Letters to the Editor
cabdriver
Published Letters: 194 Editor's Choice: 5
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Realities Of Current U.S. Energy Demand
[Read the article: Winds of change]
[Read more letters about this article: Here](I just got done writing the body of this comment for the recent Salon story on the coal industry- but I think it's approximately as relevant for this article. And since the coal story seems to have mostly have run its course in the "news cycle", I think it may get more reaction here...)
Coal and U.S. Energy Demand
Stats from the Edison Electric Institute:
In 2005, the latest year for which data are available:
* 49.7 percent of our nation's electricity was generated from coal. Nuclear energy produced 19.3 percent. Natural gas supplied 18.7 percent. Hydropower provided 6.5 percent of the supply. Fuel oil provided 3.0 percent of the generation mix. Biomass produced 1.6 percent, while other renewable resources, such as geothermal, solar, and wind, provided the remainder of the supply.
* The following amount of electricity, in gigawatt-hours (GWh), was generated from the nation's fuel mix:
o Coal: 2,013,179 GWh
o Nuclear: 781,986 GWh
o Gas: 757,974 GWh
o Hydro: 263,029 GWh
o Fuel Oil: 122,522 GWh
o Biomass: 63,856 GWh
o Other (geothermal, non-wood waste, wind, and solar): 52,142 GWh
http://www.eei.org/industry_issues/industry_overview_and_statistics/industry_statistics/index.htm
[click on my screen name "cabdriver" for corrected link]
To repeat: Coal supplies 49.7% of US energy demand.
I don't think that it's going to be possible to replace even half of that amount with other sources within the next 20 years. Not without a national mobilization on the order of WW2, that is. Personally, I'm up for something along that line.
Most of the rest of my fellow citizens still seem to be in dreamland, though.
For my money, that includes the Center for American Progress spokesman quoted in the article as saying that the coal industry is "on a death spiral right now."
That makes for a neat soundbite, but is there anything to back it up?
More from the Edison Electric Institute:
In 2005, the latest year for which data are available:
* The average number of ultimate customers served by electric utilities totaled 138,367,159—a 1.7-percent increase from 2004.
* The average electricity use per customer was 26,458 kilowatt-hours (kWh).
* Total electric utility revenues from sales to ultimate customers equaled $298 billion—a 10.3-percent increase from 2004.
* The average revenue received per kWh sold was 8.14 cents.
* According to the Energy Information Administration, electricity demand is expected to increase by 2.5 percent in 2006, and 1.9 percent in 2007.
To repeat: The average electricity use per customer was 26,458 kilowatt-hours (kWh).
26.458 megawatts.
If you don't want mountaintop removal for coal, or aquifers pumped out and contaminated for tar sand extraction and oil shale development: do something about that figure. Something drastic, in your own life. It's going to take more than symbolic gestures. I'll probably be ridiculed for saying this, but maybe it isn't such a bad idea to load up on blankets and freeze in the dark one day a week in the winter, and shut off the air conditioning and swelter in the summer. Yeah, you and the entire family. Because at this late date, it's going to take some serious sacrifice in order to trim several megawatts of annual energy demand from your hosehold.
Yet- that is something that anyone can do, right now.
Personally, I support the increased resort to nuclear energy, as a bridge to tide the planet over until new technologies come of age. We don't need to mine any more uranium, reprocessing will be a splendid way to deal with all of that plutonium that's already been concentrated in atomic warheads. Unless you'd prefer to leave it there.
I don't want to get mired in a debate over the nuclear power issue, right now. Believe me, I'd love to be convinced that cleaner alternatives are doable, in the short term- something that can replace a substantial chunk of the approximately 4 million gigawatt-hours that Americans use annually.
Four million billion watt-hours.
But I know that nuclear power is controversial, and that many people are more worried about the increased potential threat of nuclear accidents than they are about the actual bulldozing of the rural Appalachians- and that debate is not the topic of this post.
This post is about Energy Demand Reduction, on a massive scale. Massive enough so that the rest of the world opens their eyes wide with amazement, and takes notice.
Consider what it might mean, and what it might entail, to reduce one's household energy consumption and buying habits to the level of a 19th century homestead, one day a week- knowing that on the other 6 days, one could resume living with modern technologies and conveniences. Consider what it would mean to schedule automobile use in order to maximize trip efficiency, to drop one's automobile gasoline consumption by 50%- even if it meant doing less, travelling less, forgoing some things that were once taken for granted...knowing all along that you still get to keep your car, it's merely parked in the driveway twice as often.
Of all of the measures that could deal with the global energy crisis and its attendant pollution and ecological devastation, that this is the one thing that can be done, right now, proven to work with no toxic side effects or unforeseen consequences to the natural world, no massive infusion of investment dollars, no man-hours of proposing, testing, reviewing, building, or implementation. Simple frugality- albeit on a dramatic, life-impacting scale.
I'm not alluding to mandating such measures by government decree. I'm advising voluntarily taking personal responsibility.
Who among you is that serious about confronting the problem? Because I'm tired of hearing people fronting on it- be they Limbaughite troglodytes, fatuous "Greens" peddling pie in the sky, or anyone else in a state of know-nothing denial.
Getting 20% of energy by the year 2030 from a massive investment in wind power is an appealing prospect- but do we have that kind of time? And what about the other 80%?