Non-renewable energy resources?

Question

Nonrenewable energy resources include coal, oil, and natural gas.

My question is, what are some common challenges with managing nonrenewable energy resources?

Answer 1

They all involve extracting, transporting, refining, burning and cleaning up the mess from burning.

They all contribute to poisoning the environment and or causing global warming.  

They involve enormous costs that are not apparent to the consumer.  They are all subsidized heavily.  

http://www.setamericafree.org/saf_hidden...      is the source of the following.

"Total of all oil-related external or “hidden” costs of $825 billion per year.

This total is nearly twice the figure authorized for the Department of Defense in 2006.

To put the figure in further perspective, it is equivalent to adding $8.35 to the price

of a gallon of gasoline refined from Persian Gulf oil. This would raise that figure to

$10.73, making the cost of filling the gasoline tank of a sedan $214.60, and of an

SUV $321.90."

"The Energy Policy Act of 2005 added an additional $85 billion in subsidies over 10 years, according to consumer group Taxpayers for Common Sense (TCS, 2005), and legislative activity to bring still more continues. Earth Track's preliminary subsidy estimates (Exhibit 2) for 2006 peg federal support at between $49 and $100 billion per year. This is well above the 2003 estimate. Neither the 2003 or the 2006 estimate includes credit subsidies to energy enterprises, which would boost the totals by a few billion dollars more."

http://www.earthtrack.net/earthtrack/lib...

http://www.progress.org/2003/energy22.ht...

"The federal government provides the oil industry with numerous tax breaks designed to ensure that domestic companies can compete with international producers and that gasoline remains cheap for American consumers. Federal tax breaks that directly benefit oil companies include: the Percentage Depletion Allowance (a subsidy of $784 million to $1 billion per year), the Nonconventional Fuel Production Credit ($769 to $900 million), immediate expensing of exploration and development costs ($200 to $255 million), the Enhanced Oil Recovery Credit ($26.3 to $100 million), foreign tax credits ($1.11 to $3.4 billion), foreign income deferrals ($183 to $318 million), and accelerated depreciation allowances ($1.0 to $4.5 billion). "

"Tax subsidies do not end at the federal level. The fact that most state income taxes are based on oil firms' deflated federal tax bill results in undertaxation of $125 to $323 million per year. Many states also impose fuel taxes that are lower than regular sales taxes, amounting to a subsidy of $4.8 billion per year to gasoline retailers and users. New rules under the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997 are likely to provide the petroleum industry with additional tax subsidies of $2.07 billion per year. In total, annual tax breaks that support gasoline production and use amount to $9.1 to $17.8 billion."

"Beyond program subsidies, governments, and thus taxpayers, subsidize a large portion of the protection services required by petroleum producers and users. Foremost among these is the cost of military protection for oil-rich regions of the world. US Defense Department spending allocated to safeguard the world's petroleum resources total some $55 to $96.3 billion per year. The Strategic Petroleum Reserve, a federal government entity designed to supplement regular oil supplies in the event of disruptions due to military conflict or natural disaster, costs taxpayers an additional $5.7 billion per year. The Coast Guard and the Department of Transportation's Maritime Administration provide other protection services totaling $566.3 million per year. Of course, local and state governments also provide protection services for oil industry companies and gasoline users. These externalized police, fire, and emergency response expenditures add up to $27.2 to $38.2 billion annually."

"Environmental, health, and social costs represent the largest portion of the externalized price Americans pay for their gasoline reliance. These expenses total some $231.7 to $942.9 billion every year. The internal combustion engine contributes heavily to localized air pollution. While the amount of damage that automobile fumes cause is certainly very high, the total dollar value is rather difficult to quantify. Approximately $39 billion per year is the lowest minimum estimate made by researchers in the field of transportation cost analysis, although the actual total is surely much higher and may exceed $600 billion."

"Considering that researchers have conclusively linked auto pollution to increased health problems and mortality, the CTA report's estimate of $29.3 to $542.4 billion for the annual uncompensated health costs associated with auto emissions may not adequately reflect the value of lost or diminished human life. Other costs associated with localized air pollution attributable to gasoline-powered automobiles include decreased agricultural yields ($2.1 to $4.2 billion), reduced visibility ($6.1 to $44.5 billion), and damage to buildings and materials ($1.2 to $9.6 billion). Global warming ($3 to $27.5 billion), water pollution ($8.4 to $36.8 billion), noise pollution ($6 to $12 billion), and improper disposal of batteries, tires, engine fluids, and junked cars ($4.4 billion) also add to the environmental consequences wrought by automobiles."

  a few of the things listed in the above paragraph  are related to automobiles in general, not just oil, but you get the picture.

  http://www.monitor.net/monitor/10-9-95/o...

    

Here are different studies from different years, so you get varying numbers, but no matter how you look at it, it's way too expensive to continue using fossil fuels for energy.   And they wonder why the economy is having problems.

With a clean electric grid based mostly on solar energy there would never be any fuel to mine refine or transport and no pollution.  Here's how  we can achieve that.

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=a-so...

Article from Scientific America Jan 2008

Answer 2

Where do u think our present fossil fuels came from. The plants work hard to recycle these fuel sources. It is the plant fossil's that produce our fossil fuels. The peanut oil in nature will eventually become fossil fuels. The animal ate the plants but they didn't make any fossil fuels. It is the plants that captures the energy from the sun .The photosynthis along with recycleing our CO2 into O2 it keeps the C to make fossil fuels out of.

Answer 3

Keeping the US government at bay.