Fossil Fuels Sponsored Links |
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Fossil FuelsOverview
Fossil fuels (coal, natural gas, oil) supply 85 percent of the ’s power generation. Coal burning power plants provide 49 percent of the nation’s electricity while natural gas provides 20 percent and nuclear energy 19 percent.
The burning of fossil fuels, particularly coal, is also the primary cause of human generated green house gases leading to global warming. The Department of Energy has requested $1.1 billion in the 2009 budget to advance technologies to substantially reduce CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions from coal powered generating plants.
Supporting Viewpoints
According to the Energy Information Agency, coal will continue to be the primary fuel for electricity generation in the supplying almost 56 percent of our electricity capacity by the year 2030. Hence it is important to continue research into clean coal technologies.
FutureGen is a $1.8 billion public-private initiative to design, build and operate a coal-fueled near-zero emissions power plants using advanced carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology. On January 30, 2008 Energy Secretary Bodman announced a restructured approach to the project with $648 million requested for advanced coal research in the 2009 budget.
"As technological advancements have been realized in the last five years, we are eager to demonstrate CCS technology on commercial plants that when operational, will be the cleanest coal-fired plants in the world." Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman, January 30, 2008
Natural gas, according to the EPA, produces half as much carbon dioxide, less than a third as much nitrogen oxides, and one percent as much sulfur oxides at the power plant, compared to the average air emissions from coal-fired generation. However, its supplies will diminish with use, and by 2030 will only account for 14 percent of the ’s electricity generation.
Supporting Websites
Department of Energy, Fossil Fuels
Environmental Literacy Council
Coalition for Affordable and Reliable Energy (CARE)
Opposing Viewpoints
The burning of fossil fuels for electricity generation is recognized by many as a necessity for the foreseeable future. However, the burning of fossil fuels contributes to air pollution with its adverse effect on health, land and water pollution from mining operations and spills, acid rain, and human generated green house gases, which are a factor in global warming.
Environmentalists are pushing for more stringent emission standards of fossil fuels, more money for research into renewable energy sources, and tax subsidies for renewable energy sources. In addition through public awareness programs they promote more environmental consciousness in businesses and homes.
Opposing Websites
Union of Concerned Scientists, Clean Energy
Sierra Club
National Resources Defense Council
Environmental Defense
The Wilderness Society
Climate Ark
TreeHugger |
Latest Fossil Fuels Content  | | Article: | | | | Published: | 5/30/2008 by New York Times (Matthew L. Wald) | | | Submitted by: | Frank K 52 days ago | | | Categories: | Energy & Fossil Fuels |
| Article Details: Coal is abundant and cheap, assuring that it will continue to be used. But the failure to start building, testing, tweaking and perfecting carbon capture and storage means that developing the technology may come too late to make coal compatible with limiting global warming. The Electric Power Research Institute, a utility consortium, estimated that it would take as long as 15 years to go from starting a pilot plant to proving the technology will work. | |
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|  | | Article Details: Convinced the planet's oil supply is dwindling and the world's economies are heading for a crash, some people around the country are moving onto homesteads, learning to live off their land, conserving fuel and, in some cases, stocking up on guns they expect to use to defend themselves and their supplies from desperate crowds of people who didn't prepare. | |
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|  | | Article: | | | | Published: | 4/24/2008 by The Nation (Mark Hertsgaard ) | | | Submitted by: | Frank K 52 days ago | | | Categories: | Energy & Fossil Fuels |
| Article Details: The arrival of $119 bbl crude and $4 gal gasoline are obvious signs that global oil production has or soon will peak. With global demand rising and supplies limited, higher, more volatile prices and shortages could provoke--to quote the title of the must-see peak oil documentary--the end of suburbia. The world's economy and, paradoxically, the fight against climate change could be in deep trouble. | |
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|  | | Article Details: The troubling tension between propelling prosperity and limiting climate risks is on full display this week. India’s Tata Power group just gained important financial backing from the International Finance Corporation, a branch of the World Bank for its planned $4 billion, 4-billion watt “Ultra Mega” coal-burning power plant complex in Gujarat state. The plant will emit about 23 million tons of carbon dioxide a year. | |
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|  | | Article Details: Long considered an abundant, reliable and relatively cheap source of energy, coal is suddenly in short supply and high demand worldwide. An untimely confluence of bad weather, flawed energy policies, low stockpiles and voracious growth in Asia's appetite has driven international spot prices of coal up by 50 percent. Freight cars in Appalachia are brimming with coal for export. The boom in coal exports and prices has helped lower the trade deficit for the USA. | |
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|  | | Article Details: The task of cutting greenhouse gas emissions enough to avert a dangerous rise in global temperatures may be far more difficult than previous research suggested, say scientists who have just published studies indicating that it would require the world to cease carbon emissions altogether within a matter of decades. | |
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|  | | Article Details: Concerns about global warming and rising building costs are blocking construction of new coal-fired power plants in the United States and pushing utilities to turn to natural gas and renewable power instead. Utilities canceled or put on hold at least 45 coal plants in development last year. This is a sharp reversal from a year ago, when the industry had more than 150 such plants in development and signals the waning of a major US expansion into coal. | |
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|  | | Fact Details: About 86% of all types of energy used in the United States is derived from fossil fuels. | |
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| | | Fact Details: America's recoverable reserves of coal stand at 275 billion tons, an amount that is greater than any other nation in the world and capable of meeting domestic demand for more than 250 years at current rates of consumption. | |
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|  | | Quote Details: It is time to break our addiction to fossil fuels. The evidence of global warming is mounting. We threaten the global environment with our continued use of fossil fuels. Not only is this an ecological threat, it is a tremendous economic threat, facing all of humanity. Global warming will bankrupt the re-insurance industry, spread infectious tropical diseases, and increase severe and unpredictable weather | |
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|  | | Article Details: Prospects for nearly emissions-free coal power in the United States have dimmed in the wake of the US Department of Energy's decision to pull the plug on a "clean coal" demonstration plant called FutureGen. Instead of the $1.76 billion project, which was expected to capture and store underground 90 percent of its greenhouse-gas emissions, the Energy Department is budgeting $241 million for several commercial power-plant projects that will capture and store a smaller share of their emissions. | |
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|  | | Article Details: Common sense has left the building when it comes to climate policy. Cap-and-trade schemes are fundamentally flawed, and particularly ill-suited to greenhouse gas control. Negatives include losses of 1.5 to 3.4 million jobs, a drag on economic growth, incentives to cheat, those raking in profits in new carbon trading calling for ever-tighter caps, and higher costs of goods and services. | |
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|  | | Quote Details: I have a comprehensive energy plan. It does not rely on nuclear power. We should not be siting any more coal-powered plants unless they can have the most modern, clean technology. And I want big demonstration projects to figure out how we would capture and sequester carbon. This is going to take a massive effort. This should be our Apollo moon shot. | |
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|  | | Article Details: The political debate pits those who favor what is known as a “cap-and-trade” program against those who support a direct tax on the man-made production of carbon dioxide, which mostly comes from coal, oil and natural gas used to generate energy. Most economists support a carbon tax. Environmentalists favor cap-and-trade as the most environmentally sound approach. | |
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|  | | Quote Details: Our guiding principle is clear: We must lead the world to produce fewer greenhouse gas emissions, and we must do it in a way that does not undermine economic growth or prevent nations from delivering greater prosperity for their people. | |
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