Betting man seeks angles

It’s unclear to seasoned observers whether the speculators behind Cadiz Inc, a company pushing an outlandish plan to tap desert groundwater for Southern California cities, plan to go for actual water, or are content to capitalize on the stock market on the sheer prospect of mining it. Cadiz founder Keith Brackpool likes to play all the angles.

To appreciate just how many angles, check out Capitol Weekly’s report today on a Brackpool-backed bill in the California legislature seeking to change rules as to how one can wager on horse-racing.

“One key component added to the bill is exchange betting,” reports the Weekly. “This is a type of betting that allows players to essentially bet against a horse, or bet that a horse will finish in a particular spot in a race, or take innumerable other possible positions. Unlike traditional betting, where the track provides odds on particular horses, the house merely facilitates complex bets…

The more Cadiz changes…

… the more it remains the same. At a meeting in Ontario, CA, today of the Association of Ground Water Agencies, the speculator Cadiz, Inc will present a privately-commissioned study showing that the Mojave aquifer it proposes to pump can yield  50,000 acre feet of water a year, or enough for 400,000 people.

Business Week* and the Cadiz website have the stories, which in the case of Cadiz’s version is just that — a story.

Brackpool in the horse race

THE LOS ANGELES TIMES reports today that California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has appointed British-born water speculator Keith Brackpool to the state horse-racing board.

Brackpool, a horse-racing aficionado and country club owner, is better known for pursuit of a controversial groundwater project in the Mojave, which was rejected by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California in 2002 as economically and environmentally unfeasible.

Since then, Brackpool has been pursuing other backers for his groundwater pumping operation in the Cadiz basin in San Bernardino County. On June 5th, 2009, Brackpool’s company, Cadiz Inc, released an endorsement by Governor Schwarzenegger for the project.

Months later, a spokesman for the governor confirmed that the endorsement was genuine, although its release by  Brackpool’s company direct to the business wires with no trace of it from the governor’s office raised questions in this website, the Los Angeles Times and Aguanomics, the blog of UC Berkeley water economist David Zetland. Zetland estimated that soaring stock prices after the governor’s endorsement had positioned Brackpool,…

Cadiz speaks

FIRST, thanks to Aquafornia, the news feed of the Water Education Foundation, for carrying today’s guest commentary from Cadiz Inc General Counsel Scott Slater, and to Mr Slater for taking the time to address questions raised here and in other publications, including the Los Angeles Times, WaterWired and Aguanomics.

David Zetland on political influence, insider trading and Cadiz

Manhattan Beach Country Club, owned by Keith Brackpool, CEO of Cadiz, Inc

DAVID ZETLAND, the Berkeley-based water economist and publisher of Aguanomics, today follows up on Cadiz’s June 5 stock surge and the market position of Cadiz CEO Keith Brackpool: Who knew what when in advance of the Cadiz-issued endorsements of the Cadiz groundwater project by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Rep. Jim Costa (D-Fresno) and San Bernardino County Supervisor Brad Mitzelfelt?

“What intrigues me is that Brackpool took options on 60,000 shares on May 22,” Zetland writes. “They were worth about $400,000 then and about $750,000 two weeks later. (He only had 90,000 shares before exercising that option. Was it “in the money”? Did he sell those shares?…)”

“Bottom Line,” Zetland writes, “It’s fine to buy and sell water to make a profit. It’s NOT fine to use political influence to change the value of your water trading company. I would not be surprised…

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