Oil and gas have been our source of energy for over a century now. In 1859, Edwin L. Drake drilled the world’s first oil well in Texas that launched the modern petroleum industry. This caused a boom in the economy and everyone was using oil and natural gas as an energy source. It even led to the inventions of the first cars. No one in the world seemed to be concerned about our main energy source running out.
Until in 1949, a scientist called M. King Hubbert predicted that the fossil fuel era would be very short-lived. The industrial world began to realize we would soon have to rely on other energy sources. In 1956, M King Hubbert made his own chart in which he calculated the oil depletion in the coming years. His analysis left him to predict that “the amount of oil produced in the continental United States would peak — reach maximum output — between 1965 and 1970 and then undergo a largely uninterrupted decline, year after year,” (U.S. Department of Energy).
For almost 50 years, our oil supply has been rapidly declining. There is way too much demand for oil and not enough supply. In addition to that, oil is becoming more of a necessity every day. Refineries all around the United States use oil and gas as a source. Houses all around the country run on oil and gas. Once there is no more oil and gas, the United States will go through a huge economic recession. Our entire world runs on fossil fuels and we are not very far from running out, therefore we need to find an alternative to oil and gas. As useful as oil and gas are, it is very hard to ignore the fact that it is damaging our earth.
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Oil and gas drilling is a dirty business. Oil and gas drilling has a negative effect on our wildlands and communities. Drilling projects disrupt wildlife, water sources, human health, recreation and other public lands that were held in trust for human beings. For example, back in 2008, a natural gas company offered some guy one hundred thousand dollars to lease his property and use it for drilling. The man then went ahead and did his own research in fracking. The BBC definition of fracking is, “the process of drilling down into the earth before a high-pressure water mixture is directed at the rock to release the gas inside,” (BBC NEWS).
Around the same time, families that lived in states like Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, and Texas, were having problems within their household. Households in these states had contaminated water in their wells. Even their tap water coming out of their faucet was flammable. Due to the fracking in the area, the water they drank and showered with had unknown chemicals and they were negatively affecting the human beings in those areas. Just because there was only research in 4 states, does not mean that we are now in the clear. Not only humans but animals and plants are in danger due to fracking.
Sensitive bird species and other wildlife are affected by the drilling noise, truck trips and other effects of fracking. Some of the negative effects go as far as the degradation of habitat and interference with migration and reproduction. There was a study that showed how one drilling station can affect thirty acres of forest. Imagine thirty acres of forest filled with trees and animals being infected by just one drilling station. We are living because of trees and it is crucial that we keep them alive. For over a century, oil and natural gas have been the main source of energy for the United States and over a century, it has been damaging our planet. Fracking contributes to other disasters within the world like global warming.
Catastrophes like hurricanes are the effect of global warming and we can put it to a stop by finding other alternative energy sources. Instead of oil and natural gas, we can use vegetable oil as an alternative. Vegetable oil can be used as an alternative fuel in diesel engines and heating oil burners. For vegetable oil to be effective inside of a diesel engine, some engine modifications will be required. You can not just put vegetable oil into a diesel engine and expect it to work as fuel. Vegetable oil is very thick and the engine will have a hard time atomizing the fuel completely when it is sprayed into the combustion chamber.
This leaves behind unburned fuel which can more than likely cause an engine to clog. However, the solution to this starts with installing fuel injector nozzles with an extensive filtering system to make sure only clean fuel gets into the combustion chamber. If dirty cooking oil is used from restaurants, then it has to be filtered many times before you can use it as fuel. This is so you can separate the bits of food that can possibly clog the fuel lines. In addition to this, new glow plugs will be useful to ignite the fuel if the car is starting when it is cold. Make sure the glow plugs are designed specifically for use with vegetable oil. You can heat up the fuel even more by placing engine coolant lines in contact with the fuel lines.
The hot coolant will reduce the vegetable oil’s viscosity leaving little to no chance for the engine to clog. I interviewed a man named Freddy Rodriguez, who is a mechanic in Houston. He told me that he has a truck with a diesel engine that ran on vegetable oil. He did a test on the truck that ran on vegetable oil and a test on another truck that was fueled by oil and gas. He put a white sock in front of the exhaust pipes of both trucks and revved the engines. He said, “the white sock in front of the truck that was fueled by oil and gas was mostly black after revving the engine for 2 minutes” (Dominguez). He then said “the sock in front of the other exhaust pipe was barely black” (Dominguez). This goes to show that vegetable oil can be a viable solution because it is indeed, more environmentally friendly. If vegetable oil is the solution to stop diesel engines from polluting our air, then how come there are very few people actually using it?
Although vegetable oil as fuel is more environmentally friendly, it does not do our economy much justice. Vegetable oil is approximately the same price as diesel fuel. It could be cheaper depending on where you live or if you buy a big amount of it from a restaurant supply store, but it generally doesn’t save you much money over petroleum-based fuels. Well in that case, how come we don’t get used vegetable oil from restaurants and just filter it out? Well, in reality, that might work but only for so long.
Restaurants will start to notice that their vegetable oil is being used as fuel and they will start charging us for it. Plus there will not be enough vegetable oil for all the diesel engine vehicles in our country. The amount of cooking oil that goes to waste by restaurants every day may seem like a lot but it is nothing compared to the millions of barrels of fuel that are consumed by Americans on a daily basis. Do not lose all hope in vegetable oil because is still a solution that can possibly work. It is clear that there is not enough vegetable oil from restaurants to fuel all of the diesel engines in the United States, but what if we focused on only one type of vehicle.
For example, we can use vegetable oil in buses. Buses run and diesel and vegetable oil is a great alternative to diesel and it does not require any fracking. The vegetable oil used in the buses can come from the school’s cafeteria. Every school has a cafeteria and every school has buses. There is always excess vegetable oil at the end of the day that just gets wasted. We can put that oil through a filter and then fuel the buses with it. This idea works out because schools can not charge themselves for vegetable oil when they are the ones using it for their own benefit. This would be a great alternative to oil and gas and will definitely reduce the amount of polluted air. Also, it will slow down the decline of the oil supply.
Another alternative to oil and natural gas is nuclear energy. According to NEI, nuclear energy is “An energy source that has zero emissions, provides electricity around-the-clock and propels our society into the future,” (NEI). Nuclear energy originates from a process called fission (the splitting of uranium atoms). This generates heat to produce steam, which is used by a turbine generator to generate electricity. Because nuclear power plants do not burn fuel, they do not produce greenhouse gas emissions. Nuclear energy provides power for twenty-four hours a day and has no carbon emissions. The NEI mentions that “ninety-eight nuclear reactors in 30 states generate nearly 20 percent of the nation’s electricity, all without carbon emissions because reactors use uranium, not fossil fuels,” (NEI).
Nuclear energy is the only source of energy that meets the United State’s energy demand without emissions. Every year, our atmosphere is saved from more than five hundred and fifty-five million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions that would otherwise come from fossil fuels due to nuclear energy. Not only is nuclear energy saving our earth from dying, but it has also helped out society by offering jobs. Each nuclear power plant employs about four hundred to seven hundred workers. That is after the power plant is already built, while it is under construction, there are about three thousand and five hundred workers that are employed. The salaries of these workers are thirty-six percent higher than the average local salary. It is predicted that twenty-three thousand jobs will be added to the field within the next five years. Nuclear energy can also power electric vehicles. Hybrid cars, battery-powered cars and electric trains all rely on fossil fuels for manufacturing, batteries, and recharging.
Meaning that they still cause pollution and have a negative effect on our environment. Nuclear energy is carbon-free electricity and electric vehicles manufacturers, battery manufacturers and recharging stations are all capable of harnessing nuclear technology. Hydrogen is an alternative engine fuel that is emission free. Advanced nuclear technology can generate hydrogen in order to reduce the number of fossil fuels we use. Electric cars and trucks benefit from hydrogen fuel because they can run twice as long on it, and it takes the same amount of time a conventional car’s gas tank would take to refuel. This pushes our world towards a more environmentally friendly energy source. One that will not run out anytime soon and one that will not bring suffering to our plants and animals. Solar power is an alternative energy source to oil and natural gas. Unlike oil and gas, solar panels do not require fossil fuels, nor do they require fracking. Solar power comes from the sun or the sun’s heat. Solar energy is a renewable free source of energy that is sustainable and will not run our, unlike fossil fuels.
It also does not cause any pollution and it does not have a negative effect on our environment when producing electricity. According to Live Science, solar panels work by “allowing photons, or particles of light, to knock electrons free from atoms, generating a flow of electricity,” (Live Science). That’s a technical way of saying that the panel’s photovoltaic cells convert the energy in sunlight to electricity. Solar energy is very efficient because it comes from the sun and the sun will not die out any time soon. Even on a rainy or cloudy day, it stores the sun’s energy inside and works perfectly fine. For example, Germany is not particularly warm or sunny but it is still a world leader in solar energy. Solar panels are a great alternative to oil and natural gas and the United States should start increases the production and use of solar panels.
The final alternative to oil and natural gas is wind power. Wind power is basically the concept of wind energy being converted into electricity by using wind turbines. Wind turbines do not damage our plants or disrupt our animals. Wind turbines are usually about twenty meters high, the reason being is because the winds are stronger as you go higher and there is less of a buffeting effect. A wind turbine works by capturing the wind to produce energy. The wind makes the rotor spin and as the rotor is spinning, the movement of the blades drive a generator that creates energy. When the turbine is turning, it gives off kinetic energy, this power is converted to electricity. This entire process has nothing to do with fracking, disturbing wildlife, or damaging plants.
Wind power is a great alternative for oil and natural due to the fact that we will never run out of it. As long as winds are still blowing on the earth’s surface, there is no concern of running out of wind power. The world needs an energy source that is efficient and sustainable, not something that is going to last another fifty years and then gives out on us. Oil and natural gas have primarily been our source of energy for over a century but its time is coming to an end. There have been so many hurricanes in the past two years and fracking is one of the main causes of those hurricanes. The world needs a switch and wind power is a lot more green than oil and natural gas.
The United States is killing its own environment by fracking and using oil and natural gas a primary source. Vegetable oil, nuclear energy, solar power, and wind power are all great alternatives to oil and natural gas. It is obvious that the United States will not stop fracking until all of the fossil fuels are done with. Some people may argue and say that the solution to that is to drill deeper, which is not true. Fracking as a whole contaminates water and destroys plants and animals. Millions of gallons of clean water are used to extract oil and natural gas. That results in billions of gallons of contaminated water coming out. The United States needs to slow down the fracking and switch over to a more environmentally friendly energy source.
