California is not unique in experiencing a destructive feedback loop in which declining water resources are devoted to energy production, and energy is required to transport water where it is increasingly scarce. Throughout much of the United States and the world, we manage water and energy as if they were unrelated. In reality, they are Siamese twins.
Utility executives in Washington state are concerned that the low snowpack threatens reservoirs that generate much of the state's power.
Legislators in Texas, who are normally reluctant to acknowledge the existence of climate change or to spend tax dollars, approved billions of dollars in new water projects to deal with a seemingly endless drought.