US Energy Consumption - Research Paper Example

US Energy Consumption Introduction The US, just like most countries in the world today, faces great challenges in ensuring that there are sustainable energy resources. There has been a general increase in the total amount of energy consumed in the US in the last few decades. This increase has been attributed to the ever-increasing human population which results in increased industrial and housing activities (Korporaal 2012). Most people use different forms of energy on a daily basis for heating, cooling, transport, manufacturing, among many other uses. Unfortunately, there has been a relatively stagnation in the number of energy resources that the US and other governments rely on. In order to ensure sustainability of the current energy resources, policies have been formulated to guide the process of exploration of the resources (Korporaal 2012). In most cases, the policies have been developed to guide the process of energy consumption to ensure that it happens with efficiency. In addition to such policies, there have been other strategies formulated to ensure that new sources of energy are made available to the country’s energy sector. The formulation of such policies has, however, attracted different opinions with some people or groups of people opposing them, either wholly or partially. The varied opinions have and continue to contribute to the status of energy consumption in the United States of America (Korporaal 2012). The current status of energy consumption in the US As stated earlier on, there has been an increasing amount of energy consumed by the US population. Specific forms of consumption have been experiencing different growths. In fact, the energy consumed by the industrial sector has experienced very little increase in the past 4 decades. However, the energy consumed in other sectors such as residential, commercial and transportation has experienced growth, in the same period, of about 8000 trillion Btu on average. According to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), there will be a general increase in energy demand in the United States in the next 20 years. This will be as a result of the dramatic shifts in people’s lifestyle. Most of the energy demand will be due to the ever-increasing need for energy to be used in the generation of power to run commercial investments and industries. In the US today, it has been found that about half of the total electricity generated is from the use of coal in steam engines. Coal is a fossil fuel subject to depletion in the near future. In addition to this data it has been determined that of all the green house gases emitted in the United States, 85 % of them result from activities or processes supported by the consumption of fossil fuel. This, therefore, means that a reduction in the amount of fossil fuels consumed in the country can result in reduced emission of green house gases emission (Anonymous 2012). The future of energy consumption in the United States According to forecasts done by specialists in the energy sector, the global energy demand will grow in the next 25 year to reach a value of approximately 57%. This will affect the US energy demand in some aspects because it will see it rise by about 30% within the same period. In addition, more than half of the energy used all over the world will occur in the Asian continent by the year 2030 (Katakey 2012). At this particular time the US will have experienced about 40% growth in the demand for electricity energy. All these forecasts and estimations indicate the importance of having efficient energy policies in place to put countries of the world, including the US, in a better position to embrace the future together with its challenges. Policies surrounding energy consumption in the US have been formulated in the direction of addressing the state of future energy consumption. The most common policies have included making legislations to guide the development and distribution of renewable energy to cater for the increasing demand, and address the fact that fossil fuels are facing depletion. This legislation is also aimed at reducing the reliance on fossil fuels in the future by the US economy. This has, in the recent past, seen the development of the US Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) which directs and guides the electricity supplying companies to include some of the power generated from renewable sources. This is one legal way of encouraging investment in the renewable energy sector. It has been supported by both The Congress and The Senate, with the former having made three legislations in the last one decade to facilitate the development (Anonymous 2012). The development of renewable energy sources for sustainable energy in the future has been challenged by some land economists citing the extensive land areas required for the harnessing of energy from biomass and biofuels. In addition, most people claim that the development of renewable energy is expensive and hence may not be economically viable if carried out on large scale. In order to address the dwindling oil reserves in the US and other parts of the world, the US government introduced loan guarantees to support investors with the intention of investing in renewable energy. This was supported by the development of The Energy Act in 2005. In order to diversify the renewable energy sources as a way of addressing the doubts held by many citizens towards the biofuels, the government implemented policies that would see the best researchers in the renewable energy sector recognized and rewarded. The best example is the recent honor of Professor Jing Li for her research in the development of alternative sources of light. She was rewarded by the US Energy Department for Research. The research she did was based on how organic and inorganic material could be used in the development of clean energy (Yankeepr 2012). There have also been policies formulated to guide the purchase of equipment that consume renewable energy. Such polices have seen subsidies in the taxes charged for the purchase of equipment and property such as hybrid cars which make use of biofuels in their engines. Tax credits are awarded to customers depending on the fuel economy the cars achieve. This has also seen some of the subsidies in the biofuels. This action is usually aimed at achieving three main objectives: energy independence in the US, rural areas development, and extensive reduction in the amount of green house gases emitted into the atmosphere (Shrestha 2012). Development of machinery, especially cars to use biofuels has been challenged on several occasions as unsustainable due to the inability to have an economy with cars running on biofuels only. There have been suggestions to embrace the use of voltaic cells because these would ensure that the vast policies of land used in planting crops for biodiesel are saved and used for other economically-efficient activities (Anonymous 2012). In the recent past, there has been a unanimous agreement among many stakeholders in the energy sector for the US government to invest in nuclear energy as an efficient method to replace the overreliance on oil and coal in the production of electricity. Nuclear energy has been supported by many people and groups as the best source of energy because it results in very little emission of green house gases into the atmosphere thus has no negative impact on the environment. It is also supported because it is easier to maintain than the other sources, hence a perfect way of ensuring that he sustainability of energy consumption in the US is attained efficiently. Both the congress and the senate have made legislations to guide the development of nuclear programs in the country. Works Cited Yankeepr. Rutgers Professor Jing Li Honored by US Energy Department for Research. New Jersey Press Releases. Dec. 3, 2012. Web. 06 Dec 2012 Anonymous. Energy Strategy for the Future. Energy Star. 2012. Web. 06 Dec 2012. Shrestha, Priyanka. US should use domestic resources for future energy security. Energy Line News. Dec. 04 2012. Web. 06 Dec. 2012. Katakey, Rakteem. Record Asia oil takeovers match US pace for first time. Energy. Dec. 04 2012. Web. 06 Dec. 2012. Korporaal, Glenda. US Experts warns on growing energy risk. The Australian. Dec. 06 2012. Web. 06 Dec. 2012. Read More