...Robert Hoefer Professor Arenson English 101 17 July 2012 Common Ground Essay The first commercial coal mine in America was started in the 1748. ("History of US Coal Use.") The first commercial oil well in the United States was drilled in 1859. (Yergin, 7) These two fossil fuels were the power behind the American Industrial Revolution, and wealth behind Edward Berwind and John Rockefeller(Brinkley, 435), respectively, that continue to provide power and fuel in present day society. Natural gas is another fossil fuel that helps to provide for the needs of today. Oil, coal, and gas companies tout new technologies that make their products cleaner and safer for the environment. Opponents of fossil fuels say there is no way to burn them cleanly. Proponents for fossil fuels believe there are plenty of reserves to keep America running on fossil fuels for years to come. Advocates for newer technologies, “green” technologies, such as solar power, geothermal energy, and biofuels claim that the time to move on from these fossil fuels has arrived. The new energy sources claim to be renewable so as to never run out. (E.g., the sun would have to supernova for solar power to run out.) They believe the point of “Peak Oil”- the point at which worldwide oil production begins to decline, has already passed and the country will need their new technologies to keep pace during the changing of the energy guard. There are many lenses through which to look at the use of all these energy sources...
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...Essay on Load Shedding in Pakistan While countries in the west move towards enlightenment, Pakistan is moving towards darkness. The country suffering at the hands of corrupt politicians and terrorism has much graver problems and one of them is load shedding. It is the 21st century and there is no electricity in Pakistan! People are crying their hearts out in front of the government to provide them with the basic necessity of electricity but the government seems to have no clue about how to solve this problem. Energy shortage is the result of the power demand and supply gap. So what causes this gap to exist is the main question. There are various reasons because of which Pakistan could not create more electricity which include the rising fuel prices, rising burden of circular debts, lack of availability of inexpensive fuel, no new power projects being started, poor electricity production and distribution methods, power theft and nonpayment of electricity bills. The issue of circular debts is not something new when it comes to energy crisis. When the circular debts reach their peak the government intercepts by increasing the subsidy given to the power companies. However this does not provide a permanent solution to the problem because the subsidies given are not sufficient to pull the power supply companies out of difficulty. At present only Rs3/kilowatt subsidy is given where as 20-30% of electricity is being stolen and the electricity bills of government offices remain...
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...dropped by 140,000 in April 2010 alone and the fall in Irish air traffic by 13% so far this year. Growth has returned to countries which have ditched this travel tax and reduced its airport charges. According to Canadian energy economist Jeff Rubin the maximum an airline company can pay for a barrel is $80 dollars, any higher and the company cannot make a profit, $80 dollars is the breakeven point. Oil prices have been steadily rising since January 2009 and economists have predicted that this year the price of oil will rise to $80 per barrel which could prove detrimental to the profitability of the airline industry. In April 2010 the eruption of an Icelandic volcano caused Irish air traffic to come to a halt. The closure of Irish airspace caused a sharp decline in trips to and from Ireland. In April 2010 The Central Statistics Office reported a decrease of 24.9% in trips made to Ireland and a decrease of 27.9% trips made by Irish residents made overseas in comparison with April 2009. (See Appendix A for an Aer Lingus analysis using Porter s Five Forces Model) Find out more from UK Essays here:...
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...Essay 1 Energy Independence 9/28/2011 Persuasive Writing Charles Mountin Thesis Statement America needs to achieve energy independence and reduce its dependence on foreign oil. Abstract The United States need to lower its dependence on foreign oil. The U.S. dependence on foreign oil has created a huge trade deficit that puts billions of U.S. dollars into the hands of countries that are not U.S. allies. This dependence also could lead to an economic downturn if there is another spike in oil prices. The U.S. needs to find alternatives to foreign oil that are environmentally sound and U.S. made to achieve energy independence. America needs to find new energy sources and better energy conservation to meet its future energy needs. As of now America is far too dependent on foreign oil for its main energy source. Many experts say that the world is at peak output for oil right now and will be decreasing into the future. Right now the world has about 6.7 billion people, but by 2050 the estimate for world population is more than 9 billion people. That means we need a lot more oil than we now produce and our production capacity is already almost at its peak. If are still powering our cars, factories, and homes with oil when oil starts to run out we will be in a lot of trouble. In 2008 when oil supplies were near capacity the price of gas shot up to over $4.00 a gallon and I could barely keep up with my bills because of the extra money spent on gas. The price spike also...
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...Recent increases in basic food prices are severely impacting vulnerable populations worldwide. Proposed causes such as shortages of grain due to adverse weather, increasing meat consumption in China and India, conversion of corn to ethanol in the US, and investor speculation on commodity markets lead to widely differing implications for policy. A lack of clarity about which factors are responsible reinforces policy inaction. Here, for the first time, we construct a dynamic model that quantitatively agrees with food prices. The results show that the dominant causes of price increases are investor speculation and ethanol conversion. Models that just treat supply and demand are not consistent with the actual price dynamics. The two sharp peaks in 2007/2008 and 2010/2011 are specifically due to investor speculation, while an underlying upward trend is due to increasing demand from ethanol conversion. The model includes investor trend following as well as shifting between commodities, equities and bonds to take advantage of increased expected returns. Claims that speculators cannot influence grain prices are shown to be invalid by direct analysis of price setting practices of granaries. Both...
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...The influence of the price of petrol on biofuels in long-term 4 Graph 4 America bio-ethanol output 5 The subsequent effect on food price 5 Graph 5 percentage of main biofuel production country 5 Table 1 Wheat production and consumption 7 Discussion 9 Evaluation 9 Graph 6 China food price 10 Conclusion 11 References 11 Introduction This essay will reveal the relationship between price of petrol, biofuels and food; and use evidence to proof the argument that increasing price of biofuels have limited effect of food price. The effect of China in biofuels will present as follow also. Firstly, is main body and this part shows the effect of biofuels. Second part is discussion of the extent level that...
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...GLOSSARY/DEFINITION OF KEY CONCEPTS 14.47 Case study 1. Lighting retrofitting in the United Republic of Tanzania 14.49 Case study 2. United Republic of Tanzania: Power factor correction 14.59 Case study 3. Zambia: Automatic load control and alternative energy supply at Lusaka water and sewerage company 14.67 Case study 4. Zambia: University energy assessment 14.73 Case study 5. Why DSM initially failed in Ghana 14.79 PowerPoint presentation: ENERGY EFFICIENCY Module 14: Demand-side management 14.87 SUSTAINABLE ENERGY REGULATION AND POLICY-MAKING TRAINING MANUAL page iv MODULE 14: DEMAND-SIDE MANAGEMENT page 14.1 1. MODULE OBJECTIVES 1.1. Module overview Demand-side management (DSM) has been traditionally seen as a means of reducing peak electricity demand so that utilities can delay building further capacity. In fact, by reducing the overall load on an electricity network, DSM has various beneficial effects, including mitigating...
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...The Impacts of End of Oil on Society Name Institution Affiliation The Impacts of End of Oil on Society Oil is a scarce natural resource with a high demand. Oil production is only in a few countries across the world. It is the most common form of energy used in societies. It accounts for 33 percent of worldwide energy usage. Oil is the preferable form of energy because it is readily refined and contains high-energy content. It is not easily substitutable with other forms of energy. Oil is not a renewable source of energy. Peak oil is approaching. The available oil will not be enough to meet the market demand. Constant oil supply is important to run most aspects of the society. The end of oil will have negative impacts on society. Inflation is the greatest impact of peak oil in anticipation. Price levels will increase rapidly. The demand of oil will surpass the supply. This will trigger an increase in oil prices subject to the law of demand. Most aspects of humanity depend on oil. A reflection of the increasing effect will be notable in most of the commodities that require oil in the production process. Food prices will increase. This is because of an increase in transportation and production costs. This will have a negative impact on the standards of living across many societies. Commodities will be too expensive to purchase. Peak oil will cause a reduction in economic activities across many societies. Effective running...
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...ANVITHA (1226213102) OIL TRADING - SUPPLY AND DEMAND ANALYSIS SUMMARY: Oil, also known as petroleum, is the most actively traded commodity in the world. The price is usually quoted per barrel. Oil trading is transacted on changes in the price of crude oil and does not involve a physical purchase of the commodity. The direction of the price movement determines whether a trader will profit or not. The two kinds of contracts that are traded are oil futures and options. The price of oil can be significantly affected by political factors, as well as environmental factors such as natural disasters. Other influencing factors include demand such as that driven by modernizing populations in India and China, as well as supply - that is, production rates in oil producing countries. In addition, technological advances in alternative energies may also affect the price of oil. In short, oil trading can involve significant price fluctuations making it an exciting and potentially profitable market. Oil prices also affect currency trading. Sometimes, a weakened US dollar may cause a rise in the price of oil. Other currencies that rely on commodity prices, such as CAD can also be affected by changes in oil prices. In this report we are analyzing the demand and supply , price factors of crude oil. INTRODUCTION: Until as recently as the early 1970s, the main channel for oil supply was the integrated system of the major oil companies. Each company had its own source of crude oil supply as well as...
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...Motivation Letter Stars have always fascinated me. So it was when I was a child. On a dark summer night they appear a lot brighter and closer overhead and I asked my father, “What are those things”? The answer could have been anything but the truth. Instead he told me everything about the stars, their composition, the fusion reaction, the life cycle of the stars and about the black hole. To tell you the truth I was not able to understand everything at that time but truth can be more riveting than a fairy tale. But these stuck in mind, I always think and correlate them with the scene, when standing in a balcony of my house in mid night and looking into entire city of “Phnom Penh”. The city looks exactly like brightens star in the night. I think a lot and try find relation between them and the reason behind all these. I came to know that both are lighting with inside energy. Energy related to star may be some natural or else that I didn’t found. But the reason behind lighting city was Electrical Energy. And that’s how I got hooked to Electrical Engineering. From then only I never looked backed, study Electrical Energy their implantation and trying for new and new experiments to have different lighting becomes nature and Destiney of my life. Soon after I finished high school, I sat in the entrance exam for undergraduate course in Institute of Technology of Cambodia. When I was chosen for that in which only 50 students selected out of 2500 candidates and offered a seat in the Electrical...
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...mail.com Guide to Energy Management Seventh Edition Guide to Energy Management Seventh Edition by Barney L. Capehart, Ph.D., CEM Wayne C. Turner, Ph.D. PE, CEM William J. Kennedy, Ph.D., PE Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Capehart, B. L. (Barney L.) Guide to energy management / by Barney L. Capehart, Wayne C. Turner, William J. Kennedy. -- 7th ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-10: 0-88173-671-6 (alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0-88173-672-4 (electronic) ISBN-13: 978-1-4398-8348-8 (alk. paper) 1. Energy conservation--Handbooks, manuals, etc. 2. Energy consumption--Handbooks, manuals, etc. I. Turner, Wayne C., 1942- II. Kennedy, William J., 1938- III. Title. TJ163.3.C37 2011 621.042--dc23 2011021960 Guide to energy management by Barney L. Capehart, Wayne C. Turner, William J. Kennedy--Seventh Edition ©2012 by The Fairmont Press. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Published by The Fairmont Press, Inc. 700 Indian Trail Lilburn, GA 30047 tel: 770-925-9388; fax: 770-381-9865 http://www.fairmontpress.com Distributed by Taylor & Francis Ltd. 6000 Broken Sound Parkway NW, Suite 300 Boca Raton, FL 33487, USA E-mail: orders@crcpress.com Distributed by Taylor & Francis Ltd. 23-25 Blades Court Deodar Road London...
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...Underground living refers simply to living below the ground's surface, whether in naturally occurring caves or in built structures. Underground dwellings are an alternative to traditionally built above-ground dwellings for some home seekers, especially those who are looking to minimize their negative impact on the environment. Some of the advantages of underground houses include resistance to severe weather, quiet living space, an unobtrusive presence in the surrounding landscape, and a nearly constant interior temperature due to the natural insulating properties of the surrounding earth. The greatest draw for most is the energy efficiency and environmental friendliness of underground dwellings. When combined with renewable energy sources, energy cost can be greatly reduced. Initial building costs are often low, as underground building is largely subtractive rather than additive, and because the natural materials displaced by the construction can be recycled as building materials. However, underground living does have certain disadvantages; such as the potential for flooding, which in some cases may require special pumping systems to be installed. Underground living has been a feature of fiction, such as the hobbit holes of the Shire as described in the stories of J. R. R. Tolkien and The Underground City by Jules Verne. It is also the preferred mode of housing to communities in such extreme environments as Australia's Coober Pedy, Berber caves as those in Matmâta, Tunisia,...
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...Why I want to be an Engineer There have been different reasons at different stages of my life why I developed a passion for the engineering profession. It started from a youthful age watching my father, who was a mechanical engineer and wanting to emulate him when I got to adulthood. I liked the way he talked about his occupation with great excitement. He tended to travel a lot but also had time to spend with his family. I was impressed with his knowledge of Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry. He was always helping my older brother with his calculus assignments even though he had been through school for a long time. The engineering profession afforded my father with the resources to provide for his family and to do some philanthropic work as well. There was always something technological being discussed with his friends. In my early years when I wanted to be an engineer, it was always because I just wanted to be like my father, not until I got into school. When I started school, I realized I was very interested in mathematics and the sciences. The tougher the subject, the greater satisfaction I had at the end of the term when I succeeded. I loved working in the science labs and learning how science works. I always wanted to challenge myself with an occupation that will keep me on my toes, so engineering being my first love was an obvious choice. I liked reading about the great inventors and scientists of our time like Sir Isaac Newton, Thomas Edison, The Wright...
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...initial endowment of USD 250 million from Shell, has been actively involved in a number of sustainable development projects. The group’s initiatives were well appraised by World Environment Council. Corporate Social Responsibility Modern business is oblige to satisfy demanding environmental, ethical, commercial, ethical and public standards as specified by the wider society (Crane et. al., 2007; Burchell, 2008). It is an appraised fact these days that economic value enhances through voluntary cooperation between the companies and its stakeholders (Schwartz, 2011; Bacher, 2007). In Nigeria Delta, Shell has been accused of poor stakeholder management (Idowu & Filho, 2009; Amio, 2011). Among the negative effects, some effects were frequent oil spills with poorly executed clean ups and unfair compensation, series of ineffective community development initiatives, unjust and unequal revenue allocation and poor environment management. In light of such allegations, Shell recognised five areas of responsibilities. The first one is to protect the...
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...dependent on foreign countries. Although off shore drilling is a good resource that has been in existence for years, with the recent oil explosion (2010) and 11 lives and a massive spill of oil in the Gulf of Mexico, that had a major affect on the economy and the wildlife caused the US to take a look at alternative resources for energy. The option of alternative resources allows the US to be more self- sufficient and could overall be less cost effective for the US. The perceptual blocks that I am experiencing with these assignments is the various pros and cons that come with both off-shores drilling & using alternative resources. Off –shore drilling already in place and with the drilling moratorium expanding into the Mediterranean and off the coast of East Africa after a hug discovery of natural gas. However “Exploration in deepwater fields remains dangerous because of high temperatures and high pressure when drilling 6,000 feet or more under the sea floor”. (Krauss & Broder, 2012). On the other hand with alternative resources we would no longer have to rely on other countries to supply our energy because it would be created here in the US. Research and testing does take a while before full production would take place. To Drill or Not To Drill President Obama indicated that ‘with more research and incentives we can break our dependence on oil with biofuels, and become the first country to have 1 million electric vehicles on the road by 2015” (Husain, 2011, p.). We...
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