Transitioning to clean energy sources will involve a policy that involves an extensive amount of research in the fields of science, economics, and politics. It is crucial that the United States conceives energy resources that decrease both environmental and health impacts. However, environment and health impacts are not the only aspects that must be considered as the United States moves to cleaner energy resources. The competitiveness of the United States’ economy as a whole and job security must be taken in account. ("Facing Our Energy Realities” 4) Therefore, the transition must be controlled. The transition should not detrimental to the citizens of the United States. Previously, politicians with the intentions of launching a safer environment established acts, such as the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act. However, due to the Environmental Protection Agency, some states, and activist, these acts have negatively impacted some facilities and jobs. Congress must reevaluate laws to allow business to understand what is necessary to continue remaining a part of the market. ("Facing Our Energy Realities” 4) The citizens of the United States vote to determine which politicians generate the energy policies for the United States. Therefore, as a method of guarantying that voting citizens are also informed citizens, energy education should be accessible. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission does inform citizens in the areas surrounding a nuclear plant about nuclear energy. However, they should expand their education to all citizens. As it is unrealistic to fully eliminate coal, and several people are opposed to its use, energy plants using clean coal ought to offer educational measures to enlighten citizens of its advantages. Americans... ... middle of paper ... ...2012. license-review.html>. "Invest in Climate Science to Guide Energy, Economic, and Environmental Policy." Institute for 21st Century Energy. U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Web. 01 May 2012. and-environmental-policy>. National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) Home Page. U.S. Department of Energy. Web. 03 May 2012. . “Nuclear Energy in France." Repulique Francaise. Embassy of France in Washington, 24 Feb. 2012. Web. 01 May 2012. . "The Obama-Biden Plan." Change.Gov. The Office of President-Elect. Web. 03 May 2012. . WNA. World Nuclear Association. Web. 02 May 2012. .
Global warming is the rise in average temperature of Earth’s atmosphere and oceans. If the warming continues it will have drastic effects on our lives in the future. Things such as harsher summers and colder winters will become a reality for future generations. Global warming is real, despite what the naysayers say, and it will affect us in many different ways if we can’t solve this problem. By presenting skeptics arguments about global warming I’ll prove global warming to be real by disproving them.
The purpose of this paper is to review the Department of Energy's (DOE) programs and recommend future directions for US policy to address President Obama's desire to save our planet from climate change and reduce reliance on oil (Roberts, Lassiter, & Nanda, 2010, p 4). The context of this review is following the 2008 election of President Obama and the enactment of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Recovery Act) in February 2009. This paper will evaluate the effectiveness of the measures implemented by the Act and compare their effectiveness with an alternative strategy of implementing a carbon tax, then make a recommendation on which strategy would have achieved the President's aims in view of the political, economic and environmental situation that he faced.
Semantically fossil fuels are a renewable source of energy, however given that it takes millions of years for the organic materials to be broken down and converted, it is wholly unrealistic to consider them as renewable. As the demand for fossil fuels increases and source diminish faster than they are replentished, the United States must work towards a renewable energy independent state using truly renable sources, both technically and in practice. With changes in the home, as consumers in buying goods and with alternative fuel sources backed by public trust and governmental involvement, the United States could drastically lessen its dependence on fossil fuels, foreign and domestic.
The energy industry provides many different resource options for consumers to choose. Two main markets within this industry exist: conventional energy and alternative energy. Conventional forms of energy never suffer from low demand because of consumer’s familiarity with these resources. Alternative energy, on the other hand, is still a growing market. The United States government shows great interest in adapting to a lifestyle that uses these forms of energies by passing acts, creating energy policies, and subsidization to support the alternative energy market. But the conventional energy market still remains prevalent in the country. A government model of utilizing alternative resources needs to occur for the energy market to thrive amongst
Since the United States relies on fossil fuels as an energy source, it is at a high demand. Today, the price of fossil fuel is high and it will continue to grow as long as there is still a large demand for it. Businesses and all other consumers in America are spending between seven-hundred billion and one trillion every year on coal, oil and natural gas. If America chooses to continue using fossil fuel as an energy source, the United States will most likely spend about twenty-three trillion dollars on fuel between 2010 and 2030. In 2006 alone, American businesses and consumers spent over nine-hundred billion dollars on fossil fuel, which was more than the amount that was spent on education and the military. In Washington, D.C. and in many other states, the government has made policies to encourage the use of alternative energy sources in order to increase the use of solar and wind power, and rid the Earth from greenhouse gasses. According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, switching to an alternative energy source could cut global warming emissions along with providing savings for consumers and businesses at over four-hundred billion every year by 2030 (Environment America, 2009). For example, wind energy can be great for the economy because the free winds make the cost of production very low after wind turbines are created. Fast creation and technological advances have also made turbines cheaper, and many governments offer tax incentives to encourage the production of more wind energy (National Geographic,
4 million jobs could be created by 2030 if California increased the use of renewable energy and low carbon energy, such as nuclear energy or natural gas, to be the primary energy source by more than 50% (3). A point to make is that green jobs will not be taken over seas (3). Manufacturing the materials to build solar panels, wind turbines, or other materials for renewable energy sources, might be made in countries with low cost labor, but the main installations and design cannot be done from overseas (3). Additionally, the rate at which fossil-fuel energy jobs, like coal mines, are lost are at a lower rate than the growth rate of green jobs being produced. Green jobs need highly skilled people to maintain these renewable energy resources, so a government program that would train people to install solar panels could increase job opportunities as the rise in solar energy usage increases. A program like this will bring about more jobs needed and also encourage energy
Currently society is structured in a way that makes the people dependent on fossil fuels. The era of technology requires the need for electrical usage, the layout of cities and highways are constructed to force people to travel by vehicles, and the taxation for using cleaner energy sources oppresses those who are environmentally conscious. One of the major problems in funding cleaner energy sources is the capitalistic ideology of America. Instead of funding research for the retrieval of oil from exhausted oil wells, or funding the production and maintenance of oil pipelines, the money instead should go towards finding more sustainable ways to fuel the country and then enabling the public to purchase these techniques through incentives such as tax breaks. Instead of negatively reinforcing the public for the usage of clean energy, provide positive reinforcement for the endurance of the behavior.
Our nation is on the brink of an energy crisis and alternative means to produce
problems due to global warming are death to heat waves and other climate changes, and
United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Renewable Energy: The Road from Global Warming To a Cleaner Future Office of Policy. September 1998.
Energy is important to our nation for many reasons. It is a key economic driver. It offers new market opportunities for business. Providing energy to our nation has been an exciting challenge in recent years. Many changes have been constant throughout that period. The past tells Americans that predicting the specifics of the energy future for our nation with great accuracy would be unlikely. Americans get their energy from different types of resources. With all the different resources Americans believe that an energy crunch shouldn’t happen.
“The global warming is refers to the global temperature to elevate.”( Philander, S. George, P456). According to Global Warming and Climate Change, nearly 100 for many years, the global average temperature has experienced the cold - warm - cold - warm two fluctuations, generally speaking for trend of escalation. After the 80s, global temperature obvious is rising. What’s the global warming? Global warming is a growing problem in the world. Melting ice-caps in the Artics and Antartica, rising temperatures across the continents, increasing number of typhoons and tropical storms are just some of the effects of global warming. It must be realised that human activities are the causes of global warming. The increasing levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) have rose at exponential rates. It is therefore our duty to save the earth. Nowadays global warming is big deal with human especially in Asia, which is much more problems in population, environmental pollution and industrial pollution.
We have in our possession, a variety of energy resources that can be used to replace, some of the more harmful fuels utilized today. Nevertheless, even with all these options we have yet to make a certified effort in the upgrading of our current systems of energy production. Of course this in many ways is tied to politics and economic issues. Yet it is my passionate belief that these should not over power that which is ultimately more important which is the welfare of the environment. Why so much interest in the subject you might ask? Well in truth it stems from the recent class we had on geothermal energy.
We should all be very concerned about our future on Earth as human beings. We may not be at such an immediate risk of burning to death, but our future descendants are. Every year, the overall temperature has gone up slowly. Eventually Earth will be too hot to live on, and the human race will become extinct! The best way to save our future is to start now. Americans should be conscientious of global warming and should watch their CO2 emissions because increasing CO2 concentrations means an increase in Earth’s temperature.
The world that we live into today affords us the expectation that the flip a switch will turn the lights on. As populations increase and developing nations undergo dramatic economic growth, this energy demand will only continue to grow. The International Energy Agency (IEA) believes that “the world’s energy needs could be 50% higher in 2030 than they are today” (ElBaradei). Given this projected growth, it is necessary for world leaders must take action to secure the energy supply. Meaning that world leaders need to start seriously considering an alternative to non-renewable energy sources. “In 2012, the United States generated about 4,054 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity. About 68% of the electricity generated was from fossil fuel (coal, natural gas, and petroleum), with 37% attributed from coal” (U.S. Energy Information Administration). The fossil fuels that are used to supply over half of our country’s energy are in finite supply and are increasing in price to astronomical heights.