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Linking Energy Policy and Scale in an Introductory

Geology Course Richard M. Kettler

Department of GeosciencesUniversity of Nebraska-Lincoln

Lincoln NE

Teaching About Energy in Geoscience Courses: Current Research and PedagogyLaramie, Wyoming May 18, 2009

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Geol 115 The Earth’s Energy Resources

Justification for course:

Provide students with basic background regarding geology of important energy resources.

Potential Student Background

Biofuels, Wind, Petroleum, Uranium, Coal

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Geol 115 The Earth’s Energy Resources

• Introductory course with no prerequisites• Student population is typically attempting to satisfy

general education requirements in physical sciences• Students are not typically science majors• Course Goals

– Students will develop an understanding of the abundance and distribution of geological energy resources. 

– Students will be able to research and read news reports about energy resources, synthesize and critique those communications prepared for the general public, and communicate their analysis to a third party.

4Stars in the Tarantula NebulaNASA, The Hubble Heritage Team, STScI, AURAGPN-2000-000946

Quantitative literacy-The ability to reason with data, solve quantitative problems, and understand the importance of numbers in everyday life (Wenner et al. 2009. Numeracy 2: [1] Art.4.)

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The values on the ordinateare difficult to place in context.

It is necessary to do so in orderto relate the policies that wouldyield the individual stabilizationwedges to changes in ourworld.

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The Resource Pyramid ConceptHow big is the base? How much of the pyramid have we consumed?What do the different layers represent (e.g., conventional oil, heavy oil, tar sand, oil shale, methane hydrate)?

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The Famous Chevron Jack Discovery• The Jack No. 2 well, in deep water 170 miles southwest of New Orleans, recently

discovered a field with perhaps 15 billion barrels of oil -- a 50 percent increase in proven U.S. reserves (George Will; Washington Post 10/19/06)

• With U.S. proved oil reserves estimated to be between 21.4 billion barrels (according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration) and 29.3 billion barrels (BP Statistical Review), the upper limit (15 billion barrels) of Chevron's deepwater discovery would increase U.S. proved oil reserves between 50 and 70 percent. Washington Times Editorial 09/09/06.

• A group of oil companies led by Chevron, which said last week that they had discovered a huge new oil field in the Gulf of Mexico….. The magnitude of the oil discovery — estimated in a range of 3 billion to 15 billion barrels — is likely to intensify a battle in Congress over incentives for drilling in publicly owned waters. New York Times 09/11/06.

• Based on the most optimistic projections, the field contains 15 billion barrels, about 50 percent more than existing U.S. reserves. International Herald Tribune 9/15/06.

• Chevron and two partners said yesterday they had conducted test drilling on a site that could turn out to harbor between 3 billion and 15 billion barrels of oil and natural gas …If the upper estimate is true, Chevron has just increased America's domestic reserve by 50%....The Senate, however, has resisted, preferring a more restrictive bill that would allow new access to fields believed to contain only about 1.125 billion barrels. Chevron has already found, at a minimum, more than twice that in its new field. NY Sun Editorial 09/06/06

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Some Comments on Scale• To get policy right you

need quantitative literacy

• Take time to consider orders of magnitude when you think about amounts.

• Typical energy unit is a Quad (1015 BTU)

• US used 100 Quads in 2007 (1017 BTU)

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Kansas0 100 km

M O

Iow a

M NSouth DakotaW Y

Colorado

N E B R A S K A

Chadron

A llianceScottsb luff

G ering

Valentine

Norfo lk

Colum bus Frem ont

O m aha

Lincoln

Beatrice

York

HastingsHoldrege

M cCook

G rand Island

Lexington Kearney

North P latte

Large Oil Fields Cover Large Areas

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Year

1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Ann

ual P

rodu

ctio

n/M

MB

O

0.0

1000.0

2000.0

3000.0

4000.0OklahomaNebraskaSaudi Arabia

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Resource Contribution

Biomass 3.6%

Hydroelectric 2.4%

Geothermal 0.3%

Wind 0.3%

Solar 0.07%

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Energy/BTU

NE Oil 1013.1

NE Ethanol 1014.0

NE Total Corn Crop 1014.8

US Transportation 1016.5

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“Transportation Energy Independence”Annual Transportation Energy Demand = 3x1016 BTU/yr

or 1016.48 BTU/yr

Ultimate Recovery from Prudhoe Bay Oil Field = 10,000,000,000 bbls

or 1010 bbls

Prudhoe Bay Field “transportation life” =

How many giant fields per year must we find to have transportation energy independence if all oil can be converted to transportation energy3 10 BTU

Year

1 barre l

6 10 BTU

1 G iant F ie ld

5 10 barre ls 10 G iant F ie lds Year

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6 8

10 barre ls 6 10 BTU barre l 3 4

3 10 BTU Year1.5 Year

10 6

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US Petroleum Demand is about 20 million bbls/dayUS Petroleum Demand is about 7.3 billion bbls/yrWorld Petroleum Demand is about 31 billion bbls/yr

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Considerations of Scale are Critical to Almost All Energy Policy Issues

• Greenhouse gas minimization/sequestration

• Petroleum exploration in US OCS waters

• Land use planning

• Oil shale development

• Tar sands development

• Radioactive waste disposal/sequestration

• The future of biofuels

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Conclusions

• Introductory students need help with scale

• Use references

• Encourage “back of the envelope” calculations

• Note that different parties will operate on different scales

• Note relevance of scale to policy issues.