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The Four Mores
Make Energy Affordable and Sustainable
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More Energy From All Sources.
U.S. economic growth and our life styles are predicated on available and affordable energy. In recent years we have experienced a relentless rise in all energy prices and we have begun to fear that sufficient energy availability may be in the past. Many people now talk about "peak oil" and "dirty coal" as if these two prolific energy sources of the 20th Century are behind us. They promote wind and solar energy as new sources to replace them.
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More Technology For Efficiency.
The most affordable energy is the energy we never use. When efficiency in the use of energy means that we use less, we save the costs of what we don't use. We also defer the availability of that energy to the future. The most effective conservation that we could ever consider is that of adopting efficient technology in all of our devices, homes, vehicles and behavior patterns of energy use. There is essentially no limit to the potential for energy conservation and energy savings through technology and innovation. This can be a never-ending journey that can stimulate the minds and creativity of technologists, scientists, physicists, entrepreneurs, and consumers across the nation and around the world.
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More Environmental Protection.
Energy and the environment present ongoing and sustained challenges to producers, transporters and consumers. It has always been the case and will likely remain so. Some forms of energy are produced from the destruction of molecules. Thus there are environmental impact issues to be dealt with. Other forms of energy require infrastructure that impacts the landscape. Still other forms dam rivers or create nuclear waste. As the future unfolds every so-called "clean" or "green" form of energy also has environmental consequences of one form or another.
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More Infrastructure.
Energy is produced where it is most efficient to produce it. Most times that means it is a long way from the consumer. While oil, gas and coal can be transported, most people prefer not to live right next door to the production facilities that make, store or distribute the energy that comes from such facilities. The structures that move energy from where it is produced to where it is consumed is called infrastructure. Infrastructure exists in many forms. It includes platforms to drill and produce oil and gas, coal mines, pipelines, rail lines and rail yards, storage tanks, transmission towers and lines, substations, transformers, poles and lines, ethanol distilleries, wind farms, liquefied natural gas re-gasification terminals, hydro-electric dams, nuclear plants, and the so-called "green spaces" that often surround critical infrastructure.