POWI - Water/Energy Nexus & Security
The United States is now the world's largest energy user, and is rapidly becoming a net importer of energy. Much of this energy shortfall comes from Canada. Canada now supplies the United States with 24.2 per cent of its total energy needs in the form of natural gas, oil and electricity, and has replaced Saudi Arabia as the number one supplier of oil to the United States.
North American energy integration is now a fact of economic life. Few Canadians, however, appreciate how continental energy integration is already having an impact on Canada's water security as great or greater than foreseeable water exports.
The starkest link between energy integration and the future of Canada's water resources is most evident in the oil sands. Unlike conventional oil, Alberta's tarry deposits are among the most water intensive hydrocarbons on the planet. Separating tar from sand not only takes enormous amounts of natural gas but requires an average of three barrels of freshwater to make just one barrel of oil.
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