New Climate Bill Lacking in Water Provisions

By now it is widely apparent that global warming will impact our rivers and water resources first and worst. Today, after reviewing the current draft of the American Power Act released by Senators Kerry and Leiberman, Jon Devine of the NRDC reports that he found a complete lack of water provisions in the bill despite the critical role that water will play in helping us prevent and prepare for climate change.

In his post on the NRDC Staff Blog, The New Climate Bill is too Dry, and I Don’t Mean Boring, Devine states:

I was searching for any provision that might promote water conservation, but came up dry. In my view, this bill is an important step forward and should be a basis for comprehensive legislation ( which the Senate Leadership should start putting together next month), but it’s important that this omission be remedied in final legislation.

The addition of a water provision in this forthcoming energy bill will be just as important as any other stipulation included. As I have not yet read through the entire bill myself, I cannot comment directly on anything specifically wrong in the bill, however, I can sincerely say that it would be a shame to omit any mention of water protection.

In many regions of the world, river flows are diminishing due to the effects of global warming and increasing human demands for water. In addition, the United States’ primary source (about 90%) of electricity, thermoelectric power, is not helping the situation. Not only does thermoelectric power act as a leading contributor to global warming, but it also serves as the number one source of national water withdrawals, using around 136 billion gallons of freshwater each day.

But it’s not just energy production which is threatening our nation’s water supplies, it is also how we use water in and around the household on a daily basis. There are many serious inefficiencies in the way water is used on a household level and plenty of high-performing, water efficient products available on the market which can make a huge difference. A previous post WaterSense Products Save 1.25 Billion Kilowatt Hours of Electricity in 2008 states:

In 2008, consumers who installed WaterSense labeled toilets, faucets, and faucet accessories helped save more than 9.3 billion gallons of water and realized $55 billion in savings on water and sewer utility bills.

Unfortunately, our inefficient use of and demand for water, perpetuates an ‘over-demand’ for energy, if you will. This is because as we consume water, there are huge amounts of energy embedded in the process. Energy is used to take water from its source (pump it out of the ground, rivers or lakes), to treat the water (clean it up), to distribute the water (pump it to consumers), for end use (heating, cooling, pressurizing), and for wastewater treatment (cleaning wastewater before it is recycled or disposed of). As noted in River Network’s 2009 report Carbon Footprint of Water:

Through our analysis of primary and secondary researcy, we estimate that U.S. water-related energy use is at least 521 million MWh a year—equivalent to 13% of the nation’s electricity consumption. While this appears to be a conservative estimate of water-related energy use, our findings suggest that the carbon footprint currently associated with moving, treating and heating water in the U.S. is at least 290 million metric tons a year. The CO2 embedded in the nation’s water represents 5% of all U.S. carbon emissions and is equivalent to the emissions of over 62 coal fired power plants

So, to bring this back around to Jon Devine’s post and the significance of the inclusion of water provisions in the American Power Ace, Jon states:

In a nutshell, then, saving water is a smart strategy, both to adapt to climate change that’s already occurring and will continue to occur, and to mitigate further global warming pollution. So, that’s why water conservation belongs in a climate bill…

For that reason, it’s unfortunate that the American Power Act omits these provisions. I’m hopeful that their absence is an oversight, rather than the result of a policy disagreement about the importance of water efficiency, so NRDC and our partners will be pushing the Senate to ensure these measures are once again included as the legislative process unfolds. We’ll keep you posted.

Consider emailing your senators and urge them to stand up for water conservation by making water including water in the American Power Act.