"Since the dawn of humanity people have used renewable sources of energy to survive  --  wood for cooking and heating, wind and water for milling grain, and solar for lighting fires"(Aust, 1). The times of people using renewable energy as their primary source of energy consumption have long gone. A little over 150 years ago humans found and created ways to extract energy from the ground. This energy comes from the remains of plants and animals that have died along time ago and is called coal, oil, and natural gas. From this point on in world history, humans have gradually shifted from renewable to non-renewable energy. This is due to many different factors including efficiency, price, and availability. This switch from a society where people rely on renewable energy to a society that relies on non-renewable energy is very important and it comes with some negative consequences that most people do not even realize. For example the dependency on foreign countries for energy has left the United States spending 1$ billion a day overseas on oil. That is a lot of money to be spending overseas on oil when it could be spent writhen the United States on renewable oil. I have yet to even mention the awful environmental affects that producing non-renewable energy has, which will be discussed later on in my paper. The United States government knows that non-renewable is not a viable option for the future because of the many negative consequences that will happen to both the environment and future generations when producing it. Because the Government knows that we need to start using more renewable energy they have decided to implement "tax credits, rebates for the installation of renewable energy systems, renewable energy portfolio standards, and the establishment of markets for renewable energy certificates by various states"(Bowden, 1). The government has also put regulations on the production of non-renewable energy by making it more expensive to both buy and produce in hopes of discouraging people from using non-renewable energy and encouraging renewable energy production. The money and time saved while producing non-renewable energy is not comparable to the bad effects it will have on the environment and both current and future generations of people and therefore governmental regulations on energy production is very much needed.

The government decided to implement regulations on the energy sector in the United States because they are smart enough to know that the amount of non-renewable energy that is being produced today is at a rate that is very harmful for our country safety. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) "is the United States federal agency with jurisdiction over interstate electricity sales, wholesale electric rates, hydroelectric licensing, natural gas and oil pipeline transportation rates"(Federal Energy Regulatory Commission,1). The FERC is comprised of 5 members to which are nominated by the President. This group has played an important role in our countries job of regulating the renewable and non-renewable energy markets. They also do a great job of policing the different energy companies to make sure that they are following the rules and staying within the law. 

Energy companies and in particular non-renewable energy companies are not new to governmental regulations. The government has been regulating the energy companies for the past 40 years trying to keep prices fair and adding some trade restrictions. Today though the government has backed off of theses types of regulations "but Congress still manipulates the energy industry by tax preferences, spending subsidies, and environmental regulations"(Doren, 1). They may not directly harm the non-renewable energy market but they definitely encourage people to buy and produce more renewable energy . 

Let's not forget that there are some people, mostly energy company owners o, who think that the regulations on non-renewable energy is not beneficial to society and should be stopped immediately. Regulations, that have been used to make non-renewable energy more expensive and difficult to make, have been used in many different ways. "For example, the national renewable fuel mandate helped create a rise in the price of both fuel and food by taking food (especially corn) and turning it into a more expensive, mandated fuel (ethanol)"(Institute for Energy Research, 1).  In this example you can see how the government implements regulations that don't directly but indirectly increase the price of ethanol. The government has used regulation tactics, like this corn example, to indirectly cause non-renewable input prices to rise which will directly make oil more expensive to make. When companies input prices start to rise they have to raise the price of what they are selling and in this case its oil. 

The people who are affected the most when the government imposes regulations are the energy company owners. Many of the energy companies CEO's have come together to fight theses regulations by forming groups and coming up with a unified plan. "The Business Roundtable plan argued federal officials should "respect" the traditional role played by states in regulating energy production, and that over-zealous regulation of practices such as fracking could choke off more oil and gas production, and consequently the related economic benefits"(Meg Handley). In this quote, energy company owners have created a plan to limit the regulations that the federal government can pose because the states are already imposing their own regulations. Many of them believe they are being treated unfairly in a free market society where the government is not supposed to intervene. "the regulatory option seems most intrusive, as it limits consumer choice and requires complex governmental mandates that affect product design"(Noah Sacks, 2) Most people who are against the regulation of energy and in particular non-renewable energy are under the impression that any type of governmental interference in the free market will always be a bad thing and in the end you are hurting both consumers and producers.

Companies are very smart though and they know their way around some of the regulations. For example, the government has a policy that all car manufactures are required to have a certain MPG on average. This was a very big deal for Car companies until they found a way around it by successfully arguing that SUV ands vans are not officially cars and therefore are not averaged into the total MPG that car manufactures must have. There are other ways that companies can get around the regulations that the government is imposing but for the most past the companies are being forced to do and or pay more than what they would normally.

This issue of regulation on the energy market can become very complicated because states have now taken it upon themselves to regulate what they are allowed to regulate." The Global Warming Solutions Act is short on solutions but long on ambition. The law requires California to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 (approximately a 25 percent reduction from 2006 levels)"(Institute for Energy Research, 3). This type of law is not only in California but also in many other states where they have tried to take an initiative against the production of non-renewable energy and the releases of green house gasses. 

What many states like California are trying to do is fight against green house gas omission. The green house effect is when gasses are released which prevent the exiting of reflected light rays back into space and instead traps them in earth's atmosphere further warming the earth. This is a very serious issue facing not only the states but also the federal government and other governments around the world. Scientists agree, 95% of them do, that our planet is warming and that it is because of humans. Humans don't directly cause global warming but when humans produce and or use non-renewable energy Co2 and other harmful gasses are released which causes a green house effect. Scientists believe due to the green house effect, that many natural distastes will occur like "more drought and more flooding, less ice and snow, more extreme weather incidents and rising sea levels"(Discovering geology, 1). These effects may not seem like a big deal but if sea level rising was the only thing to happen it would only take a three foot increase in sea levels for it to affect 150 million people worldwide. In fact over 1/3 of the people living in America right now would be affected personally by a three foot rising in sea levels.

The Unites States of America is not the only country that has an energy problem. This problem of the cheaper and more plentiful non-renewable energy versus the clean and expensive renewable energy is one that all countries around the world battle against every day. For example, "Malaysia, endowed with its rich natural resources and diversity recognizes the need to adopt a sound developmental framework to transform the country s energy management landscape into a high quality and excellent level. Parallel to this development, both government and non-governmental organizations continue to advocate national efforts to explore alternative energy, and improve the dynamic energy growth in a cost-effective manner"(Foo,1). Malaysia, unlike the United States, has realized that it has a problem and that it has the resources to fix that problem. Malaysia decided to implement a plan that" establishment of ocean energy, geothermal power, hydropower, wind power, hydrogen fuel cell, nuclear energy, biodiesel and bioethanol processing industries"(Foo,3). This plan will not only benefit Malaysia in the coming years but for decades due to the amount of money they will eventually save along with a cleaner and safer society. The United States is not Malaysia but there are many things that the United States can learn from them in hopes of eventually making a similar energy reliance move.

Global Warming is a serious issue. It is the single biggest issue facing the world today but people do not pay it much attention. Most people would rather not think about it and continue to live their daily lives. The problem is, global warming continues to worsen every day and people not giving it much thought is part of the problem because to eventually stop global warming people must be conscious of what there doing everyday and how it effects global warming. That's the reason why regulations are needed because people will continue to go about buying non-renewable energy until the day we face the consequences head on and at that point there will be no going back. That is called the tipping point. All scientists are scared of this tipping point but none can agree when we will reach that point of no return. Some think we might have already passed that point while others think that day will come some time in the future. For our sake lets hope that never happens.

The idea that humans do not contribute to the rising temperature of our planet is one that people used to believe in. Today though, this idea is clearly incorrect and has been proved to be false by many different scientists in many different fields. The argument that this is a natural occurrence and the earth heats and cools on its own is a true statement but at the rate at which the planet is warming is something never before seen in our planet's history.  People today who still hold this idea to be true are either not educated on the matter or they know what they are doing to the environment and they do not care because the effects and consequences will not affect them. This is why the government needs to regulate the energy market because there are people who don't care that what they are doing is hurting the environment. This is a problem that goes a lot deeper than just energy but goes back to who you are as a person and what you value.

There is no problem producing non-renewable energy. The problem comes because of the amount and rate at which we produce and use non-renewable energy that is the problem. The idea of conserving non-renewable energy is one that makes a lot of sense. Not only will producing less non-renewable energy help the environment but also it will force our renewable energy to become more efficient. This idea will also allow the government to up the regulations on non-renewable energy that will help further our dependence from non-renewable to renewable energy "Energy needs to be conserved to protect our environment from drastic changes, to save the depleting resources for our future generations. The rate at which the energy is being produced and consumed can damage our world in many ways. In other words, it helps us to save the environment"(Conserve Energy Future, 4). While it would be amazing for the environment and for future generations if we decided to conserve energy it would be unpractical from an economical standpoint. The United States relies so heavily on non-renewable energy that if we were to suddenly try to conserve then it would cripple our economy and put us in a deep depression that would take years to get out of. Where our government and where or energy market is right now it would be best if we decided to slowly keep raising and or adding regulations to the production of non-renewable energy.

Our Generation plays a very vital role in the rest of human existence. Humans live in a time where we have the capabilities to completely destroy or save our planet. We as humans need to stand up for what's right and we need to leave our planet in a better place then when we entered this world because that's our duty. We as humans have a duty to future generations of people and then they have a duty to future generations of people to leave the planet in a better place then when we came. This is why we need regulation on non-renewable energy because it's our duty. The regulations will help keep this planet safe and inhabitable.

The argument that people are trying to make on this issue is one of short-term happiness vs. long-term prosperity. This statement can be applied to many different things but in this instance of non-renewable energy production it applies perfectly. The people who are arguing for a free energy market are arguing for that because they value themselves and their money over the safety and even existence of future generations. The people who are arguing for higher regulations on non-renewable energy are really saying that they value their kids and their kid's kids' safety more than they value money.  

The idea that change to our energy production will happen overnight or happen within 5 months is not possible. What needs to happen will take years and decades to fully see change in our energy production and consumption ways. That being said there is still many things that people could be doing to help speed this process up and help to cause change. The first thing that people can do is to write your states Senator and tell him how you feel about our countries energy problems and let him know that you are not alone in what you believe. Secondly, you can sign and or make a petition that you will send to you Senator and or to someone who has a say in our energy production. Lastly, you can go out of your home and create awareness for what's going on and tell people what the potential consequences of our current actions may lead to.

