“Everything we consume or use—our homes, their contents, our cars and the roads we travel, the clothes we wear, and the food we eat —requires energy to produce and package, to distribute to shops or front doors, to operate, and then to get rid of.” Worldwatch Institute

. . . but confusion abounds as to what, if anything, we can do about the rising cost of energy

 Without fossil fuels, the U.S. economy would collapse/unemployment would sky-rocket
 We should switch to using more natural gas because it is a “clean” fossil fuel
 Renewable energies aren’t economically viable without huge subsidies
 Compact fluorescent bulbs are bad because they contain mercury
 Wind turbines are basically noisy bird-blenders
 Ethanol will ruin your car’s engine

Industry
Oil & gas
Annual Revenue (billions)
$62.7
Tourism
Commercial Fishing
$38.1
$0.7
Jobs (estimate)
107,000
524,000
14,000

•
•
•
In the early 1900s, some 500,000+ people were employed by the coal industry
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average earnings of nonsupervisory coal workers is about $55,000 annually

Coal Mining Deaths
YEAR
1907
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
U.S.
3,242
38
42
27
30
28
23
47
28
30
18
48
CHINA
5,300
5,670
5,791
7,200
6,027
5,986
4,746
3,786
3,215
2,631
600+?
Although China mines about 2x as much coal annually as the U.S., the death rate of miners in China is about 37x that in the U.S.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, mining is the second deadliest occupation in the U.S. (those who make a living in agriculture, fishing, and forestry have the highest death rate per 100,000 employees)

Less than about 2% of the electricity in the U.S. is generated by wind turbines
In the U.S., wind industry technician jobs surpassed coal mining jobs in 2008. Wind employment increased by 70% from
50,000 in 2007 to 85,000 in 2009
Median annual salary for wind turbine technicians (high school education + special training) is about $45,000
Since 1975, 44 deaths world-wide have been attributed to wind energy – mostly from accidents during installation of large turbines

Without fossil fuels, the U.S. economy would collapse/unemployment would sky-rocket
Renewable energies aren’t economically viable without huge subsidies
Compact fluorescent bulbs are bad because they contain mercury
Wind turbines are basically noisy bird-blenders
Ethanol will ruin your car’s engine

Natural gas is often described as the cleanest fuel, producing less carbon dioxide per joule delivered than either coal or oil
In particular, when compared to the energy-equivalent amount of coal:
Pollutant Natural gas
Carbon dioxide 117,000 ppm
Carbon monoxide 40 ppm
Nitrogen oxides 92 ppm
Sulfur dioxide
Mercury
Particulates
1 ppm
0
7 ppm
Coal
208,000 ppm
208 ppm
457 ppm
2,591 ppm
0.016
2,744 ppm
However, natural gas itself is a greenhouse gas more potent than carbon dioxide when released into the atmosphere

In addition:
Cornell scientist Robert Howarth recently completed a study that concludes:
Natural gas has a far greater carbon footprint than oil, and could even be more harmful to climate than coal.
The Reason?
All of the associated activities involved with recovering fossil natural gas: energy for digging the pipeline, laying the pipe, trucking the water, hydraulic fracturing – in addition to methane leakage from all of these activities
Howarth’s takehome message is that natural gas is going to accelerate global warming if we use it as a replacement for oil.
The hidden climate costs of natural gas: Emissions are measured in g C of CO
2 per million joules of energy.

Without fossil fuels, the U.S. economy would collapse/unemployment would sky-rocket
We should switch to using more natural gas because it is a “clean” fossil fuel
Compact fluorescent bulbs are bad because they contain mercury
Wind turbines are basically noisy bird-blenders
Ethanol will ruin your car’s engine

 The history of coal, oil, natural gas, and nuclear power shows that no energy sector has been developed without subsidies
 The US federal government paid US$74 billion in energy subsidies to support R&D for nuclear power and fossil fuels from 1973 to 2003
 According to Donald Lubick, the U.S. Department of Treasury's former Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy, the petroleum industry
"probably has larger tax incentives relative to its size than any other industry in the country”
 Analysts say the U.S. is more generous to oil companies than most other countries, demanding a smaller share of revenues than others that let private companies drill on public lands and in public waters

In the U.S., the government’s take works out to be about 40% of revenue from oil and gas produced on federal property. By contrast, the worldwide average government take is about 60 - 65%

Rankings of subsidies based on absolute amount of direct subsidies and amounts per megawatt-hour of generation differ widely, reflecting substantial differences in the amount of generation across fuels.
Subsidies and Support to Electric Production by Selected Primary Energy Sources
FY 2007 Net
Generation
(billion kWh)
Natural Gas and Petroleum Liquids 919
Coal
Hydroelectric
1,946
258
Biomass
Geothermal
Nuclear
40
15
794
Wind
Solar
Refined Coal
31
1
72
Subsidies
(million FY 2007 dollars)
227
854
174
36
14
1,267
724
174
2,156
Subsidies
(dollars per MWh)
0.25
0.44
0.67
0.89
0.92
1.59
23.37
24.34
29.81
Energy Information Administration, Federal Financial Interventions and Subsidies in
Energy Markets 2007 , SR/CNEAF/2008-1 (Washington, DC, 2008).

Some groups feel that the petroleum industry benefits from not having to pay the full price of environmental damage and human health issues.
What would oil cost if the industry had to pay to protect its shipments, completely clean up its spills, and restore the environment?

In 1989, the Exxon Valdez spilled 10.8 million gallons of oil along 1,300 miles of
Alaskan coastline (this is only the 30 th largest oil spill in the world).

Exxon spent more than $3.8 billion in clean up costs, fines and compensation

In the case of Baker v. Exxon, a jury awarded $287 million for actual damages and
$5 billion for punitive damages. The punitive damages amount was equal to a single year's profit by Exxon at that time.

After many appeals (over more than 10 years) by Exxon, judgment by the U.S.
Supreme Court will limit punitive damages to $507.5 million.

While the appeals were taking place, it is estimated that Exxon earned nearly $800 million a year in interest on the original $5 billion

Exxon recovered a significant portion of clean-up and legal expenses through insurance claims associated with the grounding of the Exxon Valdez

Deepwater Horizon – Spring 2010
 On 20 April 2010, a blowout at a BP oil well in the Gulf of
Mexico starting releasing something like an Exxon Valdez-worth of oil into the water every four days
 By November, BP was reporting profits even with an estimated $40 billion price tag for the response to its blown out well in the Gulf of Mexico
 BP said that costs related to the April 20 oil spill dragged down its thirdquarter profit by more than 60 percent
 The London-based company earned $1.79 billion from July through
September, compared with $5.3 billion a year earlier

Without fossil fuels, the U.S. economy would collapse/unemployment would sky-rocket
We should switch to using more natural gas because it is a
“clean” fossil fuel
Renewable energies aren’t economically viable without huge subsidies
Compact fluorescent bulbs are bad because they contain mercury
Wind turbines are basically noisy bird-blenders
Ethanol will ruin your car’s engine

Each CFB contains about 5 milligrams (mg) of mercury
No mercury is released by the bulb when in use or being handled
On the other hand, about 50% of the electricity produced in the
U.S. is generated by coal-fired power plants.
 mercury is naturally contained in coal, and when coal is burned it releases that mercury into the air
 a coal-burning power plant releases about 0.02 mg of mercury into the air for every kWh of electricity used.

Without fossil fuels, the U.S. economy would collapse/unemployment would sky-rocket
We should switch to using more natural gas because it is a “clean” fossil fuel
Renewable energies aren’t economically viable without huge subsidies
Compact fluorescent bulbs are bad because they contain mercury
Wind turbines are basically noisy bird-blenders
Ethanol will ruin your car’s engine

• Modern turbines are relatively quiet
• Rule of thumb – stay about 3x hub-height away from houses

For every 10,000 birds killed by human activities, less than one is caused by a wind turbine
The impact of wind turbines on wildlife is low compared to other forms of human and industrial activity

Wind Turbines vs. Radar
•
Large wind turbines have the potential to interfere with both commercial air traffic control and military radar, as well as weather radar
•
Wind towers, nacelles, and blades all reflect radar energy
•
Turbines have high reflectivity that can reduce radar sensitivity
•
Rotation of wind turbine blades causes Doppler reflections
•
Wind towers have a large
“radar cross sectional area”
•
Some in U.S. military argue that wind farms add unreasonable national security risk

Without fossil fuels, the U.S. economy would collapse/unemployment would sky-rocket
We should switch to using more natural gas because it is a “clean” fossil fuel
Renewable energies aren’t economically viable without huge subsidies
Compact fluorescent bulbs are bad because they contain mercury
Wind turbines are basically noisy bird-blenders
Ethanol will ruin your car’s engine

• Study of a variety of 16 vehicles (cars and pickup trucks; domestic and imported)
• Range in model years from 1999 to 2007
• Various blends of gasoline, ranging from E0 (no ethanol) to E20


All 16 vehicles exhibited loss in fuel economy with increasing ethanol
 average reduction for E20 was ~7.7% compared to E0

As ethanol content increased:
 no significant change in oxides of nitrogen emission
 non-methane hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide emissions decreased

None of the vehicles displayed a malfunction indicator light as a result of the ethanol content of the fuel

No fuel filter plugging symptoms were observed

No degradation of the fuel systems were observed

Several states have offered a cash “reward” to anyone who can demonstrate that ethanol has damaged their car. To date, no one has collected.
Ethanol-blended fuels are approved under the warranties of all auto manufacturers marketing vehicles in the U.S. Some even recommend ethanol use for its clean burning benefits.