The energy-water nexus: deja-vu all over again?

With US policymakers struggling to contemplate a future where oil pipelines sputter and water wells come up empty, panellists at the recently concluded American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Boston urged a rethink of the connection between these two crucial resources.

The link between energy and water, commonly called the energy-water nexus, was once a cornerstone of Project Independence, an initiative in the administration of Richard Nixon that aimed for domestic energy self-sufficiency. Intervening discoveries of domestic oil and less fractious relationships with global energy suppliers caused interest to wane, however, and the project was shelved.

Flash ahead to 2008, and concerns over climate change have thrust the energy-water issue back into the spotlight. The burgeoning global population's ever-increasing need for fresh water is at odds with a warming world that is already squeezing water availability in some regions. And things will only get worse, according to the 2007 report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, as current water-management practices are unlikely to quell demands. At least in the US, the energy-water nexus is creeping back onto the national stage.

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