US Energy Consumption - Research Paper Example

Download file to see previous pages... Unfortunately, there has been a relatively stagnation in the number of energy resources that the US and other governments rely on. In order to ensure sustainability of the current energy resources, policies have been formulated to guide the process of exploration of the resources (Korporaal 2012).
In most cases, the policies have been developed to guide the process of energy consumption to ensure that it happens with efficiency. In addition to such policies, there have been other strategies formulated to ensure that new sources of energy are made available to the country’s energy sector. The formulation of such policies has, however, attracted different opinions with some people or groups of people opposing them, either wholly or partially. The varied opinions have and continue to contribute to the status of energy consumption in the United States of America (Korporaal 2012).
The current status of energy consumption in the US As stated earlier on, there has been an increasing amount of energy consumed by the US population. Specific forms of consumption have been experiencing different growths. In fact, the energy consumed by the industrial sector has experienced very little increase in the past 4 decades. However, the energy consumed in other sectors such as residential, commercial and transportation has experienced growth, in the same period, of about 8000 trillion Btu on average. According to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), there will be a general increase in energy demand in the United States in the next 20 years. This will be as a result of the dramatic shifts in people’s lifestyle. Most of the energy demand will be due to the ever-increasing need for energy to be used in the generation of power to run commercial investments and industries. In the US today, it has been found that about half of the total electricity generated is from the use of coal in steam engines. Coal is a fossil fuel subject to depletion in the near future. In addition to this data it has been determined that of all the green house gases emitted in the United States, 85 % of them result from activities or processes supported by the consumption of fossil fuel. This, therefore, means that a reduction in the amount of fossil fuels consumed in the country can result in reduced emission of green house gases emission (Anonymous 2012). The future of energy consumption in the United States According to forecasts done by specialists in the energy sector, the global energy demand will grow in the next 25 year to reach a value of approximately 57%. This will affect the US energy demand in some aspects because it will see it rise by about 30% within the same period. In addition, more than half of the energy used all over the world will occur in the Asian continent by the year 2030 (Katakey 2012). At this particular time the US will have experienced about 40% growth in the demand for electricity energy. All these forecasts and estimations indicate the importance of having efficient energy policies in place to put countries of the world, including the US, in a better position to embrace the future together with its challenges. Policies surrounding energy consumption in the US have been formulated in the direction of addressing the state of future energy consumption. The most common policies have included making legislations to guide the development and distribution of renewable energy to cater for the increasing demand, and address the fact that ...Download file to see next pagesRead More