For some reason there are farmers growing alfalfa and cotton in the desert by Palm Springs. Because the water is ridiculously cheap, much cheaper than the actual market price. All you'd need to do is put a market-type marginal price on all water used beyond a certain basic household amount and you wouldn't be wasting nearly so much of the Colorado River. If they want to build green golf courses in the desert, then have them pay the real cost of the water, not a ridiculously subsidized price. In other words, if you want to conserve water, the best way to do so is not through command and control measures.
Same thing is true with energy.
We don't have a gasoline shortage the way we did in 1974 and 1979 because we don't have price controls. Given the screaming for price controls from the Left, electing a Democratic Congress will only guarantee gasoline lines and more blackouts. Let's stop being pussies about nuclear power. Plus if we go on a serious nuclear expansion program we can meet the Kyoto CO2 targets without much difficulty in the next 15 years or so. So it's even environmentally safe.