The Growing Need for a New Energy

Monday, November 10th, 2008
by RyanB

Let’s just admit it, America is addicted to oil; we consume 20.4 million barrels a day! We use it for our cars, to heat our homes, and to run the machines that produce the products that we use in our everyday lives. Our addiction causes us to drill all around the world and buy massive amounts of oil from foreign countries.  Our addiction to oil has destroyed many natural areas like the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Instead of using money to pay for the cost of drilling, shipping, and processing oil, we should turn to a cleaner and more efficient forms of energy; ones that would not pollute the earth and its atmosphere. There is a need for dramatic reduction of the consumption of fossil fuels.

Even though heating oil and gas prices have gone down, two dollars and thirty-nine cents at the Hess in the center of town, there is still a need for a new type of energy. Soon there will not be enough oil left to meet our increasing needs and the prices will once again sky rocket. The senate has addressed this issue and many clean energy legislation have been passed. One proposal approving solar powered and wind powered energy for the future has been discussed. This legislation will slowly end the large grasp the oil companies have on our economy.  Recent incentives such as the new energy tax credit have been passed to also assist with reducing our dependence on oil.

A major reason why we need to start the change to clean and efficient energy is the effect the production and consumption of oil has on the earth.  Our dependence has caused global warming among other environmental problems. In 2002 about forty percent of the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was from the burning of oil. Coal issues ninety-three percent into the atmosphere from the electric industry.  These two renewable energies are the largest contributing factor in the release of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere.

Another contributor to the carbon dioxide issue is the automobile.  About thirty-three percent of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere comes from cars, and cars that have low gas mileage produce more.  America could save 25 million dollars in fuel yearly and save a million barrels of oil every day if gas mileage was increased by three miles per gallon for every car. Still, oil will run out sometime and we will need to turn to clean energy sooner or later.

The U.S. produces about three percent of the world’s oil yet; they consume twenty-five percent of it. The Energy Information Administration says that oil will not be available for nearly a decade and that introducing clean energy will decrease our dependence on foreign oil ten times. Big oil companies are making profits exceeding forty billion dollars, and it is costing Americans increasing more to drive to work in the morning. America consumes the most oil even though we are one 4.54 percent of the population. Every time anyone spends the amount of one American dollar, the equivalent of half a liter of oil is burned to produce what the money buys.

Oil powers America life style and is used everyday; weather it is to get to work or to heat homes in the winter. Without it, America would not function because everything is based on the fossil fuels.  Soon there will not be enough oil available to meet our needs because we will have drilled it all and used it. There is a need for clean and efficient energy that would be used and help stop global warming. The money that goes into helping drill for the oil should go into research for a new type of energy to use. This new energy would benefit people every where.

Photo: caseyhelbling

Photo: ilmungo

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