The American economy depends largely on fossil fuels like coal, natural gas, and oil. According to Maczulak (2010), America uses more energy than it can produce; hence, it must import to meet the deficit. Despite offering immense benefits to the Americans and indeed other nations of the world, the burning of fossil fuels has contributed significantly to global environmental challenges, and being non-renewable energy, is projected to get depleted over time. Over-dependence on fossil fuels has become one of the security challenges to the United States of America due to hostile trading partners, especially, those in the Middle East. Because of this, America has to exploit ways that lessen the dependence on fossil fuel by both consumer and industrial. Thus, the effective way of lessening reliance on fossil fuel is the adoption of renewable energy sources like geothermal energy, wind, and solar power, as well as the generation of bio-oil and recycling to replace fossil fuel.
First, renewable sources of energy are those sources that can be refilled by nature as fast as we use them. Thus, can ultimately be replenished by nature, and as such, can be used forever without having adverse effects on the environment. However, the American economy largely gets powered by fossil fuels such as oil in the case of powering cars (Menyah, " Wolde-Rufael, 2010). There are many cars on the American roads which could benefit from alternative sources such as solar energy, which is renewable and cheap to maintain. Solar powered cars only save a lot of money since the sunlight energy is naturally available. Apart from solar energy, electric vehicles provide another alternative to oil. It reduces dependency on fossil fuels.
Electricity is one of the most critical drivers of the American economy. It is almost unimaginable to think how life would be without it. It gets generated through hydropower, which converts the flow of running water into energy. It is renewable energy since water is generated from the ecosystem, and will never get depleted if the forest cover is kept constant. Basically, hydropower generation gets done through damming of rivers to create large water reservoirs whereby water is then released to turn turbines, which in turn produce electricity. Barring the ecological impact that comes with altering the flow of water, hydropower is an effective way of producing energy as compared to the use of fossil fuel.
The sun offers infinite possibilities to mankind in regards to energy. The sun can be harnessed and converted into electric energy, which can power homes as well as cars. It can be used to extract hydrogen, a source of energy touted to take over fossil fuel. The byproduct that results from combustion of hydrogen is water, making it one of the cleanest sources of energy. Hydrogen can also get stored in cells for later use. The disadvantage with solar power is its unreliability, only available during some seasons while not on others. Nevertheless, it is still one of the energy sources that can significantly reduce reliance on fossil fuels.
Bio-oil has received immense interest in the past owing to its renewability, biodegradability, availability, and its sustainability (Demirbas, 2016). The fact that it is environmentally friendly makes it a perfect replacement for fossil fuel, mainly oil. It is bound to replace fossil fuels in the near future when it gets depleted. Biofuels are basically produced from biomass and are used in transportation in place of gasoline. Biofuels include bioethanol, vegetable oils, biogas, and biohydrogen (Dem|irbas, 2016). What makes biofuels, especially bioethanol, different from gasoline is its oxygen percentage. Essentially, gasoline has no alcohol percentage while bioethanol has 10-45% (Demirbas, 2016).
The concept that underlies lessening the dependence on fossil fuels is the conservation of the environment. In doing so, it is important that solid wastes, which would otherwise have contributed to environmental degradation, get recycled and converted into energy to ease the burden on the environment. However, critics of recycling such as Maczulak are against it claiming that it is ineffective since recycling uses more energy than it saves. In contrast, environmental wastes that would have otherwise altered the eco-balance can get converted into energy, where it reduces overdependence on fossil fuel.
In the middle of the last century, America produced half of the world’s crude oil. The current consumption of fossil fuels by Americans is now larger than it can produce (Riley, 2016). Americans use a quarter of the world’s energy, something that necessitated the formulation of an energy policy to promote innovation in the renewable energy sector. This policy is geared towards the reduction of destructive nature of combustion of fossil fuels on the environment, a current global concern. Fossil fuels are the leading causes of environmental pollution. Renewable sources will save the environment.
Comparatively, fossil fuels are cheaper and more reliable than renewable sources of energy. Solar energy and wind energy is unreliable during seasons are relatively expensively to generate energy using them. The reliability of fossil makes it popular, so much that people are willing to disregard its destructive nature on the environment. Thus, concerted efforts must be taken in to innovate and adopt renewable energy to save the planet from imminent destruction.
In conclusion, the world is grappling with challenges as a result of industrialization, which is mainly driven by the combustion of fossil fuels. The United States relies heavily on fossil fuels especially gasoline. However, fossil fuels are getting depleted over time. Also, there are increased security risks involved in trading oil due to hostility to the United States by its trading partners. As a result, it is critical that the country reduces its reliance on fossil fuels through the adoption of renewable sources of energy, which will not only save the environment but also ensure a continuous supply of energy to the people. The sun, the wind, geothermal power, and bio-oils are some of the viable options that will eventually lessen dependence on fossil fuels. The advantages of renewable energies so far outweigh fossil fuels. As such speedy adoption of renewable energy will significantly reduce the emission of harmful gases into the environment and mitigate the depletion of fossil fuels in the near future.
References
Covert, T., Greenstone, M., " Knittel, C. R. (2016). Will we ever stop using fossil fuels?. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 30(1), 117-38.
Menyah, K., " Wolde-Rufael, Y. (2010). CO2 emissions, nuclear energy, renewable energy and economic growth in the US. Energy Policy, 38(6), 2911-2915.
Riley, D. (2005) The Coming Energy Crisis: infinite energy.
