Canada Spends Big to Reduce Oil Sands' Footprint

Natural gas and oil are crucial cogs in the world's energy mix, but they can be a big drain on water resources. "For every barrel of oil we get out of the ground, we typically use about 10 barrels of water," Bruce Logan, from Pennsylvania State University, told CNBC. "That can go up to 100 barrels of water," he added. Unsurprisingly, the environmental impact of such production is significant. A group of oil sand producers known as COSIA, or Canada's Oil Sands Innovation Alliance, are pooling their ideas to find ways to mitigate the impact of the work they undertake. "To date, the COSIA members have shared about 938 discreet individual technologies or innovations that cost about $1.33 billion to develop," Dan Wicklum, COSIA's chief executive, said. "We set a goal in 2012 to reduce our freshwater use intensity by 50% by 2022 and since 2012 the companies have reduced their freshwater use by 38%," he added.