America's Energy Future: Technology and Transformation

ertheless, the potential is impressive. Roughly 3.3 trillion barrels of oil and 15,000 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of natural gas are thought to be ultimately recoverable. By comparison, in 2006, world consumption of these resources was about 30 billion barrels of crude oil and 100 Tcf of gas. (See Tables 7.2, 7.3, and 7.4 for summaries of oil, gas, and coal statistics.)

Resources that are discovered, recoverable with current technology, commercially feasible, and remaining in the ground are classified as reserves. The size of

TABLE 7.2 Conventional Oil Resources, Reserves, and Production (billion barrels, variable years as noted)

	United States	World	U.S. Percent of World Total
Resources	430^a	3345^b	13.0
Reserves^c	29	1390	2.1
Annual production	2.5/yr	29.8/yr	8.4
Annual consumption	7.5/yr	31.1/yr^d	24.1
^aDOE, 2006a, available at fossil.energy.gov/programs/oilgas/eor/Undeveloped_Domestic_Oil_Resources_Provi.html. ^bNPC, 2007, p. 97. ^c2007 data from British Petroleum, 2008. ^dAccording to British Petroleum, 2008, discrepancies between world production and consumption “are accounted for by stock changes; consumption of nonpetroleum additives and substitute fuels; and unavoidable disparities in the definition, measurement, or conversion of oil supply and demand data.”

TABLE 7.3 Natural Gas Resources, Reserves, and Production (trillion cubic feet, variable years as noted)

	United States	World	U.S. Percent of World Total
Resources	1,525^a	15,401^b	9.4
Reserves^c	211	6,263	3.4
Annual production	19.3/yr	104.1/yr	18.5
Annual consumption^c	23.1/yr	103.5/yr^d	22.3
^aPGC, 2006, available at www.mines.edu/research/pga/. ^bNPC, 2007, p. 97. ^c2007 data from British Petroleum, 2008. ^dAccording to British Petroleum, 2008, discrepancies between world production and consumption are “due to variations in stocks at storage facilities and liquefaction plants, together with unavoidable disparities in the definition, measurement or conversion of gas supply and demand data.”

Table of Contents

Front Matter R1-R24

Executive Summary 1-6

PART 1 7-8

1 Context and Challenges 9-34

2 Key Findings 35-80

3 Key Results from Technology Assessments 81-132

PART 2 133-134

4 Energy Efficiency 135-210

5 Alternative Transportation Fuels 211-270

6 Renewable Energy 271-330

7 Fossil-Fuel Energy 331-444

8 Nuclear Energy 445-562

9 Electricity Transmission and Distribution 563-638

APPENDIXES 639-640

Appendix A: Committee and Staff Biographies 641-658

Appendix B: Meeting Participants 659-664

Appendix C: America's Energy Future Project 665-668

Appendix D: Principal Units and Conversion Factors 669-672

Appendix E: Select Acronyms and Abbreviations 673-684

Index 685-712