The following statistics from the Department of Interior, Mineral Management Service give a sense of the extent of alternative energy resource that we have in the United States.

1.7 billion - Acres that make up the outer continetal shelf and have potential for wind, wave and ocean current generated electricity.
28 - Contiguous states with coastal boundaries (including the Great Lakes).
78 percent - Portion of our nation's electricity used by coastal states.
20 percent… Continue

Fresh water is critical to the processing of oil, according to an article by David Kujawski entitled New Trends in Oil Refinery Wastewater Reclamation. He states:

The average refinery requires 2.5 gallons of water for every gallon of crude oil processed.

He continues:

A typical large refinery will process 8-10 MGD [million gallons per day] of centrally collected dirty(TM) process wastewater. Usually this does not include stormwater and sanitary sewer which further add to the… Continue

"100 MILLION barrels floating in tankers off the European coasts. Sounds like a pretty impressive number, right? Except, in the next breath, it was pointed out that this represented 5 days of supply for Europe."

I found this in a blog on Seeking Alpha - http://seekingalpha.com/article/142922-rising-oil-prices-what-we-have-to-do-asap?source=email. This blog was in reply to an article entitled Rising Oil Prices - What We Have to Do ASAP by Ryan Avent.

This puts oil use in perspective. Thi… Continue

The real issue is public awareness of energy issues so that reasonable debate as to what the best energy mix for a particular region or country is going to be.

As long as the public is unaware of how much energy they are using, let alone where their energy sources come from and how they are produced, we are condemned to allow our politicians, leaders and other high profile people with no particular energy or scientific expertise lead us. This is the worst of all possible
worlds.

I have produce… Continue

To all who are concerned about water and energy issues:

I am putting the finishing touches on a paper entitled Tar Sands and Water Consumption, An Overview. This paper will explore the water issues involved with the development of the 1 trillion barrels of oil in the Canadian tar sands and other tar sands deposits around the globe.

You can get your copy of this informative paper by subscribing to my monthly ILLUME newsletter at illume@aweber.com. I am also going to offer i… Continue