Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
items ranging from petrochemical to plastics to chewing
gum, and therefore some fossil fuel should be saved for
uses other than energy. It is worth remembering also that
we live on a
finite-sized planet, and therefore we have a
finite amount of fossil fuels (as well as other resources):
they will run out eventually.
All the fossil fuels have had large world-price increases
in the past few years. While those of oil have been the
most dramatic, coal and gas prices have gone up by two to
three times (except in the United States because of its
shale gas). Prices have dropped with the slowdown of
the world economy since
. The current recession is
ending, as have all the previous ones; when it does, eco-
nomic growth will resume all over the world, and with it
demand for energy will grow more rapidly. Unless new
fossil energy reserves are discovered, the recent price
increases are small compared with what will come later.
There is more reason to develop carbon-free energy
sources than combating global warming.
I always use the term carbon-free energy sources rather
than renewable energy sources which are more limited.
The renewables are generally taken to include solar, wind,
geothermal, ocean systems (very small today), hydroelec-
tric systems (sometimes only small hydroelectric projects
are included in renewables), and biofuels. Carbon-free
would also include energy-ef
ciency programs, fossil fuel
with greenhouse gas capture and storage (CCS), large-
scale hydroelectric where appropriate, nuclear energy
systems, and perhaps even nuclear fusion eventually. Effi-
-
ciency reduces energy use and thereby emissions. CCS
does not get the world away from the problem of the
potential exhaustion of fossil fuels, but it does allow fossil
