Energy_Problems

Energy Problems The U.S. oil supply is rapidly diminishing. Alternative energy sources must be implemented because oil is a scarce and non-renewable resource. Each year the U.S. consumes 6.2 billion barrels of oil, equivalent to 17 million barrels of oil each day (Coastal 67). The undiscovered U.S. OCS and gas resources combined with onshore reserves would amount to only 81.5 billion barrels of oil, enough to last for 5000 days (Coastal 75). So the oil crisis is not entirely bad news, the U.S. still has time to implement alternative energy sources such as nuclear energy, hydroelectric energy, solar power, wind power, and geothermal energy, as well as alternative fuels which may be used in existing power plants. Alternative fuels can be used in existing power plants to conserve the oil supply. Many small plants in the United States, Canada, and some European countries now regularly produce power this way in coal burning power plants using alternative fuels such as garbage, tires, sawdust, and animal dung (Energy 87). Alternative fuels may be used as a temporary relief to the massive consumption of oil in the U.S. Although alternative fuels are not a pollution free choice, they require no new power plants to be energy, oil, power, plants, alternative, sun, nuclear, new, electricity, sources, resources, must, because, water, supply, solar, production, hydroelectric, geothermal, fuels, form, earth, year, state, renewable, potential, efficiency, barrels, using, time, resource, massive, heat, government, generated, gas, electric, each, crisis, creates, consumption, come, coastal, billion, amount, widespread, way, uranium, transportation, steam, should