America's Energy Future

America's Energy Future

Author: National Research Council

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2009-12-15

Total Pages: 737

ISBN-13: 0309149096

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For multi-user PDF licensing, please contact customer service. Energy touches our lives in countless ways and its costs are felt when we fill up at the gas pump, pay our home heating bills, and keep businesses both large and small running. There are long-term costs as well: to the environment, as natural resources are depleted and pollution contributes to global climate change, and to national security and independence, as many of the world's current energy sources are increasingly concentrated in geopolitically unstable regions. The country's challenge is to develop an energy portfolio that addresses these concerns while still providing sufficient, affordable energy reserves for the nation. The United States has enormous resources to put behind solutions to this energy challenge; the dilemma is to identify which solutions are the right ones. Before deciding which energy technologies to develop, and on what timeline, we need to understand them better. America's Energy Future analyzes the potential of a wide range of technologies for generation, distribution, and conservation of energy. This book considers technologies to increase energy efficiency, coal-fired power generation, nuclear power, renewable energy, oil and natural gas, and alternative transportation fuels. It offers a detailed assessment of the associated impacts and projected costs of implementing each technology and categorizes them into three time frames for implementation.


Powering Forward

Powering Forward

Author: Bill Ritter, Jr.

Publisher: Fulcrum Publishing

Published: 2016-03-15

Total Pages: 292

ISBN-13: 1933108886

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A historic energy revolution is underway in the United States. Wind, sunlight, and other sustainable resources are now the fastest growing sources of energy in the U.S. and worldwide. American families are installing power plants on their roofs and entire communities are switching to 100 percent renewable energy. The urgent need to prevent climate change is causing people around the planet to question their reliance on carbon-intensive oil, coal, and natural gas. Author Bill Ritter, Jr., the 41st governor of Colorado and one of America's key thought leaders on this topic, discusses the forces behind the energy revolution, the new ways we must think about energy, and the future of fossil and renewable fuels. It is an essential read for any who want to understand one of history's biggest challenges to peace, prosperity, and security in the United States. Written in partnership with the Center for a New Energy Economy.


Apollo's Fire

Apollo's Fire

Author: Jay Inslee

Publisher: Island Press

Published: 2009-08-13

Total Pages: 411

ISBN-13: 1597266493

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In this book the authors make the case for renewable energy and renewable energy policy. Each chapter begins with an inspiring story by someone working in renewable energy or a related field.


Routes of Power

Routes of Power

Author: Christopher F. Jones

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2014-04-07

Total Pages: 321

ISBN-13: 0674728890

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The fossil fuel revolution is usually a tale of advances in energy production. Christopher Jones tells a tale of advances in energy access—canals, pipelines, wires delivering cheap, abundant power to cities at a distance from production sites. Between 1820 and 1930 these new transportation networks set the U.S. on a path to fossil fuel dependence.


The End of Energy

The End of Energy

Author: Michael J. Graetz

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2011-03-04

Total Pages: 381

ISBN-13: 0262294745

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Forty years of energy incompetence: villains, failures of leadership, and missed opportunities. Americans take for granted that when we flip a switch the light will go on, when we turn up the thermostat the room will get warm, and when we pull up to the pump gas will be plentiful and relatively cheap. In The End of Energy, Michael Graetz shows us that we have been living an energy delusion for forty years. Until the 1970s, we produced domestically all the oil we needed to run our power plants, heat our homes, and fuel our cars. Since then, we have had to import most of the oil we use, much of it from the Middle East. And we rely on an even dirtier fuel—coal—to produce half of our electricity. Graetz describes more than forty years of energy policy incompetence and argues that we must make better decisions for our energy future. Despite thousands of pages of energy legislation since the 1970s (passed by a Congress that tended to elevate narrow parochial interests over our national goals), Americans have never been asked to pay a price that reflects the real cost of the energy they consume. Until Americans face the facts about price, our energy incompetence will continue—and along with it the unraveling of our environment, security, and independence.


Superpower

Superpower

Author: Russell Gold

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Published: 2020-11-10

Total Pages: 336

ISBN-13: 1501163590

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Meet Michael Skelly, the man boldly harnessing wind energy that could power America’s future and break its fossil fuel dependence in this “essential, compelling look into the future of the nation’s power grid” (Bryan Burrough, author of The Big Rich). The United States is in the midst of an energy transition. We have fallen out of love with dirty fossil fuels and want to embrace renewable energy sources like wind and solar. A transition from a North American power grid that is powered mostly by fossil fuels to one that is predominantly clean is feasible, but it would require a massive building spree—wind turbines, solar panels, wires, and billions of dollars would be needed. Enter Michael Skelly, an infrastructure builder who began working on wind energy in 2000 when many considered the industry a joke. Eight years later, Skelly helped build the second largest wind power company in the United States—and sold it for $2 billion. Wind energy was no longer funny—it was well on its way to powering more than 6% of electricity in the United States. Award-winning journalist, Russel Gold tells Skelly’s story, which in many ways is the story of our nation’s evolving relationship with renewable energy. Gold illustrates how Skelly’s company, Clean Line Energy, conceived the idea for a new power grid that would allow sunlight where abundant to light up homes in the cloudy states thousands of miles away, and take wind from the Great Plains to keep air conditioners running in Atlanta. Thrilling, provocative, and important, Superpower is a fascinating look at America’s future.


Clean Energy Nation

Clean Energy Nation

Author: Gerald McNerney

Publisher: AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 321

ISBN-13: 0814413722

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Americans are already feeling the pressures of the current energy situation, and many of us are ready to make a change. Clean Energy Nation is a timely and hopeful look at an issue we can't afford to ignore. --Book Jacket.


Conventional Energy in North America

Conventional Energy in North America

Author: Jorge Morales Pedraza

Publisher: Elsevier

Published: 2019-06-05

Total Pages: 302

ISBN-13: 012814890X

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Conventional Energy in North America: Current and Future Sources for Electricity Generation provides in-depth information on the current state of conventional energy sources used for electricity generation in the United States and Canada. As energy is a major force of civilization, determining, to a high degree, the level of economic and social development, this book provides relevant information and a deep analysis regarding the main problems associated with the use of fossil fuels for the generation of electricity in both countries. Finally, the book offers guidance for countries seeking to expand their use of conventional energy sources for electricity generation. Users in government, energy experts, economists, politicians, academics, scientific institutions and universities, international organizations and the private and public power industry will find this book to be a great reference on what type of conventional energy sources should be used for electricity generation with the aim of reducing the emission of CO2 and other contaminated gases to the atmosphere. - Includes comprehensive information on the different types of conventional energy sources available in the USA and Canada, including their impact on climate, level of energy reserves, and levels of production and consumption - Covers the pros and cons of each type of conventional energy source for electricity generation - Features an analysis of what types of conventional energy sources should be used for future electricity generation in the USA and Canada, with the aim of reducing the emission of CO2 and other contaminated gas to the atmosphere


Windfall

Windfall

Author: Meghan L. O'Sullivan

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2017-09-12

Total Pages: 480

ISBN-13: 150110795X

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Windfall is the boldest profile of the world’s energy resources since Daniel Yergin’s The Quest, asserting that the new energy abundance—due to oil and gas resources once deemed too expensive—is transforming the geo-political order and is boosting American power. “Riveting and comprehensive...a smart, deeply researched primer on the subject.” —The New York Times Book Review As a new administration focuses on driving American energy production, O’Sullivan’s “refreshing and illuminating” (Foreign Policy) Windfall describes how new energy realities have profoundly affected the world of international relations and security. New technologies led to oversupplied oil markets and an emerging natural gas glut. This did more than drive down prices—it changed the structure of markets and altered the way many countries wield power and influence. America’s new energy prowess has global implications. It transforms politics in Russia, Europe, China, and the Middle East. O’Sullivan considers the landscape, offering insights and presenting consequences for each region’s domestic stability as energy abundance upends traditional partnerships, creating opportunities for cooperation. The advantages of this new abundance are greater than its downside for the US: it strengthens American hard and soft power. This is “a powerful argument for how America should capitalise on the ‘New Energy Abundance’” (The Financial Times) and an explanation of how new energy realities create a strategic environment to America’s advantage.


Wind Energy in America

Wind Energy in America

Author: Robert W. Righter

Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press

Published: 1996

Total Pages: 402

ISBN-13: 9780806128122

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Relates the history of the efforts to capture the power of wind for electricity, from the first European windmills to California's wind farms of the late twentieth century.