The cords of energy demand and water supply are tightening around the world’s two largest economies.

Originally posted on the CSRwire website.

By Keith Schneider, Circle of Blue

The coal mines of Inner Mongolia, China and the oil and gas fields of the northern Great Plains in the United States are separated by 11,200 kilometers (7,000 miles) of ocean and 5,600 kilometers (3,500 miles) of land.

But, in form and function, the two fossil fuel development zones — the newest and largest in both nations — are illustrations of the escalating clash between energy demand and freshwater supplies that confront the stability of the world’s two biggest economies. How each nation responds could have profound implications for their domestic energy and food markets, and for economic stability across the globe.

Both energy zones require enormous quantities of water — to mine, process and use coal; to drill, fracture and release oil and natural gas from deep layers of shale. Both zones also occur in some of the driest regions in China and the U.S. And both zones reflect national priorities on fossil fuel production that are putting enormous upward pressure on energy prices and inflation, say economists and scholars.

In the 15th and final chapter of Choke Point: China, and the last article in its year-long Choke Point project, Circle of Blue today reports on energy production and resource scarcity trends that threaten to tilt the economies of China and the U.S. By insisting on developing new sources of carbon-based fuels that are drawn essentially from the desert, both nations are testing the limits of their national water reserves and challenging the capacity of other important economic sectors — agriculture, large metropolitan regions, major manufacturers — to use much less water.

“To what degree is China taking into account the rising cost of energy as a factor in rising overall prices in their economy?” David Fridley asked in an interview with Circle of Blue. Fridley is a staff scientist in the China Energy Group at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California. “What level of aggregate energy cost increases can China sustain before they tip over?

“That’s where China’s next decade is heading — accommodating rising energy costs,” he added. “We’re already there in the United States. In 13 months, we’ll be fully in recession in this country; 9 percent of our GDP is energy costs. That’s higher than it’s been.”

Indeed, given the different economic circumstances that grip both countries — one soaring and the other in a serious slump — they nevertheless view energy production as the top national priority. Growth and development at such a scale demand innumerable resources, and, in both nations, the central idea guiding energy development is to generate as much as possible. As a result, the water needs of Chinese and American energy producers take precedence over any other economic sector.

“The United States confronts the same kind of resource conflicts as China,” Fridley said. “There are increasing expectations of confrontation over water as a factor in energy production.”

Read the entire Choke Point: China series at Circle of Blue.

About Keith Schneider

As Senior Editor, Keith manages the Circle of Blue news desk and participates in multimedia story development reporting, editing and production. He is a nationally-known journalist, online communications specialist and environmental policy expert. Keith was a New York Times national correspondent for over a decade, where he continues to report as a special writer on energy, real estate, business and technology. Before joining Circle of Blue, Keith was media and communications director at the US Climate Action Network and communications director at the Apollo Alliance. Keith developed one of the first independent online news desks as the founder and executive director of the Michigan Land Use Institute. A sought-after public speaker on the role of original reporting and online communications in the public interest, Keith is a regular contributor to the Times, Yale Environment 360, Grist Magazine and other prominent news organizations. You can read his personal website at Modeshift.org.

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