January 22, 2008--Water, oil mix to generate energy supply (Cortez Journal)
By 2030, U.S. power plants could be using as much water as all domestic users in the country were in 1995, according to a Department of Energy report called "Energy Demands on Water Resources." Water planners are keeping their eyes on the large conditional water rights of Shell and Chevron, but the largest conditional water right in Colorado is for a future power plant. The Colorado River Water Conservation District owns the right to store more than 1 million acre-feet of water a year in Juniper Reservoir. Like the oil companies' reservoirs, Juniper does not exist yet. The Eastern Plains are producing energy, too, due to the ethanol boom. But today's ethanol plants use corn, and Colorado corn usually requires irrigation. Ethanol made from irrigated corn takes about 1,400 gallons of water per one gallon of ethanol produced, according to the Department of Energy's report.
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