrong with Thames Water?
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Thames Water again? We’re not in the water business. But this story has a moral, so read on. There are many reasons for the current predicament in the UK’s water utility business. This situation resembles one of those detective stories where almost everyone is a suspect. The victim, of course, is the British public suffering under boil water alerts and facing increasingly polluted beaches, lakes, and rivers. But who is to blame? The question itself is complex and difficult to answer. Each day another news article appears expressing outrage about excessive management compensation, capital misallocation, or regulatory malfeasance while concluding with a somber note about worsening pollution in some local lake or stream. Making these problems seem overly complex and difficult to resolve has a numbing effect on the public and encourages a kind of learned helplessness. This also permits politicians to avoid accountability for the mess that they or their predecessors created.

But let’s get back to Thames Water. Their obvious problem is water pollution. The equally obvious solution is a much higher level of capital spending on sewage treatment and related facilities. And that’s where the easy answers end. Why? First, because no one trusts the existing management and board, who are ultimately responsible for the dire state of corporate affairs, to properly supervise the billions in needed remedial capital expenditures. Second, no one trusts the regulator either. Ofwat has shown a profound indifference to its public responsibilities while permitting a grotesque overleveraging of its utilities. This excessive debt has financially crippled these once solidly investment grade companies. Dealing with this excessive debt is a big part of what has to be resolved. Bankrupting the holding company, Kemble, and all related non operating entities, would be simplest. But there’s another problem. Lastly, the public seems to have lost faith in the private sector’s ability to handle this but it’s even less clear how a re-nationalization of this industry would occur. That’s why these water utility issues are difficult. We have simultaneous problems with misguided management still focused on capital extraction, wildly incompetent regulators, and a public increasingly convinced that privatization was a big mistake and that renationalizing these industries is the best outcome. And all of these issues are linked.

Of all the institutional failures here, the apparent abdication of Ofwat from even rudimentary capital structure regulation is to us the most baffling. As we’ve written before, the water industry is one of the safest and least risky types of utility. Everyone needs their product and demand is predictable. But from an analytical perspective, low business risk implies the ability to take on more financial leverage and vice versa. High-risk businesses should have very little leverage, if any. Said differently, business risk and financial risk are inverse correlates. The Thames Water management seems to have taken this idea of a low-risk water utility business and pushed it to its logical, leverage-able limit. And now they, and the British public, are stuck.

Lastly, the problem regulators have is one of public trust, or the lack of it. Why should people in the UK trust them to properly supervise a large remedial capital program for improved water quality when they have basically ignored all semblance of regulatory propriety in the past? To us that’s the true appeal of renationalization. It gets around a dysfunctional British regulatory body.

Here’s the lesson for us. Years of disregard for the public service function, allowed by a permissive regulator, finally reached the point where even politicians took notice and denounced the market-embracing setup they had previously championed. Who loses? Probably the utility’s owners. Now imagine, across the pond, American electricity customers without service for days in sweltering heat, or in severe cold, and it keeps happening, while regulators sit by helplessly. Can the public trust the regulators or the management to correct the situation? Maybe the key lesson from the Thatcher era of utility privatization is simply that private enterprises can’t provide public services. Or at least not without vigilant regulators. These deregulated utilities keep malfunctioning and it keeps happening. When does an enterprising politician turn this into an election issue?  So far not yet.  But the summer has not yet begun.  Maybe Thames Water should be a case study at some Edison Electric Institute management retreat. Learn what not to do.

By Leonard Hyman and William Tilles for Oilprice.com

>>> Read full article>>>
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source : OilPrice – https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Whats-Really-Wrong-with-Thames-Water.html

Tags: newsreallyWhat’s
Previous Post

China’s Rapid Nuclear Expansion Is Threatening U.S. Dominance in the Sector

Next Post

5 Stocks To Play The AI Power Boom

Ecology blazing the trail for more clean energy projects – Washington State Department of Ecology (.gov)

How Ecology is Powering the Shift to a Greener Energy Future

October 7, 2025
Penn State Brandywine Earth sciences professor earns two national awards – Penn State University

Penn State Brandywine Earth sciences professor earns two national awards – Penn State University

October 7, 2025
UNESCO and CODATA launch resources on open science for crisis response – unesco.org

UNESCO and CODATA Launch Innovative Open Science Tools to Enhance Crisis Response

October 7, 2025
New Engen Report Identifies Key Trends and Winning Strategies for Active Lifestyle Brands in 2025 and Beyond – Fitt Insider

New Engen Report Identifies Key Trends and Winning Strategies for Active Lifestyle Brands in 2025 and Beyond – Fitt Insider

October 7, 2025
ARM Institute opens technology project call to speed submarine manufacturing – The Robot Report

ARM Institute Unveils Cutting-Edge Technology Project to Revolutionize Submarine Manufacturing

October 7, 2025
Seahawks’ defensive depth being challenged as injuries stack up – FOX Sports

Seahawks’ defensive depth being challenged as injuries stack up – FOX Sports

October 7, 2025
World Mental Health Day Festival and gala set for this week in NYC – MSNBC News

World Mental Health Day Festival and gala set for this week in NYC – MSNBC News

October 6, 2025
Green economy means jobs for NJ, report says – NJ Spotlight News

Green economy means jobs for NJ, report says – NJ Spotlight News

October 6, 2025
Row K Entertainment Emerges as Major New Hollywood Buyer With Splashy TIFF Shopping Spree – TheWrap

Row K Entertainment Emerges as Major New Hollywood Buyer With Splashy TIFF Shopping Spree – TheWrap

October 6, 2025
Republicans are holding Americans’ health care hostage — and lying about it – MSNBC News

How Republicans Are Holding Americans’ Health Care Hostage – and Deceiving the Public

October 6, 2025

Categories

Archives

October 2025
M T W T F S S
 12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
2728293031  
« Sep    
Earth-News.info

The Earth News is an independent English-language daily published Website from all around the World News

Browse by Category

  • Business (20,132)
  • Ecology (855)
  • Economy (875)
  • Entertainment (21,749)
  • General (17,452)
  • Health (9,917)
  • Lifestyle (888)
  • News (22,149)
  • People (877)
  • Politics (886)
  • Science (16,086)
  • Sports (21,376)
  • Technology (15,856)
  • World (858)

Recent News

Ecology blazing the trail for more clean energy projects – Washington State Department of Ecology (.gov)

How Ecology is Powering the Shift to a Greener Energy Future

October 7, 2025
Penn State Brandywine Earth sciences professor earns two national awards – Penn State University

Penn State Brandywine Earth sciences professor earns two national awards – Penn State University

October 7, 2025
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact

© 2023 earth-news.info

No Result
View All Result

© 2023 earth-news.info

No Result
View All Result

© 2023 earth-news.info

Go to mobile version