Water and Energy

Garry White - Thu 21 Feb, 2008

America is on the verge of a water crisis, according to Pacific Institute Peter Gleick...You need water to generate electricity – and you need electricity to pump water. Both topics are inextricably intertwined.

Power generation and water supply are inextricably linked, and that’s a problem, says Smart Commodities editor, Garry White...

America is on the verge of a water crisis, according to Pacific Institute Peter Gleick. The president of this environmental institute was speaking at the Cambridge Energy Research Associates' (CERA) annual energy conference in Houston, Texas.

This is an important event in the energy calendar. Indeed, Alan Greenspan spoke there last week and said that the US was not in a recession yet, it was merely teetering on the edge.

Greenspan also said that the US economy would continue to erode until there was a stabilisation of US housing prices. What he did not say was that he should shoulder a significant proportion of the blame for creating the credit bubble that caused these problems in the first place… but he would never admit to that, would he..?

However, Mr Greenspan may be the big name at the conference as he tours the world flogging his book, but other speakers were far more interesting than him… especially Mr Gleick.

He was talking about the link between energy and water. You need water to generate electricity – and you need electricity to pump water. Both topics are inextricably intertwined... but policy makers never seem to consider this fact.

Gleick noted that the single largest user of power in California was the water pumps that keep the most important substance to humanity flowing through the Los Angeles area...this means, he said, that running a hot tap in LA for five minutes uses as much energy as running a 60-Watt light bulb for a whole 14 hours.

He recommended that the State would meet its energy consumption targets faster if it targeted an individual’s water consumption rather than power consumption. It was a good point well made.

Consider this fact for a moment: 40% of freshwater used in the US each day is used for power generation, according to the US Geological Survey.

He also cited projects in New Mexico. He said that power plants here had started using waste water from sewage treatment plants and oil wells.

I remain convinced that water resources are going to be a vital issue going forward. As the population expands, the crisis will get deeper.

Indeed, there have actually been reports of a “Second US Civil War” last week over water rights between Georgia and Tennessee.

The “battle” is taking place in Georgia and concerns a place with the magical name of Lookout Mountain, near Chattanooga.

There are actually two places called Lookout Mountain. One is in Tennessee, and the other is in Georgia. They are a couple of miles apart. The demarcation of the State line was negotiated after the end of the US Civil War.

However, Georgia wants to absorb the Tennessee town of Lookout Mountain... not to unite the two places under one state banner… but because they want access to the Tennessee River. The City of Atlanta is mighty thirsty and state planners want to tape the river over the state line. Georgia is arguing that the town in Tennessee was a planning mistake made almost 200 years ago.

If Georgia wants the land: "what they'll have to do is muster the Georgia militia, feed them black-eyed peas and turnip greens, and send them up to storm Lookout Mountain," said Nashville attorney Justin Wilson, according to the local press.

The dispute is likely to go to all the way to the US Supreme Court… and things can only get worse…

A study this week released by The Pew Hispanic Center concluded that by 2050, the US population would hit 438 million from its current 303.4 million people. It also said that 82% of this growth would be caused by immigration.

“By 2050, the nation’s racial and ethnic mix will look quite different than it does now. Non-Hispanic whites, who made up 67% of the population in 2005, will be 47% in 2050. Hispanics will rise from 14% of the population in 2005 to 29% in 2050. Blacks were 13% of the population in 2005 and will be roughly the same proportion in 2050. Asians, who were 5% of the population in 2005, will be 9% in 2050.”

This problem is not going to go away. In fact, as oil gets scarcer and scarcer, it is going to get much, much worse.

To keep updated with what is going on at CERA click here.

Regards,

Garry White
For The Daily Reckoning