Background

Energy, water, and land are fundamental, interrelated natural resources critical to the health, sustenance, economic growth, and security of the nation. The connections and feedbacks among these three resources have impacts on human, environmental, and infrastructure systems. Although the U.S. is endowed with many options for supplying energy to meet national demands, different energy sources have different water and land-use requirements that have implications for local and regional water and land resources. Energy, in turn, is important in supplying, developing, and stewarding water and land resources. This briefing series will provide essential geoscience information to inform effective policy making on issues that involve these interactions and feedbacks.

What

A series of 1-hour congressional briefings highlighting the vital geoscience information needed for effective policy concerning energy, water, and land resources. The first event will be an overview of the energy-water-land interactions and the importance of the geosciences to informing related policy. Later events will offer more in-depth investigations of specific energy systems with short presentations and Q&A. Follow updates and download PowerPoints from the series at http://sciencepolicy.agu.org/energyfromtheearth/.

Planned Schedule, exact dates dependent on House and Senate schedules. House briefings are open to the public:

• Energy-Water-Land connections: Practical geoscience to inform legislation—an overview April 2015
• Energy-Water-Land connections and the development of oil and natural gas June 2015
• Energy-Water-Land connections and the development of geothermal energy September 2015
• Energy-Water-Land connections and bioenergy November 2015
• Energy-Water-Land connections and the development of hydropower February 2016
• Energy-Water-Land connections and the development of solar and wind energy April 2016
• Energy-Water-Land connections and the development of coal and nuclear energy June 2016