Introduction to Energy & the Environment
Energy provides a myriad of benefits; it helps to stimulate economic growth and provides power, such as electricity and transportation fuel, that support the well-being and living standards of people around the globe. Companies in the energy value chain play an essential role in delivering the energy supplies that the world needs.
Businesses, governments, and consumers all have a role to play in ensuring that the benefits of energy are balanced with its impacts on the environment. Energy companies are striving to meet growing energy demand in a manner that is efficient, minimizes pollution and waste, conserves natural resources, and prevents or reduces potentially negative environmental impacts. Business users of energy are working to mitigate their impacts and overall footprint, while consumers are increasingly being called on to conserve, to choose more environmentally-friendly products, and to use energy more efficiently. As the complex interrelationships among energy production, energy use, and the environment become better understood, governments are attempting to design incentives and policies that will help to further increase the benefits of energy and reduce its impacts.
Environmental impacts and greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) are a result of both the production and consumption of energy and can occur at all steps of the value chain, from extraction and production to product end use. This section summarizes several of the key issues associated with energy and the environment as well as some of the approaches that are underway to address these issues. A separate section details GHG emissions and climate change.
Energy Supply & Use: Impacts on the Environment
It is anticipated that oil, natural gas and coal will continue to provide a significant share of energy for our transportation, electricity, residential, and industrial needs for the foreseeable future (see Figure below and Energy Supply section). Under current conditions, the EIA’s view is that nuclear energy, alternative energy sources, and emerging technologies all have roles to play as well, but for a variety of reasons, their share of future energy supplies is projected to remain relatively small (See The Energy Portfolio). This share is determined by a variety of factors including available infrastructure, energy prices, energy security, geopolitics, and policies adjustments pertaining to the environment (e.g. carbon taxes associated with greenhouse gas emissions).
Additionally, there are barriers to renewable technology adoption in emerging markets – which are often large consumers of energy – and developing countries, such as price, access to technologies and infrastructure, and policy limitations. Policies for transferring renewable technologies may sometimes have license fees attached, and funding for capacity building and research and development is often inadequate. The integration of capital, technology, resources and markets will be necessary in order for sufficient cooperation between developed and developing countries to occur in an effort to adopt renewable technologies.
Given this view of our energy future, what are the environmental impacts of supplying the world’s growing energy demand? What are the opportunities to meet this demand while addressing environmental impacts, including climate change, biodiversity, air quality, and water quality and availability? What are the issues, challenges, and solutions?
What are the Environmental Impacts of Supplying the World’s Growing Energy Demand?
"Upstream" Exploration & Production Impacts: Extracting raw materials and developing energy sources requires drilling into the surface of the earth for oil, or performing surface "opencast" or underground "deep" mining for coal. The specific environmental impacts associated with the extraction of energy can include: greenhouse gas and air emissions, water use and contamination, dust and noise pollution, soil erosion, as well as biodiversity and land impacts. Energy companies mitigate these impacts by: minimizing flaring and venting, investing in energy efficiency, managing drilling discharges, maintaining pipeline integrity, managing waste and water discharges, and minimizing dust, light and noise.
"Midstream" & "Downstream" Processing & Generation Impacts: The generation of energy, from processing raw material inputs to transportation and customer delivery, also creates environmental impacts. Power plants release greenhouse gas emissions from coal, oil, and natural gas combustion and require large amounts of cooling water. Similarly, oil refineries have to manage NOx, SOx, and particulate emissions which are byproducts of combustion. Nuclear facilities generate and accumulate radioactive waste that currently lacks a permanent disposal site. Even alternative and renewable energy sources can affect wildlife, food, and water supplies; can involve hazardous wastes, and can produce GHG emissions. Energy companies are addressing these potential impacts through investments in technologies and processes for their operations, including: energy efficiency and cleaner fuels, furnace NOx mitigation, waste and water management, flare minimization, catalyst regeneration, cogeneration and other techniques.
Consumption Impacts: The choices we make as consumers and the processes that industrial users employ can have substantial impacts on the environment. The bulk of global GHGs are a result of energy consumption: further information on GHGs is provided in the Climate Change section.
The following discussions of the environmental issues mentioned above are each organized by the various stages of energy provision and use, from supply through to consumption. They describe the issue and why it is a challenge, what current approaches are working, and what possible solutions are being raised.