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Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation on Tuesday overhauling the state's management of its groundwater supply, bringing it in line with other states that have long regulated their wells. This is really important because california has large agriculture based businesses (central valley). In fact, the oppositions to the legislature were people in the agriculture business. This potentially allows water companies and regulators to intervene if water use is excessive or improper. This is an article directly discussing scarcity of water and natural resources and how the government regulates these resources. This passing of this legislature could also have some opportunity cost along with it; less water=maybe more expensive food, less food, more chance of dying crops (?)

This article is about the new tax on soda in Berkeley, California. Apparently soda is now being taxed for 1c per ounce of soda. This tax (measure D) will levy a 1-cent-per-ounce tax on sodas and sugary drinks, and the money will go to the city's general fund. This measure wasn't intended to create funds for a specific purpose therefore it only needed the majority vote for it to pass. On the other hand, san francisco had a specific use for these excised taxes so it needed 2/3 vote for their proposition to pass (prop E). Furthermore, the excised tax for San Francisco would have been 2c per ounce of soda. This tax has been predicted to impact low income households since soda is predominantly consumed by them. This then leads to an overall increase in grocery bills, since the taxes aren't just levied on soda brands but also on grocery stores. This means that grocery stores may raise overall prices (of all goods) to pay the tax on soda.

This article talks about high demands for water and dwindling supply. This is forcing government/companies to raise water prices so it would restrict usage of it. Like California where drought is causing high prices and low usage of water. Water has pretty neutral elasticity so government and businesses can make decisions capitalizing on its elasticity.