Colorado And The Watergy Nexus

Via the Daily Camera, a report on one aspect of Colorado’s watergy nexus: Flatiron Freddy, Boulder’s rodent meteorologist, has signaled more winter ahead and it’s faint comfort for those who are too familiar with evacuating for wildfire, as this year’s winter is certainly not moist enough to keep that threat much at bay, and there’s […]

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Four Ways Water Is Connected to India’s Blackouts

Via the World Resource Institute’s Aqueduct blog, a quick look at India’s watergy issues: Early last week, the strained electrical power infrastructure in northern and eastern India was pushed to its breaking point. Two days of power failures impacted a staggering 670 million people (or, put another way, more than the combined populations of the […]

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The Growing Impact of ‘Energy For Water’

Via The Guardian, a look at the amount of energy we use to pump, clean and transport water: In the water-food-energy nexus, the relationship between water and energy may appear obvious. Water is used to create energy through hydro-power for example, or to cool power stations or to mine fossil fuels. But there’s another side […]

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Water Demand For Energy To Double By 2035

Via National Geographic, a report on the world’s growing energy thirst: The global increase of coal power, along with the coal industry’s adoption of new technologies, will drive the largest share of water consumption for energy use through 2035, according to the IEA. Pictured: Germany’s Jaenschwalde coal plant. The amount of fresh water consumed for […]

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Western Oil Shale Could Mean Energy Independence, But Where’s The Water To Extract It?

Via Adventure Journal, a look at the watergy implications of western oil shale production: Extracting the West oil riches requires lots and lots of water – and the area isn’t exactly getting wetter. Locked up inside the six million years of sediment that makes up the Green River Formation, which extends across mostly public lands […]

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India’s Watergy Nexus

Via ModeShift, an interesting article on India’s watergy challenge: A 1,350-megawatt coal-fired power plant under construction near Tilda, near Raipur in Chhattisgarh, is one of more than 100 big generating stations recently built or nearing completion across India. Only China has a bigger coal-fired power plant construction program.  It’s been a couple of weeks since […]

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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.”