Kevin+Lee

Replacements for Oil



In 2013, the United States used 6.89 billion barrels of petroleum products. The world uses 85 million barrels a day, which equates to about 31 billion barrels a year. At this rate, it may seem that world may soon run out of oil. However, most oil experts agree that the world will never run out of its oil supply. You may be asking if the world will always have a supply of oil, why do we need an alternative? A lot of the oil used in America is imported oil and this greatly affects our economy. Last year, out of the $700 billion spent on oil, $380 billion was spent on imported oil. By using an alternative, there would be less spending on imported oil. Not only does oil affect the economy negatively, it also emits greenhouse gases and is not as eco-friendly as alternatives.

Alternatives

Ethanol


 * Ethanol is one of the leading alternatives because it is cheaper and cleaner than oil. Ethanol is already makes up 10% of most of gasoline sold and an increasing number of vehicles run on fuel that is up to 85% ethanol. There can be an abundance in ethanol, which can be produced from a variety of things. Ethanol can be made from anything with biomass, which includes plants, algae, and even garbage. Because ethanol can be made from a variety of sources, we don't run the risk of running out of a single source.
 * Ethanol is also less harmful to the environment . It does not emit as much greenhouse gases and can reduce toxic emission can contribute to pollution of urban areas.



Electricity


 * The environment can benefit from the use of electric cars and hybrids. These cars emit little to no greenhouse or toxic gases. Electricity is also abundant as it can be supplied by water, solar, or wind which all reduce carbon emissions.

A TED talk on the benefits of electric cars. media type="custom" key="26110386"

How does this tie into our class discussion? We learned that World War 3 is expected to be fought over natural resources and by using alternatives for oil, we lessen the use of oil. If we limit our use of oil, then there will be more of it in the future and will be one less thing we have to worry about. We also learned that the world is doing poorly in the area of the environment. Alternative fuels can help to lessen pollution and greenhouse gases emitted.