Water Conservation in Texas

How will Texas adapt to drought conditions?  Will suburban homes continue to have lush green lawns?  As I argued in Climatopolis, if water authorities raise the price of water to signal scarcity then suburban households would have an incentive to demand innovative solutions and some entrepreneur would supply them.   Whether the "solution" is to plant AstroTurf or zoysia grass does not concern me and I'm not qualified to guess what new approach will be the winner.   The key point about the economics of climate adaptation is to allow free markets to work their magic.  Prices of energy,water and coastal insurance must be allowed to freely fluctuate to reflect scarcity.  In this sense, we need less government intervention to help us to adapt.  On the other hand, there are many local public goods that local governments can supply that will help us to adapt to climate change.  In late February 2014, I will be giving a speech for a group of California local officials where I will sketch out what I believe they can do to enhance our cities' ability to adapt to climate change.