Key facts about a collision with national consequences.
U.S. energy production withdraws and consumes more fresh water than any industrial sector besides agriculture. With the exception of wind power and solar photovoltaics, all of the clean energy resources available to the United States use more water than producing energy from conventional fossil fuel and nuclear energy. Moreover, “unconventional” reserves of oil-bearing tar sands, oil shales and deep gas-bearing shales use more water than the conventional oil and gas reserves they are replacing.
Click through the interactive infographic below to learn more facts about the confrontation occurring at the place where rising energy demand meets declining freshwater supplies.
Graphic created by Ball State University undergraduate student, Mark Townsend, with data compiled by Circle of Blue’s Aubrey Parker and Andrea Hart. Reach them at circleofblue.org/contact and andrea@circleofblue.org.
