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Energy, Water, and Debt: Linked Problems, Common Solutions?

109 Views Length: 180:14 In the last year, conflicts between energy needs and water quality and supply have increased and caught national media attention. Some of the protests against the Keystone XL pipeline were based on fears about potential for contamination of water.… In the last year, conflicts between energy needs and water quality and supply have increased and caught national media attention. Some of the protests against the Keystone XL pipeline were based on fears about potential for contamination of water. Opposition to shale gas development also draws heavily on worries about water pollution. And 2011 saw power plant output threatened, not by fuel shortfalls, but by shortages of cooling water. With the economic recession wreaking havoc on local budgets, high and rising public debt is making it far less plausible that government will be able to buy our way out of energy and water scarcity.How can energy and water challenges be addressed in light of these new economic realities? On what institutions should we rely to make the essential trade-offs? Is new technology the answer, and, if so, what technology, and how should it be fostered? Jim Nussle, President & COO of Growth Energy, former Director of Office of Management and Budget, and former Chairman of the House Budget Committee, will give a keynote luncheon address. This will be followed by two panel discussions. The first panel will give brief overviews of the main challenges posed by the energy water nexus. It will feature presentations by Craig Zamuda, Senior Policy Advisor of U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Climate Change Policy and Technology; John Lyman, Director of the Atlantic Council's Energy and Environment Program; and W. David Montgomery, Senior Vice President of NERA Economic Consulting. Hudson Visiting Fellow Lee Lane will moderate the panel. A second panel will critically assess current proposed solutions. It will feature Gary Libecap, the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management, University of California, Santa Barbara; Jes Munk Hansen, President of Grundfos North America; Sheila Olmstead, Tenured Fellow, Resources for the Future; and Kassia Yanosek, Founding Principal, Tana Energy Capital LLC. Hudson President & CEO Kenneth Weinstein will mo More