This is the first of my Issue series, these are issues of either domestic or international interest that I will tackle, stating both current problems, challenges, and then solutions. This may be divided into several different parts, depending on length of each post.
This first issue is a doozy, to put it mildly, Energy Reform is a term I sort of came up with to encompass energy independence challenges, new technologies in renewable energy, and the needed economic or structural reforms that need to take place for these issues to work as policy. This isn't a simple issue, and there are so many different approaches to take, it may seem overwhelming to the average person.
My focus on this issue will not be limited to just transportation energy, though that is a large part of the problem, but also "fixed" energy sources, in power plants, etc. In addition, the economy will need to transition from our current "fossil fuel" phase to a sustainable economy using renewable sources for energy.
The first source I'm going to talk about is Petroleum, and the current realities related to oil production and consumption. The United States, today, consumes about 20 million barrels of oil a day. Unlike many other natural resources, we don't hoard oil, not a lot of it, at least, so the product supplied, as shown in the table in the link, is product consumed. Contrast this with with the total amount of proved reserves within the United States, which is a little over 20 billion barrels of oil. Sounds like a lot of oil, doesn't it? However, do the math, 20 billion divided by 20 million equals 1000, which means a total of 1000 days worth of oil is present within the nation. That's a little under 3 years worth of oil, at current consumption rates. Now it doesn't seem like a lot, doesn't it?
Of course, this is assuming that all that oil can be extracted immediately after discovery, which isn't the case. Pipes can only be so large, and the oil is deep underground, so you have to drill. The total domestic production of oil is about 5 million barrels per day, so we have to make up the shortfall with imports. Now, before you ask, yes ANWR does exist, and production estimates say that it will be able to produce anywhere from .6 to 1.6 million barrels of oil a day, so it wouldn't be able to reduce imports by no more than a few percentage points. It should be noted that access to this oil isn't guaranteed until 2013 at the earliest, and given current trends, oil consumption is on the increase. Even worse, the total proven reserves in the United States peaked in the 1970 at 39 billion barrels and has been decreasing ever since.
Given these facts, in order to attain energy independence in this country we will have to reduce oil consumption by 15 million barrels a day, only using a quarter of the oil that we use now. Imagine the highway only have one quarter of the cars it has now, or just simply reducing our commutes to only one quarter what we use now. To be honest, this is possible for some people, however, for the large majority of us, this is impossible.
The problem is that this nation is car centric, and to be blunt about it, this leads to a large amount of wasted energy. No one can claim that traveling in a 2000 pound vehicle is the most efficient way to travel. Our towns and cities are designed around the automobile, and regardless of how many new technologies allow us to replace oil as the primary fuel in cars, none have as much energy per gallon as gasoline. This means some tradeoffs are in order.
This first issue is a doozy, to put it mildly, Energy Reform is a term I sort of came up with to encompass energy independence challenges, new technologies in renewable energy, and the needed economic or structural reforms that need to take place for these issues to work as policy. This isn't a simple issue, and there are so many different approaches to take, it may seem overwhelming to the average person.
My focus on this issue will not be limited to just transportation energy, though that is a large part of the problem, but also "fixed" energy sources, in power plants, etc. In addition, the economy will need to transition from our current "fossil fuel" phase to a sustainable economy using renewable sources for energy.
The first source I'm going to talk about is Petroleum, and the current realities related to oil production and consumption. The United States, today, consumes about 20 million barrels of oil a day. Unlike many other natural resources, we don't hoard oil, not a lot of it, at least, so the product supplied, as shown in the table in the link, is product consumed. Contrast this with with the total amount of proved reserves within the United States, which is a little over 20 billion barrels of oil. Sounds like a lot of oil, doesn't it? However, do the math, 20 billion divided by 20 million equals 1000, which means a total of 1000 days worth of oil is present within the nation. That's a little under 3 years worth of oil, at current consumption rates. Now it doesn't seem like a lot, doesn't it?
Of course, this is assuming that all that oil can be extracted immediately after discovery, which isn't the case. Pipes can only be so large, and the oil is deep underground, so you have to drill. The total domestic production of oil is about 5 million barrels per day, so we have to make up the shortfall with imports. Now, before you ask, yes ANWR does exist, and production estimates say that it will be able to produce anywhere from .6 to 1.6 million barrels of oil a day, so it wouldn't be able to reduce imports by no more than a few percentage points. It should be noted that access to this oil isn't guaranteed until 2013 at the earliest, and given current trends, oil consumption is on the increase. Even worse, the total proven reserves in the United States peaked in the 1970 at 39 billion barrels and has been decreasing ever since.
Given these facts, in order to attain energy independence in this country we will have to reduce oil consumption by 15 million barrels a day, only using a quarter of the oil that we use now. Imagine the highway only have one quarter of the cars it has now, or just simply reducing our commutes to only one quarter what we use now. To be honest, this is possible for some people, however, for the large majority of us, this is impossible.
The problem is that this nation is car centric, and to be blunt about it, this leads to a large amount of wasted energy. No one can claim that traveling in a 2000 pound vehicle is the most efficient way to travel. Our towns and cities are designed around the automobile, and regardless of how many new technologies allow us to replace oil as the primary fuel in cars, none have as much energy per gallon as gasoline. This means some tradeoffs are in order.
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