“The problem facing the country, according to Democrats boils down to in order to use the latest technologies to maintain and increase the diversity of resources, thus ensuring a reliable and affordable source of energy for Americans.
Democrats in the Senate last year managed to achieve victory and pass a bill that seeks to require utilities to produce a significantly greater amount of solar, geothermal, wind power and other renewable energy sources and to increase the amount of this energy in total consumption to 10% by 2020 (private utilities). Thus, defenders of the environment in the face of the Democrats got his first major victory in the debate on energy legislation.
Experts estimate it as a significant change in national energy policy. For several years, Congress has provided financial contributions to the billions of dollars in tax breaks and subsidies for research aimed at the development of alternative energy sources, but such radical legislation placed first goal.
The Bush administration and congressional Republicans, unlike the Democrats are in favor of traditional energy sources: oil, gas, coal and nuclear power. The main focus of the Republicans developed a new energy strategy are made on the development of the US production of these traditional sources.
Despite the thirty-year decline in production, the United States is the third largest oil producing countries in the world. Oil and natural gas are the dominant fuels in the US economy, providing 62% of the national energy and almost 100% of fuel for vehicles. By 2020, the Energy Information Administration Administration expects that the United States will require approximately 50% more natural gas and one third – of oil in order to meet the needs.
However, it is expected that oil production in the US will fall over the next two decades. During the same period, demand for natural gas is likely to continue to outpace domestic production. As a result, the United States will increasingly rely on imports of oil and liquefied natural gas from the world’s leading manufacturers.
The remaining US oil reserves are becoming increasingly expensive in terms of production, since much of the cheaper oil already extracted. Development of the remaining reserves is associated with higher costs of exploration and production, as these resources are located in the complex in terms of geology situ (for example, in deep-water areas and in areas with harsh climates).
Despite the fact that the resource base, provides now the supply of natural gas is quite extensive, it is expected that the traditional US production would peak in 2015. So, increasingly, the country will have to rely on the supply of natural gas from unconventional sources, such as tight sands formations deep, deep water deposits and gas hydrates. In addition, many resource sources located in environmentally sensitive areas, which require the use of technologies, minimally invading the environment ”
August 2003