TFTT Report

The folks at Corporate Accountability International (CAI) are trying to raise money based on unsubstantiated claims of a vast private water conspiracy.

In a fundraising solicitation yesterday, CAI referred to a letter sent by the private water industry to President-Elect Trump, “welcoming him with open arms.” But, of course, the group didn’t provide its fundraising targets the opportunity to actually read the letter in question and decide for themselves, instead choosing to just send scare tactics and a distortion of reality in the hopes of enriching their lobbying coffers. But this is nothing new.

We’d like everyone to read the letter that Michael Deane, Executive Director of the National Association of Water Companies (NAWC), recently sent to President-Elect Donald Trump. This is a letter that would have been sent to the President-Elect no matter who won the November election because infrastructure investment is not a partisan issue.

In Deane’s letter, he provides the incoming Administration, in great detail, background on the private water industry in the United States and what federal policy items are of importance to our efforts to help communities reinvest in their water and sewer systems. We dare say that most every water industry and policy group in the United States is sending Trump’s transition team letters very similar in format. In fact, NAWC joined with our municipal partners and research foundations in sending a letter on behalf of the entire water industry.

Thoughtful leaders and groups from all political persuasions, from President Obama’s White House and the U.S. Conference of Mayors to the Brookings Institution, understand the importance of private sector involvement in water infrastructure and delivery. So it’s really Corporate Accountability International that is – once again – outside the mainstream