Media and Energy

Energy is all over the media. News today focuses less on the importance of stories but rather what the people want to see. People would rather know what the price of gas will be than the other crisis of the world that may not apply to them. Energy is in the media a lot and its important. Every TV commercial of cars includes the new car's gas milage, and new awareness commercials have come out showing new sources of energy like wind energy. When disasters like the BP gas spill in the Gulf of Mexico occur, energy is the only thing in the media.

Gas Prices Soar After Refinery Blast

Chevrolet Volt Commercial
In this commercial the "limitations" refers the gas and having to stop and pay for it.

Energy and Federalism

Today the United States is the world's second highest consumer of energy. In 2010, the United States used up 2.17 billion tons of oil-equivalent. Oil-equivalent is all sources of energy consumed, including crude oil, natural gases and renewable energy sources like wind, solar and thermal. With such massive amounts of consumption, the government created the FERC. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is an agency created to regulate the interstate transmission of electricity, natural gas and oil. The Federal Government in the past 5 years have created more and more laws to help regulate and control the amount of energy our country uses. For example the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 requires the lowering of all energy consumption in buildings by 3% annually or 30% by 2015 along with other energy requirements.

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

New Federal Regulations and Laws as of 2007