Archive for April, 2015

Drilling For Oil As Water Runs Short

Via the Christian Science Monitor, a look at the watergy Californians are being asked to cut water usage 25 percent. Should the oil industry cut back, too? It’s a question arising worldwide as energy demand rises in water-scare regions Manicured lawns will give way to arid, drought-tolerant landscaping. Homeowners will retrofit bathrooms with low-flow toilets. Golf […]

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Brazil To Build World’s Largest Floating Solar Farm Amidst Devastating Drought

Via EcoWatch, a slightly different perspective on the water-energy nexus but one interesting enough to share: With Brazil’s historic drought drying up its hydroelectric plants, the South American country is turning to solar power to help relieve its foreboding energy crisis. Brazil’s devastating drought has depleted its reservoirs causing the nation to consider alternative energy options besides hydropower, which […]

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Clean Energy Opportunities in California’s Water Sector

Via the Union for Concerned Scientists, a new report on watergy challenges and opportunities in California: It takes more than snow and rainfall to keep California’s taps flowing; it demands energy and lots of it, particularly during a record-setting drought. The state’s water and wastewater utilities consume large amounts of electricity to pump, treat, transport, […]

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Requiem For Giant Indian Hydropower Projects?

Via Circle of Blue, an interesting article examining India’s run-of-the-river diplomacy and the likelihood of it building more Himalayan dams: With all the immediate distress and hopeful fervor that has greeted Narendra Modi’s new administration, one of the government’s unyielding themes is the prime minister’s allegiance to running water. Specifically, the swift currents that pour from […]

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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.”