Endnotes

Preface

1 Dr. John H. DeYoung, Jr., Chief Scientist, Minerals Information Team, U.S. Geological Survey.

Introduction

1 Unless otherwise noted, the material in quotation marks throughout this section is taken directly from Behr, Peter, and Steven Gray, “Grid Operators Spotted Overloads but Ind. Controllers Couldn’t Force Power Companies to Cut Output,” Washington Post, 5 September 2003, E01.

2 Accuweather records for August 14: high 91, low 75, average 83; normal temperatures for those dates: high 83, low 68, average 76; rain on August 14: zero.

3 U.S. Census Bureau, 2000 Census of Population and Housing, Population and Housing Unit Counts PHC-3-1 (Washington, D.C.: 2004).

4 1 horsepower (HP) = 745 watts, or 0.75KW. A 100HP car engine, therefore, is a 75KW engine. An Olds Cutlass 88 with a 365HP motor had the equivalent of 365 × 0.75 KW = 274KW engine.

5 Behr, Peter, and Steven Gray. “Grid Operators Spotted Overloads but Ind. Controllers Couldn’t Force Power Companies to Cut Output,” Washington Post, 5 September 2003, E01.

6 Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Open Hearings about the August 14, 2003 Blackout, 2004; and Behr, Peter, and Steven Gray, “Grid Operators Spotted Overloads but Ind. Controllers Couldn’t Force Power Companies to Cut Output,” Washington Post, 5 September 2003, E01.

7 U.S.–Canada Power System Outage Task Force 2004 Final Report on the August 14th Blackout in the United States and Canada, April 2004. https://reports.energy.gov/.

8 Kilpatrick, Kwame M., Mayor, City of Detroit, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Open Hearings about the August 14, 2003 Blackout, 2004, p. 94.

9 Hanson, Holly, et al., “Everyday Chores Are Test of Ingenuity,” Detroit Free Press, 16 August 2003.

10 Ibid.

11 Renewable Energy Industry website, www.renewable-energy-industry.com/news/newstickerdetail.php?changeLang=en_GB&newsid=1097.

12 Kilpatrick, Kwame M., Mayor, City of Detroit, Open Hearings about the August 14, 2003 Blackout, 2004, p. 94.

13 www.seco.cpa.state.tx.us/re_wind.htm, accessed 30 April 2008. Consider some other ways to think about energy. One megawatt (MW) is enough electricity to serve 250–300 homes on average each day. That works out to 3KW–4KW a house, or 30–40 100-watt bulbs burning continually.

14 This section is based on Botkin, D. B., and E. A. Keller, Environmental Science: Earth as a Living Planet (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2009).

15 Butti, K., and J. Perlin, A Golden Thread: 2,500 Years of Solar Architecture and Technology (Palo Alto: Cheshire Books, 1980).

Section 1

1 From DOE EIA Table ES1. “Summary Statistics for the United States, 1994 through 2005.”

2 Energy is the work done by moving an object of known weight a unit distance. For example, when you work out at the gym and lift 25 pounds in a curl, moving the weight, say, 3 feet, you have done 75 pound-feet of work. Power is energy used (or generated) per unit of time. So if you do one curl in 3 seconds, your power output is 25 pound-feet per second. Power plants are rated in terms of power. The energy output depends on how long they run. Typically, the energy output is written per hour, day, or year.

3 To be precise, annual U.S. energy use is equal to 9,267 100-watt light bulbs burning for each person all the time. Another common unit in which energy is expressed is the British thermal unit (BTU). This is an old-fashioned term: the amount of heat to raise 1 pound of water from 60°F to 61°F (at one standard atmosphere of air pressure). Often discussions of global or national energy use are expressed in BTUs. But since a single BTU is so small, the energy used by a nation or the world is written down as quads. A quad is a quadrillion BTUs (a million billion BTUs) or 293 billion kilowatt-hours. In these terms, the United States’ energy use is about 100 quads; worldwide, people use 462 quads a year.

4 Consider two more useful numbers: The U.S. has the capacity to produce 978,020MW of electrical energy. Of this, 754,989MW are from fossil fuel power plants. Remember, this is capacity, not actual output. That is, if all these generators ran at full capacity for one hour, they would produce 978,020 kilowatt-hours of electricity. If they did this for a day, they would produce 978,020 × 24 kilowatt-hours. DOE EIA Table ES1. “Summary Statistics for the United States, 1994 through 2005.”

Chapter 1

1 Heywood, John B., “Fueling Our Transportation Future,” Scientific American special issue, “Energy’s Future: Beyond Carbon” 295 (2006): 60–63.

2 Bockstoce, J., “On the Development of Whaling in the Western Thule Culture,” Folk 18 (1976): 41–46; and Bockstoce, personal communication with author, September, 2008.

3 UCSB Geography Department slide presentation, “Introduction to Air Photo Interpretation Slides,” no. 7. www.geog.ucsb.edu/~jeff/115a/jack_slides/page7.html.

4 U.S. Energy Information Administration, U.S. Crude Oil Supply & Disposition (2007). http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/dnav/pet/pet_sum_crdsnd_adc_mbbl_a.htm. This reports states that the U.S. used 20 million barrels of oil a day, importing 55% of it.

5 Different sources give slightly different values for the amount of total energy and electrical energy provided by petroleum and natural gas.

6 www.energy.gov/energysources/fossilfuels.htm.

7 Heywood, John B., “Fueling Our Transportation Future,” Scientific American special issue “Energy’s Future: Beyond Carbon” 295 (2006): 60–63.

8 EIA, http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/energyexplained/index.cfm?page=electricity_in_the_United_States.

9 Botkin, D. B., and E. A. Keller, Environmental Science: Earth as a Living Planet (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2009).

10 EIA slide presentation, “Long-Term World Oil Supply, 2000.” www.eia.doe.gov/pub/oil_gas/petroleum/presentations/2000/long_term_supply/sld009.htm. Accessed 7 May 2008.

11 Some argue against the idea of peak oil production, among them Michael Lynch, former director for Asian energy and security at the Center for International Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology: (See Lynch, Michael, “‘Peak Oil’ Is a Waste of Energy,” New York Times, August 25, 2009.) His argument is simple, and one comes across it often via advocates of petroleum: Experts disagree on how much oil exists and new finds change the estimate, so peak oil is not known with any certainty. Therefore, we should “be happy, don’t worry.” This is an argument without substance. Any business planner—or careful planner of any kind—would use the mean and variance of estimates of total peak to create a statistical useful estimate of the time to peak oil, which has to happen.

12 Saleri, N. G., “The World Has Plenty of Oil,” Wall Street Journal, 4 March 2008, A17.

13 Ibid.

14 Botkin and Keller, 2009; and British Petroleum Company, BP Statistical Review of World Energy, (London: British Petroleum Company, June 2007).

15 British Petroleum Company, 2007.

16 Ibid.

17 Gibbon, G. A., U. S. Energy Sources and Consumption PowerPoint presentation, sent to the author as a personal communication, June 2007.

18 Botkin and Keller, Environmental Science, 2009.

19 Baskin, Brian, “Northern Exposure: As the Arctic gets warmer, oil and gas producers see the chance for a big expansion. But plenty of technological hurdles remain.” Wall Street Journal, 11 February 2008, R12.

20 Ibid.

21 The forecast Arctic addition to petroleum is an amount that would increase the present known reserves by 40% and, at the rate of use of 50 billion barrels a year, would provide eight years of oil use worldwide.

22 Baskin, “Northern Exposure,” 2008.

23 Peterson, G., “New Statute for Canadian Oil Sands,” Geotimes 48, no. 3 (2003): 7.

24 Approximately 1.0 to 1.25 gigajoules of natural gas are needed per barrel of bitumen extracted. A barrel of oil equivalent is about 6.117 gigajoules, so this produces about five or six times as much energy as is consumed. From “FAQ: Oil Sands,” 2008. http://environment.gov.ab.ca/info/faqs/faq5-oil_sands.asp.

25 Freight statistics are from Department of Transportation, Table 2-1: “Weight of Shipments by Transportation Mode: 2002, 2007, and 2035.” http://ops.fhwa.dot.gov/freight/freight_analysis/nat_freight_stats/docs/08factsfigures/table2_1.htm. Accessed 2 September 2009.

26 Vardi, Nathan, “Crude Awakening,” Forbes, 27 March 2006.

27 Wikipedia, as of 2006–2007 (the most recent data available). In metric, 420km² have been affected.

28 “FAQ: Oil Sands,” 2008. http://environment.gov.ab.ca/info/faqs/faq5-oil_sands.asp.

29 Ibid.

30 “The Most Destructive Project on Earth: Alberta’s Tar Sands,” Celsias website. www.celsias.com/article/the-most-destructive-project-on-earth-albertas-tar/. (Note that this is a discussion of and reference to the report by Hatch and Price listed below.)

31 Hatch, Christopher, and Matt Price, “The Most Destructive Project on Earth” (New York City: Environmental Defense, 2008). Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are a group of ring-compounds, February 2008. http://www.environmentaldefence.ca/reports/tarsands.htm.

32 Ibid.

33 Ibid.

34 Birger, Jon, “Oil from a Stone,” Fortune, 1 November 2007. http://fortunemagazineng.com/enzineport/content.asp?contenttype=maincontents.

35 Sengupta, Somini, “Indians Hit the Road Amid Elephants,” New Delhi Journal, 11 January 2008.

36 “China,” in Encyclopedia Britannica. www.britannica.com/eb/article-257894. Accessed 11 March 2008.

37 “Investing in China’s Booming Automobile Sector: Japanese Cars a No Go,” Seeking Alpha website, posted 19 March 2007. Seeking Alpha website available at http://seekingalpha.com/article/29954-investing-in-china-s-booming-automobile-sector-japanese-cars-a-no-go.

38 © 2008 Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of the Associated Press. Active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL (captured 3 March 2008, 6:11 a.m. EST).

39 Zhao, Jimin, “Can the Environment Survive China’s Craze for Automobiles?” School of Natural Resources and Environment, University of Michigan, (Submitted to Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment.) www.cebc.org.br/sites/500/522/00000349.pdf.

40 EIA Table 5.3, “Average Retail Price of Electricity to Ultimate Customers: Total by End-Use Sector, 1995 through May 2009,” gives the value in the text. (Sources: Energy Information Administration, EIA-826, “Monthly Electric Sales and Revenue Report with State Distributions Report: 2006–2008”; and EIA-861, “Annual Electric Power Industry Report: 1992 - 2005.”)

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, the average delivered cost for coal, petroleum, and natural gas used for electricity generation increased between 2004 and 2005. The average cost of natural gas to electricity generators increased from the previous record high of $5.96 per million BTU (MMBTU), established in 2004, to a new record level of $8.21 per MMBTU in 2005. For the third year in a row, natural gas costs experienced a double-digit percentage increase, 37.8% from 2004 to 2005. As a result, the cost of natural gas for electricity generation in 2005 was 130.6% higher than in 2002.

The average delivered cost of coal increased 13.2% for the year, in part due to increases in coal mining operations and the cost of electricity and diesel fuels for that mining. The average delivered cost for all fossil fuels used for electricity generation (coal, petroleum, and natural gas combined) in 2005 was 114.5% higher than in 2002 (reported at www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/electricity/epa/epa_sum.html on 21 March 2007).

41 “Aramco, Dow Chemical sign huge deal,” Wall Street Journal, 15 May 2007, International Edition, 30.

42 Campoy, Ana, and Leslie Eaton, “Chemical Prices Jump, Fueling Fear of Inflation,” Wall Street Journal, 29 May 2008, A1.

43 Graham, Sarah, “Environmental Effects of Exxon Valdez Spill Still Being Felt,” Scientific American 292 (2003):12–19.

44 The history of litigation over the Exxon Valdez oil spill is interesting because of its length and the failure for it to provide much of a payment to those who suffered from the spill. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exxon_Valdez_oil_spill.

Chapter 2

1 In this image made from video provided by KHOU-TV on May 7, 2008, a large tank, center, falls into a sinkhole near Daisetta, Texas (AP Photo/KHOU-TV, Bobby Bracken).

2 Krauss, C., “Natural Gas Has Utah Driving Cheaply,” New York Times, August 30, 2008.

3 “The Pickens Plan” at www.pickensplan.com/theplan/. Accessed 21 September 2008.

4 Krauss, “Natural Gas Has Utah Driving Cheaply,” 2008.

5 Annual use of natural gas in the United States in 2007 totaled 23,055,596 million cubic feet. Ray Boswell, Ph.D., Manager, Methane Hydrate R&D Programs, U.S. Department of Energy—National Energy Technology Laboratory. Dr. Boswell provided much of the basic information about natural gas reserves and rate of use, and discussed with me at length how these quantities are estimated.

6 Mouawad, Jad, “Estimate Places Natural Gas Reserves 35% Higher,” New York Times, 18 June 2009.

7 U.S. EIA, “Worldwide Look at Reserves and Production,” Oil & Gas Journal 106, no. 48 (22 December 2008): 22–23. www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/ieo/nat_gas.html.

8 Geological Survey of Canada. http://gsc.nrcan.gc.ca/gashydrates/canada/index_e.php. Modified 12 December 2007.

9 Dillon, Dr. William, and Dr. Keith Kvenvolden, Gas (Methane) Hydrates—A New Frontier (Washington, D.C.: USGS, September 1992. http://marine.usgs.gov/fact-sheets/gas-hydrates/title.html.

10 Botkin, D. B., and E. A. Keller, Environmental Science: Earth as a Living Planet, 7th edition (New York: John Wiley & Sons: 2009). See Chapter 18, on fossil fuel energy.

11 Gold, R., “Gas Producers Rush to Pennsylvania: Promising Results for Wells There Spur Investment,” Wall Street Journal 2 April 2008, A2.

12 Krauss, C., “Drilling Boom Revives Hopes for Natural Gas,” New York Times, August 24, 2008.

13 Ibid.

14 Casselman, B., “Texas Sinkhole Puts Spotlight on Oil, Gas Drilling,” Wall Street Journal, May 19, 2008, A3.

Chapter 3

1 Brady photograph plate 113; Washington, D.C. streetlamp, 1865; Library of Congress. Also National Park Service Publication, “Gas Lighting in America: A Guide for Historic Preservation.” www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/hcrs/myers/plate12.htm. Accessed 25 March 2008.

2 FutureGen Alliance website, www.futuregenalliance.org/news/response_to_doe_rfi_030308.stm. Updated January 2008. Accessed 25 March 2008.

3 Sherman, Mimi, “A Look at Nineteenth-Century Lighting: Lighting Devices from the Merchant’s House Museum,” APT Bulletin of the Association for Preservation Technology International Lighting Historic House Museums 1 (2000): 37–43.

4 “Coal Gasification,” FutureGen Alliance website, www.futuregenalliance.org/technology/coal.stm. Accessed 25 March 2008.

5 Anonymous (2010). “Exelon joined FutureGen in January.” Reuters News Service. (New York, Reuters News Service.)

6 Skinner, B., S. Porter, and D. B. Botkin, The Blue Planet (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1999). Many popular references get the time when coal formed wrong.

7 Some of the basic facts about coal come from the American Coal Foundation; see www.teachcoal.org/aboutcoal/articles/faqs.html. Accessed 19 March 2008. Other facts come from DOE EIA and the World Coal Institute.

8 Coal mining data in the United States is for 2006. Source: Energy Information Administration, Quarterly Coal Report, October–December 2008, (Washington, D.C.; April 2009). www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/coal/page/special/fig1.html.

9 World Coal Institute, Coal Facts 2007. www.worldcoal.org/pages/content/index.asp?PageID=188.

10 Coal mining data in the United States is for 2006. Source: Energy Information Administration, www.eia.doe.gov/fuelcoal.html. Accessed 19 March 2008.

11 Coal use in the United States is from the DOE EIA Annual Coal Report. www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/coal/page/acr/acr_sum.html#fes1. Accessed 19 March 2008.

12 The data I have used in my calculations, from the BP statistical data, gives an estimate of 300 years for coal, but the World Coal Institute states that coal will last 150 years. (See World Coal Institute, Coal Facts 2007, at www.worldcoal.org/pages/content/index.asp?PageID=188.) This range of estimates is typical and to be expected with data as complex and difficult to obtain as the total reserves of coal. In fact, statements that lack such ranges in this context are likely to be less scientifically accurate and reliable and less trustworthy.

13 Hooke, Roger Leb, “Spatial Distribution of Human Geomorphic Activity in the United States: Comparison with Rivers,” Earth Surface Processes and Landforms 24 (1999): 687–692. I use his worldwide figures of rivers moving 14GT per year (not including 10GT per year from agriculture) and the amount that people move worldwide, at 35GT. Using this ratio, 14/35 = 40% gives a value of 3.04GT per year in relation to the 7.6GT per year moved in the U.S.

14 Hooke, “Spatial Distribution of Human Geomorphic Activity,” 1999.

15 “Coal,” Encyclopedia of Appalachia (Knoxville, Tenn.: University of Tennessee Press, 2008).

16 Appalachian Voices website, www.appvoices.org/index.php?/frontporch/blogposts/environmental_groups_ask_un_to_oppose_appalachian_coal_mining_practices/.

17 Caudill, Harry M. Night Comes to the Cumberlands: A Biography of a Depressed Area (Boston: Little, Brown and Company; 1963).

18 Ibid., p. 306–207.

19 Ibid., p. 318.

20 Diehl, Peter, “The Inez Coal Tailings Dam Failure (Kentucky, USA),” WISE Uranium Project, part of World Information Service on Energy, 2008.

21 Bingham, Barry, Jr., “Mining Is Turning Eastern Kentucky into a Despicable Latrine,” Louisville Courier Journal, November 9, 2005.

22 Rahn, P. H., Engineering Geology: An Environmental Approach (New York: Elsevier, 1986).

23 Botkin, D. B., and E. A. Keller, Environmental Science: Earth as a Living Planet, 7th Edition (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2009).

24 www.undergroundminers.com/laurelrun.html.

25 www.offroaders.com/album/centralia/other-mine-fires.htm.

26 Netherlands Earth Observation, Environmental Monitoring of Coal Fires in North China Project Identification Mission Report, October 1993. http://apex.neonet.nl/browse/www.neonet.nl/Document/XHCFRJGIVMUWUYOTOVMWSXKLG.html.

27 “How China’s Scramble for ‘Black Gold’ is Causing a Green Disaster,” Daily Telegraph, 01 Feb 2002.

28 Revkin, Andrew C., “Sunken Fires Menace Land and Climate,” New York Times, 15 January 2002. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9902E2DF1538F936A25752C0A9649C8B63.

29 Ibid.

30 www.nrdc.org/globalWarming/coal/contents.asp.

31 “Clean Air, Dirty Coal,” Sierra Club website, www.sierraclub.org/cleanair/factsheets/power.asp. Accessed 23 March 2008.

32 NRDC, Return Carbon to the Ground: Reducing Global Warming Pollution and Enhancing Oil Recovery, 2006. www.nrdc.org/globalwarming/solutions.

33 For additional information, see “Clean Air, Dirty Coal,” Sierra Club website, www.sierraclub.org/cleanair/factsheets/power.asp.

34 Grand Canyon Trust, www.grandcanyontrust.org/programs/air/mohave.php. Accessed 24 March 2008.

35 Department of Interior Office of Surface Mining website, www.wrcc.osmre.gov/BlkMsaQ_A/BMFAQ.htm. Accessed 19 March 2008.

36 Black Mesa Indigenous Support. www.blackmesais.org/struggle_continues05.htm. This organization describes itself as “First Nations, First Resistance—Support the Struggle for Survival at Big Mountain, Black Mesa, Ariz.”

“On behalf of their peoples, their ancestral lands, and future generations, more than 350 Dineh residents of Black Mesa continue their staunch resistance to the efforts of the U.S. Government—acting in the interests of the Peabody Coal Company—to relocate the Dineh and destroy their homelands.”

37 Southern California Edison website, www.sce.com/PowerandEnvironment/PowerGeneration/MohaveGenerationStation/. Accessed 24 March 2008.

38 Grand Canyon Trust, www.grandcanyontrust.org/programs/air/mohave.php. Accessed 24 March 2008.

39 Frey, Steve, Nevada Visibility FIP for Nevada (Washington, D.C.: EPA, 2001).

40 Grand Canyon Trust, www.grandcanyontrust.org/programs/air/mohave.php. Accessed 24 March 2008.

41 “Mohave Power Plant Set to Close,” United Press International. “In a filing Thursday with the California Public Utilities Commission, Edison said it wanted to continue negotiations to keep the power plant open, to add pollution controls that are expected to cost $1 billion, but close for at least a few months.” www.physorg.com/news9480.html, 31 December 2005.

Also see www.physorg.com/news9480.html. © 2005 United Press International.

42 Bureau, Kathy Helms Diné, “Mohave Power Plant Looking at Restarting,” The Gallup Independent, 9 July 2007.

43 www.blackmesais.org/bigmtbackground.html.

44 Office of Surface Mining, www.osmre.gov/amlgrant04.htm. Accessed 20 March 2008.

45 Office of Surface Mining, www.osmre.gov/reggrants98.htm.

46 Smith, R. (2009). “U.S. Foresees a Thinner Cushion of Coal,” Wall Street Journal. New York, Dow Jones.

47 EIA Report 058 (2008). September, 2008.

48 Schlissel, D. Allison Smith, and Rachel Wilson, Coal-Fired Plant Construction Costs, Synapse Energy Economics, Inc. 2008.

49 DOE EIA, “Net Generation by Energy Source: Total (All Sectors),” Electric Power Monthly with data for October 2009; Report Released: January 15, 2010. Coal produced about 2 billion megawatt-hours a year, each year since 2000. In 2009, coal produced 1.99 billion megawatt hours. http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/electricity/epm/table1_1.html

50 NRDC, www.nrdc.org/coal/19c.asp. Accessed 23 March 2008.

51 NRDC, (2006).

52 Anonymous, “Mountaintop Advocates Open New Front in Fight Against Coal—Challenge Billion-Dollar Government Giveaways for Not Considering Cost to the Mountains.” 3 March 2008. www.ilovemountains.org/all/371.

53 Katzer, James, et al. The Future of Coal: Options for a Carbon-Constrained World (Boston: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2007).

54 Wald, Matthew L., “Two Utilities Are Leaving Clean Coal Initiative,” New York Times, 26 June 2009. “Two of the nation’s biggest coal-burning utilities said Thursday that they were withdrawing from a $2.4 billion project to demonstrate carbon capture and storage, and would instead pursue their own work in the field.”

55 Madrigal, Alexis, “Back to the FutureGen: ‘Clean’ Coal Plant Gets New Backing,” Wired, 12 June 2009. www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/06/futuregen/.

56 Canine, Craig, “How to Clean Coal,” ONEARTH NDRC online Magazine, Fall 2005. http://www.nrdc.org/OnEarth/05fal/coal1.asp.

57 Information about the Greenpoint coal liquification comes from Shogren, Elizabeth, “Turning Dirty Coal into Clean Energy,” National Public Radio, 25 March 2008.

58 Ibid.

Chapter 4

1 Photo of Edwards Dam is from the Government of Maine, 7 March 2007. www.maine.gov/spo/sp/edwards/progress.php.

2 American Rivers, Restoring Rivers, 2007. (Major upcoming dam removals in the Pacific Northwest). www.water.ca.gov/fishpassage/docs/dams/dams.pdf.

3 The World Bank & The World Commission on Dams Report Q&A, World Bank Publications, 2001. http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTWRM/0,contentMDK:20438903~pagePK:148956~piPK:216618~theSitePK:337240,00.html. Accessed 5 March 2007.

4 Botkin, D. B., 1999, “When Should a Dam be Breached?” Los Angeles Times, Sunday, August 22, 1999.

5 U.S. DOE EIA website, http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/solar.renewables/page/hydroelec/hydroelec.html. Accessed 12 February 2010. This source states that the total generation was 206,148 thousand megawatt-hours in 2009.

6 Botkin, D. B., and E. A. Keller, Environmental Sciences: The Earth as a Living Planet (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2009).

7 World Commission on Dams, Dams and Development: a New Framework for Decision Making.

8 National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

9 Wisconsin Valley Improvement Company website, www.wvic.com/hydro-facts.htm. Accessed 8 February 2008.

10 The Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations website. www.pcffa.org/dams.htm. Accessed 5 February 2008.

11 Barry Goldwater said this when asked by Vanity Fair to name his “greatest political regret.”

12 “The potential for hydroelectric power projects on the Nam Theun was first identified in the mid-1970s and was the subject of detailed studies during the following decades. It was not until the early 1990s that the Nam Theun 2 hydroelectric project (NT2 or the Project) was specifically recognized by the Government of the Lao PDR as a key project for the economic and social development of the Lao nation.” http://www.namtheun2.com/. Accessed February 8, 2008.

13 World Bank, The Nam Theun 2 Hydroelectric Project (NT2): An Overview and Update (Washington, D.C.; World Bank, 2006).

14 The World Bank & The World Commission on Dams Report Q&A.

15 The World Bank estimates that revenues will rise to $110 million from 2020 to 2034.

16 According to the CIA World Fact Book, Laos electricity consumption is 1.715 billion kilowatt-hours (2005); production is 1.193 billion kilowatt-hours (2005).

17 Scudder, T., The Future of Large Dams: Dealing with Social, Environmental, Institutional, and Political Costs (London: Earthscan, 2006).

18 For additional reading about environmental and social effects of large dams, see Leslie, J., Deep Water: The Epic Struggle Over Dams, Displaced People, and the Environment (New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 2005).

19 http://internationalrivers.org/en/follow-money/world-bank/nam-theun-2-investigation-exposes-project-failings. Accessed 10 February 2008.

20 Lawrence, S., “Doing Dams Wrong: World Bank’s Model Project Leaves Lao Villagers in the Lurch,” World Rivers Review (2007): 10–15.

21 Botkin and Keller, Environmental Sciences, 2009; see Chapter 21.

22 Scudder, T., 2006. The Future of Large Dams: Dealing with Social, Environmental, Institutional, and Political Costs (London: Earthscan, 2006.) See Box 9.1, “Key Message,” page 283.

23 Timmons, H., “Energy from the Restless Sea,” New York Times, 3 August 2006.

24 Based on information from the U.S. DOE and EPRI.

25 Values are for 2005, the most recent data, from Energy Information Administration, International Energy Annual 2005, table posted 2 October 2007.

26 Energy Information Administration, International Energy Annual 2004 (May–July 2006), www.eia.doe.gov/international. Lists the information for the U.S. in Table 1.3 and for other countries in Table 1.8. Values are for 2005, the most recent data.

27 International Hydropower Association, Hydropower and the World’s Energy Future: The Role of Hydropower in Bringing Clean, Renewable Energy to the World, November 2000. This report cites information from Hydropower & Dams, World Atlas and Industry Guide, 2000. These are the specifics I used for the text’s discussion: The world’s total technical feasible hydro potential is estimated at 14,370 billion kilowatt-hours per year, of which about 8,082 billion kilowatt-hours per year is currently considered economically feasible for development. About 700 million kilowatt-hours (or about 2,600 billion kilowatt-hours per year) is already in operation, with a further 108 million kilowatt-hours under construction. Most of the remaining potential is in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Translated into simple English, water power provides about 2% of the world’s total energy, and about one-third (36%) of the world’s possible water-power sites have been developed.

28 Ibid.

29 Ibid.

30 Restoring Rivers, 2007. www.water.ca.gov/fishpassage/docs/dams/dams.pdf.

Chapter 5

1 Wald, Matthew L., “Foes of Indian Point Begin Legal Battle,” New York Times, 11 March 2008.

2 “Nuclear power’s most effective spokesman may be Patrick Moore, a founder and former member of the environmental group Greenpeace, who has been hired by the nuclear industry to promote the technology.” Applebome, P., “The Power Grid Game: Choose a Catastrophe,” New York Times, 9 December 2007.

3 Moor, Patrick, “Going Nuclear: A Green Makes the Case,” Washington Post, 16 April 2006, B01.

4 Franz J. Dahlkamp email. www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/hugh-montefiore-we-need-nuclear-power-to-save-the-planet-from-looming-catastrophe-544571.html.

5 Dr. Franz J. Dahlkamp, the world’s leading expert on uranium ore and the author of a five-volume work on the subject, responded to my inquiry, in which I asked for the best sources on this topic. He recommended two sources in his email, dated 14 July 2008: AEA, Analysis of Uranium Supply to 2050 (Vienna: AEA, 2001); and OECD-NEA & IAEA, Uranium 2005: Resources, Production and Demand (Paris: OECD, 2005).

6 Estimates of the Years That Nuclear Power Plant Fuel Will Last are based on the IAEA estimates of Uranium Ore Reserves.

7 According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, at www.iaea.org/inis/aws/fnss/auxiliary/iaea.html. Accessed 14 July 2009.

“For three decades several countries had important fast breeder reactor development programs. Fast test reactors (Rapsodie [France], KNK-II [Germany], FBTR [India], JOYO [Japan], DFR [UK], BR-10, BOR-60 [Russia], EBR-II, Fermi, FFTF [USA]) were operating in several countries, with commercial size prototypes (Phènix, Superphènix [France], SNR-300 [Germany], MONJU [Japan], PFR [UK], BN-350 [Kazakhstan], BN-600 [Russia]) just under construction or coming on line. However, from the 1980s onward, and mostly for economical and political reasons, fast reactor development in general began to decline. By 1994, in the USA, the Clinch River Breeder Reactor (CRBR) had been canceled, and the two fast reactor test facilities, FFTF and EBR-II, had been shut down—with EBR-II permanently and FFTF, until recently, in standby condition, but now also facing permanent closure. Thus, in the U.S., effort essentially disappeared for fast breeder reactor development. Similarly, programs in other nations were terminated or substantially reduced. In France, Superphènix was shut down at the end of 1998; SNR-300 in Germany was completed but not taken into operation, and KNK-II was permanently shut down in 1991 (after 17 years of operation) and is scheduled to be dismantled by 2004. In the UK, PFR was shut down in 1994, and in Kazakhstan, BN-350 was shut down in 1998.”

8 According to a Wikipedia article, which I have not verified independently, “As of 2003 one indigenous FBR [breeder reactor] was planned for India, and another for China. Both were to use Soviet technology. Meanwhile, South Korea was said to be designing a standardized modular breeder reactor for export. The FBR program of India includes the concept of using fertile thorium-232 to breed fissile uranium-233. Also, a Russian breeder reactor was said to be still operational in Zarechny. And on February 16, 2006, the U.S., France, and Japan signed an ‘arrangement’ to research and develop sodium-cooled fast reactors in support of the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership.”

9 EIA, International Energy Annual 2003, July 2005.

10 EIA, System for the Analysis of Global Energy Markets, 2006.

11 Nuclear Energy Information Service, “Nuclear Power Has Cost This Country over $492,000,000,000.” www.neis.org/literature/Brochures/npfacts.htm. Accessed 25 April 2008.

12 Smith, Rebecca, “U.S. Chooses Four Utilities to Revive Nuclear Industry,” Wall Street Journal, 17 June 2009, A1.

13 World Health Organization, www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2005/pr38/en/index1.html. Accessed 1 June 2009.

“The total number of deaths already attributable to Chernobyl or expected in the future over the lifetime of emergency workers and local residents in the most contaminated areas is estimated to be about 4,000. This includes some 50 emergency workers who died of acute radiation syndrome and nine children who died of thyroid cancer, and an estimated total of 3,940 deaths from radiation-induced cancer and leukemia among the 200,000 emergency workers from 1986–1987, 116,000 evacuees, and 270,000 residents of the most contaminated areas (total about 600,000). These three major cohorts were subjected to higher doses of radiation amongst all the people exposed to Chernobyl radiation.”

14 Patel, Julie, “FP&L Might Be Fined over Nuclear Plant Security: Security Workers Dozed, Regulators Say,” Sun-Sentinel, 11 April 2008. www.sun-sentinel.com/business/sfl-flzfpl0411sbapr11,0,2008712.story South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com.

15 World Nuclear Organization, “Waste Management in the Nuclear Fuel Cycle,” www.world-nuclear.org/info/inf04.html.

16 IAEA International Atomic Energy Agency. “South Africa Hosts Global Workshop on Radioactive Waste: Looking to Forge Common Approach for Management and Disposal Policies Staff Report.” June 25, 2007. IAEA News Center. The report states that there are 200,000 metric tons of wastes, which I have converted to British tons (2,000 pounds each). See www.iaea.org/NewsCenter/News/2007/saradwaste.html.

Note that this information comes from the International Atomic Energy Agency, which describes itself as being “set up as the world’s ‘Atoms for Peace’ organization in 1957” within the United Nations.

17 World Nuclear Association, “Waste Management in the Nuclear Fuel Cycle.” www.world-nuclear.org/info/inf04.html. Accessed 16 May 2008. The World Nuclear Association gives a much higher figure for total nuclear wastes in storage: 270 metric tons.

18 OECN, International Conference on Management of Spent Fuel from Nuclear Power Reactors, Vienna, Austria, 19–23 June 2006.

19 World Nuclear Organization, 2007.

20 Richardson, Ingela, “Filthy Lucre—Nuclear Waste Costs Lives,” Coalition Against Nuclear Power, 10 September 2007. Once again, the report is in metric units, so it gives 2 million metric tons.

21 World Nuclear Organization, 2007.

22 Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility, 2008. For the mission statement, see http://a4nr.org/elements/elements/mission. For information on decay rates, see http://a4nr.org/library/lowlevel/nirs.lowlevelradioactivewaste.

23 Kestenbaum, David, “EPA Expected to Issue Million-Year-Long Regulation,” National Public Radio, 24 November 2006. http://mustv.com/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6525491.

24 CBS News story on Yucca Mountain (July 25, 2004). www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/10/23/60minutes/main579696.shtml.

25 Halstead, Bob, Dave Ballard, Hank Collins, and Marvin Resnikoff, State of Nevada Perspective on the U.S. Department of Energy Yucca Mountain Transportation Program (Phoenix, Ariz.: Waste Management, 2008).

26 CBS News, Yucca Mountain, 2004.

27 Hughes, Siobhan, “U.S. House Votes Against Eliminating Yucca Mountain Funding,” Wall Street Journal online, 17 July 2009. http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20090717-711221.html.

28 Halstead, et al., State of Nevada Perspective, 2008.

29 Matthew L. Wald, “Obama Acts to Ease Way to Construct Reactors,” New York Times, 29 January 2010.

30 Godoy, Julio, “Environment: France’s Nuclear Waste Heads to Russia,” Inter Press Service, Dec 17, 2005. The Inter Press Service, headquartered in Rome, calls itself “a communication institution with a global news agency at its core,” raising “the voices of the south and civil society.” See http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=31466. Accessed 16 May 2008. “According to the study ‘La France nucléaire,’ published in 2002 by the World Information Service on Energy (WISE), each year the French nuclear station Eurodif, situated on the banks of the Rhone River, 700 km south of the French capital, produces 15,000 tonnes of depleted uranium. “Most of that waste is of no further use, and is simply stored at the nuclear plant. Today there are an estimated 200,000 tonnes of this nuclear material being warehoused there.”

31 World Nuclear Association, “Radioactive Wastes,” March 2001. www.world-nuclear.org/info/inf60.html?terms=vitrified+wastes. “High-level Waste (HLW) contains the fission products and transuranic elements generated in the reactor core which are highly radioactive and hot. High-level waste accounts for over 95% of the total radioactivity produced though the actual amount of material is low, 25–30 tonnes of spent fuel, or three cubic metres per year of vitrified waste for a typical large nuclear reactor (1000 MWe, light water type).”

32 Greenpeace International, “Illegal French Nuclear Waste Dump Must Be Removed and Decontaminated.” www.greenpeace.org/international/press/releases/illegal-french-nuclear-waste-d. Accessed 29 May 2006.

33 Greenpeace International, “Radioactive Waste Leaking into Champagne Water Supply Levels Set to Rise, Warns Greenpeace.” www.greenpeace.org/international/press/releases/illegal-french-nuclear-wasted.

34 The actual quote from Greenpeace is, “On April 22, 2005, ANDRA informed the French nuclear safety authority DGSNR that the wall of a storage cell fissured while concrete was added on the last layer of wastes stored in the CSA disposal site. The origin of the fissure was a ‘water corner’ phenomenon resulting from the hydrostatic pressure of a water column formed with the infiltration and which could lead to the breaking of the wall. The DGSNR have admitted that this ‘water corner’ phenomenon was under-evaluated during the conception of some cells. The nuclear safety Authority demanded that all these cells be from now on conceived to resist the most severe ‘water corner’ phenomenon. Regarding the cells already built, the setting of a surrounding waterproof joint at each concrete layer will prevent this phenomenon from happening. This event revealed a flaw in the conception of the storage cells of the site.” Full copy available in French and English at www.greenpeace.fr.org and www.stop-plutonium.org.

35 World Health Organization, www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2005/pr38/en/index1.html. Accessed 1 June 2009.

36 See www.findingdulcinea.com/news/on-this-day/March-April-08/On-this-Day-Chernobyl-Nuclear-Power-Plant-Melts-Down.html?gclid=CN7mu6Hiq5MCFQKaFQodg3nu3g.

37 For updates on Chernobyl, see the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) website; such as “The Enduring Lessons of Chernobyl by IAEA Director General Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei.” 6 September 2005. www.iaea.org/NewsCenter/Statements/2005/ebsp2005n008.html.

Section II

1 DOE EIA. Table 1. U.S. Energy Consumption by Energy Source, 2003–2007. www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/alternate/page/renew_energy_consump/table1.html.

2 DOE EIA. www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/solar.renewables/page/prelim_trends/rea_prereport.html.

Chapter 6

1 In a west Texas field, wind turbines generate electricity (© iStockphoto.com/chsfoto).

2 Dodge, Darrell M., Illustrated History of Wind Power Development, Chapter 1. http://www.telosnet.com/wind/.

3 Wind Power History, “Wind Power’s Beginnings (1000 B.C.–1300 A.D.).” www.telosnet.com/wind/early.html.

4 SkySails website, www.skysails.info/index.php?id=64&L=1&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=98&tx_ttnews[backPid]=6&cHash=c1a209e350. Accessed 31 March 2008.

5 Information about the SkySails project comes from the company’s website and press release; www.skysails.info/index.php?id=64&L=1&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=98&tx_ttnews[backP id]=6&cHash=c1a209e350 and www.skysails.info/index.php?id=64&L=1&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=104&tx_ttnews[back Pid]=6&cHash=db100ad2b6; and Herron, James, “Wind Makes a Return to Power the Beluga on ‘Greener’ Journey,” Wall Street Journal, 21 January 2008.

6 The United States uses 1.42 thousand billion kilowatt-hours a years (1.42 × 1,012 kilowatt-hours).

7 FPL, Mountaineer Wind Energy Center, Florida Power and Light, 2008. www.fplenergy.com/portfolio/pdf/mountaineer.pdf.

8 DOE Photograph. http://www.doedigitalarchive.doe.gov/SearchImage.cfm?page=search.

9 Gipe, Paul, “One Million Megawatts of Wind Capacity for the USA: A Target Worthy of a Great Nation,” www.wind-works.org/LargeTurbines/OneMillionMegawattsofWindCapacity.html. Accessed 23 January 2008. For further information, see Gipe’s revised book, Wind Energy Basics, Second Edition: A Guide to Home- and Community-Scale Wind Energy Systems (Chelsea Green Publishing 2009).

10 Infoplease, “Top 50 Cities in the U.S. by Population and Rank.” www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0763098.html. Accessed 17 June 2008. (© 2000–2007 Pearson Education).

11 Texas Energy Conservation Office, “2008 Texas Wind Energy.” www.seco.cpa.state.tx.us/re_wind.htm. Accessed 30 April 2008.

12 The calculation gives 1,035,294 of these turbines needed.

13 Tegen, S., M. Goldberg, and M. Milligan, “User-Friendly Tool to Calculate Economic Impacts from Coal, Natural Gas, and Wind: The Expanded Jobs and Economic Development Impact Model (JEDI II)” (paper presented at WINDPOWER 2006, Pittsburgh, Penn., June 2006). “For example, a new coal plant in South Dakota (Big Stone II) is priced at approximately $1,900 per kilowatt, whereas a new coal plant in Colorado (Comanche III) is estimated to cost less than $1,500 per kilowatt.

14 Florida Power and Light, “Economics of Wind Energy.” www.fplenergy.com/portfolio/wind/economics.shtml. Accessed 25 April 2008.

15 DOE EIA Table ES1. Summary Statistics for the United States, 1994 through 2005 in computer file DOE Statistics Copy of epaxlfilees1.xls.

16 The total capacity for the production of electrical energy in the United States is 978,020MW. Of this, 754,989MW comes from fossil fuel power plants.

17 Stiglitz, Joseph E., “The True Costs of the Iraq War,” Project Syndicate, 2006. www.project-syndicate.org or www0.gsb.columbia.edu/ipd/pub/JES_paper.pdf. Joseph E. Stiglitz, a Nobel laureate in economics, is a professor of economics at Columbia University and was the chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers to President Clinton, as well as the chief economist and senior vice president at the World Bank.

18 World Wind Energy Association website stated that the Worldwide capacity in 2007 was 93,8 GW with 19,7 GW added in 2007. http://www.wwindea.org/home/index.php Accessed 21 February 2008.

19 Ibid.

20 www.wwindea.org/home/index.php.

21 Anonymous, “Enron Acquires Zond, a Major Wind-Power Company,” New York Times, 7 January 1997.

22 www.awea.org/projects/.

23 Between 1999 and 2008, wind-power generation capacity in the United States increased sixfold, from 2,500 million watts to more than 16,000 million watts, and more than 3,600 million watts are under construction. Only 11 states had large-scale wind-power installations in 1999; today more than 30 states have them.

24 Some European nations are committed to wind energy, including Britain, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, and Sweden. Most impressive is Spain’s use of wind energy. A major milestone was reached for world wind energy on April 19, 2008, when wind produced 10,879MW in Spain, more than one-third of the nation’s total electricity production; nuclear power was second.

25 Spanish Wind Energy Organization. See www.aeeolica.org/ and http://actualidad.terra.es/nacional/articulo/record_absoluto_produccion_eolica_porcentaje_2411417.htm.

26 Landler, M., “Sweden Turns to a Promising Power Source, With Flaws,” New York Times, 23 November 2007.

27 Childress, S., “Electrifying a Nation, Mr. Kamkwamba’s Creation Spurs Hope in Malawi; Entrepreneurs Pay Heed,” Wall Street Journal, 12 December 2007, A1.

28 William Kamkwamba’s blog, http://williamkamkwamba.typepad.com/williamkamkwamba/2007/06/welcome_to_my_b.html.

29 Also see Stimmel, R., Small Wind Turbine Global Market Study (American Wind Energy Association, 2007). www.awea.org/smallwind/documents/AWEASmallWindMarketStudy2007.pdf.

30 Ibid.

31 Galbraith, Kate, “North Carolina: Effort to Ban Wind Turbines,” New York Times, 8 August 2009.

32 Cassidy, P., “Wind Farm Generates More Than 40,000 Comments,” Cape Cod Times, 23 April 2008.

33 Reuters, “Wind Farm Clears Hurdle,” 15 January 2008.

34 Galbraith, Kate, “Texas Is More Hospitable Than Mass. to Wind Farms Economy, Culture Fueling a Boom,” The Boston Globe, 25 September 2006.

35 Cassidy, P., “Floating Wind Farm Plan Dealt Blow,” Cape Cod Times, 19 April 2008.

36 Zezima, K. “Interior Secreatary Sees Little Hope for Consensus on Wind Farm,” New York Times, 2008.

37 See Senator Lamar Alexander, “Blueprint for 100 New Nuclear Power Plants in 20 Years: How Nuclear Power Can Provide Enough Clean, Cheap, Reliable, American Energy to Create Jobs, Clean the Air, and Solve Global Warming,” prepublication draft report, 29 July 2009.

38 Gipe, Paul, www.wind-works.org/articles/NRELBirdReport04.html.

39 Nijhuis, Michelle, “Selling the Wind,” Audubon Society, 2008. http://audubonmagazine.org/features0609/energy.html. Accessed 28 April 2008.

40 Ibid.

Chapter 7

1 Panasonic World Solar Challenge official final results.

2 Energy Information Administration, www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/solar.renewables/page/solarphotv/solarpv.html. Accessed 2 June 2009.

3 Photovoltaic thin films use very small amounts of certain rare metal compounds, including cadmium telluride (a compound of cadmium and tellurium), CIGS, and microcrystalline silicon. Arguably, the most successful of these to date is cadmium telluride because it is less expensive to manufacture than other photovoltaics (First Solar Corporation, www.firstsolar.com/material_sourcing.php, accessed 2 June 2009). Both cadmium and tellurium are obtained as byproducts in the mining of other metals. Although cadmium is toxic to many life forms, the amount used is small and embedded in glass. According to a study done at Brookhaven National Laboratory, this compound is not a significant pollution problem. See Fthenakis, Vasilis M., “Life Cycle Impact Analysis of Cadmium in CdTe PV Production,” Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 8 (2004): 303–334.

CIGS is a chemical compound of copper, indium, gallium, and selenium. Amorphous silicon and microcrystalline S (very small crystals of silicon) are also being used to make thin film photovoltaics, but at the time of this writing, they are more experimental than crystalline silicon or cadmium telluride. An efficiency of 19.9% has been achieved with CIGS, much higher than “Cadmium Telluride (CdTe) or amorphous silicon (a-Si).” (See Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copper_indium_gallium_selenide; High-efficiency CDTE, accessed 2 June 2009; and Noufi, Rommel, and Ken Zweibel, CIGS Thin-film Solar Cells: Highlights and Challenges, [undated] National Renewable Energy Laboratory Report). But this is still lower than the maximum efficiency of 24% obtained from the more conventional crystalline film silicon oxide photovoltaics (Green, M.A., Jianhua Zhao, A. Wang, and S. R. Wenham, “Very High Efficiency Silicon Solar Cells—Science and Technology,” IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices 46, no. 10. [1999]: 1940–1947).

4 Lenardic, D., “Large-Scale Photovoltaic Power Plants: Cumulative and Annual Installed Power Output Capacity,” 2008. http://pvresources.com.

5 Ibid.

6 The Florida Light and Power website provided the information about SEGS. See www.fplenergy.com/portfolio/contents/segs_viii.shtml.

7 DOE EIA Electric Power Annual, with data for 2006, 22 October 2007. www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/electricity/epa/figes1.html.

8 www.solarbuzz.com/StatsMarketshare.htm.

9 Assumptions: Efficiency of solar collectors = 10%; 1 acre = 43,560 sq. ft.; 1 sq. mile = 640 acres; 1 sq. km = 0.3861 sq mile.

10 Lewis, N. S., Global Energy Perspective, California Institute of Technology Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering PowerPoint presentation http://nsl.caltech.edu/energy.html.

11 Solar Cooker International, Sacramento, CA. See http://solarcookers.org/basics/how.html.

12 Chazan, Guy, “Smaller, Smarter for Remote Areas of Poor Countries, Getting Electricity Doesn’t Have to Mean Extending the Grid: There May Be a Simpler Way,” Wall Street Journal, 11 February 2008, R10.

13 www.epsea.org/pv.html.

14 www.solar2006.org/presentations/tech_sessions/t25-m199.pdf.

15 Hankins, Mark, “A Case Study on Private Provision of Photovoltaic Systems in Kenya,” The World Bank. www.worldbank.org/html/fpd/esmap/energy_report2000/ch11.pdf.

16 World Mapper Website, “Households By Nation.” www.worldmapper.org/. Accessed 3 January 2010.

17 Chazan, “Smaller, Smarter for Remote Areas of Poor Countries,” 2008.

18 www.boeing.com/defense-space/space/bss/hsc_pressreleases/photogallery/spect ro010827/01pr_01494_hirez.jpg.

19 www.solarbuzz.com/SolarPrices.htm.

20 Price to consumers comes from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, “Average Retail Price of Electricity to Ultimate Customers by End-Use Sector, by State,” with data for December 2007, 13 March 2008. www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/electricity/epm/table5_6_a.html.

21 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power_plants_in_the_Mojave_Desert.

22 Anonymous, “Editorial Wasting and Wanting at the Pentagon,” New York Times, 2 April 2008.

23 Bilmes, Linda J. and Joseph E. Stiglitz, “The Iraq War Will Cost Us $3 Trillion, and Much More,” Washington Post, 2 April 2008, B01.

24 Lenardic, Denis, “Photovoltaic Economics,” 2008. www.pvresources.com/en/economics.php.

25 Anonymous, 2006–2007 Annual Report on the Development of Global Solar Energy Industry, 03 June 2007. www.chinaccm.com. Accessed 1 March 2007.

Also see www.chinaccm.com/4S/4S04/4S0401/news/20070301/161316.asp.

26 www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden/news/FactSheets/FS-034-DFRC.html.

Chapter 8

1 Geoghegan, John, “Long Ocean Voyage Set for Vessel That Runs on Wave Power,” New York Times, 11 March 2008.

2 www.tsuneishi.co.jp/english/horie/about.html.

3 Electric Power Research Institute, “Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion.” www.nrel.gov/otec/what.html. Accessed 10 February 2008.

4 World Energy Council, “Survey of Energy Resources 2007: Harnessing the Energy in the Tides.” www.oceanpowertechnologies.com/res.htm.

5 Clark, Pete, Rebecca Klossner, and Lauren Kologe. CAUSE 2003 final project. www.ems.psu.edu/~elsworth/courses/cause2003/finalprojects/canutepresentation.pdf. Accessed 9 February 2008. (Quality of information is unknown.)

6 www.tidalelectric.com/History.htm. Accessed 9 February 2008.

7 Jackson, T., and R. Lofstedt, Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution, Study on Energy and the Environment. www.rcep.org.uk/studies/energy/98-6061/jackson.html. Accessed 29 November 2000.

8 Institute of Engineering and Technology, “Tidal Power.” http://search.theiet.org/iet/search?action=IETSearch&q=tidal+power

9 Information about La France tidal power plant comes from Chapter 19 of Botkin, D. B., and E. A. Keller, Environmental Science: Earth as a Living Planet (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2009); and from the websites www.reuk.co.uk/La-Rance-Tidal-Power-Plant.htm and www.ems.psu.edu/~elsworth/courses/cause2003/finalprojects/canutepresentation.pdf.

10 Botkin and Keller, Environmental Science, 2009.

11 www.ems.psu.edu/~elsworth/courses/cause2003/finalprojects/canutepresentation.pdf.

12 Clery, D., “U.K. Ponders World’s Biggest Tidal Power Scheme,” Science 320 (2008): 1754. This report gives the amount as 17 terawatt-hours of energy per year. See www.sciencemag.org.

13 Ibid.

14 Institute of Engineering and Technology, “Tidal Power.”

15 Timmons, H., “Energy from the Restless Sea,” New York Times, 3 August 2006.

16 “The bioSTREAM is a renewable energy technology designed to convert tidal and marine current energy into useful electricity. The power conversion process and associated device motions are modeled on biological species, such as shark and tuna, that use Thunniform-mode swimming propulsion. By mimicking these creatures, the bioSTREAM benefits from 3.8 billion years of evolutionary hydrodynamic optimization. The inherited biological traits result in a cost effective and reliable renewable energy system.”

17 Timmons, “Energy,” 2006.

18 EPRI, “What Is Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion?” www.nrel.gov/otec/what.html; and “Achievements in OTEC Technology,” www.nrel.gov/otec/achievements.html. Accessed 10 February 2008.

19 Ibid.

Chapter 9

1 Photos by Debbie Roos, Agricultural Extension Agent, 1 August 2005. www.ces.ncsu.edu/chatham/ag/SustAg/farmphotoaugust0105.html. Co-op member John Bonitz demonstrates how to catch the seeds that shatter during harvest. He is harvesting mustard, one of the many oilseed crops that can be used to create biodiesel fuel.

2 The North Carolina Biodiesel Trade Group was started in 2007 and has its own website. See http://news.biofuels.coop/2008/01/15/north-carolina-biodiesel-trade-group-launched/.

3 ORNL (2008) conversion factors used by the Bioenergy Feedstock Development Programs at ORNL.

4 Jacoby, J., “Sky-High Gas Prices? Not Really,” Boston Globe, 20 May 2004.

5 World Firewood Supply World Energy Council, www.worldenergy.org. Accessed 24 April 2006.

6 Ndayambaje, J. D., “Agroforestry for Wood Energy Production in Rwanda,” Workshop on Alternative Sources of Energy in Rwanda, organized by IRST Centre Iwacu, Kabusunzu, Institut Des Sciences Agronomiques du Rwanda, Recherche forestière et Agroforestière, May 2005.

7 Biran, Adam, Joanne Abbot, and Ruth Mace, “Families and Firewood: A Comparative Analysis of the Costs and Benefits of Children in Firewood Collection and Use in Two Rural Communities in Sub-Saharan Africa,” Human Ecology 32, no. 1 (2004): 1–25.

8 Zezima, K., “With Oil Prices Rising, Wood Makes a Comeback,” New York Times, 19 February 2008. The number of houses using wood for heating comes from census data provided by the DOE EIA.

9 Tuttle, R., “Wood Fuel Pollution Firewood Cost Prices: A View of Things to Come: Environmental Cost of Burning Wood,” Bloomberg.com, 2007. www.bloomberg.com/news/.

10 U.S. EPA Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards, Woodstove Changeout Workshop: Nature and Magnitude of the Problem, 8 March 2006.

11 Stix, Gary, “A Climate Repair Manual,” Scientific American 295 (2006): 46–49.

12 “The Warming Challenge,” New York Times editorial, 5 May 2007. The editorial stated, “The new report deals with remedies. It warns that over the course of this century, major investments in new and essentially carbon-free energy sources will be required. But it stresses that we can and must begin to address the problem now, using off-the-shelf technologies to make our cars, buildings, and appliances far more efficient, while investing in alternative fuels, like cellulosic ethanol, that show near-term promise.”

13 Scientific American online, www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=jumbo-jet-no-longer-biofuel-virgin-after-palm-oil-flight. Accessed 25 February 2009.

14 www.futurepundit.com/archives/003271.html. Future technological trends and their likely effects on human society, politics, and evolution. (May not be a reliable source of information.)

15 “USDA Biomass Fuels,” www.ers.usda.gov/Briefing/Bioenergy/. Accessed 18 July 2007.

16 Barta, P., “Biofuel Costs Hurt Effort to Curb Oil Price,” Wall Street Journal, 5 November 2007, A2.

17 Mang, H. P., “Biofuel in China,” Chinese Academy of Agricultural Engineering (CAAE) Center of Energy and Environmental Protection (CEEP) Ministry of Agriculture PowerPoint presentation, 26 March 2007.

18 Gibbon, G. A., “U.S. Energy Sources and Consumption,” www.sc-2.psc.edu/news/USEnergy.ppt. Accessed 10 January 2007.

19 Biomass Gas and Electric Company’s website, www.biggreenenergy.com/Default.aspx?tabid=4314. No information about the status of the Port St. Joe project was available as of 25 August 2009.

20 Saslow, L., “From Restaurant Fryers, a Petroleum Alternative,” New York Times, 4 November 2007.

21 Saulny, Susan, “Greasy Thievery,” New York Times, 30 May 2008.

22 http://masadaonline.com/.

23 The list of species in use, in test, or proposed comes from the following sources:

(1) Ecological Society of America, “Biofuels: More Than Just Ethanol,” ScienceDaily, 6 April 2007. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/04/070405122400.htm. Accessed 29 January 2008.

(2) South Dakota State University, “Prairie Cordgrass for Cellulosic Ethanol Production,” ScienceDaily, 28 June 2007. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/06/070627122622.htm. Accessed 29 January 2008.

(3) Rosenthal, E., “With Measure of Caution, Europe Joins Biofuel Gold Rush,” New York Times, 28 May 2007.

24 University of Minnesota, “Fuels Made from Prairie Biomass Reduce Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide,” Science Daily, 11 December 2006. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/12/061207161136.htm. Accessed 29 January 2008.

25 Etter, L., “With Corn Prices Rising, Pigs Switch to Fatty Snacks on the Menus: Trail Mix, Cheese Curls, Tater Tots; Farmer Jones’s Ethanol Fix,” Wall Street Journal, May 21, 2007.

26 An important discussion of biofuels and food is found in Pimentel, David (ed.), Biofuels, Solar and Wind Energy as Renewable Energy Systems (Heidelberg / New York: Springer, 2008).

27 Pimentel, David, Alison Marklein, et al., “Food Versus Biofuels: Environmental and Economic Costs,” Human Ecology 37 (2009): 1–12.

28 Tilman, D., J. Hill, and C. Lehman, “Carbon-Negative Biofuels from Low-Input High-Diversity Grassland Biomass,” Science 314 (2006): 1598–1600.

29 Pimentel, D., and T. W. Patzek, “Ethanol Production Using Corn, Switchgrass, and Wood; Biodiesel Production Using Soybean and Sunflower,” Natural Resources Research 14, no. 1 (2005): 65–76.

30 Hill, J., et al., “Environmental, Economic, and Energetic Costs and Benefits of Biodiesel and Ethanol Biofuels,” PNAS 103, no. 30 (2006): 11206–11210.

31 Pimentel and Patzek, “Ethanol Production,” 2005.

32 Energy Information Administration, Renewable Energy Consumption and Preliminary Statistics 2008.

33 Dale, Bruce E., “Thinking Clearly About Biofuels: Ending the Irrelevant ‘Net Energy’ Debate and Developing Better Performance Metrics for Alternative Fuels USA,” Biofuels, Bioproducts and Biorefinin Volume 1, Issue 1, pp. 14-17. Published Online 9 August 2007, www.interscience.wiley.com.

34 U.S. Congress, Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (originally named the CLEAN Energy Act of 2007). The Act is titled “An Act to move the United States toward greater energy independence and security; to increase the production of clean renewable fuels; to protect consumers, to increase the efficiency of products, buildings, and vehicles; to promote research on and deploy greenhouse gas capture and storage options; and to improve the energy performance of the Federal Government, and for other purposes.” Its sponsor is Rep. Nick J. Rahall II (WV-3). The act requires 144 billion liters of ethanol from biofuels produced each year by 2022.

35 Sinclair, Thomas R., “Taking Measure of Biofuels,” American Scientist 97, no. 5 (2009): 400–407.

36 USDA press release, “U.S. Crop Acreage Down Slightly in 2009, but Corn and Soybean Acres Up,” June 2009. www.nass.usda.gov/Newsroom/2009/06_30_2009.asp. In 2009, American farmers planted 321 million acres.

37 The material on phosphate mining comes from Botkin D. B., and E. A. Keller, Environmental Science: Earth as a Living Planet (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2009).

38 Vaccari, D. A., “Phosphorus: A Looming Crisis,” Scientific American 300, no. 6 (2009): 54–59.

39 Smil, V., “Phosphorus in the Environment: Natural Flows and Human Interference,” Annual Review of Energy and the Environment 25 (2000): 53–88.

40 U.S. Geological Survey 2009, http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/phosphate_rock/mcs-2009-phosp.pdf.

41 Ibid.

42 Pimentel, D., personal communication with the author, 19 August 2009.

43 www.sunecoenergy.com/index.cfm?page=pages&pages_ID=9.

44 Johnson, K., “A New Test for Business and Biofuel,” New York Times, 17 August 2009, A3.

45 Warnick, T. A., and B. A. Methe, et al., “Clostridium Phytofermentans Sp. Nov., a Cellulolytic Mesophile from Forest Soil,” International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology 52 (2002): 1155–1160.

46 Dias de Oliveira, M. E., Burton E. Vaughan, and Edward J. Rykiel, Jr., “Ethanol as Fuel: Energy, Carbon Dioxide Balances, and Ecological Footprint,” Bio-Science 55, no. 7 (2005): 593.

47 Boddey, R. M., L. H. de B. Soares, et al., “Bio-Ethanol Production in Brazil: Biofuels, Solar and Wind Energy as Renewable Energy Systems,” in D. Pimentel (ed.) Biofuels, Solar and Wind as Renewable Energy Systems: Benefits and Risks, Heidelburg/New York: Springer: 321–356. These authors state that the net energy return in Brazil from ethanol is 8.8 (8.8 times as much energy is obtained from the resulting fuel than was used to produce it). They note that Pimentel gets a very different value of 1.66. The difference, they state, is due to a great difference in the estimate of the energy to transport fertilizers and chemicals to the cropland and sugar cane to the mills.

48 Dias de Oliveira, Burton, and Rykiel, Jr., “Ethanol as Fuel: Energy,” 2005.

49 IPCC, IPCC Fourth Assessment Report, report to Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Valencia, Spain, 2007.

50 Kanter, J., “Europe May Ban Imports of Some Biofuel Crops,” New York Times, 15 January 2008.

51 Ibid. (44 million acres is 18 million hectares.)

52 Barta, P., “Biofuel Costs Hurt Effort to Curb Oil Price,” Wall Street Journal, 5 November 2007, A2.

53 Sumner, Daniel A. and Henrich Brunke, The Economic Contributions of the California Rice, 6 May 2006. California Rice Commission at www.calrice.org/c3a_economic_impact.htm.

54 Rosenthal, E., “With Measure of Caution, Europe Joins Biofuel Gold Rush,” New York Times, 28 May 2007.

55 Barber, J., Policy Gap Analysis: Findings & Policy Recommendations for the Biomass Sector, USDA, 2007. The report states, “Biodiesel gets a direct subsidy of $0.50 per gallon, and $1.00 a gallon for “agribiodiesel and renewable diesel.” I interpret this to mean 50¢ per gallon for nonagricultural biodiesel and $1 per gallon for biodiesel produced on farms.

56 Reported as $1.24 per liter, while the cost to produce a liter of gasoline from fossil fuels was 33¢ per liter. McCain, 2003, quoted in Pimentel and Patzek (2005), reports that including the direct subsidies for ethanol plus the subsidies for corn grain, a liter costs 79¢ ($3 per gallon). If the production costs of producing a liter of ethanol were added to the tax subsidies, the total cost for a liter of ethanol would be $1.24. Because of the relatively low energy content of ethanol, 1.6 liters of ethanol have the energy equivalent of 1 liter of gasoline. Thus, the cost of producing ethanol to equal a liter of gasoline is $1.88 ($7.12 per gallon of gasoline), while the current cost of producing a liter of gasoline is 33¢ (USBC, 2003).

57 According to Pimentel and Patzek (2005), government subsidies “total more than 79¢/l [cents per liter, which is $3 per gallon] are mainly paid to large corporations (McCain, 2003). To date, a conservative calculation suggests that corn farmers are receiving a maximum of only an added 2¢ per bushel for their corn or less than $2.80 per acre because of the corn ethanol production system. Some politicians have the mistaken belief that ethanol production provides large benefits for farmers, but in fact the farmer profits are minimal.”

58 McCain 2003, in Pimentel and Patzek, “Ethanol Production,” 2005.

59 National Center for Policy Analysis, in Pimentel and Patzek, 2005. About 70% of the corn grain is fed to U.S. livestock (USDA, 2003a, 2003b).

60 Pimentel and Patzek, “Ethanol Production,” 2005.

61 Botkin, D. B., and Charles R. Malone, “Efficiency of Net Primary Production Based on Light Intercepted During the Growing Season,” Ecology 40 (1968): 439–444. About 3% stored by the old field’s vegetation is a lot better than desert ecosystems, whose vegetation is able to store less than 0.03% of the sunlight, but similar to what has been found for various forests.

62 University of Minnesota, “Fuels Made from Prairie Biomass Reduce Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide,” ScienceDaily (11 December 2006). www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/12/061207161136.htm. Accessed 29 January 2008.

63 Mang, H. P., Biofuel in China. Chinese Academy of Agricultural Engineering (CAAE), Center of Energy and Environmental Protection (CEEP), Ministry of Agriculture PowerPoint presentation (March 2007).

64 Ibid.

65 http://news.biofuels.coop/2008/01/15/north-carolina-biodiesel-trade-group-launched/.

66 Burton, Rachel and Leif Forer, “Introduction to Biofuels: Biodiesel and Straight Vegetable Oil,” Biofuels Program, Central Carolina Community College, Pittsboro, NC, 2007.

67 Dias de Oliveira, M. E., Burton E. Vaughan, and Edward J. Rykiel, Jr., “Ethanol as Fuel: Energy, Carbon Dioxide Balances, and Ecological Footprint,” Bio-Science 55, no. 7 (2005): 593.

Chapter 10

1 The gasoline pipeline explosion stories come from Cat Lazaroff, “Negligence Caused Pipeline Explosion, Suit Charges,” Environmental News Service, 31 May 2002.

2 Trench, C. J., “How Pipelines Make the Oil Market Work—Their Networks, Operation, and Regulation,” memorandum prepared for the Association of Oil Pipe Lines and the American Petroleum Institute’s Pipeline Committee, New York, 2001.

3 See Lazaroff, “Negligence Caused Pipeline Explosion, Suit Charges,” 2002.

4 www.pipeline101.com/Overview/crude-pl.html.

5 Trench, “How Pipelines Make the Oil Market Work—Their Networks, Operation, and Regulation,” 2001.

6 www.pipeline101.com/Overview/crude-pl.html.

7 Estimated from the Association of Oil Pipe Lines, Shifts in Petroleum Transportation, 2000.

8 R. A. Wilson, Transportation in America, 18th edition (Washington, D.C.: Eno Transportation Foundation, Inc., 2001). “How Pipelines Make the Oil Market Work: Pipelines are Key to Meeting U.S. Oil Demand Requirements Allegro Energy Group.”

9 Trench, “How Pipelines Make the Oil Market Work—Their Networks, Operation, and Regulation,” 2001.

10 North American Electric Reliability Corporation, Long-Term Reliability Assessment 2007—2016. (Princeton, NJ: North American Electric Reliability Corporation, 2007).

11 Ibid.

12 American Gas Association, www.aga.org/Kc/aboutnaturalgas/consumerinfo/NGDeliverySystemFacts.htm.

13 EIA, www.eia.doe.gov/pub/oil_gas/natural_gas/analysis_publications/ngpipeline/. The U.S. natural gas pipeline network is a highly integrated transmission and distribution grid that can transport natural gas to and from nearly any location in the lower 48 states. The natural gas pipeline grid comprises more than 210 natural gas pipeline systems, 302,000 miles of interstate and intrastate transmission pipelines, and more than 1,400 compressor stations that maintain pressure on the natural gas pipeline network.

14 DOE EIA, www.eia.doe.gov/pub/oil_gas/natural_gas/analysis_publications/ngpipeline/ngpipelines_map.html.

15 Trench, “How Pipelines Make the Oil Market Work—Their Networks, Operation, and Regulation,” 2001.

16 Anderson, Roger, and Albert Boulanger, “Smart Grids and the American Way,” Mechanical Engineering Power & Energy (March 2004). Online at http://www.memagazine.org/supparch/pemar04/smgrids/smgrids.html.

17 Tverberg, Gail E., “The U. S. Electric Grid: Will It Be Our Undoing?” The Oil Drum, 7 May 2008. www.energybulletin.net/node/43823. This report states that most energy transformers on the grid are more than 40 years old.

18 Owens, D. K., “Electricity: 30 Years of Industry Change, 30 Years of Energy Information and Analysis,” 7 April 2008. Edison Electric Institute, The Association of Shareholder-Owned Electric Companies.

19 North American Electric Reliability Corporation, 2007.

20 Gridpoint website, www.gridpoint.com/news/press/20080514.aspx.

21 Anderson and Boulanger, “Smart Grids and the American Way,” 2004.

22 Gelsi, Steve, “Power Firms Grasp New Tech for Aging Grid,” MarketWatch, 11 July 2008.

23 Dunn, S., Hydrogen Futures: Toward a Sustainable Energy System, Worldwatch paper 157, 2001.

24 World Wind Energy, www.world-wind-energy.info/.

25 Rifkin, J., The Hydrogen Economy (New York: Tarcher, 2003).

Chapter 11

1 Chmielewski, Dawn C., and Ken Bensinger, “Automakers Are Lining Up Celebrities to Promote the Technology, but the Clean Fuel Isn’t Ready for Prime Time,” L. A. Times, 15 June 2008.

2 ©2008 Business Wire.

3 www.dot.gov/affairs/dot8408.htm.

4 EIA kids’ energy page, www.eia.doe.gov/kids/energyfacts/uses/transportation.html.

5 Amtrak consumed 14.6 trillion BTUs, which is 4.28 billion kilowatt-hours, in 2005. (See www.narprail.org/cms/index.php/resources/more/oak_ridge_fuel/.) Total U.S. freight transportation is 4.23 trillion ton-miles (2005 value), excluding gas and liquids transported by pipelines. At 0.1 kilowatt-hours per ton-mile, this requires a total energy of 423 billion kilowatt-hours, which is only 5.1% of the total energy used in transportation. This doesn’t seem right. How could passenger travel use up 94.9%? Try this another way: Transportation uses 28% of the total energy used in the United States, which is 8,203 billion kilowatt-hours. Of the total energy used in transportation, 21% is used to transport coal—1,821 billion kilowatt-hours.

6 One gallon of gasoline contains 29 or 33 kilowatt-hours of energy (depending on whose information you believe). A gallon of diesel fuel contains 40.6 kilowatt-hours. According to Oak Ridge, a gallon of diesel fuel contains 138,700BTUs. One BTU is 2.93 × 10-4 kilowatt-hours. This gives the 40.6 kilowatt-hours per gallon of diesel fuel.

7 www.marketwatch.com/news/story/americans-drive-11-billion-fewer/story.aspx?gu id=%7B93E83ED2-0EE6-48BF-B104-D82FE8A93D70%7D&dist=msr_9.

8 According to the DOT 2002 economic report, a railroad train can carry a ton ten miles for 1 kilowatt-hour, and the coal carried by train in 2002 totaled 590 billion ton-miles, which would have required 59 billion kilowatt-hours.

9 The data comes from U.S. Department of Transportation, Summary of Fuel Economy Performance, March 2004. www.dailyfueleconomytip.com/miscellaneous/average-gas-mileage-relatively-flat-between-1980-and-2004/. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the average gas mileage for new vehicles sold in the United States went from 23.1 miles per gallon (mpg) in 1980 to 24.7 mpg in 2004. This represents a paltry increase of slightly less than 7% over the 25-year period.

10 U.S. Congress, Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. “The Secretary shall prescribe a separate average fuel economy standard for passenger automobiles and a separate average fuel economy standard for nonpassenger automobiles for each model year beginning with model year 2011 to achieve a combined fuel economy average for model year 2020 of at least 35 miles per gallon for the total fleet of passenger and non-passenger automobiles manufactured for sale in the United States for that model year.”

11 According to the Department of Transportation, “Americans drove 1.4 billion fewer highway miles in April 2008 than in April 2007. While fuel prices and transit ridership are both on the rise, sixth month of declining vehicle miles traveled signals need to find new revenue sources for highway and transit programs, Transportation Secretary Mary E. Peters says” 18 June 2008. www.dot.gov/affairs/dot8408.htm.

12 American Society of Civil Engineers, “Report Card for America’s Infrastructure,” 2005.

13 Tom Payne, railroad executive and expert, personnel communication with the author, June, 2008.

14 According to an 1881 New York Times article, in that year, construction of railroads cost $25,000 a mile and 9,358 miles were built, at a total cost of $233,750,000. Translated into today’s dollars (figuring an average inflation of 5% per year), this same construction would cost $119 billion in 2008, or $12.7 per mile. Today a plan to install a French grande vitesse rail line from Houston to Dallas—250 miles—was going to cost $22 million a mile, or a total of $5.7 billion. Amtrak estimates that a new high-speed rail line from Connecticut to Rhode Island would cost $36 million a mile.

15 www.colorado.edu/libraries/govpubs/dia.htm.

16 American Society of Civil Engineers, 2005.

17 Ibid.

18 U.S. Department of Transportation Fiscal Year 2011 Budget Highlights, published 1 February 2010. www.dot.gov/budget/2010/2011budgethighlights.pdf.

19 U.S. Department of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics, National Transportation Statistics. www.bts.gov/publications/national_transportation_statistics/.

20 Ibid.

21 The Acela gets 0.833 passenger miles per BTU.

22 www.minnesotarailroads.com/news.html leads to a PowerPoint presentation by Minnesota Railroads that contains this statement that railroads use about one-third as much energy per mile as trucks.

Chapter 12

1 DOE, “Building America Habitat Metro Denver,” 29 September 2008. www.eere.energy.gov/buildings/building_america/pdfs/36102.pdf.

2 Courtesy of DOE/NREL. Photo by Pete Beverly. www.nrel.gov/data/pix/Jpegs/14163.jpg.

3 This image has been reprinted from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. “Zero Energy Homes Research: A Modest Zero Energy Home,” 2009. www.nrel.gov/buildings/zero_energy.html. Accessed December 29, 2009.

4 Geiger, R., The Climate Near the Ground (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1950).

5 Gates, D. M., Energy Exchange in the Biosphere (New York, Harper & Row, 1962).

6 DOE, “Building America Habitat Metro Denver,” 2008.

7 Drake-McDonough, C., “Home, Sweet (Green) Home: Developments in Three Communities Work to Attract Buyers by Being Kind to the Environment,” Denver Post, 21 September 2008.

8 Based on the study Katz, Greg, “The Cost and Financial Benefits of Green Buildings, 2003.”

9 Another NREL analysis can be found by Anderson, R., C. Christensen, and S. Horowitz, “Program Design Analysis using BEopt Building Energy Optimization,” Conference paper presented at the 2006 ACEEE Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings. http://www.google.com/webhp?rls=ig#hl=en&rls=ig&rlz=1R2SNNT_enUS354&q=Program+Design+Analysis+using+BEopt+Building+Energy+Optimization&aq=&aqi=&oq=Program+Design+Analysis+using+BEopt+Building+Energy+Optimization&fp=baa94940edcea411

10 Drake-McDonough, “Home, Sweet (Green) Home,” 2008.

11 Howard, E., Garden Cities of Tomorrow (reprint). Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1965.

12 Botkin, D. B., and C. E. Beveridge, “Cities as Environments,” Urban Ecosystems 1 no. 1 (1997): 3–20.

13 Ibid.

14 Ibid.

15 Ibid.

16 McHarg, I. L., Design with Nature (New York: John Wiley & Sons: 1969).

17 You can see the current list of AIA green building awards at www.aiatopten.org/hpb/.

18 The 2008 green building condominium winner was Macallen Building Condominiums (Burt Hill with Office dA), in Boston.

19 Renewable Energy World, “Washington State Law Mandates Green Building,” 21 April 2005. www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/story?id=25765.

20 Fossil fuels plus nuclear energy provide 94% of the energy used in the United States.

21 Green, B. D., and R. Gerald Nix, Geothermal—The Energy Under Our Feet: Geothermal Resource Estimates for the United States, N. R. E. Laboratory, 2006.

22 For example, see the Go Green Development Consortium, Inc., at www.corbinenterprises.com.

23 www.charlies-web.com/genealogy3/txtx541.html. Accessed 12 August 2005.

24 This image has been reprinted from Green and Nix, Geothermal, 2006.

25 According to Doug Rye, Licensed Architect, and Phillip Rye, Licensed Civil Engineer, of Doug Rye and Associates. See www.dougrye.com/geothermal.html.

26 Green and Nix, Geothermal, 2006.

27 Ibid.

28 Ibid.

29 www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/aer/pdf/pages/sec2_2.pdf.

30 This image has been reprinted from Green and Nix, Geothermal, 2006.

Chapter 13

1 U.S. Census Bureau, Table 1: “Projections of the Population and Components of Change for the United States: 2010 to 2050 (NP2008-T1),” 14 August 2008. www.census.gov/population/www/projections/summarytables.html.

2 Total energy use would increase by 11,718 billion kilowatt-hours, from 29,297 billion kilowatt-hours to 41,016, or, rounding off, to 40 trillion kilowatt-hours from 30 billion kilowatt-hours.

3 Add to this that hydropower would have to increase by 27% to 1,177 from 861 billion kilowatt-hours, which is unlikely.

4 North American Electric Reliability Corporation, Long-Term Reliability Assessment 2007—2016 (Princeton, NJ: North American Electric Reliability Corporation, 2007).

5 Energy Information Administration, Annual Energy Outlook 2001, (Washington, D.C.: December 2000).

6 Then we use the average annual kilowatt-hour output from an installed kilowatt capacity, which, as I previously discussed, is 2.347 kilowatt-hour over a year from an installed watt of wind turbine, and 1.245 kilowatt-hour per installed watt of solar photovoltaics.

7 To calculate the required installed capacity for Scenario 2, you take the ratio of the desired energy output divided by the yield. Yield is the kilowatt-hours produced annually per installed watt:

For wind: I = 15,215/2,347 = 6.48 billion KW

For solar: I = 15,214/1,235 = 12.3 billion KW

Additional Tables: Table 13: Power and Energy Costs of Coal, Solar, and Wind

8 Professor Matthew J. Sobel, William E. Umstattd, professor of operations research at Case Western Reserve University, kindly provided the economic cost analysis, using a social discount factor, for the scenarios in this chapter. He also provided this brief introduction to the concept (25 August 2009):

Alternative energy policies would induce alternative time streams of costs. What is a “fair” comparison of these time streams? Here, I estimate the annual costs (in 2009 dollars) of each energy policy between 2010 to 2050. Some of the time streams are very simple because they have the same dollar amount every year. For example, the series of costs labeled “Wind Component 3” has the entry $80,500,000,000 each year from 2010 to 2050. Similarly, in “Solar Component 3” the cost is $888,750,000,000 each year from 2010 to 2050. If all the policies induced time streams like these two, then the comparison of the time streams would reduce to the comparison of the constant annual entries. So the comparison of the costs of Wind Component 3 with Solar Component 3 would reduce to the comparison of $80,500,000,000 with $888,750,000,000. We would conclude that the cost of the latter is approximately eleven times the cost of the former.

However, the series of costs labeled “Coal Replaces Fossil Fuels 3” does not have the same cost every year. The cost is $573,029,861,670 in 2010, $582,267,374,847 in 2011, and so on. What is a “fair” comparison of this series with the series of costs of other energy policies? Most economists would say that the simplest useful answer to this question is “net present value” or NPV for short.

The arithmetic of NPV is the same as that of compound interest. That is, if you have a savings account that pays 5% interest each year, then (ignoring taxes) you would have to deposit $1/(1.05) now in order to have $1 one year from now, you would have to deposit $1/(1.05)2 to have $1 two years from now, and you would have to deposit $1/(1.05)2 to have $1 t years from now.

When analyzing public policies, the interest rate (5% in the previous example) is called the social discount rate. Its determination can be a matter of dispute in particular situations, but it is often between 3% and 7% in developed countries like the U.S. So I use 5% here. The NPV of the series of costs labeled “Wind Component 3” is [$80,500,000,000 × 1] + [$80,500,000,000 / 1.05] + [$80,500,000,000/(1.05)² + [$80,500,000,000/(1.05)³ + ...+ [$80,500,000,000 / (1.05)⁴⁰]. The first bracketed amount is for the year 2010, the second is for 2011, the third for 2012, the fourth for 2013, and the last for 2050. The NPV is the sum $1,461,806,451,497.

Similarly, the NPV of “Coal Replaces Fossil Fuels 3” is [$573,029,861,670] + [$582,267,374,847/1.05] + [$591,504,888,024 / (1.05)² + ... + [$942530,388,742 / (1.05)⁴⁰ = $12,684,632,664,159. So a “fair” comparison of the series of costs of “Coal Replaces Fossil Fuels 3” with those of “Wind Component 3” is that the NPV of the former is approximately 8.7 times the NPV of the latter.

9 The 2009 federal budget summary document is titled A New Era of Responsibility: Renewing America’s Promise, and is available at www.gpoaccess.gov/usbudget/fy10/pdf/fy10-newera.pdf. Accessed 29 June 2009.

10 Ibid.

11 UNEP, Global Trends in Sustainable Energy Investment 2009: Analysis of Trends and Issues in the Financing of Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency.

12 Mouawad, Jad, and Kate Galbraith, “By Degrees: Plugged-In Age Feeds a Hunger for Electricity,” New York Times, 20 September 2009.

13 Ibid.

14 Solar installations produce 1,235 kilowatt-hours per year for each kilowatt installed; wind generates 2,347 kilowatt-hours per year for each kilowatt installed. From this, we can calculate the installation required as given in the text. Again, we use the average annual kilowatt-hour output from an installed kilowatt capacity, which are 2,347 watt-hours or 2.347 kilowatt-hours over a year from an installed watt of wind turbine, and 1,235 watt-hours or 1.245 kilowatt-hours per installed watt of solar photovoltaics. Based on these generation amounts, in 2050, solar capacity would have to be 5.22 billion kilowatts and wind energy capacity would have to be 2.75 billion kilowatts for each to produce 6,448 billion kilowatt-hours, the energy requirements for these sources in Scenario 3.

15 Solar installations produce 1,235 kilowatt-hours per year for each kilowatt installed; wind generates 2,347 kilowatt-hours per year for each kilowatt installed. From this, we can calculate the installation required as given in the text. At a cost of $6,810 per kilowatt, solar will cost 5.22 × 10 × $6,810 = $35.55 trillion, which, spread over 40 years, is $899 billion a year. At an installation cost of $1,170 per kilowatt for wind, the wind energy installations would cost $5.76 trillion, or $144 billion per year. Combined, solar and wind capacity would cost $1,033 billion a year. Note that this assumes that wind and solar share equally in replacing most fossil fuels.

16 EIA, Table 2.17: “Annual Photovoltaic Domestic Shipments, 1997–2006.” www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/solar.renewables/page/solarphotv/solarpv.html.

17 According to the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), a 100MW wind energy farm would require 25,333 acres, or about 40 square miles. Therefore, 1MW requires 0.4 sq. miles and Scenario 3’s 2.88 billion kilowatts requires 1152 sq. miles. However, actual installations vary. For example, the two largest wind farms in Texas have a very different turbine density and, therefore, different energy capacity density. Roscoe Wind Farm has a stated output capacity 6% greater than Horse Hollow’s, but it takes up more than twice the area. Both are more widely spread out than the average estimate from EPRI. At Roscoe’s density, for wind turbines to provide the electric power for all homes in the United States, it would require 2.6% of the lower 48’s land area; at Horse Hollow’s, 1.3%.

18 Urban area of lower 48 comes from Economic Research Service, Major Uses of Land in the United States, 2002. www.ers.usda.gov/publications/EIB14/eib14g.pdf. Cropland data comes from www.ers.usda.gov/Data/MajorLandUses/.

19 Calculations for Scenario 3. Without the social discount factor: For wind, the installed capacity would be 2.75 billion kilowatts. For solar, it would be 5.22 billion kilowatts. At a cost of $1,170 per kilowatt, wind will cost $5.76 trillion. At a cost of $6,810 per kilowatt, solar will cost $35.55 trillion. These are corrected in the text to take into account an annual 5% social discount factor, as discussed.

20 Smith, R., “U.S. Foresees a Thinner Cushion of Coal,” Wall Street Journal, 8 June 2009.

21 Oster, Shai, and Ann Davis, “China Spurs Coal-Price Surge Once-Huge Exporter Now Drains Supply; Repeat of Oil’s Rise?” Wall Street Journal, 12 February 2008., A1.

22 Ibid.

23 Most recent cost estimates to build nuclear power plants come from Michael Totty, 2008. “The Case For and Against Nuclear Power WSF,” Wall Street Journal, 20 June 2008.

24 The 2008 cost of uranium ore averaged $45.88 a pound, and 53 million pounds were purchased by civilian nuclear power plants, costing a total of $2.3 billion a year. If we wanted to go the nuclear route for Scenario 3, the fuel required in 2050 would cost, in current dollars, $13.4 billion a year.

25 The value of the fuel to provide the present energy output from the 104 nuclear reactors in the United States, including mining, refining, and all other production costs, is $1.17 trillion, based on the cost of 45¢ per kilowatt-hour, given by the World Nuclear Association.

26 Information on decommissioning nuclear power plants comes from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, “Fact Sheet on Decommissioning Nuclear Power Plants.” www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/fact-sheets/decommissioning.html. See also www.nrc.gov/info-finder/decommissioning/power-reactor/.

27 Wald, Matthew J., “Dismantling Nuclear Reactors,” Scientific American, 26 January 2009. www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=dismantling-nuclear.

28 World Nuclear Association.

29 Alexander, Lamar, Chairman, “Blueprint for 100 New Nuclear Power Plants in 20 Years” (Washington, D.C.; U. S. Senate Republican Conference, 2009).

30 The cost comparison for the variations of Scenario 3 are given in this table:

Summary Table of Costs: Adding Coal Pollution Costs ($ Trillions)

Note that, in this table, the cost of a nuclear power plant is assumed to go up and be at the more expensive end of the range, $14 billion each.

31 EIA, www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/aer/consump.html.

32 For more specifics about the terms related to the discussion here, refer to the EIA’s online glossary, www.eia.doe.gov/glossary/glossary_i.htm.

33 Methane is CH OH.

34 Lewis, Nathan S., California Institute of Technology Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Pasadena. See http://nsl.caltech.edu.

35 U.S. Congress, Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. “The Secretary shall prescribe a separate average fuel economy standard for passenger automobiles and a separate average fuel economy standard for nonpassenger automobiles for each model year beginning with model year 2011 to achieve a combined fuel economy average for model year 2020 of at least 35 miles per gallon for the total fleet of passenger and non-passenger automobiles manufactured for sale in the United States for that model year.”

36 American Society of Civil Engineers, Report Card for America’s Infrastructure, 2005. www.asce.org/reportcard/2005/index2005.cfm.

37 Taylor, N., American-Made: The Enduring Legacy of the WPA (New York: Bantam Books, 2008).

38 Herbert Hoover Library, http://hoover.archives.gov/exhibits/Hooverstory/gallery04/gallery04.html.

39 Taylor, American-Made, 2008, p. 55.

40 Taylor, American-Made, 2008, p. 107.