Crude (or Rude) Oil
Standard 1: People make informed economic choices by identifying their goals, interpretig and applying data, considering the short- and long run costs and benefits of alternative choices and revising their goals based on analysis.
Benchmark - Apply reasoned decision-making techniques in making choices; explain why different individuals, households,organizations and/or governments faced with the same alternatives might make different choices.
Petroleum, or crude oil, is a naturally occurring flammable liquid made up of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons and other organic compounds. It is most often found deep underground and is recovered by drilling expensive wells. Petroleum is considered a fossil fuel, along with coal and natural gas. Petroleum was formed from the remains of organic material that lived millions of years ago. As ancient plants and animals died and were covered by layers of sand and silt in a marine environment, heat from the earth and pressure from the many layers transformed this organic matter into crude oil.
About one third of crude oil produced by the U.S. comes from wells in the Gulf of Mexico. As demonstrated by the recent Gulf oil spill, however, extracting this petroleum, especially from under water, possesses significant risks to human lives and the environment. Additional risks are incurred with the refinement, transport, and
storage of petroleum. On land, the practice of hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” involves injecting millions of gallons of water and chemicals into the ground to displace natural gas. This process also impacts water resources through the pollution of water wells.
Most of the petroleum brought to the surface is used for transporting goods and people all over the Earth. Some of it is used to heat homes and generate electricity. Petroleum also provides us with a large range of personal products that we’ve integrated into our daily lives. Such products include CDs, detergents, heart valves, plastic water bottles, pharmaceuticals, and plastic shopping bags. Even though such products consume a small fraction of the petroleum extracted from the ground, they are nonetheless vital to our present way of living; but some of them can have a detrimental impact on the environment if not used and disposed of properly.
When petroleum, along with other fossil fuels, is burned it produces the gas carbon dioxide, CO2, which contributes to climate change and ocean acidification. There are a number of nation-wide efforts aimed at reducing our use of fossil fuels with the goal of mitigating climate change.