The Energy We Use
Kaplan University
Prof: Dr. Allen

The Energy We Use We don’t even think about it when turning on our TV’s or Laptops, or even our Cell Phones that they are all using energy and the kind of energy that isn’t always renewable. Imagine walking on the sidewalks in New York City and you come to find that the lights are out and its pitch black. There has been a power outage at a local power substation where power is condensed. Some forms of energy that I rely on, well on an everyday basis is Coal (Electricity), another would be Natural Gas and Petroleum. For Electricity, or Coal I use it for many things in the house and don’t think about things as much as I should for making sure lights are off. Some of the major things that my husband and I use it for is lighting our trailer, recharging our electronics, and supplying a nonstop link to my main appliances and electronics. We also use it partially with our furnace and stove. Even for work and school I use some energy with my laptop or desktop at work, then it’s weird, but I make sure that lights that are not needed are off. Like when leaving the file room and the mail area the lights come off when I’m done using them. I would say that Electricity is nonrenewable because it’s something that seems that it can only be used once.
Electricity is so complex when it comes to making it from coal, but after watching the video from MidAmerican Energy, it broke it down nicely. It starts from coal under the ground, and then goes to a sifting and cleaning plant. From their they ship out the clean coal using barges or semi’s, after that it’s delivered to the power plant and put in storage area then to their bunkers. From the bunkers they collect enough energy for half the day for the entire plant. At this point the coal is grinded down to a powder consistency to be put into a boiler where the combustion happens, and when that happens there is something called bottom ash that is either sent out to landfills or to roadway construction. The ‘feed’ water that was heated up and began to steam from the coal burning, it is passed through a series of tubes to a twirling area where around the last tube is the electro magnetics making that energy into electricity.
Natural Gas and Petroleum are two different things, but then they are so much alike. Burning cleaner then oil or coal, makes Natural Gas that is environmentally and people push the encouragement for the use of it. Not too long ago actually Natural Gas was seen as something unwanted, but today it has definitely been recognized as what it is. (Energy Sources, 2013). Actually while living in Colorado a new team was talking about how they were planning on getting to the oil reserve that was there, but a lot of people were upset with their plans to heat up the oil because that would have made the oil go into the water that was underground and contaminate all the water sources. Natural Gas and Oils, even Petroleum even though all seem to be the same they all have their slight differences. What they do in the soil to get the materials out is drill down to the respectable area and with a tube, they suck up all the oils they can. After it comes to the point of where they have to use acid or pressurized sand to help the oil come out better. It costs a company about 15 million each drill spot and years to even starting to drill.
Natural Gas, Oil, and Petroleum are all things that I also use in the home to heat and cook and drive me to work. It’s something that helps the nation or should I say the world get to where they are needed to go. I have read from Energy4Me that more than 100 countries produce petroleum, and in the U.S we rank at #14 with 19.2 billion barrels. And the top producer is Saudi Arabia with 259.9 billion barrels. Although the pollution that the plats and drilling sites produce the companies have shown that they are as concerned as the rest of the world to keep the green house affects