Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
powers our transportation, runs our industries, powers
our communications, and drives our digital world. Its
costs are coupled to our economies; very high costs slow
economic growth while low costs allow acceleration of
growth. Security of its supply affects all nations
'
foreign
policies, in
uencing investment choices as well as alli-
ances. Environmental consequences of its use affect the
lives of everyone; climate change is only one part of
the environmental
issue, pollution is sometimes even
more important.
From the economic perspective, for example, only a
few years ago the United States imported
million bar-
rels of oil per day (bbl/d) at a cost of over
billion per
year. This export of money was about the same as the
country
$
cit, and had a
considerable impact on our national debt, our economy,
and our politics. In
'
s total balance of payment de
, according to the Energy Infor-
mation Administration (
www.EIA.gov
)
, the United States
only imported about
million bbl/d, cutting the oil
component of its balance of payments de
cit by about
$
billion per year through a combination of using less
and producing more.
In Asia, the rapid economic growth in both China and
India would not have been possible without the parallel
rapid increase in their energy usage.
From the security perspective, reliable access to energy
is necessary to maintain the economies of the industrial-
ized nations, and necessary to ful
ll the hopes of the
poorer parts of the world to move up the economic
ladder. A reasonably secure supply of energy is essential
to all for their national security. Those old enough to
remember the oil embargos of
the
s, and the
