PB is anathema. We all agree. The company is responsible for the worst oil spill on record. It is reported that oil has been flowing at a rate of 60,000 barrels a day. And the gulf spill wasn’t BP’s first mishap; in 2005 an explosion at one of its Texas refineries left fifteen people dead. Our outrage and anger at the company is appropriate. They should pay and be held responsible for what they’ve done. The company’s stock has plummeted. It is going to be paying billions and legal battles will go on for years. But, if BP remains the sole focus of this tragedy, we’ve missed the lesson and squandered a valuable opportunity

BP is indicative of a much larger, more serious problem. As was revealed at the Senate hearings on June 15th, other oil companies had emergency plans eerily similar to that of BP. It seems as though there was one ineffectual, cookie-cutter plan that was shared by the entire industry. The plan included the phone number of a dead expert to call in case of emergencies. It also included strategies for saving seals and walruses that were threatened by a spill in the Gulf Coast. The only downside to the plan was that calling a deceased expert probably wouldn’t do much good and there are no seals or walruses in that part of the world.

Sadly the BP spill was an accident waiting to happen. The company’s attitude seemed to be that they’d risk taking the consequences of a spill, as opposed to putting in the necessary time, money and effort to safeguard against a spill happening, or developing a workable action plan in case a spill did occur.

This spill has become a huge media story. Apart from the tragedy of lives lost, wildlife decimated and businesses destroyed, it is a devastating PR debacle for British Petroleum. But if we are to benefit in any way from the 24/7 media coverage of the spill, the focus needs to shift solely from BP to the oil industry as a whole. Yes, BP must be held accountable and pay to cleanup the gulf and compensate those who are losing their livelihoods, but let’s use this as a call to action to look deeper at the core causes.

Obviously we need to look at other forms of fuel and energy, but that is going to take time. In the short term, the oil industry and the government (who is every bit as much at fault as the oil companies) need to do all that they can to ensure that such a spill does not happen again, and develop effective action and response plans that actually address the problem when a spill inevitably does happen. The media is reporting, the government is fuming, BP is apologizing and lives are being shattered. Let’s take this devastating episode and use it to demand that the government and oil companies alike develop true action plans that will both safeguard our natural resources and our country as a whole.
Copyright © Anthony Mora 2010

Anthony Mora Communications, Inc. is a Los Angeles-based public relations company that has placed clients in: Time, Newsweek, 60 Minutes, CNN, USA Today, Oprah, The New York Times, Vogue, and other media. Anthony has been featured in: USA Today, Newsweek, The New York Times, , The Wall Street Journal, The BBC, CNN, Fox News, and other media outlets.

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The Real BP PR Lesson

What a difference a year can make. In twelve months the center of gravity has strikingly shifted in the debate over U.S. climate change policy. Eleven states have developed mandatory greenhouse gas limits. More corporations are calling for federal policy. And numerous studies and media stories, including the report this month from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and Al Gore’s movie, are tipping the scale of public opinion.

But the biggest difference is in Congress. Since January, Capitol Hill has been inundated with a wave of climate bills. At this point, a federal climate policy seems inevitable. That’s certainly what many electric power company senior executives think. More than 80 percent of those polled in CERA’s most recent executive power survey expect a mandatory carbon policy by 2015.

But designing a U.S. climate change policy is a big undertaking. It may be difficult to reach a consensus in this Congress; however, a real debate is underway. At the very least, that debate will be an important prelude to the 2008 presidential election and a signal

that climate policy is moving to the front and center of U.S. politics.

The Bush Administration’s existing climate change policies emphasize research, technology development and public-private partnerships such as the Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate. The new policy proposals would move to a mandatory approach of regulating carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.

These bills seek to accelerate investments in lower emitting fuels and technologies by setting specific emissions targets.

The obvious questions for setting these emissions targets are, “What level of reductions will be required?” and “On what timetable?” We will hear much discussion about these in the coming months. But

there are other, less obvious questions that will really chart the course for U.S. climate policy.

To start, policymakers will need to decide any program’s scope and framework- what sectors will be affected and how. The electric power and transportation sectors account for more than 70 percent

of U.S. CO2 emissions. So it’s no surprise that they are at the top of the list of sectors to control. But how should these emissions be effectively limited? Cap-and-trade is the framework getting most of the attention right now, at least for the power sector.

First used to control sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions from U.S. power plants, cap-and-trade has become the favorite of academics, corporations and regulators. In January 2005, Europe adopted this approach to controlling its CO2 emissions. Now over 11,000 power

plants and industrial facilities across Europe are covered under the European policy.

And CO2 cap-and-trade programs are now sprouting up in the United States. The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a cap-andtrade program for power plants in 10 northeastern states, is scheduled to start in 2009. California is also drafting a similar policy for in-state power companies set for 2012.

How does cap-and-trade work? It starts with a government setting an emissions cap or ceiling for a group of sources. For example,power plants-and then issuing a set of “allowances,” the currency of the program, equal to the overall size of the cap. The requirements are really very simple: companies comply by limiting their emissions to the number of allowances they hold.

The innovation with cap-and-trade is that by trading allowances,companies get to choose where to reduce their emissions. And in circumstances where it’s not economic, they can buy additional allowances in the open market. Regardless of who buys and sells

allowances, the overall cap ensures that industry-wide emissions stay below a certain level.

Based on past successes with similar policies in controlling SO2 and nitrogen oxide emissions and early promising results from the European program, there is substantial support to create a national CO2 cap-and-trade program in the United States. Almost all of the

federal climate bills propose this approach for power plants. Some proposals, including one by Senators John McCain and Joe Lieberman and one by Senator Jeff Bingaman, would expand cap-and-trade beyond power plants and include the transportation sector.

Regardless of the sectors regulated, the question of how allowances are distributed under a cap-and-trade program looms large. Current programs have mostly followed the precedent of the U.S. SO2 program by allocating the majority of allowances directly to the regulated companies at no cost. But this could change because the stakes are higher with CO2.

The government allocation of CO2 allowances would be a major wealth transfer with the annual value ranging anywhere from $5 to over $200 billion. This has not been lost on interest groups and many are already staking out positions. Certainly regulated companies want to hedge future costs through allowance allocations. Consumer groups would like some of the allowances as a compensation for the higher prices they expect to be paying. And some advocates want to use allowances to subsidize investments in new, lower emission technologies.

Some proposals would avoid free allocations altogether and instead use auctions and in the process create a major revenue source for the federal government. That is how New York plans to distribute the state’s CO2 allowances under the regional program being set up in the Northeast. It is likely that a federal allocation

scheme will move away from any single approach to a blend of these mechanisms and incentives.

Beyond designing how a domestic climate change policy will function, policymakers will also have to define how a U.S. program connects with the policies of other nations. Linking a U.S. CO2 emissions market with other trading systems seems an obvious step. Regulators in the Northeast and California are already thinking about how their programs could link with international markets. But the real question comes down to how the United States should deal with major emitting countries that are not capping emissions.

The United States accounts for over 20 percent of global CO2 emissions today, but the global balance is changing. Due to rapid economic development, emissions in China and India have grown more than five times faster than those of the United States since 1990. And CERA projects this trend to continue, with China and

India contributing about half of the growth in global emissions over the next quarter century.

The global emissions trends are daunting, and the effectiveness of any policy to curb them will depend on the collective actions of the international community. Nonetheless, it is very possible that the United States will push forward with a domestic policy

before any new international system is established. Given this reality, a number of proposals include measures to ensure that a U.S. program does not impose sudden cost increases that place its economy at a disadvantage to those of its major trade partners.

Such economically-oriented approaches will likely be balanced by other voices asserting that the U.S. needs to take the first step to encourage countries like China and India to adopt their own emissions policies. But whatever system emerges internationally, climate

change will be a central issue in U.S. politics going into the 2008 presidential election and beyond.

Author Resource:-> Daniel Yergin, chairman of Cambridge Energy Research Associates (http://www.ceraweek.com, http://cera.ecnext.com) and executive vice president of IHS, received the Pulitzer Prize for “The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power” and the US Energy Award.

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A Changing Policy Climate

It’s certainly no secret: the cost of renewable energy production and its implementation can be extremely high. This is the very reason why tax credits are often used to enable renewable energy sources to compete with fossil fuels.

With rising oil and natural gas prices, the war in Iraq and environmental problems centering on global warming and air pollution, our nation is concerned about their energy security and environmental issues. The United States is recognizing the need and power of renewable energy and is supporting its development through federal income tax credits and incentives.

President George Bush signed the Energy Policy Act of 2005 into law on August 8, 2005. It took over four years for Congress to pass after reviewing several different versions. It extended tax credits for wind and biomass energies for two more years and included additional tax credits for solar, geothermal and ocean energy.

Solar tax credits apply to residential and business users. This tax credit would pertain to eligible equipment installed between 1/1/06 and 12/31/08. The equipment installed would include those solar systems that generate electricity, heat and cool or provide hot water to structures. It must also be operational in the first year the credit is taken and the taxpayer must be the original user. The credit is 30% with a $2,000 cap for each unit for residential taxpayers and it is 30% with a no business cap specified for corporate users. After 12/31/08 the corporate tax credit will return to 10%.

The geothermal corporate credit remains at 10% with no maximum stated. This credit does not apply to geothermal heat pumps and is limited to geothermal energy equipment that produces, uses or distributes energy derived from geothermal deposits. A personal tax credit of 10% with a $300 maximum can be taken for geothermal heat pumps.

The federal government also included production tax credits for renewable energies. These credits allow companies to invest in renewable technologies and write the investment off against other investments. This was a major push of support for renewable energy technologies. The credit was extended until December 31, 2008. The credits are 1.9 cents per kWh for wind, geothermal, closed-loop biomass and 1.0 cent per kWh for hydroelectric power, landfill gas, municipal solid waste and open-loop biomass. These pertain to the first ten years of operation

Similar to production tax credits, there were also provisions for renewable energy production incentives (REPI) for state and local governments, as well as, nonprofit electrical cooperatives. The enacted law included new qualifying energy generation facilities for solar, wind, biomass (excluding municipal solid waste combustion) landfill gas and certain types of dry steam geothermal energy. It was extended through fiscal year 2016 and also included ocean and wave energy.

These credits will be applied to any amount that remains after any other state or utility incentives have been taken. There are numerous states that do offer incentives also. Some new state incentives include a California state rebate program for photovoltaics, an Illinois state grant program for wind energy, a New Jersey state rebate program for geothermal heat pumps and a Pennsylvania property tax assessment for wind energy. These are just a few of the many state incentives that exist.

The United States government and the individual states are promoting renewable energy sources as an energy source to be encouraged. With all the incentives available, this may be one of the best times to make your air cleaner with a commitment toward this energy. With everyone’s support we can recharge renewable energy’s development.

Author Resource:-> More Renewable Energy Tax Credits Articles at http://www.RenewableEnergy-Today.com. Learn how to operate a Successful Niche Website Network with eWebCreator, profitable Adsense Software

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Renewable Energy Tax Credits – Greener in More Ways Than One

One of the Earth’s great renewable energy sources is actually the energy that can be found in all the waves of the ocean. Let’s look at this further.

If you have ever been to the ocean, you were probably fascinated by the phenomena of the waves crashing against the shorelines as the tides came in. The ocean’s tides are the product of gravitational pull of the sun and the moon, as well as, the Earth’s rotation. It causes the ocean waters to be raised and lowered from time to time. The tides have cycles of twelve and one half hours, twice per day, and are easily predictable.

The use of tidal power is seen as early as the twelfth century where tidal mills used the force of the tides to grind grain and corn. The eighteenth century brought competition from windmills and waterwheels. Tidal mills pretty much became extinct with the invention of cheap steam engines. In 1967, France became the first to be able to put tidal wave power to work on a large scale to produce electricity.

The generation of electricity from tidal waves is similar to that of hydroelectric power generation. Bigger dams, known as barrages, are built on the bottom of a tidal basin. Gates on the barrage allow the tidal basin to fill during incoming high tides. Likewise, the basin will empty through a turbine during the outgoing tide. This would turn an electric generator for the production of electricity. There are also systems that generate electricity from incoming and outgoing tides. This system can have a negative effect on plants and animals in the area.

Tidal fences are also used to generate electricity. Vertical axis turbines are mounted on fences. Passing water is forced through the turbines. Ideal locations for these are channels between two landmasses. Tidal fences are cheaper than tidal barrages and cause less of an environmental impact on large marine life.

Tidal turbines are a new technology used for tidal energy. They are similar to wind turbines and are arranged underwater in rows. They work best in areas with strong tides. Although they are heavier and costlier to build, they also are capable of capturing more energy. They are also the least environmentally damaging of all the tidal power technologies, since they do not interfere with migration paths.

In order for tidal power to work successfully it requires a tide difference of at least sixteen feet. Unfortunately there are only a few places where this occurs. This means tidal power plants cannot just be constructed anywhere. There are only a handful of sites on Earth with this type of tidal range. At present, France is the only country that has been successful in using tidal power. It is hoped developments in technology, through research, will be made to allow better use of this, what is now, wasted energy. The future of tidal energy seems hopeful. Tidal power has great potential and hopefully we can make better use of it in the future in our quest to find a replacement for fossil fuels.

Author Resource:-> More Tidal Renewable Energy Articles at http://www.RenewableEnergy-Today.com. Learn how to operate a Successful Niche Website Network with eWebCreator, profitable Adsense Software

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Ocean Tidal Power as Renewable Energy

At its simplest, waste management is taking care of unwanted byproducts, usually of human activities, and ensuring they do not cause any lingering problems. As in many other spheres of human activity, the devil lies in the details. There are arguments over the cost-effectiveness and actual effectiveness of recycling compared to storage, methods and techniques that work well for rural situations are different from those that work well for urban situations, and what is considered reasonable in the developed world is very different from what is considered reasonable in the undeveloped world.

There are four basic approaches that are combined to deal with each situation and circumstance. Recycle, which means finding ways to turn the waste into something desirable, Reuse, which involves finding some purpose the waste can still perform, Reduce, which involves rendering the waste safe, and occasionally Re-Think. This last is more controversial, but as an example, it would involve less than obvious responses. A reaction to wasted cloth in a clothing factory might be to change the cuts to produce more wasted cloth, which will then have sections big enough to use for other purposes instead of merely being thrown away.

Often, the best plan in theory will not be possible, perhaps due to a law preventing waste from being recycled because regulations require it to be stored in fifty-five gallon drums.

The classic methods are landfill, incineration and composting. More recent concepts include Mechanical Biological Treatment, which combines mechanical sorting of waste into categories, which are then biologically treated. The biological end might involve composting or letting bacteria consume suitable waste. Pyrolisis and Gasification are similar to incineration, but with the added wrinkle that the combustion is exploited to produce energy as well.

The Government of the United Kingdom produced a report in 2002 entitled Waste Not, Want Not. This led to the Waste Management Programme, which sets goals required to meet the EU’s legally binding targets to reduce levels of biodegradable waste that is placed in landfills. The targets all refer to the percentage of waste biodegradables which were landfilled in 1995, and by 2010 this should be down to 75% of 1995 levels. This drops further to 50% in 2013 and 35% in 2020.

The plan is a comprehensive attempt to attack the problem involving both direct attacks on the treatment of waste and indirect attacks to use investment, regulation, education and economic targets to reduce the waste produced.

Goals range from allowing local governments more leeway to effect their waste situation to tax incentives to reuse waste or produce less, to clearer standards to make it easier to tell when goals are met. Bureaucratic methods involving centralization of responsibility and enforcement are still being explored. Landfill taxes have been increased, and magistrates have been provided with guidance on standards and penalties to aid in prosecution of violators.

More than 63 specific recommendations were made in the official report and work is still ongoing for many of them. Finally, research is still underway seeking more dramatic means to deal with the situation.

Author Resource:-> Tank Cleaning, total waste management services and waste minimisation.

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The UK’s Waste Implementation Programme

If you have an interest in being environmentally friendly, then no doubt you’re aware of the damage fossil fuels are doing to our environment. Not only that, but at some point they will run out. Add in the recent jump in gas prices, and it’s hardly surprising that more people are talking about making their own biodiesel fuel. Although it sounds like a great idea, you need to consider a few points before going ahead and making your own biodiesel fuel.

What Is Biodiesel?

To start with, let’s take a look at what biodiesel fuel actually is. At its most simple, biodiesel fuel is made from either vegetable oil, animal fat, or mixture of the two. It’s a clean burning fuel that is made from renewable resources hence the name biodiesel.

Generally, biodiesel fuel is made from straight vegetable oil, sometimes referred to as SVO. So if you want to make your own biodiesel fuel, you’ll need to have an adequate supply of the basic ingredients. Unfortunately, most households don’t produce enough waste animal fat or vegetable fat to come anywhere close to making enough biodiesel fuel to keep the family car running.

Using Recycled oil

This has led to a whole new industry, with the basic aim of sourcing much larger quantities of raw product. They get together with restaurants, bakeries, and any other business that uses a deep fryer, so that they can collect the used oil for recycling. The oils are then blended and used as the basis for biodiesel fuel. The processes are the same as you’d use to make biodiesel fuel at home, but by having access to a much larger supply of raw products, these companies can produce biodiesel in quantities that are more viable.

Can I make it at Home?

One thing to remember is that it’s not quite this simple! Used vegetable oil needs to be mixed and stored, which can be quite a problem if you have large amounts of it. You also need to dewater, filter and deacidify the waste oil before it can be used for making biodiesel. This makes the production of biodiesel fuel at home a lot more complicated.

Having said that, it’s certainly still quite possible to make biodiesel fuel at home, simply by buying straight vegetable oil, rather than using waste products. Even though it will cost you a lot more, when you compare it to the cost of buying the necessary amount of gas to run your car for a year, you can still save an enormous amount – somewhere around 75 percent. Even better, you’re saving the environment too.

Can I mix it with Petroleum?

The short answer is yes! It can be blended with petroleum in any percentages and used as fuel. There is a fuel called B20 which is 20 percent biodiesel that has shown significant environmental benefits. It can be used in an existing diesel engine with either little or no modifications. The only thing to be aware of is that biodiesel acts as a solvent and can remove old deposits on on your fuel tank walls and your fuel lines. This may lead to a clogging of your filters so care should be taken. But hey – then you have a clean system!

So if you’re interested in saving money and helping out the environment, look at the option of making biodiesel fuel at home. It takes a little bit of effort, but the rewards are definitely worthwhile.

Author Resource:-> Steve Dolan is an environmentalist concerned about global warming and non-renewable resources. Biodiesel may form part of the answer. Find out more by clicking BioDiesel and Alternative Fuels

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How Can I Benefit From Bio Diesel?

Why is it that when women talk about being a stay at home mother, many describe themselves as being “just” a stay at home mom? I’ve always felt that there’s nothing so simple about it. As a stay at home mom you have the power to make a big difference for your family or even for others.

I like to think about the environment, for example. There are plenty of things you can do around the home to make sure that your family lives in a more environmentally friendly way. Some of it can even save money, which is often near and dear to the stay at home mother’s heart.

You’re always home, so that probably means you’re always using some electricity. But at some times of the year you can cut down on your electricity usage by something as simple as opening the blinds during the day and letting the sun light the house. This may not work in the dead of winter or when it’s so hot during the summer that you’d have to turn on the air conditioning, but it can be effective.

You can think about the cleaning supplies that you use. Cut out the harsh chemical cleansers that probably aren’t all that good for your family anyhow and pick ones that are more environmentally friendly.

Think about how you’re cooking for your family. Some cooking methods are far more energy efficient than others. If you like, you can even cook multiple meals at once to save energy.

Remember that when you have the time to cook for your family, you don’t need to waste money on fast food, which also produces a lot of garbage. You can also avoid more prepared foods, thereby avoiding the excess packaging and preservatives.

You can drive less. Being at home means that if the school is within walking distance, you can walk the kids to and from school. Great exercise as well as not using your car.

For that matter, you may be able to walk to the store. I’ve been known to go to the grocery store, kids in a wagon, lock up the wagon outside the store just like a bike, then haul the load home. It does work. You just have to be sure that the store is close enough for this to be a comfortable activity for you.

You can plant an organic garden. Not only is this a great way to have fresh vegetables without pesticides, it’s a delightful way to teach your children about where food comes from. Sometimes the hardest part is keeping the kids away from the garden long enough to get the produce to the table.

There’s more you can do, of course. This is just a quick list off the top of my head to get you thinking. As a stay at home mom I find there are lots of little things I could do that would be much harder if I weren’t at home.

Author Resource:-> Stephanie Foster blogs at http://www.greensahm.com/ about being a stay at home mom trying to be more environmentally friendly. Read about how she’s helping her family go green at her site.

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How Much Can a Stay at Home Mom Really Do For the Environment?

There are many energy sources today that are extremely limited in supply. Some of these sources include oil, natural gas, and coal. It is a matter of time before they will be exhausted.

Estimates are that they can only meet our energy demands for another fifty to seventy years. So in an effort to find alternative forms of energy, the world has turned to renewable energy sources as the solution. There are many advantages and disadvantages to this.

Renewable energy sources consist of solar, hydro, wind, geothermal, ocean and biomass. The most common advantage of each is that they are renewable and cannot be depleted. They are a clean energy, as they don’t pollute the air, and they don’t contribute to global warming or greenhouse effects. Since their sources are natural the cost of operations is reduced and they also require less maintenance on their plants. A common disadvantage to all is that it is difficult to produce the large quantities of electricity their counterpart the fossil fuels are able to. Since they are also new technologies, the cost of initiating them is high.

Solar energy makes use of the sun’s energy. It is advantageous because the systems can fit into existing buildings and it does not affect land use. But since the area of the collectors is large, more materials are required. Solar radiation is also controlled by geography. And it is limited to daytime hours and non-cloudy days.

Wind energy uses the power of the wind to produce electricity. Although it is the largest job producer, it is reliant on strong winds. Wind turbines are large and, although you can use the area under them for farming, many consider them unattractive looking. They are also very noisy to operate. In addition, they threaten the wild bird population.

Hydroelectric energy uses water to produce power. This is the most reliable of all the renewable energy sources. On the down side, it affects ecology and causes downstream problems. The decay of vegetation along the riverbed can cause the buildup of methane. Methane is a contributing gas to greenhouse effect. Dams can also alter the natural river flow and affect wildlife. Colder, oxygen poor water can be released into the river, killing fish. And the release of water from the dam can cause flooding.

Geothermal energy uses steam from the Earth’s ground to generate power. It uses smaller land areas than other power plants. They can run 24 hours per day, every day of the year. Disadvantages are that it is very site specific and, along with the heat from the Earth, it can also bring up toxic chemicals when obtaining the steam. Drilling geothermal reservoirs and finding them can be an expensive task.

Biomass electricity is produced through the energies from wood, agricultural and municipal waste. It helps save on landfill waste but transportation can be expensive and ecological diversity of land may be affected. In addition, its process needs to be made simpler.

Ocean energy is a clean and abundant energy form. It does, however, have high costs. Ocean thermal energy also requires close to a forty degree Fahrenheit difference in water temperature year round. In addition, construction and laying pipes can cause damage to the ecosystem.

There are many advantages to the use of renewable energy sources. There are also some disadvantages. The fact is energy demands will continue to increase. Through research and development, as well as, new technologies, the hope is many of the disadvantages of renewable sources of energy can be eliminated and we can successfully incorporate it into our power supplies.

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Advantages and Disadvantages of Renewable Energy

The heat of the Earth makes up what is known as geothermal energy. When dust and gasses from Earth mixed together 4 billion years ago, geothermal energy resulted.

Inside the Earth at its core, some 4, 000 miles deep, the temperature is estimated at about 9,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Geothermal energy has been used throughout history for bathing, relaxing, cooking and heating. It was thought by some to have healing effects and was used to treat eye and skin diseases. The first geothermal generator that produced energy was built in Lardarello, Italy in 1904. The United States followed with their first attempt at geothermal power in 1912 at The Geysers in California. Today it is produced in twenty-one countries around the world.

Geothermal energy is located deep in the ground. The heat at the core of the Earth has an outward flow. As it moves, it is transferred to surrounding rock layers called the mantle. As temperatures and pressure increase, the rock melts and becomes magma. The magma moves toward the surface of the earth carrying the heat with it. If the magma reaches the Earth’s surface, it becomes lava. However, most of it stays below the Earth’s crust and heats rocks and water that surround it. These temperatures can reach up to 700 degrees Fahrenheit. When the water travels to the Earth’s surface, it becomes hot springs or geysers. Mostly it stays trapped in fractured, porous rocks called geothermal reservoirs. This heat near the Earth’s surface becomes a form of energy.

Hot water or steam from the reservoir exerts a force that can spin a turbine connected to a generator and produces electricity. The cooled water is then returned to the reservoir in order for it to reheat. Much exploration and testing needs to be done to determine where the geothermal underground waters are. When ideal spots are located, drilling is done to create production wells that bring the water to the Earth’s surface for power generation in geothermal power plants.

Although the costs to construct geothermal plants and geothermal wells are high, the cost of producing electricity is lower over time. The fuel is reliable, stable and does not need to be transported. The white smoke you will see over geothermal power plants is not smoke but rather steam. During the process of operations it may, however, bring some hazardous gases from underground.

The United States stands as the biggest producer of geothermal energy. Unfortunately, interest in it is low and it only accounts for about 1% of this country’s energy supply. Through research and experience new methods and technologies for accessing geothermal energy will improve. Tapping into the heat under the Earth’s surface can produce much more of the nations energy. We are at a point where renewable energy sources must make their way to the forefront of the energy picture. Not only are fossil fuels being depleted, but also they are ruining our air quality. In time, geothermal energy may become an appealing alternative. Competitive pricing and minimal environmental impact could produce a hot future for this renewable energy source.

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Geothermal Renewable Energy – The Earth

Approximately ten percent of energy produced in the United States is from hydropower. In this process, water spins in turbines in generators.

Hydropower is one of the renewable energy sources being researched and implemented to replace fossil fuels, which are in the process of depletion. It does not produce carbon dioxide, as coal power stations do, making it a cleaner, as well as, cheaper alternate way to produce electricity. It is also renewable, with the help of rainwater for replenishment.

The impoundment facility is the most common type of hydropower facilities. A dam is built on a large river or lake to store its water in a reservoir. When water is released from the reservoir through tunnels it flows through a turbine. Since the height of the water behind the walls is so great, the released water goes through the turbine with a great force of energy. As the turbine spins, it sets in motion a generator, which in turn produces electricity. The water then travels back into the stream or river below. Networks of transmission lines and facilities carry the electricity from the generator to users in a form they can use. The Hoover Dam is an illustration of the process just described. When it was initially built, it produced enough electricity for the entire city of Las Vegas. As Las Vegas grew, they turned to other energy sources

The pumped storage hydro plant facility is able to store power. It does so by pumping water from a lower reservoir to an upper reservoir during low energy demand periods. When needs increase, the water is released from the upper reservoir back to the lower reservoir for electricity generation.

Hydroelectric plants require a lot of land in order to build a dam and reservoir. This requires a great deal of money, time and construction. There are not many ideal places to put them and most of these have already been taken. The good thing is once constructed; the electricity is free to produce. Due to costs, the tendency will be to put up smaller hydro plants that are more economical.

Hydroelectric plants using dams have a negative effect on the environment. Through the construction of a dam, there is a blockage of the flow from upstream to downstream. This disrupts the migration pattern of fish. Fish can also be killed passing through the turbines. An advantage to hydropower is the ability to control energy release to meet changing demands.

The population is growing and so will its power needs. Fossil fuels are being used up and there will come a time when they will be depleted. We need to turn to renewable energy sources to meet our needs. Natural resources seem to be a natural solution. Hydroelectric plants can meet our power needs without worries of depletion or pollution. It is also the most reliable source available today. Research and development is ongoing to provide a solution to the damage a dam can do. The potential for hydroelectricity is within our grasp and we must find a way to make this work.

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Hydropower Renewable Energy – Fossil Fuel Replacement