Archive for May, 2013

Escalating Water Strains In Fracking Regions
May 29th, 2013

Via Forbes, a look at the increasing tension in the US between energy and water: It’s bad enough that Western farmers and ranchers are reeling from a three-year-old drought and record heat waves. Now they’re feeling the heat from the goliath energy industry – over water. From Texas to Colorado, hydraulic fracturing energy production is […]

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The Fight For North Dakota’s Fracking-Water Market
May 23rd, 2013

Via Yahoo! News, an interesting article on North Dakota’s unique watergy nexus: In towns across North Dakota, the wellhead of the North American energy boom, the locals have taken to quoting the adage: “Whiskey is for drinking, and water is for fighting.” It’s not that they lack water, like Texas and California. They are swimming […]

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Water Scarcity May Reshape Energy Industry
May 19th, 2013

Via the Christian Science Monitor, a report on how the demand for fresh water could exceed supply by an estimated 40% by 2030 which would push up prices for the water-intensive energy industry: There is a broad and growing consensus that freshwater is undervalued. It is a limited, but vital, commodity without a price. In […]

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Report: Half Of U.S. Fracking Wells Are Drilled In Highly Water-Stressed Regions
May 12th, 2013

Courtesy of Circle of Blue, a sobering report on fracking’s impact on water in the United States: Hydraulically fractured shale regions are outlined in black and overlaid onto a map of U.S. river basins coded by water risk according to the World Resources Institute’s Aqueduct tool. River basins colored light yellow have low water stress; […]

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Desalination’s Watergy Dilemma
May 9th, 2013

Via OilPrice.com, an interesting look at desalination: Desalination plants consume a significant amount of energy, and the question now is how much energy should we expend on boosting clean drinking water supplies? There are now 17 desalination plants in the proposal process in the US, and each would consume about 15,000 kilowatt-hours of power for […]

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As Oil And Gas Drilling Competes For Water, One New Mexico County Says No
May 5th, 2013

Via National Geographic, an article on the watergy nexus in New Mexico: In drought-plagued New Mexico, water is gold. And this week, Mora County in the northern part of the state took a firm stand to protect its precious liquid:  it banned all oil and gas extraction from county lands.  It is believed to be […]

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About This Blog And Its Author
As the scarcity of water and energy continues to grow, the linkage between these two critical resources will become more defined and even more acute in the months ahead.  This blog is committed to analyzing and referencing articles, reports, and interviews that can help unlock the nascent, complex and expanding linkages between water and energy -- The Watergy Nexus -- and will endeavor to provide a central clearinghouse for insightful articles and comments for all to consider.

Educated at Yale University (Bachelor of Arts - History) and Harvard (Master in Public Policy - International Development), Monty Simus has held a lifelong interest in environmental and conservation issues, primarily as they relate to freshwater scarcity, renewable energy, and national park policy.  Working from a water-scarce base in Las Vegas with his wife and son, he is the founder of Water Politics, an organization dedicated to the identification and analysis of geopolitical water issues arising from the world’s growing and vast water deficits, and is also a co-founder of SmartMarkets, an eco-preneurial venture that applies web 2.0 technology and online social networking innovations to motivate energy & water conservation.  He previously worked for an independent power producer in Central Asia; co-authored an article appearing in the Summer 2010 issue of the Tulane Environmental Law Journal, titled: “The Water Ethic: The Inexorable Birth Of A Certain Alienable Right”; and authored an article appearing in the inaugural issue of Johns Hopkins University's Global Water Magazine in July 2010 titled: “H2Own: The Water Ethic and an Equitable Market for the Exchange of Individual Water Efficiency Credits.”