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I.
Energy policy has become increasingly more important to our country in the past several years. Issues such as global warming have brought up a need for cleaner, more efficient ways of producing energy to power our homes, businesses, and automobiles. Currently, very few steps are being taken to shift our country to alternative fuel sources. In 2001, a study showed that 52% of our nation was still being powered by coal, while only 2% was powered by renewable resources and only 6% being powered with hydro-electric power plants. With rising population and power demands, non-renewable fuel sources such as coal and oil are being very rapidly depleted. Another recent study showed that from 1997 to 2005, energy consumption per capita rose 13%. Acts such as the 2003 Clear Skies Act are taking steps backward by loosening regulations of pollution and release of toxins originally instated by the original Clean Air Act of 1963 and the Air Quality Act of 1967. The Clear Skies Act will allow 3 million tons more Nox into the atmosphere through 2012 and 8 million more tons by 2020. Much more can be done to prevent this pollution.
Although there is still much change to occur, automobile technology is beginning to take the first steps toward alternative fuel sources becoming the prominent source of transportation in our country. On December 18th, President Bush signed into law an energy bill that will require all automobile fleets by companies to reach an average of 35 miles per gallon by the year 2020, which is a 40% increase to today’s standard of 25 miles per gallon. This law also states that at least 36 billion gallons of motor fuel a year should be biofuels by the year 2022. Alternative fuel automobiles are currently on the market; however they remain both expensive and not powerful enough to meet the requirements of merely above average commute.

II.
A. Power Plants
- There are many new discoveries and breakthroughs in...