HW#6

The major difference I found between Brazil and the US’s energy policies was that the US is significantly further ahead in their development of renewable energy sources. For example, all major appliances and new cars are required to meet certain energy efficiency standards. In Brazil, many policies were discussed that hoped to implement these sort of standards but at the moment there was none in place. This was mostly due to energy efficient appliances being expensive and not reasonable for poorer communities. As a whole though, both countries see the need for clean, sustainable energy and wish to reduce our carbon emissions in order to stabilize the climate. Each discussed putting resources towards this development, both through the use of government subsidized funding. Nuclear power re-examination was another major discussion point and each country wants to explore it further.

In the USA, these proposed policies have effects environmentally, socially, and economically. Environmentally, these policies substantially have reduced our carbon pollution, HFC emissions, and methane emissions which resulted in a reduction of climate change. Through these policies our natural resource consumptions has slowed down, leading to the conservation of our land and water sources as well as agricultural stability. These policies have affected our society by the establishment of more structurally sound communities and improved disaster relief strategies. For example, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Energy during hurricane Sandy shed light on the importance of policies to address the restoration of communities’ fuel and electrical supplies post disaster. Economy, reducing carbon emissions by transitioning to renewable sources and by improving the efficiency of motor vehicles has reduced the consumer’s fuel and energy bills. Because consumers are seeing a positive effect on their personal finances, this leads to increased community support of renewable development.

As in the US, introducing policies to curb carbon emission and develop renewable technologies has effects on the environment, economy, and society. Economically, these policies will hopefully through efficiency improvements leading to a decrease in energy demand growth lead to a reduction in investment requirements. Also, Brazil’s trade balance will be improved through these policies through natural gas and petroleum import reduction. Also, domestically, product of new technologies will boost the economy and reduce trade dependence on other nations. Environmentally, these policies would increase energy efficiency and expand renewable use, such as with ethanol, wind, solar, and sugarcane products. Another aspect would be a reduction of CO2 and NO emissions. Socially, these policies would provide electricity to remote areas that otherwise would not be able to be reached by the grid.

The US is far too reliant on fossil fuels. As with any situation not just energy, you cannot sustain yourself using a resource that is finite or that the usage exceeds the regeneration. The usage of fossil fuels is only a temporary source of energy and unless we develop alternative means we will run out in the near future. Options for alternative energy we have are solar, wind, geothermal, hydroelectric, nuclear, and natural gas. Solar energy through the use of photovoltaic cells has the capability to provide enough energy for a common household but contains economical limitations and has issues with indeterminacy  Optimizations with efficiency and material costs are needed to scale down on expenses as well as an energy storage system for cloudy days or at night. Wind power takes up a substantial amount of space, leading to environmental controversy and is only a reasonable option in windy areas. Hydroelectricity leads to the issue of requiring damming of rivers which also has adverse environmental effects. Nuclear power has significant potential but runs into issues with risk of overheating and where to dispose of radioactive waste. Natural gas although a fossil fuel could be an effective transition fuel from oil to renewable and buy us more time to develop these technologies.