[Senate Report 113-296]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
Calendar No. 636
113th Congress Report
SENATE
2d Session 113-296
======================================================================
NEXUS OF ENERGY AND WATER FOR SUSTAINABILITY ACT
_______
December 10, 2014.--Ordered to be printed
_______
Ms. Landrieu, from the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources,
submitted the following
R E P O R T
[To accompany S. 182]
The Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, to which was
referred the bill (S. 1971) to establish an interagency
coordination committee or subcommittee with the leadership of
the Department of Energy and the Department of the Interior,
focused on the nexus between energy and water production, use,
and efficiency, and for other purposes, having considered the
same, reports favorably thereon with an amendment and
recommends that the bill, as amended, do pass.
The amendment is as follows:
Strike all after the enacting clause and insert the
following:
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Nexus of Energy and Water for
Sustainability Act of 2014'' or the ``NEWS Act of 2014''.
SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act:
(1) Committee or subcommittee.--The term ``Committee or
Subcommittee'' means the Committee on the Nexus of Energy and
Water for Sustainability (or the ``NEWS Committee'') or the
Subcommittee on the Nexus of Energy and Water for
Sustainability (or the ``NEWS Subcommittee''), whichever is
established by section 3(a).
(2) Director.--The term ``Director'' means the Director of
the Office of Science and Technology Policy.
(3) Energy-water nexus.--The term ``energy-water nexus''
means the links between--
(A) the water needed to produce fuels, electricity,
and other forms of energy; and
(B) the energy needed to transport, reclaim, and
treat water and wastewater.
(4) Grand challenges.--The term ``Grand Challenges'' means
the 21st Century Grand Challenges program coordinated by the
Office of Science and Technology Policy.
(5) NSTC.--The term ``NSTC'' means the National Science and
Technology Council.
(6) RD&D activities.--The term ``RD&D activities'' means
research, development, and demonstration activities.
SEC. 3. INTERAGENCY COORDINATION COMMITTEE.
(a) Establishment.--The Director shall establish either a committee
or a subcommittee under the NSTC, to be known as either the Committee
on the Nexus of Energy and Water for Sustainability (or the ``NEWS
Committee'') or the Subcommittee on the Nexus of Energy and Water for
Sustainability (or the ``NEWS Subcommittee''), to carry out the duties
described in subsection (c).
(b) Administration.--
(1) Chairs.--The Secretary of Energy and Secretary of the
Interior shall serve as co-chairs of the Committee or
Subcommittee.
(2) Membership; staffing.--Membership and staffing shall be
determined by the NSTC.
(c) Duties.--The Committee or Subcommittee shall--
(1) serve as a forum for developing common Federal goals and
plans on energy-water nexus RD&D activities;
(2) not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this
Act, and biannually thereafter, issue a strategic plan on
energy-water nexus RD&D activities priorities and objectives;
(3) promote coordination of the activities of Federal
departments and agencies on energy-water nexus RD&D activities,
including the activities of--
(A) the Department of Energy;
(B) the Department of the Interior;
(C) the Corps of Engineers;
(D) the Department of Agriculture;
(E) the Department of Defense;
(F) the Department of State;
(G) the Environmental Protection Agency;
(H) the Council on Environmental Quality;
(I) the National Institute of Standards and
Technology;
(J) the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration;
(K) the National Science Foundation;
(L) the Office of Management and Budget;
(M) the Office of Science and Technology Policy; and
(N) such other Federal departments and agencies as
the Director or the Committee or Subcommittee consider
appropriate; and
(4)(A) coordinate and develop capabilities and methodologies
for data collection, management, and dissemination of
information related to energy-water nexus RD&D activities from
and to other Federal departments and agencies ; and
(B) promote information exchange between Federal departments
and agencies--
(i) to identify and document Federal and non-Federal
programs and funding opportunities that support basic
and applied research, development, and demonstration
proposals to advance energy-water nexus related science
and technologies;
(ii) if practicable, to leverage existing programs by
encouraging joint solicitations, block grants, and
matching programs with non-Federal entities; and
(iii) to identify opportunities for domestic and
international public-private partnerships, innovative
financing mechanisms, information and data exchange,
and Grand Challenges.
(d) Review; Report.--At the end of the 10-year period beginning on
the date on which the Committee or Subcommittee is established, the
Director--
(1) shall review the activities, relevance, and effectiveness
of the Committee or Subcommittee; and
(2) submit to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources
of the Senate and the Committees on Science, Space, and
Technology, Energy and Commerce, and Natural Resources of the
House of Representatives, a report describing the results of
the review conducted under paragraph (1) and a recommendation
on whether the Committee or Subcommittee should continue.
SEC. 4. CROSSCUT BUDGET.
Not later than 30 days after the President submits the budget of the
United States Government under section 1105 of title 31, United States
Code, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget shall submit
to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources of the Senate and the
Committees on Science, Space, and Technology, Energy and Commerce, and
Natural Resources of the House of Representatives, an interagency
budget crosscut report that displays at the program-, project-, and
activity-level for each of the Federal agencies that carry out or
support (including through grants, contracts, interagency and
intraagency transfers, multiyear and no-year funds) basic and applied
RD&D activities to advance the energy-water nexus related science and
technologies--
(1) the budget proposed in the budget request of the
President for the upcoming fiscal year;
(2) expenditures and obligations for the prior fiscal year;
and
(3) estimated expenditures and obligations for the current
fiscal year.
PURPOSE OF THE MEASURE
The purpose of S. 1971 is to establish an interagency
coordination committee or subcommittee under the National
Science and Technology Council, co-chaired by the Secretary of
Energy and the Secretary of the Interior, to focus on the nexus
between energy and water production, use, and efficiency.
BACKGROUND AND NEED
Vast amounts of water are used every day to produce vital
fuels and to cool power plants in the United States. Without
this water supply, most of our electricity would cease flowing
and our economy and other essential functions would come to a
complete stop. At the same time, a great deal of electricity is
needed to treat, transport and convey water across the
country--not only to support economic growth and well-being,
but also to sustain basic life. These inseparable links of
``water for energy'' and ``energy for water'' comprise the
energy-water nexus.
Congress has long recognized the inextricable linkage and
mutual dependence of energy and water. Section 979 of the
Energy Policy Act of 2005 directed the Secretary of Energy to
carry out a research and development program on energy-related
issues associated with the provision of adequate water supplies
and on water-related issues associated with the provision of
adequate supplies and efficient use of energy, and to assess
the effectiveness of existing programs of the Department of
Energy and other federal agencies to address energy-water nexus
issues. Similarly, the Secure Water Act, subtitle F or title IX
of the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009, recognized
the need for systematic data-gathering on the nation's water
resources to ensure sufficient quantities of water to support
energy production, authorized water conservation grant programs
within the Bureau of Reclamation, directed the Secretary of
Energy to assess water supplies needed to generate
hydroelectric power at federal power marketing administration
projects, and enhanced collection of data on water by the
United States Geological Survey. The Government Accountability
Office has also issued several reports on the energy-water
nexus and called for better coordination of federal programs
addressing the energy-water nexus. GAO, Energy-Water Nexus:
Coordinated Federal Approach Needed to Better Manage Energy and
Water Tradeoffs, GAO-12-880 (Sept. 2012).
S. 1971 is needed to provide better coordination,
management, and streamlining of science and technology
research, development, and demonstration activities related to
the energy-water nexus across the Federal Government by
establishing a coordinating mechanism within the Cabinet-level
National Science and Technology Council, which is the principal
office within the executive branch for coordinating science and
technology policy across the Federal Government.
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY
S. 1971 was introduced by Senator Murkowski on January 29,
2014. Senators Landrieu, Wyden, Schatz, Baldwin, and Udall of
New Mexico are cosponsors. The Subcommittee on Water and Power
held a hearing on S. 1971 on June 25, 2014 (S. Hrg. 113-428).
At its business meeting on November 13, 2014, the Committee
ordered S. 1971 favorably reported with an amendment in the
nature of a substitute.
COMMITTEE RECOMMENDATION
The Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, in
open business session on November 13, 2014, by a voice vote of
a quorum present, recommends that the Senate pass S. 1971, if
amended as described herein. Senator Barrasso asked to be
recorded as voting no.
COMMITTEE AMENDMENT
During its consideration of S. 1971, the Committee adopted
an amendment in the nature of a substitute, which clarifies the
role of Congress in determining how long the Nexus of Energy
and Water for Sustainability Committee or Subcommittee will
continue to exist and makes technical corrections.
SECTION-BY-SECTION ANALYSIS
Section 1 provides that the Act may be cited as the ``Nexus
of Energy and Water for Sustainability Act of 2014'' or the
``NEWS Act of 2014.''
Section 2 defines key terms.
Section 3(a) establishes the Nexus of Energy and Water for
Sustainability Committee or Subcommittee under the National
Science and Technology Council. Subsection (b) designates the
Secretary of Energy and the Secretary of the Interior as co-
chairs of the Committee or Subcommittee. Subsection (c) lists
the duties of the Committee or Subcommittee, which include:
serving as a forum for developing goals and plans on energy-
water nexus research, development, and demonstration
activities; issuing biannual strategic plans on energy-water
nexus research, development, and demonstration activities
priorities and objectives; facilitating data collection,
management, and dissemination of information related to energy-
water nexus research, development, and demonstration
activities; promoting information exchange; and identifying
opportunities for public-private partnerships. Subsection (d)
requires the Director of the Office of Science and Technology
Policy to review the activities, relevance, and effectiveness
of the Committee or Subcommittee ten years after it is
established, to report the results of the review, and to
recommend whether the Committee or Subcommittee should
continue.
Section 4 requires the development and submission of a
crosscut budget by the Office of Management and Budget to the
Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources and the House
Committees on Science, Space, and Technology, Energy and
Commerce, and Natural Resources.
COST AND BUDGETARY CONSIDERATIONS
The Congressional Budget Office estimate of the costs of
this measure has been requested but was not received at the
time the report was filed. When the Congressional Budget Office
completes its cost estimate, it will be posted on the Internet
at www.cbo.gov.
REGULATORY IMPACT EVALUATION
In compliance with paragraph 11(b) of rule XXVI of the
Standing Rules of the Senate, the Committee makes the following
evaluation of the regulatory impact which would be incurred in
carrying out S. 1971.
The bill is not a regulatory measure in the sense of
imposing Government established standards or any economic
responsibilities on private individuals and businesses.
No personal information would be collected in administering
the program. Therefore, there would be no impact on personal
privacy.
Little, if any, additional paperwork would result from the
enactment of S. 1971.
EXECUTIVE COMMUNICATIONS
The statements of the witnesses from the Department of
Energy and the Department of the Interior at the Subcommittee
on Water and Power hearing on S. 1971 on June 25, 2014 follow:
Statement of Tom Iseman, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Water and
Science, Department of the Interior
Chairman Schatz, Ranking Member Lee and members of the
Subcommittee, I am Tom Iseman, Deputy Assistant Secretary for
Water and Science at the Department of the Interior
(Department). Thank you for the opportunity to testify on S.
1971, Nexus of Energy and Water for Sustainability Act of 2014.
The Administration has not completed its review of S. 1971 in
conjunction with the report issued by the Department of Energy
last week, entitled The Energy-Water Nexus: Challenges and
Opportunities (U.S. Department of Energy 2014). The bill would
create a Committee or Subcommittee on Energy-Water Nexus for
Sustainability under the National Science and Technology
Council (NSTC), co-chaired by the Secretary of Energy and
Secretary of the Interior. The Department has a number of
existing programs that address many of these energy-water nexus
issues, some of which are summarized below.
Founded in 1879, the USGS is the Nation's largest water,
earth, and biological science and civilian mapping agency. The
USGS collects, monitors, analyzes, and provides scientific
understanding about natural resource conditions, issues, and
problems. The USGS provides impartial scientific information on
the health of our ecosystems and environment, the water and
energy resources we rely on, and the impacts of climate and
land-use change. With a diversity of scientific expertise, the
USGS carries out large-scale, multi-disciplinary investigations
and provides scientific information to resource managers,
planners, and other customers.
Reclamation owns and operates water projects that promote
and sustain economic development within the 17 western States.
The mission of Reclamation is to manage, develop, and protect
water and related resources in an environmentally and
economically sound manner in the interest of the American
public. Since it was established in 1902, Reclamation has
constructed more than 600 dams and reservoirs including Hoover
Dam on the Colorado River and Grand Coulee on the Columbia
River. Reclamation is the largest wholesaler of water in the
country, delivering water to more than 31 million people, and
providing one out of five western farmers with irrigation water
for 10 million acres of farmland across the United States.
Reclamation is also the second largest producer of
hydroelectric power in the United States, and provides
significant amounts of renewable energy to customers throughout
the West.
existing programs at the department of the interior
The Department recognizes the importance of the energy-
water nexus and supports a closer level of communication and
coordination between the Department of the Interior, Department
of Energy and the broader federal community. The Department of
the Interior appreciates the Committee's leadership on the
energy-water nexus issue. Energy and water issues intersect
across a range of Interior activities, including hydropower
generation, energy development, electricity generation, and
water treatment, distribution, and conservation. Interior has a
variety of programs that address the energy-water nexus,
including USGS monitoring systems and research programs
(including the National Water Census), Reclamation Basin
Studies, and WaterSMART Grants. Understanding the value of
interagency coordination, Interior has partnered with the
Department of Energy and the Department of the Army (working
with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers) through a 2010
Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to collaboratively address a
host of energy-water nexus issues related to hydropower. By
coordinating efforts, the signatory agencies have completed a
number of projects that promote sustainable hydropower
development, including hydropower resource assessments, unit-
dispatch optimization systems, climate change studies,
integrated basin-scale opportunity assessments, and funding
opportunities to demonstrate new small hydropower technologies.
The Department is committed to integrating energy and water
policies to promote the sustainable use of all resources,
including incorporating water conservation criteria and the
water/energy nexus into the Department's planning efforts. On
June 9, 2014, the Department announced that Reclamation will
make $17.8 million in WaterSMART Water and Energy Efficiency
Grants available to 36 new and ongoing projects in the Western
United States for activities such as conserving and using water
more efficiently, increasing the use of renewable energy,
improving energy efficiency, encouraging water markets, and
carrying out activities to address climate-related impacts on
water. Reclamation also announced that it will make $1.8
million available for comprehensive water basin studies
conducted jointly with state and local partners in the Upper
Red River Basin in Oklahoma, Upper Deschutes River Basin in
Oregon, and Missouri River Headwaters Basin in Montana. These
announcements support the President's Climate Action Plan by
providing tools for states and water users to create water
supply resilience to meet future water and energy demands in
the face of a changing climate.
Water and Energy Efficiency Grants and Basin Studies are
part of the Department's WaterSMART Program. WaterSMART Grants
provide cost-shared funding to States, tribes, and other
entities with water or power delivery authority for water
efficiency improvements, with additional consideration given to
proposals that include energy savings as a part of planned
water efficiency improvements. Water management improvements
that incorporate renewable energy sources are also prioritized
for WaterSMART Grant funding. These grants directly address the
energy-water nexus and provide a concrete means of implementing
on-the-ground solutions to energy-water issues. The FY 2014
Water and Energy Efficiency Grant projects are expected to
conserve more than 67,000 acre-feet of water annually and 22.9
million kilowatt-hours of electricity--enough water for more
than 250,000 people and enough electricity for more than 2,000
households. Basin Studies are collaborative studies, cost-
shared with non-Federal partners, which analyze how climate
change may affect water supply, demand and operations in the
future and identify adaptation strategies to address imbalances
in water supply and demand.
In addition to long-standing USGS efforts in water supply
and availability and in energy resource assessments and
research, which provide an essential foundation for
understanding issues related to the energy-water nexus, the
USGS participates in a number of interagency efforts. The USGS
has been working with the Energy Information Administration
(EIA) since 2010 to improve estimates of water withdrawals\1\
and consumptive use associated with cooling water at
thermoelectric generating plants across the Nation. Cooling
water for such plants is the largest sector of water
withdrawals in the United States, at 49% of all water
withdrawals nationwide, according to USGS Circular 1344,
Estimated Use of Water in the United States in 2005. A recent
USGS report, Methods for Estimating Water Consumption for
Thermoelectric Power Plants in the United States (Scientific
Investigations Report 2013-5188), documents the model that the
USGS developed with the assistance of the EIA for estimating
electric generating plant water withdrawals and consumptive
use, which are currently not consistently reported. This
ground-breaking model, which incorporates the heat budget of
each of the approximately 1,300 thermoelectric generating
plants that rely on water for cooling, can be used both to
estimate current and historical water use and to forecast
future water use with different plant configurations and
cooling water technologies.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\Withdrawals are defined as water removed from the ground or
diverted from a surface-water source for use.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
In addition to the efforts above, the FY 2015 President's
Budget requests an additional $2 million for the USGS to
provide water use grants to States that will increase
availability and quality of water use data including data
related to water used for energy. These grants would provide
financial resources, through State water resources agencies, to
improve the availability and quality of water use data that
they collect and would integrate those data with the USGS Water
Census. Funding provided to States through these grants would
be targeted at improvements to water use data collection and
integration that will be of the greatest benefit to a national
assessment of water availability and use. As the energy sector
is a primary user of water, increased availability of water use
information related to energy will be an important part of this
effort.
In mid-April 2014, the USGS released an expanded and
updated version of the USGS oil, gas, and geothermal Produced
Waters Database and Map Viewer; the revised database contains
nearly 100,000 new samples from conventional and unconventional
well types, including geothermal. The availability of more
samples and more types of analyses will help farmers determine
the quality of local produced water available for possible
remediation and reuse, will enable local and national resource
managers to track the composition of trace elements, and will
help industry plan for waste-water injection and recycling.
The Powder River Basin in northern Wyoming and southern
Montana has experienced a rapid expansion in the development of
coalbed natural gas. About 90 billion liters of water were
produced annually in the Wyoming portion of the Basin between
2002 and 2011 as part of the extraction process. The produced
waters are moderately saline and have high proportions of
sodium relative to calcium and magnesium, thus rendering the
waters unsuitable for irrigation without treatment. USGS
studies have examined the environmental impacts of different
disposal options. Results indicated that infiltration
impoundments had the potential to contaminate underlying fresh
groundwater supplies, but that with specific treatment the
produced waters could be used in subsurface drip irrigation
operations that minimized potential for groundwater
contamination and provided beneficial use of the waters to
enhance agricultural production in this semiarid region.
Other Departmental programs and activities relate directly
to the energy-water nexus, including hydropower development,
water treatment and desalination, pumping and water delivery,
BLM energy permitting, and USGS research on energy resources
and induced seismicity. We are happy to provide the Committee
with additional information on these programs as needed.
s. 1971, nexus of energy and water for sustainability act of 2014
Section 3 of S. 1971 requires the Director of the Office of
Science and Technology Policy to establish either a Committee
or Subcommittee on Energy-Water Nexus for Sustainability under
the NSTC, co-chaired by the Secretary of Energy and Secretary
of the Interior. The Committee or Subcommittee is directed to:
(1) serve as a forum for developing common federal goals and
plans on energy-water nexus issues; (2) promote coordination of
the related activities of several federal departments and
agencies identified in the bill; (3) coordinate and develop
capabilities for data collection, categorization, and
dissemination of data from and to other federal departments and
agencies; and (4) engage in information exchange between
federal departments and agencies.
Section 4 of S. 1971 requires the Director of the Office of
Management and Budget to submit to Congress a report that
includes an interagency budget crosscut that: (1) displays the
budget proposed for the upcoming fiscal year, including any
interagency or intra-agency transfer, for each of the federal
agencies that carry out energy-water nexus projects and (2)
identifies all federal and state expenditures since 2011 on
energy-water nexus projects. The report to Congress would also
provide a detailed accounting of all funds received and
obligated by all Federal and State agencies with energy-water
implementation responsibilities during the previous fiscal year
and list all energy-water nexus projects to be undertaken in
the upcoming fiscal year, with the federal portion of funds for
those projects.
The Department appreciates the Committee's leadership and
the opportunity to strengthen capabilities to address the
energy-water nexus. Given the breadth and many facets of this
issue, we support close collaboration with the DOE and other
Federal agencies. Moving forward, we would like to continue
working with the Committee on preliminary concerns regarding
the details of the collaborative structure and reporting
provisions on issues related to the nexus of energy and water.
The Department supports interagency collaboration and
information sharing to support sound decision-making, leverage
resources, and reduce duplication. But, the Administration
believes this can be done through more effective and efficient
collaboration and program management, rather than an unduly and
potentially ineffective reporting requirement.
If enacted, it is the Department's view that the committee
or subcommittee created under S. 1971 should focus its
attention on key vulnerabilities where there is an appropriate
federal role and capability to have a positive impact. It is
the Department's view that that focus should be on data gaps
associated with water use and availability.
Water availability, severe drought, and long-term climate
trends have always posed a significant risk to energy
development and electric generation. This is one of the broad,
systemic risks at the core of the energy-water nexus. Decreased
water availability, prolonged drought, and more pronounced
climate trends could increase that risk and require the use of
accelerated adaptation strategies.
The Department supports the type of coordination and data
exchange encouraged under S. 1971 and is already undertaking a
number of steps to do so as discussed in the testimony above.
Such efforts could help close existing gaps, increasing our
understanding of water supply availability to benefit water and
energy decision makers.
If enacted, S. 1971 may present challenges to the
Department. The Department would need to evaluate whether the
commitments and reporting requirements in the bill may require
additional resources to carry them out. Additionally, while S.
1971 allows for the coordination of federal activities, the
Department would like to stress the importance of providing the
scientific community with autonomy to design and execute
studies. Finally, States play the key role in allocating and
administering water, and they must be a partner in energy-water
efforts. S. 1971 does not address the important relationships
with states and the private sector, where significant work on
energy-water nexus projects is accomplished. Finally, as
drafted, it is unclear to the Department what qualifies as an
``energy-water nexus project'' under S. 1971.
conclusion
In conclusion, the Department shares the Committee's goals
to promote coordination between Federal agencies as it relates
to the energy-water nexus. We appreciate the leadership of this
Committee in engaging Federal agencies. The Department has
numerous programs in place that encourage coordination not only
within the Federal Government, but as public-private
partnerships. The Federal Government has a role in providing
leadership and tools to address the challenges of imbalance
between supply and demand. Sustainable water supplies and
energy use are important parts of a stable economic base,
employment continuity, and smart growth.
I would be pleased to answer any questions the Subcommittee
may have.
CHANGES IN EXISTING LAW
In compliance with paragraph 12 of rule XXVI of the
Standing Rules of the Senate, the Committee notes that no
changes in existing law are made by the bill, S. 1971, as
ordered reported.