Lab Energy Resources

ENERGY RESOURCES JGoals By – – – the end of this activity, students will be able to: Understand sources of fossil fuels State the main uses of local and national fossil fuels Investigate the carbon footprint of different lifestyle choices Part 1 What types of Energy do we Use and Produce? Visit https://www.eia.gov/state/?sid=CO#tabs-1 and consider the “Colorado Energy Consumption Estimates” “Consumption by Source” tab. What are the top three sources? (1.5 pts) 1. Coal 2. Natural Gas 3. Ethanol Are these sources renewable? Yes or No? (highlight one) (0.5 pt) Do any of these numbers surprise you? Why or why not? (2 pts) Yes, I feel as technology is improving such as discovering solar and wind power options we would be fading out of using un-renewable resourses to a more envirment friendly option. Move to the “Consumption by Sector” tab. About how much of energy is used by residential (household)? (0.5 pt) 23.5% What is the largest sector of consumption? Is this surprising? Why/why not? (0.5 pt) Transportation-not suprising to me as people use cars everyday in almost every country with electric veichles becoming slowly more popular but our main source of cars are gasoline or diesel powered Move to the “Production” tab. What is the largest type of energy produced in Colorado? Is this surprising? Why/why not? (0.5 pt) Natural gas- not suprising to me because it is a common gas many people and companies will use. Move to the “Electricity” tab. What is the dominant source for electricity generation? Is this surprising? Why/why not? (0.5 pt) Coal Fired – Yes it is surprising to me because coal is a finite non-renewable resource meaning using it as our primary power production method makes it hard to think what happens when we start running out. Part 2 How does Energy Production link to Weld County’s Economy and Tax Structure? Visit https://www.weldgov.com/live_work/about_weld Under the “Industry” tab. What industry did horizontal drilling give rise to? (0. 5pt) Colorado front range or the Jake well What businesses are the principal tax payers? (0. 5pt) ________Noble Energy Anadarko Petroleum Petroleum Development Corp. Public Service of Colorado (Xcel) DCP Midstream LP Vestas Blade America Inc._________________ What are the pros and cons of the local industries in Weld County? Why likely benefits? Who received, or will receive, negative impacts? (1 pt) It allows business in weld county to thrive.. I could not find any cons to this. And this allows employment rates to go up as well as our economic value in weld county. Part 3 Fossil Fuels and Hydraulic Fracturing Fossil fuels aren’t made from dinosaurs, silly, they’re made from fossil phytoplankton that has been trapped in sedimentary rocks for future exploitation. Many “conventional plays,” meaning oil and gas extraction from reservoirs that is easily and “conventionally” extracted have already been exploited. Some sources of petroleum and natural gas are trapped in reservoirs that have low permeability, or ability to transmit fluids. To get around this problem, hydraulic fracturing was invented. Visit https://stillwaterassociates.com/what-the-frack-is-happening-in-colorado-alook-inside-colorados-hydraulic-fracking-phenomenon/?cn-reloaded=1 Look at the map of fracturing locations. Where are most of the fracking wells located? (0.5 pt) In the North Eastern Sector of colorado What main geologic formation is being fracked in Weld County? (0.5 pt) Oil and Gas When looking at production through time, in what year did production increase dramatically? Why did it increase? (1 pts) University of Colorado Boulder for the Colorado Oil and Gas Association found that oil and gas development added $31.7 billion to Colorado’s economy in 2014. _____________________________________________________________________________________ Do you think fracking should be allowed to be expanded and/or continue at its current pace? Why or why not? What could be the long-term consequences of this oil and gas boom? (2 pts) No, I believe as fracking can help economically, it is not helping environmentally. I believe it should continue at its current pace or be less frequent to benefit the planet Part 4 National Emissions by Source and Sector Greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane are considered problematic, as they trap heat and warm the Earth. Consider national sources of greenhouse gas emissions https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/sources-greenhouse-gas-emissions What are the top sources of greenhouse gas emissions? Does this or other sources listed surprise you? Why or why not? (2 pts) Transportation and Electricity produce the most greenhouse gas emmisions. It does not surprise me at all, as I stated earlier how many people are driving on a day to day schedule as well as us constantly needing electricity to be able to heat food, have lighting, charge devices and so much more. _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ Consider the “agriculture tab,” what are some sources of emissions listed from agriculture? Are these surprising? Why or why not? (2 pts) Cows, Agricultural soil, and Rice production. This does surprise me because I cant really wrap my mind on how cows and soil are creating 10% of our greenhouse gases. Since they are not necesairily using non-renewable resources ___________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ Part 5 Your Carbon Footprint Visit http://shrinkthatfootprint.com/shrink-your-food-footprint And consider the “carbon intensity” of different foods. Just like the water footprint, different foods have different carbon footprints. Which food groups have the highest carbon footprint and why? Is this surprising? Why or why not? (2 pts) Beef and Lamb hold the highest carbon footprint. This could be because of the long production process through each animal and the small output we truly get from each. _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ Consider the carbon footprint, and associated impact on climate, of different lifestyle choices. https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/the-four-lifestyle-choicesthat-most-reduce-your-carbon-footprint Reflect on your own lifestyle choices and discuss what you have learned in this lab and if you have the desire to change any of your choices. (2 pts) Looking at the diagram it really suprises me how much I may not notice of a footprint I am creating however I already am cautious about this sort of situation and ways to limit it. One thing I do is bike to any of my local destinations saving on the car footprint. Another is combing my loads of laundery with others so we don’t use as much water/detergent.____________________________________________________________________ _________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________