This report is a technical analysis of the Water Resources Council prepared to determine the degree to which the water resources of the United States will be able to accommodate potential increases in energy production. The study considers the competition of energy-related water requirements with existing or anticipated future water uses for other purposes; accommodation of energy-related water requirements with other competing uses; the magnitude and extent of any water supply shortages, water quality, institutional and other water supply problems (environmental, capital investment, manpower, inter-basin transfer) that may restrict or prevent selected future condition energy development scenarios from being implemented; water-related Federal actions required to overcome problems and constraints of the nature described above; the requirements which need to be placed on hydroelectric power generation capability to assist in meeting the Nation's energy needs.

What is Project Independence? The sources and uses of energy in the United States have changed dramatically in the last several decades. As a result, in just one generation, we have shifted from a position of domestic energy abundance to a substantial and continually growing reliance on foreign energy sources. Project Independence is a wide-ranging program to evaluate this growing dependence on foreign sources of energy, and to develop positive programs to reduce our vulnerability to future oil cut-offs and price increases.