Fossil Fuel Notes
Renewable resources – resource that can be replaced
Ex. Water, air , sun, and plants (trees)
Nonrenewable resources – resources that cannot be replaced in a reasonable amount of time.
EX. Rocks, minerals, fossil fuels
Fossil fuels – substances made from dead plants and animals through over millions of years.

 Why are fossil fuels non-renewable?
Coal – solid
Oil - liquid
Natural gas – gas
Coal
Solid brittle rock
Most abundant fossil fuel
Used mostly for electricity
Cheapest fossil fuel

Most pollutant fossil fuel when burned – gases mix with the clouds and makes acid rain
Coal must be mined from the ground
1) underground mines
- dangerous: collapse, explosive gases, poisonous gases, miners get black lung
2) strip mining – removing the rock above the coal when large machinery

safer but destroys the land, pollutes the water
water reacts with minerals in the mines making the water acidic. This acid water leaks into streams killing aquatic organisms. This is called acid mine drainage

Natural Gas
colorless, odorless gas
often found with oil

found throughout the world – large amounts found in shale rock formations in Pennsylvania
(See the fracking video and article
Fracking video
- Cleanest of the three fossil fuels
` - produces the most energy of all fossil fuels
- used mostly for many industrial purposes, it is being used more for heating and transportation
(CNG buses – Penncrest)

Oil (petroleum)
taken out of the ground by drilling – called crude
liquid fossil fuel
mostly in Venezuela and Saudi Arabia
OPEC – group of countries that set most of the world’s oil prices
In the U.S. – Texa, Louisiana, Alaska, and
California, have the most
Oil is now being recovered from the oil shale rock in the Midwest
Least abundant fossil fuels – When will we run out?
Crude oil is refined into gasoline and other fuels and products (plastics)
Used mostly for transportation fuels
Environmental Impacts of oil and natural gas
- burning oil and gas products produces air pollution
drilling destroys the land (fracking for gas)
oil and gas and seep into and pollute groundwater
oil leaks into ocean when drilling offshore
Massive oil spills could occur
-

1) Exxon Valdez spilled 250,000 barrels into an
Alaskan Bay killing the wildlife there
2) BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico was the largest environmental disaster in this country’s history
(see video)