Our Dangerous Dependence on Fossil Fuels

According to Rebecca Lefton and Daniel J. Weiss, "oil dependence is a dangerous habit," the US has increased imports of petroleum in recent years, bringing a big deficit to the United States. The deficit in our country has led to budget cuts throughout the country. Continuous oil imports abroad will produce greater debt in the United States. In 2008, China spent only about $ 150 billion on oil imports (Lefton, R. & Weiss, D. J. (2014) oil dependence is a dangerous practice).

I am opposed to reliance on fossil fuels as an environmental activist and a law professor. I oppose our huge pipeline that threatens our land and water, from dangerous oil drilling, hydraulic crushing (also called "hydraulic crushing") and keystone XL to Dakota access pipeline. Recently, I helped lead the fight against Florida 's Sabal Trail Pipeline. I have never donated money from the fossil fuel industry campaign donation and have never received company funds or donations from the Political Behavior Committee (PAC). When I am elected to Congress, I will try to keep natural gas and oil on the ground it belongs to protect our air, water, land and wildlife. We will promote conversion to sun, wind power and other renewable and sustainable energy.

Several sustainable energy sources can reduce or eliminate our dependence on fossil fuels and nuclear power. Although some of these sources have been used for centuries, they have been overlooked due to the widespread use of fossil fuels. For example, passive solar heat, wood burning, wind turbines and water wheels provide most of the external energy for human activity. As people become more interested in the risks and costs associated with traditional commercial energy, these ancient energy sources are being reviewed as part of a more sustainable future for mankind.

The massive use of fossil fuels is a major factor in human-induced climate change. The proportion of low carbon energy is now the same as decades ago. Fossil fuels dominate our energy system, total energy consumption exceeds 80%. Changes in deforestation and other land use have also contributed greatly, but the use of our large amounts of fossil fuels has brought us disastrous damage to the climate system. In order to keep the temperature below 2 ° C, we can further discharge 856 billion tons of carbon dioxide (CO 2). Climate change efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 2030 is the first step, but recent analyzes have shown that they are not enough (Canadell and Smith, 2017 http: // bit .ly / 2jRNjIK)