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American oil dependency
Implications of fossil fuels in the environment
Implications of fossil fuels in the environment
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America depends on fossil fuels in many different ways, from travel to large industries. What will happens when the world runs out of fossil fuels? Renewable energies have the power to save our environment and change the world as we know it. Fossil fuels are not going to last forever. America has already started to implement renewable sources of energy, such as, wind mills, dams, solar power and nuclear power. Eventually we will need to utilize these resources in areas that are dependent on fossil fuels.
Fossil fuels have been proven to be damaging to our environment, economy and has made the United States vulnerable to dangerous and unstable countries by exporting the resources that they have. The U.S. depends on countries like Sadie Arabia for our oil supplies. How would we be affected if Sadie Arabia refused to sell us their oil? Would our oil reserves run out or would we be able to buy from another country? These are scenarios that we need to be concerned about. According to Rebecca Lefton and Daniel J. Weiss in their article “Oil Dependence Is a Dangerous Habit”, the U.S. has increased import of oil in the recent years, creating a bigger deficit in the United States. Our countries deficit has resulted in nationwide budget cuts. The continuation of oil imports with foreign countries is going to create an even larger debt in America. In 2008 our country spent around $150 Billion on oil imports alone (Lefton, R. & Weiss, D.J. (2014) Oil Dependence Is a Dangerous Habit. Retrieved from http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/green/report/2010/01/13/7200/oil-dependence-is-a-dangerous-habit/). Environmentally, the burning of fossil fuels have led to global warming. As most of us know, global warming can cause changes in our clim...
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...g/what-is-biodiesel/biodiesel-basics) .This source is definitely a viable option for America, the implementations might start out a little costly. Companies and industries that use fossil fuels need to start going in the direction of renewable resources to sustain their businesses. By implementing a government incentive to these companies, perhaps it will make the process smoother.
Fossil fuel has in a sense fueled our economy and way of life for decades, and in many ways we have taken these resources for granted. Eventually they will run out or the price per barrel will be so astronomical that the average American will not be able to afford to buy gas. Renewable energies have the power to save our environment and change the world as we know it. The most important thing that we, as Americans need to do is to be open about other options that become available to us.
...m fossil fuels, there remains alternative resources that can easily be taken advantage of. So why isn’t the United States taking this deeply into consideration and improving this dilemma? The energy crisis of the 1970’s continues on into the present as Americans search for new ways to fuel the consumption. This remains unresolved.
Arguments: America is dependent on other nations for their ability to create energy. The United States is the world’s largest consumer of oil, at 18.49 million barrels of oil per day. And it will continue to be that way for the foreseeable future, considering the next largest customer of oil only consumes about 60% of what the U.S. does. This makes the U.S. vulnerable to any instability that may arise in the energy industry. In 2011, the world’s top three oil companies were Saudi Aramco (12%), National Iranian Oil Company (5%), and China National Petroleum Corp (4%).
The United States can decrease its dependence on oil-producing nations and improve the environment without robbing every citizen's pocketbook. The gasoline used in most cars today produces pollution, endangers people's health, forces us to be dependent on OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Companies) or other oil production organizations, and contributes to global warming. The main reason people have not converted to cleaner, healthier fuel is that hybrid and electric cars are more expensive than the cars and gasoline we are using now. However, we could implement a program for selling cleaner fuel at a lower cost than it is now offered. If this program were organized correctly, the increased costs would be minimal in the long run and the benefits would be enormous. After considering several possibilities, I concluded that alcohol-burning cars are more practical than other environmentally friendly options because electric and h...
The United States has had several scares throughout its history in terms of oil, most turn out to be over exaggerations of a small event. However, these scares highlight a massive issue with the U.S. and that issue is the U.S.’s dependence on foreign oil. Why does it matter that our oil should come from over seas? In a healthy economy this probably wouldn’t be as relevant, but the U.S.’s economy is not exactly healthy at the moment. There are 4 things that I would like to address: what the problem is, how it affects us, what some solutions are, and what solutions I feel are best.
The article “Synthetic Fuel Could Eliminate U.S. Need for Crude Oil, Researchers Say” (Princeton University) is about creating a green and more efficient fuel. A group of researchers from Princeton, lead by Christodoulos Floudas, found a way to reduce the need of crude oil by replacing it with a “combination of coal, natural gas and non-food crops to make synthetic fuel” (Princeton University). This makes the country more independent from overseas suppliers. Synthetic fuel also has environmental advantages; researchers believe the use of synthetic fuel could potentially “cut green house emissions by 50 percent over the next few decades” (Princeton University). Accomplishing synthetic fuel would not be quick or easy, Floudas estimated ”it would take 30 to 40 years to fully adopt synthetic fuel and would cost about $1.1 trillion for the entire system” (Princeton University). Synthetic fuel is modified through the Fischer-Tropch process, which makes it cleaner and more efficient than petroleum fuels. Unlike ethanol and other biofuels; the new fuel can be used in both gasoline and dies...
Secondly, the use of biofuels is not a cost effective option as they are more expensive than fossil fuels. According to the County Commissions of the US Department of Agriculture and North Dakota State University, there are around seven biodiesel producers in the US. Biodiesel is the mix of biofuel and diesel in 20:80 ratio, which means that the cost of biodiesel will be around 20$ more ...
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 U.S dependency on foreign oil presents many negative impacts on the nation’s economy. The cost for crude oil represents about 36% of the U.S balance of payment deficit. (Wright, R. T., & Boorse, D. F. 2011). This does not affect directly the price of gas being paid by consumers, but the money paid circulates in the country’s economy and affects areas such as; the job market and production facilities. (Wright, R. T., & Boorse, D. F. 2011). In addition to the rise in prices, another negative aspect of the U.S dependency on foreign crude oil is the risk of supply disruptions caused by political instability of the Middle East. According to Rebecca Lefton and Daniel J. Weiss in the Article “Oil Dependence Is a Dangerous Habit” in 2010, the U.S imported 4 million barrels of oil a day or 1.5 billion barrels per year from “dangerous or unstable” countries. The prices in which these barrels are being purchased at are still very high, and often lead to conflict between the U.S and Middle Eastern countries. Lefton and Weiss also add that the U.S reliance on oil from countries ...
Fossil fuels are organic compounds obtained from earth’s crust. They were created from the remains of plants and animals that lived millions of years ago. (Institute for Energy Research) Fossil fuels can include: coal, natural gas, and petroleum, or oil. Americans especially are very dependent on fossil fuels just to get through our everyday tasks. Coal provides energy for the power plants who in turn, provide us with electricity in homes. We use natural gas to heat our stoves to cook for our families, and we use petroleum to fuel our car to get us where we need to go. However, in the past several decades, we have become so dependent on fossil fuels to sustain us, we seem to have forgotten that these resources are finite and will soon
Introduction “What has become clear from the science is that we cannot burn all of the fossil fuels without creating a very different planet.” -James Hansen . Fuel plays a very significant role in the day to day aspects of life, to an extent where we see it trending as an essential need and a vital source for survival. Defiantly as the quote mentioned previously stands, we cannot consume these limited fuel sources without producing a mutant planet far from what we know of.
Why Can't We Quit Fossil Fuel ? Global warming and climate change have had a wide impact on our environment. They have become critical international issue since the beginning of industrial revolution. Everyone concerns about it, but what have we done to diminish the ramifications of this issues ?
Researchers deny the helpful uses of renewable energy, but underestimate its abundance. If the economy does not start sustaining itself with rich, new, clean, and renewable energy, then more fatalities and disasters will follow as well as the oncoming crisis. It is generally believed that the oncoming crisis is not exactly caused by human error but by the fuel types that were labeled as safe for the economy. Society will not crumble but will be taken aback, and the infrastructure that people depend on will be rewritten to the point of completely changing the human race and how it uses machinery and transportation around the world. The sources that come from the earth and the forces that drive it will sustain humanity, even if it is driven with technology. After all, technology is the future.
It is unfortunate that within the past 100 years our worlds' economy has driven itself into a deep hole with the reliance on a "black gold" called oil. Since its discovery, it has been purified to produce many different forms of energy such as light, gasoline and more. Since technology has enabled mankind to discover more capable methods of transportation, mankind has exploited its power over nature and produced machines such as the combustion engine. In combustion engine's, oil explodes to move machinery, and emits a very toxic byproduct called CO2. Carbon is incredibly dangerous to the earth's atmosphere, and erodes huge holes in the ozone layer of our earth. This erosion causes global warming and climate change that is permanent and irreversible. The impact of global warming will not only ...
By shifting from coal and fossil fuels to green energy, we will save energy, and our coal and fossil fuels will replenish. Once it replenishes, and our population is too large to be supported only by renewable energy, we can use our newly formed coal and fossil fuels. To further support our refined lifestyle. Until then, we need to build facilities that use renewable energies. Despite the high price to build, once the facility is build, it will run at a low cost, and with most of our current technologies, the fuel will be free.
Fuels like coal, and oil that once were a fine innovation in creating energy are now rapidly deleting and one day will be gone forever; energy that won’t last is often referred to as non-renewable energy. Besides being set up to fail and become inefficient in the future, fossil fuel energy is not clean to use and poses several environmental complications. Coal, for instance is “the dirtiest of all fossil fuels. Coal combustion not only produces sulfur oxides and nitrogen oxides that contribute to acid rain and snow, it generates millions of tons of particulates that cause asthma and other respiratory diseases.” As with all usage of fossil fuels, it creates enormous amounts of carbon dioxide, which contributes to greenhouse gas. Not only are fossil fuels dirty, they also pose as a security risk and unforgiving on the American wallet. (Saini)