Central Case: Oil or Wilderness on Alaskas North Slope

1
Central Case Oil or Wilderness on Alaskas North
Slope?

• Alaskas oil-rich North Slope includes both
  petroleum development and Arctic wilderness.
• Americans and Congress have debated for years
  whether to open part of the Arctic NWR to oil
  development.
• Scientists, meanwhile, assess likely amounts of
  oil and likely impacts of development on Arctic
  ecosystems.

2
Alaskas North Slope

• West to east the Petroleum Reserve, Prudhoe Bay
  development, Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The
  1002 Area is the contested region.

3
Energy sources used today
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Fossil fuels

• Fossil fuels highly combustible substances
  formed from the remains of organisms from past
  geological ages
• Compressed tissues of plants (and some animals)
  from 100500 million years ago store chemical
  energy from photosynthesis.
• This greatly concentrated energy is released when
  we burn coal, oil, or gas.

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Fossil fuels

• Anaerobic (without oxygen) decomposition is
  required for fossil fuel formation.
• (Aerobic decay in presence of oxygen)
• Anaerobic environments exist at the bottom of the
  ocean, in deep lakes, and in swamp sediments.

6
Fossil fuel use has been rising for years

• Growth in coal has slowed, but oil and gas are
  still rising.

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Fossil fuelsFormation

• Plants and animals die
• Organic material settles in anaerobic site and is
  partly decomposed
• Organic material is buried
• Heat and pressure alter chemical bonds
• Coal, gas, oil formed

8
Distribution of fossil fuel reserves

• Saudi Arabia has the most oil.
• Russia has the most natural gas.
• The U.S. has the most coal.

9
Per capita energy use varies

• Nations differ greatly in amounts of energy used
  per person.
• Developed nations like the U.S. use by far the
  most.

10
Energy use

• Developed and developing nations show different
  profiles of energy use.

OECD nations non-OECD
nations
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Coal

• Coal compressed under high pressure to form
  densecarbon structures
• First used 3,000 years ago
• Powered the industrial revolution in England,
  then in other countries
• Today is surpassed by oil, but is still the most
  abundant fossil fuel
• Provides 1/4 of the worlds commercial energy
  consumption

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How coal is formed

• Several types of coal exist, depending on the
  amount of heat and pressure that overlying
  sediments have exerted.

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Coal production and consumption

• China produces and consumes the most coal,
  followed by the United States.

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Coal mining

• Coal is mined
• either underground, in subsurface mining,
• or from the surface, in strip mining.

15
Electricity generation from coal

• Coal is most used to generate electricity. Heat
  from coal burning boils steam, turning a turbine
  to power a generator.

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Oil

• Crude oil (petroleum) sludgelike mix of hundreds
  of types of hydrocarbon molecules forms at
  temperatures and pressures found 1.53 kilometers
  below ground
• Oil refineries sort the various hydrocarbons of
  crude oil, separating those to be used in
  gasoline with those used for other purposes (tar,
  asphalt).

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Oil production and consumption

• Saudi Arabia produces the most oil.
• The U.S. consumes the most oil.

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Oil Drilling
Primary extraction Secondary extraction
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Petroleum products

• Refined components of crude oil are used to
  manufacture many of the material goods we use
  every day.

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Depletion of oil reserves Hubberts peak

• Geologist M. King Hubbert predicted U.S. oil
  production would peak around 1970 and then
  decline.
• He was only a few years off.

21
Refining crude oil

• Percentages of each major product typically
  produced from a barrel of crude oil

22
Natural gas formation

• Natural gas primarily methane, CH4, is produced
  in two ways
• Biogenic gas formed at shallow depths by
  anaerobic decomposition of organic matter by
  bacteria
• Thermogenic gas formed at deep depths as
  geothermal heating separates hydrocarbons from
  organic material

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Natural gas History

• Seeps known for 2,000 years
• Used for street lighting in the 1800s
• Became commonly used after WWII once pipeline
  technology became safer

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Natural gas production and consumption

• Russia produces the most natural gas.
• The U.S. consumes the most natural gas.

25
Gas extraction

• Initially, gas comes out on its own from natural
  pressure.
• Later, it must be pumped out.

Horsehead pump to extract natural gas
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Other fossil fuels

• Other fossil fuels could be used in the future
• Oil or tar sands dense, hard, oil substances
  that can be mined from the ground
• Shale oil sedimentary rock filled with organic
  matter that was not buried deeply enough to form
  oil
• Methane hydrates occur under the seafloor

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Environmental impacts

• Compounds and particulate matter resulting from
  combustion of coal, oil, and gas
• Cause air pollution (from power plants,
  vehicle exhaust, etc.)
• Drive climate change (from carbon dioxide
  emissions)
• Throw the carbon cycle out of
  balance(transferring carbon stored underground
  to atmospheric carbon dioxide)

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Environmental impacts

• Water pollution also results from fossil fuel
  use
• Acid deposition (from sulfur pollutants emitted
  in power plant combustion)
• Runoff from non-point sources (cars, homes)
• Oil spills (not just large spills from tankers
  mostly small spills from nonpoint sources)

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Environmental impacts

• Coal mining has impacts
• Habitat destruction from strip mining
• Erosion from strip mining
• Chemical runoff from strip mining through acid
  drainage
• Human health risks for workers from subsurface
  mining

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Environmental impacts

• Mountaintop removal is every bit as drastic as
  it sounds.

• This type of coal mining causes massive erosion,
  runoff, and habitat destruction.

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Oil supply and prices

• World oil prices have varied greatly according to
  supply, demand, and political events. In recent
  decades, unrest in the Middle East has most
  influenced prices.

32
Oil commerce

• A small number of nations export nearly all the
  worlds oil.

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Energy conservation

• Energy conservation the practice of reducing
  use to extend our nonrenewable energy supplies,
  be less wasteful, and reduce environmental impact
• As individuals, we can make conscious choices to
  reduce our own energy use.
• We can also make devices and processes more
  energy-efficient.
• Cogeneration can increase the efficiency of power
  plants by capturing excess heat produced through
  electricity generation.

34
Vehicle fuel efficiency

• Automobile fuel efficiency (miles per gallon)
  rose after the oil shocks of the 1970s, but has
  stagnated since then.

35
QUESTION Review

• Natural gas forms?
• a. From the action of animals on ancient plants
• b. Always in the proximity of coal
• c. By anaerobic bacterial decomposition near the
  surface
• d. By heat and pressure deep underground
• e. From two of the above

36
QUESTION Review

• Fuel efficiency for cars and trucks in the U.S.?
• a. Is at an all-time high
• b. Is at an all-time low
• c. Is increasing steadily
• d. Has been roughly the same since about 1980
• e. Is declining rapidly

37
QUESTION Review

• Which is NOT an effect of using fossil fuels for
  energy?
• a. The carbon cycle is thrown out of balance.
• b. Air becomes polluted.
• c. Emissions contribute to climate change.
• d. We risk a catastrophic accident like the one
  that occurred at Chernobyl.
• e. Nations can become highly dependent on
  suppliers of fossil fuels.

38
QUESTION Interpreting Graphs and Data

• What accounts for the greatest oil price hikes
  since 1900?

• a. Wars and unrest in the Middle East
• b. Discovery of new sources
• c. Oil embargoes
• d. New production

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QUESTION Interpreting Graphs and Data

• This graph shows?

• a. That oil from ANWR will definitely meet only a
  tiny proportion of U.S. demand
• b. That U.S. consumption will certainly rise
  above 13 billion barrels/year by 2050
• c. That oil from ANWR will meet roughly 5.0 of
  U.S. demand
• d. Estimates and projections into the future that
  may not turn out to be correct