Argumentation Essay

The Need for the National Environmental Policy to focus on the Development of Renewable Energy Sources
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The Need for Renewable Sources of Energy
The survival of major economic and commercial activities in the world depends on the oil industry. In industrially advanced nations like America, for instance, oil is the main source of energy and principal facilitator of major production activities. As the leading drivers of national economies globally, the transport and manufacturing sectors rely almost exclusively on oil energy resources. However, overdependence on oil energy sources poses a great shortage risk because oil is a nonrenewable resource. With the current trend of increasing oil demand around the world, the risk of depletion is inevitable. To avert a potential energy crisis, it is, as a matter of urgency, necessary to anticipate the possibility of the exhaustion of nonrenewable energy sources like oil, and in response, prepare for the impending oil shortage. This is especially the case for America, whose consumption surpasses her production capacity and consequently, relies on imported crude oil. In this light, the future of the global economy in general and that of America in particular not only depends on effective business practices, but more critically, the utilization of renewable energy sources like hydropower, wind, and solar energy. This essay argues for the need of the national environmental policy to focus on developing renewable energy sources as the most viable means of ensuring sustainable development.
A major source of concern regarding the reliance on oil energy resources is the idea of peak oil, and the energy crisis it portends. Peak oil is the concept that there is maximum limit in the production of oil, at which point the oil wells will reach their maximum potential in terms of oil production, and after which its global production will decline and eventually diminish (Craft, 2011). The peak oil concept predicts the inevitable depletion of oil resources as a result of overconsumption. Future decrease in oil production in the world could be explained by the fact that high quality oil is extracted first with the remaining oil resources being more difficult to find and contain more impurities, thus making their extraction highly unprofitable. This situation will lead to less purer oil and more investment in terms of money and energy, eventually resulting in limited availability of oil. The following graph shows the anticipated trend of oil production globally.
Figure: The anticipated oil depletion trend


(Source:  HYPERLINK "/oil/peak_oil_consequences.htm" /oil/peak_oil_consequences.htm)
The declining trend in oil production and the economic crises it portends calls for the need to develop alternative sources of energy. The potential exhaustion of oil energy sources means that many economic activities around the world will be halted, leading to an unprecedented economic meltdown. The unreliability of oil as a source of energy is emphasized by the recent economic crisis in which skyrocketing oil prices worsened the situation, especially for non-producing countries that depend on imported crude oil. In addition, although a number of studies have been carried out to establish the point of peak oil, there are challenges in forecasting the actual quantity of remaining oil resources and the expected duration they will run the world’s economy (Clark, 2005, p. 80). The ultimate implication of a peak point in oil production is increased oil prices which will lead to increased production costs. The prices of major commodities including food will increase. The rate of inflation will rise and the economy will contract. Different economic activities which depend heavily on fuel will witness low performance. These may include the airline and tourism industries among many others. Rationing and hoarding of the oil products will become the order of the day as the oil producers will be struggling to manage the little oil reserves that they will be having at hand. This situation creates uncertainties with regard to the future security of oil energy, which in turn affects economic investment in areas that depend on oil. To ...