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What Are The Four Primary Energy Sources In The United States?

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The primary energy sources are petroleum, coal, natural gas, nuclear fuel, and renewable energy. These primary fuels are used to make secondary sources of energy, such as electricity. The top three primary energy sources consumed in the United States are petroleum, natural gas, and coal. The primary energy sources are divided into two categories – renewable and nonrenewable. The top four primary energy sources in the United States are nonrenewable. Coal, petroleum, natural gas, and uranium are Nonrenewable resources that cannot be replenished in a short time period since they are extracted from the ground. The primary energy use source fossil fuels include, coal, oil, and natural gas fall into this category. Fossil fuels have high percentages …show more content…

Petroleum energy is used to make this gas, which is only part of what this amazing energy is capable of doing. Petroleum energy is found deep within the earth in various rock formations. The liquid is extremely flammable and is a mixture of many different natural compounds, the main compound being hydrocarbons. At present, it is estimated that as much as 70% of the world’s energy consumption comes from crude oil and natural gas. Because petroleum is a non-renewable energy and because it is one of the most popular natural energies on earth, there are many concerns over how much petroleum is remaining in the earth. Although there is almost no part of daily life that is not affected by petroleum energy, its biggest use is in fuel …show more content…

Like all fossil fuels, its combustion emits carbon dioxide, but at about half the rate of coal. Global consumption of natural gas in 2006 was 104 trillion cubic feet. Known world reserves of conventional natural gas total about 6,000 trillion cubic feet with perhaps another one-tenth of that amount still undiscovered. At that rate, known reserves will be adequate for nearly 60 years. Natural gas shales, a potentially enormous unconventional source of this fossil fuel, could dramatically change this picture. We now have technology that takes the waste heat from a natural gas turbine and uses it to power a steam turbine, resulting in a power plant that is as much as 60%

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Americans dependence on domestic and foreign oil correlated to oil being limited and not always, readily available. Although, there were many alternative solutions to petroleum, for instance nuclear plants and coals, the results were not favorable. The environmental and energy crisis of the 1970s still constrained the United States today with more smog, landfill waste, and gas prices risen and

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Converting the majority of our energy use from coal and oil would benefit America and other countries immensely. Natural gas burns 80% cleaner than the two aforementioned, is easily transported and utilized, and is found abundantly all over the world making it a serious contender in a society seeking out alternative energy sources. A new generation of thinking has emerged crafting the green revolution, a movement to create sustainable energy use while exploring other options. Natural gas, while not nonrenewable, is abundantly found in the United States, creates less pollution when burned, and can be used to segue from primarily coal and oil to primary use of renewable energies. Natural Gas is a great way to make sure the air you breathe

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According to worldenergy.org (2016). [Comparative Primary Energy Consumption Over the Past 15 Years].World Energy Resources. Retrieved from https://www.worldenergy.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/World-Energy-Resources-Full-report-2016.10.03.pdf. Along with oil, coal is still the biggest energy source in the world now. Some people think that coal will end someday.

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Heating In the U.S., around 25% of the oil that we use is used for heating. Most of the oil used for heating is distillate fuel, which is used for heating homes. The other little bit of oil used for heating is kerosene, which accounts for less than 1% of oil consumption in the U.S.  Electrical Generation

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Natural gas is a nonrenewable source of energy that is formed of the fossils of prehistoric organisms. It is one of the three fossil fuels found on Earth, which includes oil and coal and is the cleanest of the fossil fuels. Natural gas provides about fifty-eight percent of the world’s energy—although it is not the cleanest form of energy on the planet. Burning gas emits less carbon than burning oil and coal. However, there are many drawbacks to using natural gas.

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Its is known that 10% of the nations energy is generated by hydroelectric power. Usually hydroelectric power plants utilizes a dam on a river to store water in aa reservoir. The energy comes from the falling of water from the stored reservoir which spins the turbines to generate electricity. New York ranks fourth in the US in hydroelectric power generation. When we take biomass into consideration, there are several ways it could produce electricity too.

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Renewable as it refers to energy is simply, energy that is not depleted when it is used. The types of renewable energy are hydro, solar, wind, biomass, geothermal, wave and tide. All of these forms of energy come from only three sources, the light from the sun, the heat from the earth’s crust, and the gravity of the sun and moon. Each type of energy can be used and reused without ever diminishing the supply (Foundation, n.d.). 2.

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Many are being replaced in large part by natural gas. Though cleaner than coal, natural gas still generates unacceptably large amounts of carbon pollution, especially when the leakage of natural gas from pipelines and other infrastructure is considered. To the extent that a nuclear plant’s output is replaced by electricity from natural gas, the resulting emissions setback national efforts to achieve needed emissions

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Currently we use coal, oil, and natural gas as energy sources to run our everyday lives. They are all nonrenewable resources, once they run out we will not have any more of them. We are looking for ways to find an energy source to use once we run out of our current nonrenewable energy sources. Shale gas is natural gas that is found trapped within

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Fossil fuels primarily powers the world through natural gas, petroleum, and coal. Fossil fuels are non-renewable and eventually will completely dissipate. Fossil fuel plants cost more to operate than nuclear power plants. A coal fired power plant will require three million tons of coal; generating the same amount of energy a nuclear power plant would produce using two hundred tons of uranium fuel annually. (Gale 1).

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A crucial issue concerning our environment that we are going to talk about today is the emission of excess carbon due to our reliance on oil, gas and coal. Fossil fuels have been society’s primary resource since the beginning of the industrialised world, fueling not only countless technological advancements but society. Originally, these fuels were an amazing discovery as they were very cheap and available, and while they still are, society has recently discovered the horrific environmental implications of our over-reliance on oil, gas and coal. The deep drilling, mining, extraction of fuel using complex chemicals and fracturing of the earth has an unsuspected, yet the enormous cost to our planet. These operations further develop and increase greenhouse gas

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Energy can be divided into two categories: non-renewable and renewable. The non-renewable energies are fossil fuels (oil, natural gas and coal) and uranium. The renewable energies are solar, wind, geothermal, biomass, and hydropower. U.S. energy consumption in 2014 was led by petroleum, followed by natural gas, coal, renewable energy, and nuclear power, respectively. Petroleum accounted for 34.8% of total energy used, of which, 71% went to the transportation sector, 23% to the industrial sector, 4% to the residential and commercial sector, and 1% to the electric power sector.

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“If aliens did visit us, I’d be embarrassed to tell them we still dig up fossil fuels from the ground as a source of energy” (Neil deGrasse Tyson). Although aliens are irrelevant to the topic at hand, the point that fossil fuels are an outdated source of energy nevertheless stands. Fossil fuels, such as coal, were essential to starting the Industrial Revolution that caused a rapid progression of the human race, and other fuels, such as oil and natural gases, still play a pivotal role in most forms of transportation. However, the amount of fossil fuels being consumed is still increasing at an excessive rate, yet the amount of fossil fuels being discovered is decreasing, and the gap is widening. According to the Worldwatch Institute, geologists

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Due to these issues, renewable resources should become our primary source of energy. First, there are many issues with the energies sources we use now, but one of the major ones is that nonrenewable resources cannot replenish fast enough to replace what is being consumed. Energies made from fossils are the most common types of nonrenewable resource. Specifically, the three main types of fossil fuels are coal, natural gas, and oil.

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The improper disposal of oil and garbage results in land, water, and air pollution. Renewable energy sources occur naturally and are inexhaustible. They do not originate from fossil or nuclear fuels which make them the ideal solution for the preservation. Only a small percentage of the energy used is supplied by renewable sources. Types of renewable energy sources include wind, wave, solar, tidal, and hydroelectric power.

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