A new report, released in early February, focuses on Alberta's troublesome relationship with water and energy. Heating Up in Alberta: Climate Change, Energy Development and Water is the Pembina Institute's newest report authored by Mary Griffiths and Dan Woynillowicz.

While many criticisms of Alberta's energy production and use have focused on greenhouse gas emissions, this report places water as the central issue. The report points out that as population grows so does demand for electricity, and as energy demand increases so too does water use both to produce electricity and to develop Alberta's oil and gas reserves, particularly to get oil from oil sands. In some watersheds, such as the North Saskatchewan and the Athabasca watersheds, energy production — largely to extract and upgrade bitumen from oil sands but also as cooling water for thermal power generation — accounts for at least half of the water consumed.

The report is available from Pembina's website.

The report first discusses the challenges climate change will pose for Alberta. It provides valuable information on water use for electricity production — from coal (meeting 64% of Alberta's energy demand in 2007), natural gas (meeting about 38% of Alberta's electricity demand), nuclear energy (0% so far), hydroelectricity (meeting about 5% of Alberta's energy demand), and renewable energy sources (generating about 1.5% of Alberta's electricity) — water use by oil and gas production, and implications for energy production on water use. Water consumption is not the only challenge; contamination of water sources from energy production is a significant concern

The report is packed with information about water use and water use impacts from electricity production (coal-fired generation, nuclear, gas, and renewable energy etc.), oil and gas production (natural gas, coal-bed methane, shale gas, tight gas, conventional oil, oil sands, etc.)

To overcome Alberta' s dependence on water in energy production, the report makes the following recommendations:

• Reduce greenhouse gas emissions to combat climate change
• Conserve energy and use processes with low or no water requirements
• Implement water conservation targets
• Ensure Alberta Environment's policy to reduce injection of freshwater in the oilfield and encourage beneficial reuse of water

• Improve groundwater protection by improving recharge of groundwater and protecting deep aquifers for future generations
• Improve water management by better understanding climate change impacts on water and better monitoring water quality and quantity
• Set absolute limits on water withdrawals to protect ecosystems
• Develop integrated watershed management plans
• Resource government to manage industry's growing impact on water

• Accelerate research on water-use reduction
• Put a price on water use for energy production