Here’s something to ponder as the temperature outside climbs above 100, the air conditioner blasts cool relief and you try to ignore all those summertime anxieties about brownouts and outages: Energy not only costs big bucks but often uses vast amounts of water.

Central Texans should be both heartened and just a little scared about Trib staff writer J.B. Smith’s report on the Waco-based Brazos River Authority’s plan to provide gargantuan amounts of water from the Brazos River Basin to serve two nuclear reactors that Luminant wants to build in Glen Rose. They would use 55 million gallons a day — far more than the city of Waco uses daily.

The BRA, which stands to make millions, tells us that it has plenty of water, enough to meet the needs of an expanded Comanche Peak power plant and all downstream users.

But others worry about Texas-sized droughts, such as the scorcher that devastated us for seven years back in the 1950s. They fear the BRA could wind up compromising itself and much of Texas if its long-range projections about climate, industrialization and population growth are wrong.

We find hope in our state leaders’ faith in nuclear power. Many of us long ago got over fears about nuclear power at Comanche Peak, including worries that cattle in Central Texas might begin glowing come sundown.

But a Texas water shortage can torpedo business, manufacturing and, yes, our state’s cattle industry. Even if you talk with those climatologists who don’t buy into global warming, they’ll tell you our state is naturally prone to droughts, such as the one we’re in right now.

Facing water woes

All this highlights the extreme need for our state leaders to get deadly serious about water. One huge disappointment this past legislative session was lawmakers’ failure to approve a sustainable, long-range funding mechanism for the wealth of water projects state officials say are vital if Texas is to grow.

Gov. Rick Perry has already expressed his faith in our state’s business and manufacturing future. And coming from a West Texas ranching family, he ought to know better than almost anyone the demands placed on water in this state.

Yet despite state Sen. Kip Averitt’s best efforts this legislative session, lawmakers punted away his proposal for a revolving fund for the state’s water plan. Instead, they funded about $1 billion in water projects — enough for the next couple of years.

Perry needs to put the muscle of the governor’s office behind Averitt to get sustainable funding for water infrastructure. If we run dry of this already limited resource, we may end up watching industry, jobs and livelihoods blow away with the tumbleweeds.