The Country 's Energy Infrastructure

Firstly, the atomic incidents of Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania and Chernobyl in Russia are often mentioned as examples for nuclear plants being unsafe. In both cases failures of workers led to a meltdown in the reactors and increased radiation in the surrounding area (Henderson 12-17). And as the recent disaster in Japan shows, a nuclear crisis cannot only be caused by human mishaps, but also by unpredictable and untamable natural hazards. Consequently, nuclear crises cannot be predicted or prevented completely. Nuclear plants are, furthermore, considered uneconomical because in the eighties the construction costs of nuclear plants were underestimated and exceeded the estimation by $100 billion (Henderson 103). Therefore, the nuclear power opponents are arguing that nuclear power is burdening the American economy unnecessarily. According to the nuclear physicist Jeff Eerkens, antinuclear groups are also claiming that nuclear power is not necessary for the future since renewable energy sources, such as solar, wind, hydro, and geothermal power will be providing sufficient energy for the United States, and are at the same time much cheaper than the costly nuclear power plants (Eerkens 20). Over all, opponents consider nuclear power to risky and inefficient to “deserve further support from U.S. taxpayers” (Henderson 104).

At the beginning of last year, I convinced my family to start using environmentally products, focusing on green technology. In order to apply environmental technology properly and effectively, I had to figure out what alternative forms of energy existed and how well they worked. This led to my questioning: what other forms of energy could the United States be pursuing to increase its production of electricity? In an effort to research different form of energy and their benefits and detriments, I read two articles: “A Letter to the Editor” by David Rockwood and “Why Uranium is the New Green” by William Sweet. In his letter, David Rockwood, a professional engineer, discusses the several inaccuracies and possible ramifications of wind power as a main source of electricity. Rockwood claims that wind power is unreliable because of flaws in its system and design, not to mention the detrimental environmental impact. Similarly, in his article William Sweet, a college graduate, talks about different ways to impose some kind of carbon regulation. Sweet compares nuclear and wind power to coal-burning power, remarking that nuclear and wind power technologies can make an immediate beneficial difference on greenhouse gas emissions. Despite the fact that Rockwood goes in depth on only wind power while Sweet talks about multiple sources of power, both of the articles made me think that the United States should pursue some other form of energy to increase its production of electricity.

In “Goodbye to the Climate,” Robert N. Stavins, expresses his worry about President Trump’s “America First Energy Plan”. This plan will have an effect on United States’ climate change programs, and remove the United States from the Paris agreement. This article will be used to explain content from the public goods chapter. This discussion will cover climate change, define what a public good is, the free rider problem, and tragedy of the commons and how it relates to this article.

Preview of the Thesis & Main Points: For these reasons, the United States government should slowly disintegrate the fossil fuel powered plants and move to nuclear energy.

Conference Focus: Implement a new policy within five years to move into renewable energy, with a focus on solar power, while decreasing the use of fossil fuels. This policy will examine the barriers to implement new renewable energy technologies that will decrease the carbon dioxide emissions and identify ways to overcome these barriers through incentives, tax breaks, and attitudinal changes.

The following paper is a comprehensive energy policy platform for a candidate running the 2020 presidential election. This candidate is considered to be a centrist when it comes to energy policy. They have liberal and conservative ideas depending on the issues. Overall, the candidate would like to instate a plan that preserve American energy independence while also becoming a leader in the international green energy market. Cutting taxes for green energy companies, instituting a carbon tax, revitalizing the nuclear energy market and raising CAFE standards for the automotive industry are the cornerstone pieces of this policy. Long term goals include phasing out all coal plants, reducing dependence on natural gas, developing affordable

The United States is in an energy crisis. We rely almost solely on crude oil for most of our “gasoline” needs, meaning our fuels. The issue with our current reliance on crude oil is, plainly, that it is running out. We don’t currently have enough crude oil production in the US to support our current demand, so we are forced to import oil from overseas. And, we import a lot of it. With a gas demand of roughly 134 billion gallons per year, there exists a large risk relying on a fuel that is unsustainable and imported from overseas. Our country has the capability of greatly reducing our dependence on foreign oil, perhaps to the point where we would not have any need to import oil from overseas. With the use of our own crude oil, natural gas, and other alternative fuels, the United States can become nearly completely self-sustainable in terms of fuels. Moreover, becoming self-sustainable can have an effect of reducing geopolitical tensions particularly with regard to relations in the Middle East, the world’s largest producer and exporter of oil.

¡§America deserves a comprehensive energy plan that will help relieve us of our current reliance on foreign sources of energy,¡¨ Cannon said. ¡§Over the last year, Americans have witnessed the largest blackout in our history and skyrocketing natural gas prices. This bill will help ensure cleaner, more affordable and more reliable energy for Americans today and also for future generations.¡¨

In 2013, railroads originated more than 400,000 carloads of crude oil, or about 800,000 barrels per day, which represents a 42-fold increase from 2008. This trend is expected to continue as domestic production of shale oil grows, since rail offers a convenient method of transportation to refineries from these newer production sites that are not well served by existing pipeline infrastructure. Accompanying this growth is an increasing number of incidents and amount of property damage, setting records the past three years.

If Americans didn't have energy then we wouldn't have cars we wouldn't have stores we wouldn't have really anything. The reason is because most things that we have or use now days use energy or something like that.Then no businesses would be making money and no one would have anything so that's one reason why we Americans need energy.

TransCanada and Irving Oil are extremely pleased with The East Energy Pipeline Project. These two ventures are producing a tremendous amount of profit from this project and will continue to produce large margins. This is due to the necessity of maintenance for the pipeline to function on a regular basis. Both Irving Oil and TransCanada are developing and constructing the new Saint John Marine Terminal for a proposed $300 million dollar investment. Irving Oil imports over 100 million barrels of crude oil each year, the Energy East Pipeline will offer an easier and more convenient manner to import crude oil, thus reducing transportation costs. Moreover, the construction of The Energy East Pipeline Project will produce hundreds of jobs for both

The policy being discussed is the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 and its role on the spending allocated to energy programs in the United States. The findings of the study were that states that received energy funding didn’t spend all the funds allocated to them. The study tested the implementation success of the ARRA energy program and examines factors that led to some states to spend a larger portion of their ARRA funds than others.

With American population expected to increase by approximately fifty percent over the next fifty years, some sort of energy reform is needed (Lehrman 2). The most commonly proposed idea is for America to stop relying so heavily on fossil fuels, and to turn its focus onto renewable sources of energy, such as solar power and hydroelectricity (Energy Information Administration). If the United States could realize the benefits of renewable energy, then much of the world’s energy problems could be solved.

The lack of a nationwide solar power policy, alongside significant technical hurdles, hinders the progress of renewable energy across the United States of America. Strengthen national policies by introducing financial incentives for research, development, and manufacturing that tackle technical challenges to the growth of renewable energy. Incentives such as tax breaks, low interest rate loans, and grants will allow the renewable energy sector to implement cost-effective solutions and be and competitive against traditional energy sources.

America relies heavily on foreign sources for the energy to run the country. The issue has received much media attention due to the political and economic implications it will have in the near future. This problem could at least be partially solved by using technology that already exists, rather than relying heavily on ones that have yet to come to fruition. America’s energy woes – specifically its reliance on fossil fuels – can be solved by reviving nuclear energy with the use of politics to tackle perceived dangers, technological advancements to make them more feasible, and public outreach to promote acceptance.