United States and the Current Energy Crisis

JENNIFER PIMENTEL

Over the past thirty years, technology has grown and advanced tremendously. It has provided us with many resources to make every day simpler. Technology has built todays cars, airplanes, and all other modern things that we use in our lives. But none of this would have ever happened without energy. There are five different types of energy in the world; mechanical, chemical, thermal, radiant, and electrical. Mechanical Energy is the energy of motion that does the work. An example of mechanical energy is the wind as it turns a windmill. Heat energy is energy that is pushed into motion by using heat such as a fire in your fireplace. Chemical energy is energy caused by chemical reactions like when mixing ingredients to make a batch of cookies. Electrical energy is when electricity creates motion, light or heat. An example of electrical energy is the electric coils on your stove. Gravitational energy is motion that is caused by gravity such as water flowing down a waterfall. Together, this energy can provide us with many things.

The use of energy goes back to the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in the 1800s. The Industrial revolution used water for steam engines and fossil fuels to

power cars and factories. It wasnt until a couple years later that electricity was developed. During the Industrial Revolution, factories and farm production brought money and wealth in the US. Unfortunately, about a century later, the great Depression would come and turn the economy downhill. Now as the years have gone by, technology and energy is advanced as it is now.

One important factor that is needed in the world is energy. Energy is what is needed to do everyday tasks. The United States uses all of them. In fact, statistics show that in 2010, the United States was the second largest energy consumer. However, this brings many downslides. Three times in the last thirty years (1973, 1978, 1990) energy spikes have caused recessions in the US. Plus, studies have shown that if we keep using massive amounts of energy, we may be soon being heading into a depression.

In 1970, we imported 28% of the transportation fuels we consumed; today we import over 65%. And now over the past twenty years, the demand for oil has increased, but the supply just gets less and less. Oil and natural gas supply more

than sixty percent of our nations energy. Even though we are going through an economical downfall, we buy $6 billion monthly to the Middle East for gas, yet we bring troops to fight in the same place. Also, monthly data on the origins of crude oil imports in September 2011 has been released and it shows that Canada, Saudi Arabia, and Mexico exported more than 1,000 thousand barrels per day to the United States. We take $6 million from the zero dollars that we have and give it to the Middle East yet the price of gas is increased because there is less supply. Recent studies show that the cheapest gallon of gas in the whole country is $3.23. But the energy crisis doesnt have to do with just supply and demand and its economic downfalls, but it also affects the environment. The Center for American Progress (CAP) have proposed an oil reform agenda that regulates the oil industry: power trucks with natural gas.

Even with all the money spending and debt that we are experiencing, the US still has our own resources. United States proven oil reserves were 21 billion barrels in 2006 according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA). This is

a decline of 46%, a downfall of 18 billion barrels from 39 billion barrels in 1970. US crude production peaked in 1970 at 9.6 million barrels per day, after the Prudhoe Bay field was found in Alaska and brought a great deal crude oil production.

The energy that we use in the US also causes pollution. Burning fossil fuels are accelerating anthropogenic climate change. Factories that run on fossil fuels release pollutants such as mercury into the atmosphere. This is a prime example of how many people get respiratory problems. But not only does burning coal cause respiratory problems, The burning of coal also releases carbon dioxide which causes climate change. The Clean Air Act of 1970 required many industries to use scrubbers or other devices to control pollution. Scrubbers were used to move gases through a spray of water that dissolves many pollutants. In addition, some factories and industries produced volatile organic compound, or VOCs. VOCs are chemical compounds that compose toxic fumes. VOCs are organic because it is partly composed of carbon.

Cars too, cause pollution. In fact, about a third of all air pollution in the planet is caused from gasoline burned by vehicles. It wasnt until the 1970 when the Clean Air Act was passed to regulate vehicle fuel emissions in the US (strengthened in 1990). This act made lead in gasoline to be eliminated because of the harmful effects to the environment that it does. Statistics show that every car on average releases 5 tons of carbon dioxide each year. In addition, catalytic converters were added to cars. A catalytic converter cleans exhaust gases from pollutants before the pollutants enter the atmosphere.

Even with all the pandemonium, there just might be a potential solution, to the global energy crisis. Itll require enormous investment, many scientific breakthroughs and a little luck. But unless we give it the very highest priority and give it a try, it could be too late. Most of the energy in the earth is the energy from the sun. Nate Lewis, a chemistry professor at California Institute of Technology, says that More solar energy hits the earth in one hour than all the energy the world consumes in a year. If you want to solve the energy crisis, go to the bank

where the energy is kept the sun. We as the people can use the suns energy as electricity. But Lewis doesnt mean to make solar panels and place them on every building. He sees cheap ways to convert solar energy directly into electricity, which can then be used to convert water into fuel, and that can be turned back into electricity right on the spot. What we need, in his words, is something as basic as paint that is engineered to capture electrons from the sun and make the electrons march into our utility lines. But, there can be problems. Even though current technology can convert sunlight directly into electricity, and generate hydrogen, it isn't scalable. One such device towers over nearby structures and it works, but it produces only a kilogram of hydrogen in an entire day, the energy equivalent to one gallon of gasoline.

WORKS CITED

1. Kidz World : http://www.kidzworld.com/article/1423-fossil-fuel-energy 2. Wikipedia :http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_reserves_in_the_United_States 3. Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_reserves_in_the_United_States 4. International Energy Agency (IEA) : iea.org 5. Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH) : www.ceh.ac.uk 6. American Petroleum Institute (API) : api.org 7. Center for American Progress (CAP) : americanprogress.org