“1,000 gallons a minute, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”

No, that’s not an Exxon exec’s fantasy CAFE standard. It’s how much water will be required by an ethanol plant slated to open in Pennsylvania’s coal country, according to this report.

Grist State of Emergency | A limited-run newsletter from Grist, exploring the ways climate disasters are reshaping elections. Delivered every Tuesday until Election Day.

Reader support helps sustain our work. Donate today to keep our climate news free.

My calculator informs me that “1,000 gallons a minute, 24 hours a day, seven days a week” amounts to about 526 million gallons of water per year. The above-linked article claims that the Pennsylvania plant will produce 100 million gallons of ethanol annually. That means it takes about five and a quarter gallons of water to produce a gallon of ethanol — and that doesn’t account for irrigation water for corn production.

Fascinating.