ABSTRACT
The confluence of environmental concerns and profit motives creates particularly muddied waters in the realm of energy production. At the core of the problem is the enormity of our reliance on energy from nonrenewable sources. Since Thomas Edison harnessed electricity and Nikolaus A. Otto popularized the internal combustion engine, energy derived from fossil fuels has received a central role in commerce and everyday life. Ripple effects from increases in energy prices disrupt the sectors of manufacturing, transportation, and retail trade. The health and environmental costs of burning fossil fuels appear at every stage of production and consumption. Invasive exploration for new supplies of coal and oil brings noise, roads, and heavy equipment into vulnerable wilderness areas. Mining and drilling operations perpetuate human presence in natural habitat and can involve the stripping off of topsoil and the build-up of silt, among other damaging by-products. The transportation of fossil fuels to their processing and distribution sites necessitates truck, train, and ship emissions, and involves thousands of accidents and spills each year. The refinement of oil into fuel is a source of toxic emissions into the air, wastewater discharges, and hazardous waste. And the combustion of fuels in power plants and engines brings carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide, and volatile organic compounds into communities around the globe.
