Question #2: The answer should be between 500 words Former President Obama’s was
ID: 294891 • Letter: Q
Question
Question #2: The answer should be between 500 words
Former President Obama’s was quoted as saying, “[w]e can’t have an energy strategy for the last century that traps us in the past. We need an energy strategy for the future – an all-of-the-above strategy for the 21st century that develops every source of American-made energy.” Do you agree or disagree? And how do you think our government should best utilize “American-made energy”? You can start your research/response by reading the article below which discusses how much is really spent on energy. The article is a few years old but should give you a good base line for your response. Use the quote and this article to further discuss your analysis of the current and future situation of energy in our country. Please feel free to do research if necessary but please remember citations. YOU WILL NEED TO CUT AND PASTE THIS LINK AND NOT CLICK ON IT. I am unsure why it doesn’t work as a hyperlink.
https://climatepolicyinitiative.org/2012/03/12/what-does-the-u-s-government-really-spend-on-energy/
Explanation / Answer
We can expect this from an American president to consider environment as his top most priority and hence it can be said that Obama was doing a great job. Its true that the damage has been done and we cannot revert back what has happened in the past as it is not in our hands anymore. However, What is in our control is to save the energy which is left. Need of a strategy to save energy has only increased in some years and is expected to increase more day by day. America being the only country to take such an important and difficult step to prevent environment deserves an applaud. The American made energy strategy limits drilling to the 1.5 million-acre coastal plain. The surface disturbance on the coastal plain is further limited to no more than 2,000 acres. It has been estimated by the U.S. Geological Survey that about 10 billion barrels are recoverable from a small area which should be enough to increase known domestic reserves by 50 percent. This strategy is going to impose strict environmental safeguards. It can be said that oil production and environmental protection can coexist if a better strategy is adapted. It is expected that with much stronger protections and technology that is far more environmentally friendly than what was available 30 years ago we can save a lot more energy.
Government should change the tax structure by charging more tax on fuels. It is a fact that the energy choices people make are largely driven by cost. If consumers know that oil was going to continue to be expensive, they can begin to make choices based on that expectation and will try to adapt to most cost efficient source of energy which is impacting minorly on environment such as wind energy, solar energy etc.
Government should establish a solid analytic and quantitative foundation to measure energy consumption. They should set long-term targets for conservation. Government should fund retrofit buildings that have the greatest opportunities for improved energy efficiency, such as older buildings and those in extreme climates. They should form some national and local building code standards which should have the required efficiency improvements. Appliance standards should be expanded in scope and in terms of the level of efficiency required.
Most places around the world that have succeeded in getting consumers to use energy more wisely have undergone the benefit of a crisis to push that change. They were hit by a war or an energy shock or visibly dirty air. So they benefited from broad public agreement that something had to change. However, We should not wait for a war or a crisis to take an effort and should do something in advance if we really want to avoid such a situation.
More funds should be created and more amount of money should be invested on such a strategy which will benefit us in future. We are going to run out of many energy sources in future. We have done the damage in past and its high time that we should take an initiative now to protect our environment.