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The Global Power Supply is Reaching New Lows

October 27th, 2009 Posted in Green Living & News

As supply drops, demand raises. The basics of supply and demand apply to everything, and if you haven’t figured it out yet, it applies to energy supplies too.

Over the past several years (if you haven’t heard yet), American consumption of energy has climbed at an amazing rate. In 2004, the U.S. used 20 million barrels of oil each day.

As consumption, and demand, rise, many question where the supply comes from. Others, however, question the effects of such high use.

Wherever an energy plant is built, it will need large amounts of water, usually for cleaning and cooling. But water used here usually finds it way back to our waterways, including drinking water.

Besides that, the amount of land recently used for energy collection (like oil drilling) has increased as well. In the time George W. Bush was in office, the area around the Colorado River has seen the most drilling it had seen in 25 years. All of this drilling is said to affect the river, possibly contaminating water for 1 in 12 Americans. Most of the drinkable water for the southwest comes from the Colorado River.

The region is also home to natural gas and uranium. However, getting to these resources would use vasts amount of the river water and likely pollute the rest.

You can help the problem by trying to save water in the garden, but water use is only a small part of the problem that is the world power supply.

• Only 6 percent of electric companies have climate change governance written into direct policy.
• Nearly one third of companies provide evidence of their climate change effects.
• Long-term power outages can have dramatic financial affects on both the company and businesses that depend on them.
• Weather conditions can damage property and reduce the amounts of resources available to companies.
• Urbanization has put increased pressure on power companies to produce. An influx of people into a crowded area puts more stress on the companies supplying them.

These electric companies need to go green or go home. Many companies are finding ecologically friendly to continue business, and the power companies should follow in their not-so carbon footprints.