Pollution and Environmental Impacts of Refining
People need to care about the sustainability of the petroleum industry considering the huge role oil plays in our lives. Although I agree with people who believe we need to stop using oil, it is not possible for our current society to give up this resource without major changes in the way virtually everything is done. Oil is by far the largest source of energy to power transportation around the world. The U.S. Energy Information Administration found that “In 2016, nearly three-fourths of total U.S. petroleum consumption was in the transportation sector” (“U.S. Crude and Petroleum Products Explained: Use of Oil”). If we stopped using oil today, without doing any infrastructural changes, our society would not be equipped to handle the daily needs of life. As energy specialists Steve Hallett and John Wright describe in “Imagining a World Without Oil,” our lives would be utter chaos. Not only could we not manage to get to work, but shipments would not be able to reach their destination. That means food trucks could not deliver groceries, coal could not be shipped to power plants, and electricity would soon fail. Also, many of the products we use on a daily basis are made from oil. As Hallett and Wright reported, “The list of essentials that we’d soon be doing without is prodigious: virtually all plastics, paints, medicines, hospital machines that go ‘bleep’, Barbie dolls, ballpoint pens, breast implants, golf balls…” This illustrates that, although it would be a good thing for sustainability, we cannot simply give up oil. We will need to find a sustainable way to continue to use oil while transitioning to alternative fuels and energy sources.
- Hallet, Steve, and John Wright. "Imagining a world without oil." The Washington Post 21 Apr. 2011. Web.
- U.S. Energy Information Administration. “U.S. Crude and Petroleum Products Explained: Use of Oil.” EIA. U.S. Department of Energy, 19 Sept. 2017. Web. 22 Nov. 2017.
