U.S. energy sources and uses: The Energy Information Agency (http://www.eia.gov/
ID: 1127895 • Letter: U
Question
U.S. energy sources and uses: The Energy Information Agency (http://www.eia.gov/) of the United States government contains a treasure trove of data about both U.S. and international energy generation and consumption. EIA produces the following Energy Flow diagram: https://www.eia.gov/totalenergy/data/monthly/pdf/flow/total_energy.pdf. Click on the diagram and then look it over. The diagram gives energy consumption and usage for the United States for 2015, the most recent year for which data is available.
Then, using the diagram, respond to the following questions.
Is the United States totally dependent on oil imports?
What fraction of its oil consumption does it have to import?
Is it strange that even though the country is a net importer of petroleum, it exports some petroleum, too?
What about the overall energy situation?
What percentage of its overall energy consumption can it fulfill with domestically produced energy?
What fraction of domestic production comes from renewable energy sources? Is this higher or lower than you were expecting?
Explanation / Answer
Is the United States totally dependent on oil imports?
No, The US does not depend on oil imports totally. It produces a large share of the petroleum that it consumes but it still relies on imports so that it could meet its demand.
What fraction of its oil consumption does it have to import?
The consumption of petroleum (including natural gas plant liquid and crude oil) is 35.94 quadrillion Btu.Whereas, the petroleum imports amount to 21.72 quadrillion Btu. Hence, the required fraction turns out to be 60.43%.
Is it strange that even though the country is a net importer of petroleum, it exports some petroleum, too?
Most of the exports of US petroleum consist of petroleum liquid and refined products. Though US is a net importer, being an exporter is not strange because of the difference in quality being produced. The quality of oil being exported is often better for foreign refineries. This is also because of logististic and economic concerns.
What about the overall energy situation?
It is diffucult to comment on the overall energy situation based on a single year data as available.
What percentage of its overall energy consumption can it fulfill with domestically produced energy?
Overall Energy consumption = 97.39 quadrillion Btu
Domestic production = 83.88 quadrillion Btu
Required percentage = 86.13%
What fraction of domestic production comes from renewable energy sources? Is this higher or lower than you were expecting?
Domestic production = 83.88 quadrillion Btu
Renewable energy production = 10.14 quadrillion Btu
Thus, only 12.08% of the domestic production comes from renewable energy sources, which is ofcourse lower than expected, keeping in mind the need of hour as regards sustainable development.
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