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America Must Invest in Energy Efficiency Essays

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America Must Invest in Energy Efficiency

In recent years our country has had many debates over what must be done to lessen the amount of oil that our country consumes. It is well known that we need to make some type of change to help not only the environment, but also lessen our reliance on imported oil. President Bush recently announced his new plan that could someday greatly reduce that amount of oil that Americans use by replacing oil with hydrogen fuel cells. Although this plan is a step in the right direction, it is not the answer. There are far too many downsides that could actually hurt our country in the long run. One problem is that the plan proposed by Bush will take far too long before any changes will be seen. …show more content…

. If cars were required to run on 55 miles per gallon, the U.S. would save about five million barrels per day. This alone is about seven times the amount of oil that was imported from Iraq alone last year (Kennedy 11). All major auto companies can already make cars that run on seventy miles per gallon; meaning that Clinton’s goal was nearly reached. However, because funding is being cut by the new plan, these cars will most likely never be available in the large market. We do need to someday totally end our reliance on oil, especially in cars, but why stop funding a plan that would have an immediate effect? Money is simply being wasted due to the fact that millions of dollars were spent on a plan that is being ended because funding is suddenly being spent on new areas of research. We need to continue funding Clinton’s plan even if we do start more research in hydrogen fuel cells.

A second major problem with the plan is not easy to see at first. You must look much closer at what types of research is being done. There are two ways that hydrogen fuel cells can be made. One is by a reaction with oxygen. These cells are about 70% efficient and the only emissions are water vapor. The second way it by using oil or coal to make the cells. These cells are about 33% efficient and release harmful emissions into the atmosphere (Abelson 1469). I feel that we should fund research into using oxygen as opposed to fossil fuels when making hydrogen

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