Pingie: HTTP:: Americans Consumed Less Fossil Fuels in 2008

HTTP:: Americans Consumed Less Fossil Fuels in 2008
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Experts from the US Department of Energy's (DOE) Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) have recently released a new set of statistics, showing that the ratio of alternative energy to fossil fuels noticeably increased in 2008, as opposed to 2007. Wind farms, solar stations, geothermal plants and biofuels increased their presence in the average American home, the report also indicates. However, the consumption of geothermal energy remained roughly the same as the previous year, which is unfortunate, considering that this is, in fact, the most abundant renewable resource we have. For the same time period, the average US household increased its natural gas consumption only slightly, whereas the use of coal and oil, the most polluting fossil fuels, has declined to some extent. The DOE estimates that 2008 saw the consumption of 99.2 quadrillion (quads) British Thermal Units (BTU) of energy, a decrease from 2007's 101.5 quadrillion BTU. Surprisingly, the industrial and tr!
ansportation sectors exhibited reductions as well, of 1.17 and 0.9 quads, respectively. On the other hand, commercial and residential power consumption slightly climbed, showing people's trend of filling their houses with electronic devices. The report speculates that the decrease in the two important sectors may have, to some extent, be...
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http://news.softpedia.com/news/Americans-Consumed-Less-Fossil-Fuels-in-2008-117196.shtml