Energy Costs, Pollution Reduction and World Leadership Are All Intertwined
Soaring energy costs are of necessity shaping the course that the U.S. must follow in its efforts to aid and guide developing nations. As the U.S. strives to help these nations become more prosperous and simultaneously achieve a better quality of life for their citizens through a cleaner environment, it must also consider its own domestic prosperity goals.
According to the McIlvaine Company in its online service, World Markets for Your Products, the high cost of energy production will create a new balance between the U.S. world leadership activities and domestic prosperity goals.
The cost of efforts to address global warming are directly tied to the costs of various forms of energy. McIlvaine Company has provided studies to the U.S. Department of Commerce projecting use of renewable energy in each country of the world. The conclusion was that wind power will make a near term modest impact, whereas solar power will only have impact in the longer term. Renewable energy will make a significant but minor contribution to world energy supply over the next two decades.
To the extent that alternative energy sources, e.g. natural gas, rise in price, there will be more renewable energy projects which will be cost competitive. But the relatively low cost of coal-fired power will create pressures to expand this electricity source to the exclusion of others.
McIlvaine predicts that domestic prosperity goals will push the U.S. toward greatly expanded use of coal. Whereas many fertilizer plants have shut down and moved to other countries because of high natural gas prices in the U.S. , there are new plants being built which will use coal as the feed source. The future of heavy manufacturing (steel, cement, pulp and paper, aluminum, etc.) is directly tied to energy costs.
Uncertain supply of petroleum and even LNG from the Middle East will also dictate development of indigenous resources in the U.S. However the U.S. will need and want to set an example for countries such as China , India , and Indonesia as to how to make coal a clean energy source. McIlvaine therefore predicts that pollution limits for existing coal- fired plants in the U.S. will become much more stringent over the next decade.
A great deal of publicity has recently indicated that China will not be scrubbing the power plant gases as it greatly expands its coal-fired generation. The facts are that China is planning to scrub the gases from all its coal-fired plants whereas the U.S is presently targeting only 70 percent. To maintain a leadership position, the U.S. will need to be among the toughest on emissions from its coal-fired plants.
The environmental benefits of substituting ethanol for gasoline have been underrated according to McIlvaine. Expanded use of ethanol with coal as the source for process heat and steam will result in lower greenhouse gas emissions, energy security, and substantial reduction in the U.S. trade deficit.
When the global warming implications of the complete petroleum cycle are compared to the complete ethanol cycle there is a very large greenhouse gas reduction achieved in the substitution. Many negative analyses have failed to take into account the greenhouse gas emissions from oil production and refining which are eliminated with the substitution of ethanol.
The U.S must balance its domestic prosperity goals, its world leadership role, and the rising costs of energy. It is blessed with reserves of coal and agricultural land to produce renewable fuels. These resources will enable the U.S. to achieve a satisfactory balance.
For more information on World Markets for Your Products , click on: http://www.mcilvainecompany.com/worldindbrochure/worldindcharts/worldindbrochure.htm
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