10 Links
10 Preliminary links
Should The United States steer toward becoming an energy efficient Country?
President Obama wants to drive away from fuel dependency in the United States and create an energy efficient nation.
1. Eugene Water and Electric Board
The Eugene Water and Electric Board discusses energy conservation in Eugene along with their many successful energy saving programs. This website demonstrates the power a simple organization can utilize to make a greater change for a local region in the United States with saving energy. If more electric companies followed Eugene’s energy efficient opportunities in a more grandeur scale, President Obama’s goals for the United States becoming energy effecient seem more concrete and possible. EWEB discusses their goals for energy in the future on their website, along with describing multiple ways for the Eugene individual to save energy with different scenarios. One can also find success stories on their website and where Eugene Electric and Water Board receives their electric resources, where fuel is an miniscule portion. If this regional organization could influence and inspire others in the United States to follow their example with energy efficiency, President Obama’s goal to become fuel independent and energy dependent could be closer in reach with a shorter timeline to acheive it. This is an instituational source that was paid for by the organization EWEB. The intended audience is for Eugene homeowners who want to use their organization for energy and water resources.
2. Hybrid Cars
The biggest consumer industry of oil and fuel is the vehicle industry. Nearly all American families and individuals own a car that relies on fuel for usage. In order to steer The United States away from being heavily dependable on fuel, we need to steer American’s from consuming as much fuel as we currently do. This is where Hybrid Cars come in. With minimal fuel consumption, not only are Hybrid’s earth-friendly but they are economically advantageous because less money is spent on fuel. States such as California believe that Hybrid Vehicles are the future of the United States and thus has created a Hybrid Plan for the future. They predict that Hybrids will become the dominant vehicle by the year 2030, until a car similar to Honda’s Zero emission electric and fuel cell vehicle take over the market. This is an institutional source, Car Companies that produce hybrids probably paid for this website to encourage potential buyers to “go green” and buy a hybrid.
3. Univerisity of Oregon Recreational Center’s Reusable Energy Program
http://insideoregon.uoregon.edu/machines-in-the-uo-student-rec-center-harness-human-energy/
The University of Oregon has a Student Recreational Center that implemented an energy efficient program at their facility. Their recreational center recycles energy from workout machines for lighting and other electrical needs. The UO Recreational Center basically harnesses the energy human’s produce during their workout. This concept is brilliant in the sense that an individual has thought up another way to be energy efficient in Eugene. If this program was implemented around the world, we could recycle natural energy that would help us conserve energy at an international level. Specifically for President Obama’s goal to steer away from fuel usage, this program in the United States could create other outlets where energy could be dominant over fuel and where the price of energy could still remain at a relatively low price, even with a higher demand. This is an institutional source that The University of Oregon is paying for, to highlight their campus in a positive way. The audience intended for this website are potential students and alumni. This article is could be considered biased because it may not note on how certain machines and parts of the recreational center were closed in order to implement this project or other negative aspects that were entailed.
4. The United States Natural Gas History
http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/dnav/ng/ng_sum_lsum_dcu_nus_m.htm
How has our dependency on gas affected international trade in the past? Instead of completely focusing on the future goal of energy efficiency within President Obama’s political plan, I wanted to spend some time to focus on the past. This website shows The historical price changes in fuel over the 35 years and compares it to energy prices. It reports on imports, exports, production and many other elements that deal with fuel and energy. For the prices of fuel imports over the past 10 years, there is a consistent rise. With the combination of inflation, lack of supply, and the goal to lessen demand, fuel prices are expected to continue increasing in the future. This helps exemplify the importance of steering The United States from a fuel dependent country to an independent energy-efficient nation. This is an academic source that researchers are paying to produce.
5. Oil Price History Analysis with OPEC
http://www.wtrg.com/prices.htm
Fuel prices shot up to shocking prices during the summer of 2009 due to the imported barrel pricing rising. The last time this happened with in the 1970’s when OPEC gave us a limited supply of fuel due to weak foreign policy. The United States is a powerhouse in the world and should not succumb to foreign trade that weakens our economy. By becoming energy efficient in the United States, we can steer away from being dependent on OPEC and avoid high prices from imported fuel in the future. If we steer our country to be more energy efficient, The United States local oil production will ultimately become a sufficient source for the United States to depend on. This will help with foreign relations along with strengthen our country as a whole. I would classify this as an institutional source, that OPEC or Energy institutions are paying for. Since this is a chart, it will not be entirely biased. It is just relaying facts, not necessarily in a brutal or friendly way, just facts.
6. President Barack Obama’s plan for the United States
http://www.barackobama.com/pdf/factsheet_energy_speech_080308.pdf
A concrete version of President Barack Obama’s plan to steer the United States to becoming an energy efficient country is a necessary source to obtain. Their goal is not only for ecological reasons, but also for the economy. By implementing this plan in the United States, President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden want to create 5 million new jobs by investing over $150 billion dollars into this plan for the future. Not only will this help our economy, but it will also help conserve necessary resources in The United States. The document also states their goals for the short term, middle term and long term future. This document is a governmental institutional source, that the government is paying for. It will nationalize President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden and speak of their plans in only a beneficial way. This document can be biased in the sense that it is only elaborating on certain information, n0t entirely the whole picture of what the consequences will entail.
7. LILLIS CENTER
This website discusses the Lillis business center’s ecologically friendly building. Although this information can be found on the EWEB website, I found on this site that states that it cost $40 million in order to produce the building, which I found to be substantial information because it altered my opinion with the level of ease President Obama will endure with creating an energy efficient country quickly due to financial constraints that may occur. The Student Recreational Center at the University of Oregon focuses on recycling human energy, but Lillis receives its energy from the building itself and conserves energy by architectural means. I would classify this as an institutional source that is explaining a successful process. I do not think this website will be extremely biased, because the topic is pretty specific. It is an informative website of what Lillis’ business center does with energy.
8. OPEC
Since OPEC has caused the United States high gas price, I thought it would be beneficial to do research from a pro-fuel point of view, or a company who’s main goal is producing and effeciently distributing a supply of fuel to nations across the globe. On the Website, there was a press release that stated the daily basket price for Thursday, November 12th was $76.06 a barrel. This shows how The United States is truly powerless with controlling fuel prices. There is a global press announcement daily that merely states the price of fuel. I found it interesting that on the website, they discuss increasing OPEC’s capacity to produce more fuel in the future. This was substantial information for me because as The United States is trying to condense their fuel imports, OPEC is trying to expand their exports. I thought that this was interesting because as countries begin to desire energy efficiency, I thought OPEC would want to remain the size they currently have and produce the same amount of fuel in retrospect. I would classify this as an institutional source, that OPEC is paying for. They will be biased by focusing specifically on fuel production, instead of the combination of energy and oil working together simultaneously. This website will not highlight the negative effects of fuel in the world, but only defend the idea by promoting fuel production in a positive light.
9. Energy Tomorrow Organization
http://energytomorrow.org/?gclid=CKLIg_Keh54CFR4HagodYjHOtA
Energy Tomorrow Organization’s website not only discusses fuel and oil, but also discusses energy security. Although EWEB is also a energy conserving organization, they still run a business. I thought it would be interested to have a non profit organization as a source. This is an institutional source but could also be seen as a citizen source because there is a blog section on the website where many individuals can express their views. This website can also be seen as journalistic because it incorporates Energy related youtube videos of reporters pertaining to the topic of energy. The audience is anyone interested in energy consumption, but the people creating the website is the API (American Petroleum institute). Therefore, this website is pro-petroleum and may be biased with the information they are giving.
10. New York Times
The New York Times Editorial “Culling the Gas Hogs” discusses the “cash for clunkers” program that car dealerships utilized in order to stimulate the economy and put more fuel efficient cars on the road. It also mentions that the government helped pay to continue this program until labor day. However, it highlights the national situation not just in the positive reference way, it also discusses what will need to be continually done in the future to actually decline fuel consumption. This article is journalistic, because the writer explains to the average american the problems that fuel and big SUV’s enforce on the economy today. It is important for class because although the “cash for clunkers” programs were advertised on car dealership’s websites, this article appearing in the New York Times probably reached a broader and bigger audience than advertisements. The Car dealership promotional advertisements probably reached an audience to those buying a car, but since the overall program was directed toward those with SUV’s and maybe not necessarily looking for a car, this editorial reached a broader audience.
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