The United States of Energy (Part 1)

Editor — Tue, 29 Dec 2020 13:43:36 +0000

Unless you’ve been living under a rock or in a cave for the past year you’ve probably heard that U.S. oil and gas production is going strong. In fact, it’s going like gangbusters. According to reports, U.S. oil output was the highest in November in 25 years at 8 million barrels per day. As a result, the price of gasoline has dropped by 49 cents/gallon. At this rate, the U.S. could shortly end up being one of the top oil producing countries in the world. In fact, it has been reported that a Saudi prince wrote a letter to the Saudi oil minister warning him that the surging U.S. oil production is a threat to the Saudi economy. For someone who distinctly remembers people riding their bikes to work in the late ’70s, I never thought I’d hear something like that.

A similar boom is going on with natural gas produced through fracking, and the U.S has become the largest producer of natural gas in the world. According to the Energy Information Administration website, the U.S. produced almost 30 million cubic feet of natural gas in 2012.

This new found energy production is having impacts elsewhere too. Oil and gas employment has increased 40 percent over the last 5 years.

Fracking also has created a huge demand for sand (a key ingredient in the fracking process). As noted in the Wall Street Journal, energy companies are expected to use 56 billion pounds of sand this year and it takes approximately 25 railcars of sand to frack one well.

The increased production and use of natural gas also appears to have had a positive environmental impact. By some accounts, C02 emissions in the U.S. have dropped 12% due to the switch from coal to natural gas.

Amidst all of this positive news, taxpayers, scientists and regulators are keeping a watchful eye on these industries due to health, safety and environmental concerns. In Oklahoma (a state with an average of 50 tremors per year) there have been 2,600 earthquakes in 2013 and the increase coincides with rise in fracking. The cause? Scientists suspect it’s due to the pressures created when fracking wastewater is injected deep underground. Other issues such as groundwater withdrawal and contamination also have been raised.

As with many aspects of our increasingly complex lives, as the U.S. enjoys the fruits of these energy resources, society will have to make hard policy decisions relating to the management of these risks and benefits.

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United States of Energy (Part 3) – Solar

Editor — Tue, 29 Dec 2020 13:34:40 +0000

In our prior posts on this topic we described the remarkable increase in U.S. oil and natural gas production. Another area that isn’t getting as much press but shouldn’t be overlooked is the renewable energy sector – specifically solar power.

2013 was a great year for solar energy installations in the U.S. and globally. According to an article published on the CleanTechnica website, on a global basis it was the first time that solar installations surpassed wind installations. As of July, Forbes reported that the U.S. had joined the ranks of Italy, Germany and China with 10,000 MW of solar capacity installed. With 930 MW installed in the 3rd Quarter of 2013 alone, the U.S. was expected by some commentators to surpass long-time leader Germany. As noted by the Forbes article, one of the main reasons for the increase in solar photovoltaic installations is the large drop in production cost. In 2008, the cost of a solar panel was around $3.65. Today it’s 50 cents per panel and that’s expected to drop to 36 cents by 2017.

What’s more, solar isn’t going away any time soon; stock market analysts are expecting an equally, if not bigger, year for U.S. solar companies in 2014.

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The United States of Energy (Part 1)

United States of Energy (Part 3) – Solar