RUSH: You know, back in the early days of the gasoline price going up, everybody was dumping on these guys. We compared the prices of various other liquids. Milk by the gallon; water by the gallon, of course, when you buy it in bottles and so forth. I said, ‘My gosh, can you imagine how the oil company guys feel about the bottled water guys?’ And I’m making a joke. All they do is turn on the tap, put a bottle under the tap, put a label on it saying ‘spring water,’ and sell it to you. They don’t have to drill. They don’t have to explore. There’s no R&D. There aren’t any regulations. They don’t even have to put fluoride in it. I was exaggerating about the bottled water guys putting it underneath the tap, but it turns out I was right. Even when I’m joking, I was right. ‘PepsiCo Inc. will spell out that its Aquafina bottled water is made with tap water.’
Yes, right here, I hold the story right here in my formerly nicotine-stained fingers. This is ‘a concession to the growing environmental and political opposition to the bottled water industry. According to Corporate Accountability International, a U.S. watchdog group, the world’s No. 2 beverage company will include the words ‘Public Water Source’ on Aquafina labels.’ (Laughing.) That isn’t going to help them in Rio Linda. Why don’t they say, ‘This water came from the same type of tap in your kitchen.’ Public water source. ”If this helps clarify the fact that the water originates from public sources, then it’s a reasonable thing to do,’ said Michelle Naughton, a PepsiCo North America spokeswoman. Pepsi Chief Executive Indra Nooyi told Reuters earlier this week the company was considering such a move. Pepsi’s Aquafina and Coca-Cola Co’s Dasani are both made from purified water sourced from public reservoirs, as opposed to Danone’s Evian or Nestle’s Poland Spring, so-called ‘spring waters.” Look, Dawn’s got a bottle of Dasani she’s drinking in there right now. You may as well have run water from the tap. I knew it. I knew it.