Final Exam: Energy

energy problems

• US consumes 5 times as much energy as rest of world

• US is dependent on foreign energy supply (52% imported)

  • US oil companies not required to sell oil in US; sell to highest market (often not in US)

  • export lots of oil → must import oil

• coal provides 51% of electricity; 250 year supply

• 1973 — energy crisis

  • OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) cut oil production and ended all shipments to US until Nixon altered pro-Israel policies

  • shocked nation, realized dependency

  • long gas lines and higher gas prices

  • daylight savings time implemented

  • 55 MPH speed limit (most fuel efficient speed), buying smaller and more fuel efficient cars

  • strategic petroleum reserve (especially for military)

  • Department of Energy created

  • Reagan — energy crisis over

current policies

• relax environmental regulation on oil companies and power companies

  • incentives for more oil drilling

• promote more oil and gas exploration and drilling

• open up more public lands for oil and gas exploration and drilling — National Wildlife Refuges

• promote nuclear energy

  • clean energy but radioactive waste

• offer billions of dollars in tax incentives for oil and gas drilling; increase subsidies

• cut alternative energy funding by 50%

  • wind, etc.

• increase supply instead of decrease demand

• >50% oil refineries violating air pollution laws

  • no political climate to bring them into compliance

problems with coal

• acid rain — NOx and SOx

• ozone — NOx and VOCs

• coal mining — leaves land barren, sterile, easily eroded; abandoned wastelands, no longer productive

• Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act

  • 1977

  • permit system — requires mining industry to return land to same or better productivity

• Department of Interior coal leases — offered for less than fair market value, political paybacks

  • low prices for payback from campaign contributions

petroleum and natural gas

• natural gas — burns clean, little pollution

  • 30% of energy production in US

• pipelines — for gas and oil

  • can disrupt environment, accidents/leaks

• offshore exploration and drilling

  • outer continental shelf (OCS) — 3 to 15 miles off coast

  • balance economic, social, and environmental values; examined for new exploration and drilling → environmental impact statements

  • oil spills — Exxon Valdez: 11.2 million gallons

    • US Coast Guard — prevention, licensing, clean-up

    • Carter — executive order to require double hulls by 1982

nuclear energy

• most serious problem: nuclear waste

• 104 reactors in US — provide 20% electricity

  • 52 scheduled to be decommissioned between 2005 and 2015

• safety concerns

  • failed safety tests

  • reactor parts have aged faster than expected

  • mismanagement

renewable fuels

• sources of energy that are continuously renewed

  • hydropower (very clean), solar, wind, biomass, burning of waste (2 benefits)

• provides 12% of energy

• hydropower — provides 80% of renewable energy

  • 2400 dams in US for hydropower

  • negative environmental