Michael Webber on the energy-water nexus

Metropolitan Planning Council and Openlands hosted a roundtable on Aug. 3, 2010, focused on the connections between energy and water use. This was the second event in our summer series, “Choosing our Water Future,” and topics explored included:

* The energy demands of water systems, and the water demands of energy production,
* The impact of energy costs for water consumption on municipal budgets in northeastern Illinois,
* The potential for monetization of water-energy savings, and
* National and international best practices in utility planning and water-energy conservation.

This video features Dr. Michael Webber, Associate Director of the Center for International Energy and Environmental Policy in the Jackson School of Geosciences, University of Texas. One of the nation’s foremost energy policy leaders, Dr. Webber’s work has been featured in notable media outlets such as the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, BBC, and Scientific American. He is one of the originators of Austin’s Pecan Street Project, a community-led effort to reinvent the city’s electricity and water utilities through innovation and implementation of smart grids, smart meters, and smart appliances.

In this video, he explains the connections between water and energy use and the challenges to aligning policies and investments to conserve both resources.