Sustainability and policy - Climate Change: Biological and Human Aspects - page 481

2500

Non-fossil energy

2000

Fossil carbon imports

1500

1000

Total energy consumed
Fossil fuel consumed
Fossil fuel produced

500

0

1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010

Year

Fig. 8.3 USA'sfossilcarbondomesticproductionandconsumptiontrends.USdomesticfossilcarbonproduction

remainedbroadlyconstantsince1975butoverallfossilconsumptionhasincreased.Further,non-fossilenergy
hasbeenincreasinglyreliedupontomeetthenation'stotalenergyneeds.

Regrettably a decade later, in the early 1990s, the target decade of President Ford's
initiative, the answer remained effectively unchanged. This despite the US Energy
Policy Act in 1992 that encouraged renewable energies and natural gas (with its
higher energy content per carbon atom than coal or oil), and the provision of more
research and development as well as the extension of tax credits. Even so, the US
Department of Energy estimated that by 2000 annual fossil savings would be of the
order of just 2.5% of the USA's 1993 primary energy consumption. Such a saving,
though significant, is small. As it was, the Act ignored car efficiency and lacked major
economic incentives proposed by energy-efficiency groups (Eikeland, 1993).
As can be seen from Figure 8.3, since then trends have still continued more or
less the same: US fossil consumption has grown, although its domestic production
has remained static so that the US fossil deficit has increased commensurably. More
recently, in 2001 the National Energy Policy Development Group under the chair-
manship of Vice-President Dick Cheney reported back to President George W. Bush,
who had instructed it to assess America's energy position and policy at the outset
of his administration's first term. Then the President had said, 'America must have
an energy policy that plans for the future, but meets the needs of today. I believe
we can develop our natural resources and protect our environment.' The report,
entitled National Energy Policy , highlighted the need for some 38 000 miles of new
gas pipelines along with 255 000 miles of distribution lines as well as increasing
oil-refinery capacity, and a significant upgrading of the nation's electrical transmis-
sion grid (National Energy Policy Development Group, 2001). It estimated that over
the next 20 years the nation's oil consumption would increase by 33%, natural gas by