While exploring the United States Energy Information Administration’s website I came across plenty of statistics pertaining to this country’s supply of petroleum fuels. While the administration does consistently update their information on a weekly basis, I found that most of their analysis stems from their numbers in 2012. A majority of the pages within the website also discussed the United States dependence petroleum imports. For example, I just learned that Canada is the leading supplier of these products to the U.S.  Since 2005, the peak year of foreign petroleum dependence, this country’s dependence on other nations support has followed a downward trend. As of 2012 the United States has dropped its dependence on foreign imports to 40% (11.0 million barrels per day). This is due to a whole host of reasons, some of which are a decrease in U.S. consumption, the economic downturn in 2008, and improvements in efficiency. Despite all of this, the U.S. is the world leader in petroleum consumption totaling off at 18.6 million barrels per day, as of 2012.

With so many statistics on petroleum supply and usage, the Energy Information Administration was able to put together a projection for the U.S. energy consumption for the year 2040. Taking population increase, technological developments, and current trends into account they believe that consumption will stay about what it is today. The administration was able to separate the three main uses for petroleum and analyze the situation that way. Transportation, which uses the most petroleum by far, is likely to drop its share of the total consumption from 72% in 2013 to 65% in 2040. They also believe that petroleum used for chemical purposes will increase by 1.3 million barrels per day by 2040. The opposite trends in the chemical business and transportation industry is the reason why the government believes that our petroleum consumption will turn out to be very similar to what it is today.

What I found the most interesting about administration’s projections was that they left no room for more progressive future inventions or new ways to power our transportation vehicles. With the EPA’s more advanced operations and our increasing knowledge of harmful effects on the environment it is hard to believe that we will not have a clean solution to this mess that we’ve created. In the meantime, the Environmental Protection agency is on the attack with its Clean Air Act and all of its requirements. Burning a gallon of gasoline results in 19.6 pounds of carbon dioxide, which is an extremely harmful greenhouse gas. Since 1970 (the establishment of the Clean Air Act) the EPA has been adding amendments to the act in order to coexist with the current times. They have required emission control devices in vehicles, removed lead from gasoline (once scientifically proved as harmful to humans and the environment), lowered the sulfur in gas, and reduced the risk of leaks. All of this shows that they are making an effort to create a cleaner environment, but I still feel like there is more to be done. I am interested to see where the future will take us.