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Energy, Development, and Trade• Economic growth and development means a growth

in– Our need for resources and products

– The wastes generated

– Impacts on other life forms

• We will look at the economic geography of resources– And discuss trade and transportation issues related to

them

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Sources of Energy

• Our energy sources can be broadly classified into– Fossil fuels, and

– Non-fossil fuels

• What is a fossil fuel?– Formed from remains of prehistoric life

– Carbon-based compounds

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Energy Sources

• Interestingly enough, they also fall into two other classifications we can use– Non-renewable energy

– Renewable energy

• Because it takes thousands of years to convert dead life into fuel– Limit to the amount of fossil fuels

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Fossil Fuels

• Coal

• Petroleum– Why is it called “petroleum”?

• Natural gas

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Terminology

• Key terms are “reserves” and “resources”– Reserves are resources that are known and

available with current technologies and at current prices.

– Projected reserves are based on expected future prices and technologies

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Classification of Natural Resources & Proved Reserves

General Classification of Resources by the U.S. Geological Survey.

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Minerals

• Naturally occurring inorganic substance in the earth’s crust– Key term here is “inorganic”

• Nonmetallic and metallic minerals– Any examples?

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Abundance, by Weight, of Elements in the Earth’s Crust

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Leading Producers of Selected Minerals

Data from World Resources Institute.

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U.S. Reliance on Foreign Supplies of MineralsFigure 11.25

Data from U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Department of the Interior.

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World Trade & US Consumption

• Developing countries increasingly major mineral exporters– UNCTAD Data

• What are the implications of the chart on the right?

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Natural Gas

• Natural gas– As petroleum becomes more expensive, NG

becomes a viable alternative

– Russia has largest NG reserves

– Logistical problems with transporting NG

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Proved Natural Gas Reserves, January 1, 2000

Data from The BP Amoco Statistical Review of World Energy, 2000.

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Worldwide Trade Flows of Natural Gas, 1999

Data from The BP Amoco Statistical Review of World Energy, 2000. Used with permission.

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Major Natural Gas Pipelines in the United States

U.S. Department of Energy.

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Coal• Typically consumed in the country where it

is mined• Deposits found all over the Earth• Unattractive because:

– Sulfur and CO2 emissions– Mining complicated– Logistics of transportation– Not adaptable for mobile units

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Major Coal Basins

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Coal

• Four types of coal– Peat

– Lignite

– Bituminous

– Anthracite

• Peat is mostly dirt, and anthracite has most energy packed into it

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Coal

• Coal-based power plants invariably located close to where coal is found– Transporting coal is a waste on a per Btu basis

• Btu stands for British Thermal Unit, which measures the energy needed to raise the temperature of one pound of water by one degree Fahrenheit

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Oil

• In 1993, the world's proved reserves were estimated to be just under a trillion barrels– about a 45-year supply of oil, based on current

rates of consumption.

– 95% possibility that the world's remaining oil resources could last 63 more years and a

– 5% chance that the world's resources will last another 95 years at recent rates of consumption.

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Oil Supply• Resource unevenly distributed• Few major suppliers

– Saudi Arabia has largest reserves

• World supply controlled by the OPEC– 40% of the world’s production– Group is able to ‘fix’ crude oil prices– Limiting supply automatically increases price

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Oil Demand

• Modern economies need oil– Consumption growth rate very high in the fast

growing less developed countries

• Developed countries consume most– The United States is the leading consumer of

petroleum• Almost a third of the world’s production

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Leading Producers and Consumers of Oil

(a), (b) Data from The BP Amoco Statistical Review of World Energy, 2000.

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Shares of Proved Oil Reserves, January 1, 2000

Data from The BP Amoco Statistical Review of World Energy, 2000.

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International Crude Oil Flow by Sea, 1999

The BP Amoco Statistical Review of World Energy, 2000. Used with permission.

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When Reserves are Exhausted ...

• What if the estimates are incorrect?– New exploration techniques are improving the

scope and success of offshore drilling operations, adding to the world's known resources.

– For example, in 1965, the petroleum industry's drilling capabilities limited offshore wells to waters less than 300 feet deep.

• Today, the industry drills for oil in waters as deep as 3,000 feet.

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Areas with Naturally Fertile Soils

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Commercial Marine Fisheries of the World

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Hydropower

• Water is a renewable source of energy– Unless we screw up things really bad :-(

• Not a major source of world’s energy– About one percent at a global level

• But may be significant in smaller regions– Pacific Northwest, for instance

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Go Nuke?

• Nuclear power was thought to be THE solution to the growing need for energy

• Growth of nuclear power in the 1960s and 1970s– Drive ended with the infamous Three Mile Island

incident

– A definite no-no after the Chernobyl disaster

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Go Nuke?

• Nuclear power is a major source of energy in many countries– In France, 80% of electricity from nuclear power

plants (57 of them)

– In 1973, 80% of the electricity was produced with fossil fuels

• http://www.insc.anl.gov/maps/world.html

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In the US • Nuclear power generation accounts for about

a fifth of the total electricity generated– 103 commercial plants– 67% of Vermont’s electricity

• In CA?– San Onofre– Diablo Canyon near SLO

• http://www.energy.ca.gov/maps/power_plant.html

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Electricity

• Is a secondary source of energy– We use coal, oil, gas, etc., to produce electricity

• Location criteria for energy production– Raw materials

– Market

– Loss in distribution

– Pollution concerns

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Electricity

• Raw material orientation– Coal is too bulky and expensive to transport over

long distances

– Hydropower plants located close to source of water

– How about gas and oil based?

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Electricity

• Pollution concerns– Many urban areas already highly polluted

– So, rarely are power generation plants located close to urban areas

• Longer distances over which electricity is transported– California even bought Canadian electricity!

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Electricity

• Distribution losses– Almost a tenth of the energy is lost in

transmission and distribution

– Advanced technology has made possible the use of HIGH voltage transmission lines that reduce losses

• Use it or lose it– Can’t save it for a rainy day :-(

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Transporting Raw Materials

• Coal– Railroads the major carrier

– Water transport• Mississippi river, Great Lakes basins

– Slurry pipeline• Coal plus water pumped along pipes

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Transporting Raw Materials• Oil

– Transported over miles• Remember, Saudi Arabia is the largest exporter

quite a few thousand miles away– Supertankers

– Once it gets to the US?• Road, railroad and pipelines

• Location of refineries?

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Transporting Raw Materials• Natural gas

– Not easy to transport as petroleum is

• Huge pipelines all over the world– Remember the James Bond movie, “The

World is not Enough”?

• Gas pipelines and the CA energy crisis– http://www.energy.ca.gov/naturalgas/western_state_pipelines.html

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Energy Use and Pollution

• Air pollution– Global and local

• Global dimension:– Damage to the ozone layer

• The ozone layer protects Earth from harmful UV rays

• Primary culprit here is CFC, whose use has ceased in the US

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Air Pollution

• The other global problem is global warming– Given that fossil fuels are carbon-based

– Burning these fuels increases CO2

– CO2 traps the heat from being emitted into space

– Results in increase of our planet’s temperature

• Loss of the rainforest cover compounds it– Plants absorb CO2 for photosynthesis