I discovered recently that Massachusetts finally allowed landlords to individually bill tenants for water with the passage of Chapter 417 of the Acts of 2004. Passage of this seemingly common sense law was controversial and not a sure thing.

Amazingly, "consumer advocates" opposed the idea as an "unfair" attack on tenants. For example, the National Consumer Law Center (which bills itself as "America's Consumer Law Experts, Protecting Vulnerable Consumers and Promoting Marketplace Justice") set out the case against "submetering" in a 2003 position paper. For a "pro-submetering" analysis from EPA, see here.

It is a remarkable thing that the notion of charging for use of scarce resources is actually controversial and yet another example of how interfering with markets harms the environment.