Did You Know?

Oil

• World oil consumption continues to grow unabated while oil production is expected to peak within decades - and perhaps has already peaked.  Production peaked in the United States in 1970.
• Typically, over 50 percent of the oil in any reservoir remains in the ground after production has halted.

Coal

• Worldwide coal reserves (many of which lie in Wyoming) are sufficient to last several hundred years at current production rates.
• Rising concerns over CO₂ emissions from coal utilization may require new technology to allow continued use of coal as an energy source.

Tar Sands

• The tar sands of Alberta, Canada contain oil of an amount comparable to all the known conventional world oil reserves - past, present, and future.
• Producing oil from tar sands is itself energy intensive and significant research and development is required to overcome technological and economic barriers.

Greenhouse Gases

• Anthropogenic (human caused) production of CO₂ has placed atmospheric levels of CO₂ at unprecedented levels in the last 400,000 years - with unknown consequences.
• Flooding deep oil wells with CO₂ captures and stores carbon dioxide while often dramatically enhancing oil production.

Nuclear Power

• Nuclear power represents a near unbounded energy source to power the world - with no greenhouse gas production.
• Radioactive waste from nuclear power plants must be securely stored for 240,000 years.  That timeframe is enough to span the last three ice ages seen by the earth.

Last Updated on 4/3/2009 12:15:26 PM