Energy and the Energy uses Energy Saurees Transportation FIGURE 4 Energy sources and uses The us. gets most of its energy from oll, gas, and coal, all of which produce greenhouse gases, clean nuclear and renewable sources provide relativnly little energy for the country, Electric power plants and motor vehicles together use nearly 70 percent of the energy ginerated. souRa: Data from tnervu lnformation Administration, us, Department of Energy, www.ela doe gov Energy consumption per peron in United States has stabilized over the last thirty years. Growth in overall energy consumption has matched population growth, Enertry consumption ha actually declined relative to the uross national product, that is becoming more eticiont over time in energy use. And energy expenditures have declined as a share of the GDP, This good news is not widely reported in the mass media ergy supply Supply side energy policies emphasize the scarch for more sources of energy, Domestic oil produc- tion can be increased through exploration and drilling in public lands and offshore waters. ("Drill, baby, drill" became a popular slogan at Republican campaign stops in 2008,) Drilling in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge(ANWR) in Alaska is an especially controversial option, Natural gas is more plentiful than petroleum, but its widespread use would require a complete overhaul of the nation's automobile and truck fleets to run on natural gas rather than gasoline. Nuclear power promises a source of energy for electrical power plants, but to date political have foreclosed the nuclear"Nuclear Industry Meltdown" later in this chapter The federal government heavily subsidizes research and development into"renewable" energy sources land, solar, geothermal, and biomass(including ethanol production from corn). But none of these sources appear to be commercially feasible on any significant scale. Nevertheless the call for greater reliance on these sources of energy remains politically very popular