What Do You Know About Energy?

by the editor of the GovGab Blog:

What Do You Know About Energy?: "

Our guest blogger today is Colleen Blessing, who works on the energy statistics website at the Energy Information Administration.   

We all think a little about gasoline, because that’s a type of energy we actually buy, but many of us probably don’t understand much about gas prices except that they go up and down a lot. 

Do you know which country we get the biggest share of our oil imports 
from?  Answer:  It’s Canada, and almost half of our oil imports come from the Western Hemisphere.  You’re not alone if you got the wrong answer:  More than half of the people we surveyed recently either didn’t know or guessed Saudi Arabia or Iraq.

When you click the remote and the TV comes on, do you ever think about the electricity you’re buying to make it work or even where that electricity comes from?  If you’re like me, energy is sort of just there.  It’s on the stove and in the plug, but I don’t really think about it until there’s a power outage or until my bills are really high.  But where does electricity come from?  About half of the electricity in the United States is generated by burning coal! 

So, seeing as how it’s back-to-school time for kids, maybe some of us adults could also learn an interesting fact or two! 

And have I got a source of energy information for you!  In the category of “wow, I didn’t know the government did that,” at my high school reunion (I won’t mention which one), I amazed people by telling them I work at a government statistical agency that produces policy neutral energy data—independent of spin or advocacy.  They thought the government should do that, but they didn’t know that it actually did!  The Energy Information Administration prides itself on collecting and giving the public facts about energy that they can believe in. 

Biofuels mostly refers to ethanol and biodiesel, liquid fuels used for transportation.  They are made from things like corn and animal fat.  Did you know that Henry Ford’s original automobile, the Model T, could run on either gasoline or ethanol?

Renewable energy sources include water, the sun, geothermal, biomass and wind.  Did you know that most renewable energy is used to produce electricity?  China leads the world in renewable energy use for electricity production, but the United States is in second place.  

Do you think yellow cake is just to eat?  In fact, the term also is another name for uranium oxide, the fuel used by nuclear power plants.  Fun and Games can help you learn more energy terms.  If you’re ready to graduate to data and analysis, you can find lots of information on the Energy Information Administration website.

Start learning about energy!

"