As Predicted...

According to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), the outlook for cleaner energy doesn't look as good as it should by 2035. The EIA has released a report (Annual Energy Outlook 2011) that explains in detail future outlook of energy production in the US. There's definitely a lot of information in there, and I actually didn't read it, but took my information from: msnbc. Within this report there's some good news and quite a bit of bad news.

Our energy imports will drop from 25% in 2009 to 17% in 2035, which means that we are becoming less reliant on foreign oil, especially from Saudi Arabia. However, with this comes increased production in natural gas to meet increasing demands, so this doesn't necessarily mean that our energy will become cleaner. This also means that oil prices are expected to increase to about $135 a barrel, so gas will definitely keeping rising in the next 25 years. Renewable energy is also expected to increase, from about 8% of the country's total production in 2009 to about 13% in 2035. So its good that renewables will become a bigger part of USA's energy but its not the nearly 20% that we should have according to the Renewable Portfolio Standards. I believe that renewables are growing at a slower rate than we want is because of the ever increasing demand for more energy as well as the technology gap to get these renewables on the grid. For these renewables to work on the grid properly, many transmission lines with appropriate ratings and power electronics have to be built. Once this technology gets caught up, I think renewable energy production may rise at an exponential rate. That's pretty much where most of the good news ends.

With current laws and regulations set in place, we are set to make very slow growth in terms of renewable energy production. With this in mind, shale gas production will grow fourfold to meet growing energy demands. Coal will be looking at a 25% increase in production from 2009 to 2035, and carbon emissions are also expected to grow, but at a much slower rate than before. Keep in mind that this is a scenario where the current laws and regulations remain in place, but like I've stated earlier, much has to be done within the power electronics sector to get these renewables on the grid to begin producing at a stable rate. I also believe that if corporations became more incentivized to purchase clean energy like Google and Microsoft do, then growth in the renewable sector would increase a substantial amount.

Oh yeah... and GO AMERICA. As I wrote this, Osama was confirmed dead. Truly a historical moment in American history. We'll see how it plays out though.