I share the same concerns. Market economics did not prevent e.g. Enron from scalping millions of dollars out of CA energy markets while rolling blackouts resulted in powerless hospitals.
Speculation - not actual supply or demand - in oil markets drove the price of gasoline from $1 to $4 a gallon (and now back to $2). Everyone else paid for the inefficient market finding a false equilibrium pumped up by perception of security.
(Financial deregulation of Wall St in 1999 preceded the popping of the dotcom asset bubble by very little lag. And then CDS in 2005 and the Great Recession and now this whole mess: and the only solution is to pay cronies who didn't hoard enough cash?)
Sugar water companies can afford to push the price of water higher while the external health and commodity costs are passed onto everyone else.
Markets have thus far failed to solve for long-term environmental damage: their incentive is to externalize costs in order to maximize short-term profit.
