Table of Contents:

Hydroelectricity..2

Wind Power..10

Solar Power...16

Biodiesel23

Coal.30

Works Cited36

Hydroelectricity
In these post-modern times, we have all grown to accept that global warming
is no swindle. We have all grown to accept that the times are changing, and so is
our global environment. In a recent study done by the NOAA (National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration) on the Mauna Loa Observatory, scientists
reported that the carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere were clocking in at fourhundred ppm (parts per million), which is an all-time high. (Visser, Nick) The
United States Federal Government is already aware of these shocking and
disappointing results and has started investing in alternative energy sources;
however, most of these funds are allocated toward researching bio-fuels and solar
farms. Hydroelectricity is often a neglected source of energy, but the dismissal of
the potential power in water is superfluous. Investing in dams, reservoirs, and
generators, would require minimal researching, and therefore all our investments
would directly impact project construction or methods of improving our current
systems. We also have to take into account that hydroelectricity has been proven
throughout time to be a reliable and dependable source of energy.
Although alternative energy alludes to a futuristic form of energy, the United
States is very familiar with the concept of hydropower and has been using it as a
method of harnessing power for much longer than most people would think. The
1881 integration of the hydroelectric generating station to Niagara Falls was the
2

first example of generating direct currents of electricity at a mass volume. The

original generating station in Niagara Falls stills continues to produce electricity,
even after 133 years, and is a testament of the long term infrastructure
developments that hydroelectricity holds. Niagara Falls has experienced minimal
issues with generating hydroelectricity and has proven to the United States Federal
Government that this is a dependable source of energy. (Bureau of Reclamation)
The era that would prove to be most dependent on the power of water, would
be the World War Two era, 1940-1945. After seeing the introduction of the military
airplane, the rapid firing machine gun and the armored tank, the United States
government realized that this new war would be would be won through
technological advances, rather than the number of soldiers. The United States was
unprepared for modern warfare, thus sending the nation into a large manufacturing
frenzy. Throughout this five year time frame, hydroelectricity made up a third of
all electricity available. The United States Department of the Interior claims that
through all the energy that the reclamation power plants provided, 47 billion KWh
(Kilowatt hours), is enough to produce: 69,000 airplanes, 79,000 machine guns,
5,000 ships, 7,000,000 aircraft bombs, 5,000 tanks, and 31,000,000 shells. (Bureau
of Reclamation) It is concerning to think where exactly the United States would
have been if we did not have hydroelectricity during these times, since a third of all
energy came from it. It is also concerning to think of how much non-renewable
3

energy we are wasting now as we engage in combats overseas without the help of
hydroelectricity.
In the 1940s, seventy-five percent of all energy consumed in the West and
Pacific Northwest was from hydropower, but now we see that hydropower makes
up a much smaller percentage of that now. So did hydroelectricity become
obsolete? To fully answer that question we have to consider that the differences
between the 1940s and modern day, and we also need to understand exactly how
these generators work.
During the forties and fifties, electronics, including appliances, were not
nearly as accessible as they are to us today. The cost to produce these goods was
extremely high, which meant that only the upper class could afford many of these
vast improvements in the quality of life. Not only were the inventions inaccessible
due to their pricing, but there simply was not a large selection of electronics and
appliances to choose from. Now in the contemporary market, we have resolved
both concerns. There is a wide variety of electronics available, and a large portion
of them are accessible and affordable to the general public. What once was a
luxury became a standard; everyone started using up much more electricity than in
the past, so we had to quickly compensate for that by relying heavily on gas and

coal burning, since project construction would take several years and we would be
unable to properly project energy demand.
The reason why we couldnt quickly improve the dams overnight is because
the generators can only output what is inputted into them. Dams work by locating
a river that has great potential energy and a continuous flow of water. Usually this
means that they will choose rivers with the highest heights since the water gains
more energy as it falls. They dam off the water and make it so that the only
possible way for gravity to win, or water to get across, is to have the water go
through a pipe, a penstock, that makes it directly push a turbine. The energy
harvested from the turbines is later sent to a generator and then shortly after is sent
to cities through power lines. Redesigning a dam has often thought to be too time
consuming and expensive, since you have to take into account so many different
aspects, like the energy lines, the ecosystem, the water pressure, etc. We cannot
control the energy inside the water, but we can make systems use the water supply
more efficiently.
Although hydropower has its limitations, it still serves to be the best
alternative available when we consider the environmental impact. The researchers
from Scherre Institute and University of Stuttgart have concluded that hydropower
is the most environmentally safe option. Theyve concluded that hydroelectricity

uses the absolute least amount of fossil fuels (this also takes into account initial
construction), and also releases next to no greenhouse gases. Additionally, it has no
aspects that burn coal or oil into the environment. Recognizing that the
environmental benefits are here, we need to invest in options that will insure
citizens the best benefit for the longest amount of time.
The opposition mentions how dams and other hydroelectric options are far
too expensive to be a considered vital solution to our growing energy demand, and
I do agree that it is irrational, if you consider these investments to be short term
investments. But they are not short term investments. Using fossil fuels is a short
term investment. The construction of dams and other options are long term
investments and long term options for the nation and the world. On average, a
constructed dam will last on average, seventy to one hundred years of rigorous use,
(Brett Bergen), but as seen through the construction of the Three Gorges Dam, the
benefits of a dam will pay for themselves in five to eight years. (Beyond Three
Gorges in China) Even at its worse possible option, we are still making seventy to
ninety years of pure profit from these dams -- if not longer through the exponential
advances of technology. We must also consider that all the money made from the
sale of the energy from dams is also an environmental benefit, because now we are
starting to meet consumer demands without releasing the same level of greenhouse
or toxic gasses as before.
6

A state that is familiar to us and that could benefit from a change in energy
source is our shining state of Utah. Due to Utahs unique geographical
characteristics, and the natural resources industry here, we are naturally prone to
disaster. The valley, where most of our inhabitants live in, is nothing but a trap for
pollutants and the Kennecott factory is worsening the air even more. Many claim
that this is just part of the normal winter inversion cycle but many reports have
indicated otherwise.
Utahs pollution is however, excessive, even when taking account our
geography. Bryce Bird, the director of Utahs Division of Air Quality, said,
Federal safe air standards are set at 35 micrograms of particles per cubic meter of
air about the weight of a single crystal of table salt averaged over a 24-hour
period. During inversions last month, Salt Lake County reached 69 micrograms per
cubic meter, while nearby Utah County got to 125 micrograms. Our pollution
level is nearly four times the federally safe standards. For several years now,
many Utah groups have been blaming Kennecott mining for pollution, especially
since the Utah Division of Air Quality reported that one third of all pollution is
caused by the mining company. (Klaus and Hayhew)
In the EIAs state profile and energy estimates, updated as of December 18th,
2013, Utahs different energy sources are broken down and explained. Its to be

expected that coal, especially in Utah, the presumed problem of our state,
providing 80% of the states energy, while renewable energy only accounts for 5%
of the states total energy. In these renewable energy categories, it mentions how
hydroelectric power supplies half of the total renewable energy of Utah, so 2.5% of
the states total. Its not a surprise to see that water powered methods are the most
common in renewable sources.
Its unconventional on appearances, that Utah would use hydroelectricity as
its main sources of alternative energy, since we are in a desert, but the lack of
available water might only make the desire to maintain a steady water supply
greater.
Agriculture has always been a struggle in Utah, but we are doing the best
that we can do insure that we are independently making enough to supply both
ourselves and our markets. Utah is currently allocating 82% of its water supply to
agriculture. (How Utah Water Works by the Office of Legislative Research and
General Counsel) We understand that there is a certain potential in water, whether
it be energy or the prospects of feeding, and do our best not to use our supply in
vain. Often times, dams and reservoirs often aid with help of irrigation canals,
especially with rural desert areas. By prioritizing hydropower we are also making a

small leap towards a more efficient way of managing irrigation; small advances
like these are often times common with advancing other fields.
All in all, we are often told about the negative consequences that are
associated with coal and fuel powered plants, but up until this past winter, many of
us had never been fully exposed to the conditions that were so polluted ridden as
the inversion that occurred during the winter of 2013. The energy crisis argument
may be overstated, but it is a valid concern. We need to alter our fuel consumption
sources to insure us sustainability for the upcoming decades. Hydroelectricity
should be politically prioritized to insure us a better environment, because we have
proven it through history that it is a reliable and stable source of energy, but we
have to consider all energy options to insure us the greenest. There is no fuel
supply that will save us, but it will be a combination of alternative sources which
will ultimately benefit us the most by making us less dependent on coal and oil.

Wind Energy
Weve talked about water power as a source for renewable energy, but that
isnt the only renewable energy source. In this section, were going to focus on
wind power; how it works, how much it costs, and weighing the benefits and
disadvantages that may come with relying more on wind power as a source of
energy.
First things first, we need to understand exactly what wind is. When the sun
heats up an area of land, some of the heat is absorbed by the air around it. When air
gets hot, it rises. Since there always needs to be air
pressure, cooler air moves to replace the air that
rose, and thats how wind is created. (Layton, 1)
If something is put in that air path, the air
particles will push on it and, at most times make it

Figure 1

move. Thats where the wind turbine comes into play.

There are three main parts to a wind turbine. Theres the rotors, which are
the pieces moved by the wind, theres the shaft, which is spun when the rotors spin,
and is where the energy is transferred to the generator. The generator is where the
energy that is transmitted to the power lines is created. (Layton, 1-2)

10

The generator needs its own paragraph to be explained. The way the
generator works is that the shaft is connected to an assembly of permanent magnets
that surround a coil of wire. The shaft spins the magnets, and when they spin
around the wire, it creates the voltage that drives an electrical current to power
lines. (Layton, 2)
There are two kinds of turbines. One that is very rarely used is called the
vertical-axis wind turbine. This wind turbine is lower to the ground and doesnt
need to be moved to match the direction of wind. The problem with this type of
turbine is that motion needs to be generated with
electricity, and since its so low to the ground, the wind
that it catches isnt moving very quickly, so it ends up
using about as much energy as it collects. Also, it takes
up much more space than the other type of wind
turbine there is. (Layton, 3)
Figure 2

The wind turbine that is much more commonly used is a horizontal-axis

turbine. These are used more often mainly because they take up less space and
collect more energy. The reason more energy is collected is because they are higher
up from the ground up to 280 feet!-. One reason they are so high is so that the
rotor blades clear the ground. The builders of the majority of wind turbines keep
the rotor blades very big, so that there is the maximum amount of energy captured
11

by the turbine. The other reason is because there is

more wind

speed higher up. (Layton, 4)

The current estimation of power generated by wind turbines worldwide is
equal to the amount of power generated by 8

Figure 3

nuclear power plants. One small turbine can generate up to 16,000 kWh per year.
An average household uses up to 10,000 kWh per year. And thats just a small
turbine. A large wind turbine generates enough power to supply 600 houses per
year. (Layton, 4)
Now that weve covered the basics about how wind power and the turbines
that create it work, we can focus on what everyone seems most caught up about,
how much these things cost to build and run.
Im going to focus on horizontal-axis turbines and their cost, since not very
many people use vertical-axis turbines.
In 2012, the cost of a wind turbine project ranged from $1.3 million to $2.3
million per MW (megawatt) of capacity installed into the turbines. Since most
commercial turbines are about 2 MW in size, that would come to an average cost
of $2.6 million to $4.6 million to run the turbine. This cost may or may not include
the cost of financing and the cost of construction contracts. It also may not take
into account things other than the turbines, such as wind resource assessment and
12

site analysis expenses; construction expenses; permitting and interconnection

studies; utility system upgrades, transformers, protection and metering equipment;
insurance; operations, warranty, maintenance, and repair; legal and consultation
fees. (Windustry, 1)
In the debate of whether or not we should rely more on renewable energy
sources, there are several points made by people who oppose spending more
money on doing further research on the topic. Here is a list of some pros and cons
that I have found.
Some of the most common disadvantages Ive seen mentioned include that
wind isnt constant. Since wind isnt constant, the wind turbines would not be
generating power constantly. While this is true, there are several mechanics and
scientists that are working on ways to store energy that is captured by wind
turbines. These projects, I believe, need more funding in order to progress wind
energy technology.
Another common complaint I hear about wind power is that neighbors to
turbines have a problem with the noise. According to a chart I found, wind turbines
are actually relatively quiet. When measured in decibels, when you are close to a
turbine, it can get as loud as a lawnmower, but when about 300 or so meters away,

13

it sounds between the

loudness of a refrigerator
and the loudness of a midsize window a/c unit. (G.E)
There also an
argument for the
ecosystems surrounding
areas where potential

Figure 4

turbines could be built. In the past, wind turbines have shown to kill a total of
about 10,000 to 40,000 birds which have flown into their path. However, it has
shown that far more from forty
million to one billion- deaths have be
caused by things such as power lines,
windows, pesticides, and
communication towers. (For the
Wind)
Figure 5

Most people feel as though

wind energy is not efficient and that we are spending too much money on it.
Research has shown that wind turbines, while expensive at times, earn back their
cost within a year of them running. Not only that, but the construction of wind
14

turbines will create more jobs and opportunities for the country. Native materials
are used to build these turbines, so the domestic economy will be promoted.
(Duke)
Despite several claims that wind power isnt a good idea, there seems to be
some way to refute the claims made against it. Maybe our society is afraid of
change, maybe there are other valid reasons for being against wind power. The fact
right now is that wind power is a much cleaner and safer option than coal, oil, or
nuclear dependency. We wont run out of wind, since wind comes from air, and we
need air in order to survive. What we will run out of is the coal and oil that we are
currently defending; especially at the rate we use these resources. That, or our
climate will become too polluted to really survive in. Wind power is also very
effective, despite claims that wind power is too expensive to maintain, many
studies have shown that wind power definitely earns back its cost.

Solar Energy
You wake up in the morning and turn off your alarm, you then proceed to
turn on your light and head into the shower that is heating up, and you brew a pot
of coffee, eat some cereal with cold milk on top, power on your car and head out
for the day. The simple things we all do in life, things we do naturally and things
15

we do daily, all require something extraordinary, they all require energy. Where is
this energy obtained and how does it affect us? What kind of pollution do we
contribute daily through these habitual acts of day to day life? How can we help
the environment better itself through the way we live and the way we use our
energy? I believe that Solar Energy can not only help our environment with its
pollution problem, but also, financially help boost the economy.
As the world- wide demand for energy increases, so does the burning of
fossil fuels to create it and so do the problems that proceed. Fossil fuels is an
exhausted system; As said by Paul Roberts in his book, The End of Oil, Oil
companies quietly are reengineering themselves to sell natural gas; governments
are scrambling to develop, or at least understand, the hydrogen economy
procedures; a desperate search for new oil fields; rising tensions between energy
producers and importers; diplomatic skirmishes over climate policy It is
obvious that the current energy economy is on its way out, no clear consensus has
taken shape on what happens next, what the next energy economy will look like.
Can existing hydrocarbon technologies (primary energy source for current
civilizations) be adapted to new realities, or does the world require a radical new
energy technology? If so, which technology? Newspapers and magazines and
political speeches are filled with descriptions of brave new energy technologies:
hydrogen fuel cells, wind farms, solar building, tidal generation, and fantastic
16

processes that turn grass into diesel and manure into gasoline. But are any of these
truly viable? How much will they cost? Can they be brought to bear in time? How
long would a transition take?
He continues saying, It is hard to imagine a more appropriate moment to be
talking about a new energy economy. Electrical blackouts and gasoline price spikes
have reminded us of the vulnerability of our energy system and our precarious
dependence on foreign producers. Europe and the United States have parted ways
over climate change and energy policy generally, with Europeans making modest
efforts to develop a post-oil economy, while Americans, have adopted an
aggressive policy of domestic oil drilling that wishes away environmental,
geopolitical, and even geological realities.
Every day the sun provides more energy than the entire population of the
earth could consume in 27 years. (Stuart A. Kallen) Many people are familiar
with so-called photovoltaic cells, or solar panels, found on things like spacecraft,
rooftops, and handheld calculators. The cells are made of semiconductor materials
like those found in computer chips. When sunlight hits the cells, it knocks
electrons loose from their atoms. As the electrons flow through the cell, they
generate electricity.(National Geographic)

17

Solar panels were first introduced in the 1970s as a private and a commercial
investment. Before then, they were only used in labs and were primarily researched
by college students. Solar panels then were put into use by satellites and more
commonly calculators, but they werent put into much use in the home, because of
how expensive they were. Generally, fossil fuels are cheaper out the door for
electricity. The other set back is solar energy can only be used during the daytime
as there is no economical way to store the electrical energy for use at night, on
cloudy days, or during snowstorms. Regardless, we need to make green energy,
clean energy and have our carbon footprint in the world be less and less as life goes
on.
Since the 1970s until modern times, the solar panel technology has vastly
improved. As said by Daniel Schrag of Harvard University, CO2 levels are at an
all-time high, higher than its been in millions of years. CO2 is a greenhouse gas,
where it absorbs heat, sits in the atmosphere and radiates it back to the earths
surface, slightly raising the temperature. With that being said, solar panels in
America produce about two coal plants worth of energy, not even enough for a
major city, we have great need for improvements. (Solar Energy Saved By The
Sun).
We are not alone in this world; therefore we are not the only ones
responsible for the control of the pollution. Many European countries have been
18

developing ways to help with the problem. Herman Scheer a member of the
German Bundestag (parliament) and president of the Eurosolar (the European
association for renewable energy) implemented a renewable energy incentive act to
help motivate citizens to buy solar panels. In this act, people received .50 cents per
kilo watt an hour that was sent to the grid and only paid .20 cents per kilo watt an
hour used. Also, in the act, it promised a 20 year set rate on energy prices for
people under the contracts. The auto bond also has solar panels lining the entire
road, which feeds into the power grid of Munchen a city of about 1.5 million
people. Herman Scheer estimates that at the rate they are going in 2 decades about
33% of all their power will come from renewable energy. (Solar Energy Saved by
the Sun).
Right now The United States receives about 1% of its power from
renewable energy and according to the website of solar energy, most states offer
some sort of incentive for installing solar at this point, in the form of tax
incentives, low-interest loans, grants or other means. But only 8 states offer rebates
for installing solar.
Joshua Krisch quotes Michael Aziz, a professor of energy technologies at
Harvard University who says, "We need to find a way to store massive amounts of
electrical energy, that's the single biggest obstacle to getting a large fraction of our
electricity from solar power."
19

One of the options is inorganic, metal ion-based flow batteries which have
been in use since the 1980s. These older models were constructed as tanks filled
with vanadium ions, and could be customized to deliver more hours of energy by
simply increasing the amount of vanadium in a storage tank. Unfortunately,
vanadium isn't cheap. Joshua Krisch quotes, Tom Meyer, a professor of chemistry
at the University of North Carolina, says Instead of converting solar energy into
electricity we should convert it to hydrogen. You start out with water and just break
it into its elemental form," he says, "then collect that hydrogen in a tank and then
burn it at night."
Although Meyer's team is currently working with water, he hopes to extend
his project to power homes while reducing our carbon footprint. Meyer's ambitious
plan involves using solar energy to convert carbon dioxide into methanol, its
combustive cousin. At night, a power plant would burn that methanol as fuel,
converting it back into carbon dioxide, which it would capture and store for later.
The next time the sun came out, the process would begin again, effectively
recycling carbonand potentially reducing harmful emissions. (Joshua Krisch)
"It's still a research project," Meyer cautions. "But it's knocking on the door
to go to the next stage."

20

Other methods of storing solar power for a rainy day involve converting the
sun's energy into heat, which is then captured in thermal storage tanks. Abengoa, a
renewable energy firm based in Spain, has already built several solar plants that
store excess energy in molten salt, which can absorb extremely high temperatures
without changing state. (Popular mechanics)
Solar is still a relatively immature industry. About 0.2% of electricity in the
U.S. comes from solar generation and solar has been installed on less than 250,000
homes in the U.S. If a building or structure receives direct sunlight and uses
electricity solar could be used to generate some of that electricity. The residential
market potential is immense: there are more than 90 million single family homes in
the U.S. and as many as 50 million more households in multi-family structures and
several million more commercial and other non-residential structures. While solar
may not work on every structure in the U.S. just a small wedge of this market is
worth hundreds of billions of dollars. (Elias Hinkley)
Hinkley goes on to say that the solar industry has been very hot. Record
amounts of new solar capacity have been installed over the past two years. The
accelerating pace of adoption of solar panels for distributed generation (installed at
the point of use, rather than sold into the power grid) and the downward trend of
module prices have created exuberance over the industrys future. It is clear that
the future is very bright for the industry. What is less clear is when growth will
21

accelerate and how near-term challenges for the industry could create some rough
patches for the industry before widespread adoption drives truly explosive industry
growth.
Solar Panels can produce a huge change in our carbon footprint. We can and
we must start making the changes necessary to help the renewable energy world
advance here in Utah. It is time to wake up and smell the disgusting air that we
have due to our excessive use fossil fuels. The advantages are endless and will
better prepare the future of our world for generations to come.

Biodiesel
Biodiesel is the name of a clean burning alternative fuel, produced from
domestic, renewable resources. Biodiesel contains no petroleum, but it can be
22

blended at any level with petroleum diesel to create a biodiesel blend. It can be
used to compression-ignition engines with little or no modifications. Biodiesel is
simple to use, biodegradable, nontoxic, and essentially free of sulfur and aromatics.
Biodiesel was created in the 1890 by inventor Rudolph Diesel, and had its
first public demonstration at the 1900 Worlds Fair where they had the first diesel
engine running off peanut oil. The French government was interested in vegetable
oils as a domestic fuel for their African colonies and where petroleum was hard to
get a hold of. After Dr. Diesels death in 1913 petroleum became widely available
in a variety of forms, including the class of fuel we know as diesel fuel. With
petroleum being available and cheap, the diesel engine design was changed to
match the properties of petroleum diesel fuel.
Due to its clean emissions profile and ease of use biodiesel is becoming one
of the fastest growing alternative fuels in the world. With minimal subsidy
biodiesel is cost competitive with petroleum diesel, and millions of users have
found and enjoyed the benefits of the fuel. The future of biodiesel lies in the
worlds ability to produce renewable feedstocks such as vegetable oils and fats to
keep the cost of biodiesel competitive with petroleum, without supplanting land
necessary for food production, or destroying natural ecosystems in the process.

23

Biodiesel can be blended and used in many different concentrations,

including B100 (pure biodiesel), B20 (20% biodiesel, 80% petroleum diesel), B5
(5% biodiesel, 95% petroleum diesel), and B2 (2% biodiesel, 98% petroleum
diesel). B20 is a common biodiesel blend in the United States. For vehicles
manufactured after 1993, B20 biodiesel can be used in diesel engines and fuel
injection equipment with little impact on operating performance. But if your
vehicle is older than that, the engine could be assembled with incompatible
elastomers, which can break down with repetitive high blend biodiesel use.
Most original equipment manufacturers approve blends up to B5 in their
vehicles. Some approve blends up to B20, and some even approves B100 for use in
certain types of farm equipment. But some dont recommend using biodiesel
blends above B5 on highway vehicles manufactured in 2007 and later. In those
vehicles high levels of fuel may accumulate in the engine lubricant under certain
conditions. Its not known whether those high levels of biodiesel might affect
lubricant performance.
Biodiesel has a solvent effect. It cleans your vehicles fuel system and could
release deposits accumulated from previous diesel fuel use. The release of deposits
may initially clog filters, so you should be proactive in checking for and replacing
clogged fuel filers. Studies of B20 and lower level blends in approved engines
have not demonstrated negative long term effects. Higher level blends above B20
24

can impact fuel system components primarily fuel hoses and fuel pump seals that
contain elastomer compounds incompatible with biodiesel.
Biodiesel blends should meet specification D6751, a quality standard set by
the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM International). Biodiesel
that meets this standard is legally registered as a fuel blendstock or additive with
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Blends containing 5% or less biodiesel
are required to meet the same fuel quality specifications as conventional diesel
fuel.

25

The use of biodiesel in conventional diesel engines substantially reduces

emissions of pollutants that impact air quality, including unburned hydrocarbons,
carbon monoxide, sulfates, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons nitrated polycyclic
aromatic hydrocarbons, and particulate matter. B100 provides the greatest
emissions reductions, but lower
level blends also provide benefits.
B20 has been shown to reduce PM
emissions by 10%, carbon
monoxide by 11%, and unburned
Figure 1

hydrocarbons by 21%. Studies of oxides of nitrogen emissions have provided

contradictory results, and additional testing and analysis is ongoing. Vehicle
Technologies Program.

Emissions
When used as a vehicle fuel,
biodiesel offers tailpipe and
considerable greenhouse has
(GHG) emissions benefits.
According to the U.S. EPA
analysis compiled in 2002,
Figure 2
26

B20 blended biodiesel decreases the tailpipe emissions of particulate matter 1013%, carbon monoxide 11-14%, and hydrocarbons by at least 20%. These
reductions have further increased with the implementation of Ultra Low Sulfur
Diesel fuel. Us Department of Energy

Performance

27

Biodiesel can be used in

existing diesel engines and
fuel injection equipment in
blends up to 20 percent with
little impact on operating
performance. Biodiesel has
Figure 3

higher cetane than U.S.

diesel fuel, and B20 provides similar fuel economy, horsepower, torque, and
haulage rates as diesel fuel. It also has superior lubricity, and the highest BTU
content of any alternative fuel. B100 has roughly 8% less power and performance
than diesel, but with a blended fuel it is difficult to perceive any power and
performance loss. Us Department of Energy
Cost
The price of biodiesel blends vary depending on geographic area, base material,
and supplier. B20 typically costs about the same as conventional diesel but higher
blends will cost more. Low blends such as b2 and b5 will cost less or the same as
diesel. According to the latest fuel price report, B20 averaged 11 cents more per
gallon nationally. In that same report, the Rocky Mountain Region averaged 6
cents more per gallon, and in Utah it averaged 1 cent less per gallon. Us
Department of Energy
28

Figure 4

Viscosity
Some concerns exist
regarding the viscosity level
of blended biodiesel,
however, a test performed by
Iowa State University found that when mixed with #1 diesel, a B20 blend will start
showing signs of clouding at -2 degrees Fahrenheit. A B5 blend mixed with #1 or
#2 diesels will have a cloud point almost
identical to the original diesel fuel. Winter
blend additives are also available which
can increase blended biodiesels resilience
to cold weather. US Environmental
Protection Agency

Supply and Demand

The EPA currently mandates 1.2 billion gallons of biodiesel to be blended with
Figure 5

petroleum diesel per year. This number is

referred to as the renewable Fuel Standard. Tat, M. E., and Van Gerpen, J.H.

29

Viscon
Viscon is a clean fuel additive
approved by the California Air
Resources Board and the Texas
Commission on Environmental
Quality. Viscon is a high-

Figure 6

molecular weight, pure hydrocarbon polymer. The base chemical is

polyisobutylene polymer. The additive improves the combustion efficiency of
internal combustion engines, and reduces PM and NOx emissions. Viscon treats
over 20,000 gallons of diesel fuel per day in California. Olson-EcoLogic

Figure 7

Coal
30

The debate for plausible resources of renewable energy continues to burden

not only the members of congress and the President of the United States, but also
the public. Citizens of the great state of Utah can plainly see that there is a need for
change when they look out their window and see the ever looming inversion. This
paper will present legislation that has been passed, scientific data, and alternative
energy sources in the hopes to find a middle ground because the negative views on
renewable energy sources should not stop the progress to create clean air.
According to the article A History of the Inversion: A Foe that Grows
Stronger. Utah itself has been battling smog and inversion issues since the boom of
Salt Lake City that started in the 1870's. With the American Smelting and Refining
Company, known as AS&R, farmers claimed the refinery to be the cause of failed
crops for the amount of pollution that was being emitted in the air. It wasn't until
1967 when Utah's first air pollution law was established by making an Air
Conversation Counsel to help establish the air quality in the valley.
The clean air act of 1970 and the subsequent revision in 1990 has cut
pollution drastically as the U.S. economy has grown in the past forty years.
Reports from congress stated that the 1990 act alone (emissions for locomotives)
resulted into reduced pollutions in the air and prevented 205,000 early deaths and
between the year "1980 and 2012, national concentrations of air pollutants
improved 91 percent for lead, 83 percent for carbon monoxide, 78 percent for

31

sulfur dioxide (1-hour), 56 percent for nitrogen dioxide (annual), and 25 percent
for ozone." (Progress Cleaning the Air and Improving People's Health)
In early 2009 President Barack Obama presented the nation with the Climate
Action Plan, in his speech he states that we have an obligation to fight climate
change for our future children's generation. This path leads to sustainable energy
and is going to be a long and at sometimes difficult one but the overall outcome in
necessary. The president has since set a goal that by the year 2020 Americans
would have a 17 percent decrease from the 2005 green house gasses high point.
The path to reaching this goal requires a marriage between using our present fossil
fuels resources along side with our renewable resources such as, Solar, Wind,
hydroelectric energy and biodiesel. In the year 2012 president Obama has remained
committed to his previous goal with the Climate Action Plan and has been more
than successful. "Since 2009 the Department of Interior has approved 25 utilityscale solar facilities, nine wind farms, and 11 geothermal plants, which will
provide enough electricity to power 4.4 million homes and support an estimated
17,000 jobs." (Whithouse.gov) With these new resources playing into action.
Solar panels are becoming one of the most used renewable energy source for
many reasons, solar panels are only using the suns energy and therefore are a non
polluting resource. Over the past 30 years solar panels have advanced immensely,
and people are starting to see the benefits.They are becoming more appealing to
homeowners because they are easy to install, have no moving parts and requires
32

little maintenance for installation. With homes switching to solar power statics are
anticipating each resident to save an average of 20,000 dollars or more in a twenty
year span. (Shahan)
Wind energy has been used for thousands of years, there are written
documents that show wind energy being used as early as 1219, using "literally
hundreds of sail-rotor windmills [to] pump water for crops and livestock."
(Alternative Energy) If we used today's technology windmills could potentially
produce 20 percent of Americas electricity; if households used 25 percent of wind
powered energy the average monthly bill could be as low as 4 dollars a month!
(Alternative Energy)
Hydroelectric energy has been used in America for the past 100 years and
have been the leading dam builders in the world. Unfortunately, of the 75,187
dams that have been built in the United States less than 3 percent are used to
produce electricity. Hydroelectric energy is a hard source to produce energy
because it has to be in a specific location which can be inconvenient for
communities to produce energy from, but from that dams that we can use we
supply about 10 percent of the nation's energy. (Alternative Energy)
New studies have shown that a very important renewable resource called
biodiesel, is a fuel that could potentially be a new replacement for petroleum diesel
in our locomotives. Made mostly from Vegetable oil, and undergoing a chemical
process called transesterifaction, biodiesel is a biodegradable non-toxic and free
from sulfur. This alternative oil could very likely become our next fuel. Improving
33

our nonrenewable resources with renewable such as these mentioned could save
our ever decaying earth. This will be a long and difficult road to undo all of the
destruction that we have done to this world, but committing to a new way in life in
essential for our children and our children's children to live long and happy lives.

But what does this do for our current economy? We are already in a
downward spiral due to jobs being lost and not being able to find more work. 16
out of 50 states are coal producing states, it's one of our main leading exports that
provide jobs right here in America; it brings these states the majority of their
revenue so that they can keep their communities running. Since EPA's clean air act
has shut down so many coal fired plants we have felt it hit right here in Utah;
towns such as Price, and Carbon are coal producing counties, with billboards and
signs posted all over town reminding the locals and visitors that "Coal=Job" for
this is their primary income and without the Coal business these small rural
communities will become ghost towns. (Bastach) The fact is that the coal industry
laid off a mass amount of employees in 2009 but employment in the coal industry
has steadily increased and has a higher employment rate than the period between
1999-2008. (Fitzsimmins and Greenberg)

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What is our most affordable resource? Reports and local news are reporting
that the ending of coal will boost the American's electricity bill up to an average of
1,200 dollars yearly per household. (Calbought)
"This regulation will cause the greatest amount of harm, lost jobs, diminished
incomes, and higher electricity bills in areas where incomes are modest, as are
the lifestyles of those who live there. It isn't the rich on Fifth Avenue or in Beverly
Hills who will be impacted; it is the American working class" (Ch 5 News)

Fact: Coal plants are responsible for more than one-fourth of GED from the
entire US economy. The damages attributed to this industry are larger than the
combined GED due to the three next most polluting industries: crop production,
$15 billion/year, livestock production, $15 billion/year, and construction of
roadways and bridges, $13 billion/ year.
The clean air act along with a gradual movement away from the fossil fuels
and public education will not only create a safer and healthier world to live in for
this generation but also to one's to follow. Granted the transition will be a long and
arduous adjustment coupled with growing pains but, in the long run, new jobs will
revenue provided the need for creation, installation, maintenance and development
for these new resources. This issue resides not just within the borders of Utah or
even the United States but takes place on a global scale.

35

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