In 2012, the Obama Administration greatly increased the amount of pressure on the automobile industry into making a severe raise in the average miles-per-gallon of every single company’s fleet. The government increased the bar to an average 54. 5 mpg (miles per hour) by 2025 up from an average 28.6 mpg. These standards are fundamental for decreasing oil utilization and lowering the costs of supplying it. Many auto companies have considerably improved in building well-used fuel-efficient small cars. A majority of consumers are buying gas-electric hybrids because of the advances in battery technology. Over 50% of the top-selling cars in America are small or midsize vehicles, and one of the most favorite pickup models on the market is a Ford F-Series with a high-mileage, six-cylinder engine. Automakers and suppliers realize that an improved fuel economy means more sales, more earnings and more jobs. Many of their recent hires and investments prove this such as Ford stepping up its development of hybrid and electric cars by bringing the layout and manufacture of key elements in-house, a $135 million investment and doubling the size of its team working on leading energy technologies. This involves over 1,000 engineers and technicians which again plans to double in size by 2015. Another crucial point is Honda’s plan to hire 300 more workers next year at its Greensburg, Ind. plant, which is scheduled to also start bringing forward the Civic Hybrid. Two more examples are Volkswagen in adding a third shift at its Chattanooga, Tenn., plant, to lift production of its fuel-efficient Passat and Continental being a provider of fuel-efficient turbo chargers to Ford’s 2014 Focus. These examples present an image of a shift toward efficiency and advanced technology in driving job creation, expenditure and innovation across the country.

The presidents proposition brought in a 5% annual increase in fuel economy for cars from 2017 to 2025. The advances are more prudent for the light-truck classification, which contains sport utility vehicles, 3.5% a year through 2021, and then 5% annually in the next couple years. The guidelines declared six years ago run through 2016, demanding a collective average of 36 miles per gallon by then. As a whole, the contemporary principles will need a 54.5 miles per gallon corporate average for 2025. This is a standard that will be created more conveniently attainable by credits that automakers can acquire by producing battery-powered vehicles, hybrids and alternative-fuel models. The objective of the credits is to stimulate the development of cars with much lower emissions.

Fuel economy standards were first appointed on U.S. automakers in the 1970s. The goal was to make cars more efficient and lessen America’s reliance on foreign oil at the time when the Arab oil prohibition was contributing to gasoline shortages. The administration claimed that this had been the first update in decades. According to the research firm J.D. Power and Associates, the fuel economy is the main component people consider when buying a car in the U.S. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration will implement the principles, calculating the average mileage of cars sold by each automaker and they can be punished if they don’t comply. The conditions, which can be appointed without congressional approval, will be inspected in 2018 and could be decreased if the technology isn’t available to meet the requirements. In conclusion, the Obama Administration says families will save up to $7,400 on fuel over the life of a vehicle because of these most recent changes. Lisa Jackson, the Administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), said the standards are also the biggest step the U.S. government has ever taken toward cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

Sources
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/29/business/carmakers-back-strict-new-rules-for-gas-mileage.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1&
http://www.forbes.com/sites/joannmuller/2012/08/30/10-ways-automakers-are-helping-you-spend-less-on-gasoline/
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/08/27/738621/why-fuel-mileage-standards-will-benefit-the-auto-industry-and-create-nearly-700000-new-jobs/#
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/28/new-mileage-standards-obama_n_1836546.html

Hydraulic Fracturing, also known as hydrofracking, “is the process by which water, frequently mixed with proppants and chemicals, is forced down a well bore at extremely high pressure in order to create or expand fractures to release gas from the rock formation in which it is trapped” (‘What is Hyrofracking?’). Proppants are tiny fragments such as synthetic beads or sand that keep the recently developed fractures accessible so that free gas can move towards the well. The process of hydrofracking is utilized for natural gas extraction. Since natural gas plays a key role in our nation’s clean energy future, the EPA (United States Environmental Protection Agency) is working with states and other main collaborators to aid in ensuring that natural gas extraction does not include public health and environment expenses.

The Agency’s goal and promises under the law are to give oversight, and advise when appropriate, rule making that accomplish the best attainable protection for the air, water and land where everyday people live and work. The Agency is also investing in bettering our scientific understanding of hydraulic fracturing, supplying regulatory precision in regards to existing laws, and using existing authorities where appropriate to enhance health and environmental safeguards. On the Agency’s website,  the EPA defines hydraulic fracturing as “a well stimulation process used to maximize the extraction of underground resources; including oil, natural gas, geothermal energy, and even water. The oil and gas industry uses hydraulic fracturing to enhance subsurface fracture systems to allow oil or natural gas to move more freely from the rock pores to production wells that bring the oil or gas to the surface.” The EPA’s study of hydraulic fracturing uses the five main research approaches Analysis of Existing Data, Scenario Evaluations, Case Studies, Toxicity Studies, and Laboratory Studies.

“In the northeast U.S.’s Marcellus Shale, the gas industry’s promise of easy money is attracting some landowners. Many landowners, concerned about the impacts of hydrofracking on their way of life, their water and air, and rural economy,  are holding out . A nationwide movement is building to stop the caustic legacy of natural gas extraction from poisoning New York State before more land and water tables are laid to waste.”

The Marcellus Shale is the largest source of natural gas in the United States. It envelops 104,000 square miles across Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, and upstate New York. Hydraulic fracturing has been used to dispense and catch the shale gas for energy consumption since 2008. The use of hydrofracking has been deeply contended, and current discoveries by Duke University further demonstrate the harsh consequences of hydraulic fracturing. Avner Vengosh, professor of geochemistry and water quality at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment, stated that large absorption of energy, salts, and metals have been spotted downstream from a waste-water remedy plant in a western Pennsylvania creek. The purpose of the plant is to extract particular metals from hydraulic waste water. However, Duke team figured out that certain metals, including chlorides and bromides, have not been officially removed. As a matter of fact, they provide to four-fifths of the entire downstream chloride flow. This shows that regardless of waste-water treatment plants and attempts made to carry the waste-water to deep injection wells, waste-water remains freed into the environment in many different locations, allowing radioactive waste to seep into downstream waters.

There have been different forms of of hydraulic fracturing that have been developed for various circumstances. The one currently afflicting great concern is in New York and is known as ‘high-volume hydraulic fracturing’ (HVHF), and ‘slick water fracturing.’  In this form, millions of gallons of  water per well that was originally clean are intentionally contaminated when a wide range and large amount of very toxic chemical additives are added to it. This method integrates water with a friction-reducing chemical additive which lets the water be pumped at a quicker speed into the formation. In order to efficiently pick the correct mixtures and concentrations of frac fluid and propping agents, geologists must be knowledgeable about accumulation. To make the right approach to a frac job, geologists collect data from well logs about a majority of determinants such as porosity, saturation levels, pressure, permeability and temperature gradients.

Sources
http://un-naturalgas.org/hydraulic_fracturing_a-z.htm
http://www.safewatermovement.org/what-is-hydrofracking/
http://www2.epa.gov/hydraulicfracturing#improving
http://lawlib.buffalo.libguides.com/hydrofracking
http://www.enn.com/pollution/article/46493

In our Contemporary Science & Innovation course, we were put into small groups to build a robot car out of Legos and used the Mindstorm System in order to be able to figure out and have a better understanding on how to measure distance and velocity.  We were able to move the cars with the computer programs Labview and NXT after  we put a battery in them. When we wanted the car to turn, we would set the program up so only one of the cars wheels would move or we would have both wheels set to move but one wheel was set to accelerate at a lower speed. At one point, we set the program up so the car would make a perfect circle by only covering a space of 12 inches (we used a ruler to make sure it went exactly 1 foot).

After we were able to understand the fundamentals of the car and measuring the diameters and circumferences of the wheels, we were able to toy around with more complicating programs. We were able to program how long and far we wanted the car to move and when we wanted it to stop. We plugged the car into the computer and used the VI program to measure the circumference of the wheel and the degrees in which the wheels rotated. In order to determine the wheel diameter, we had to measure the diameter (which was 6 cm.) and multiply it by pie. We calculated the percentage error at low, average and high speeds. When we set Powers 1 & 2 to 50, we distance the car moved was 12 centimeters, the number of times the wheel turned was 0.79722 centimeters, and the velocity was 0.1435 centimeters. We were able to determine the number of wheel turns by dividing the number of rotations (which was 287) by 360. In addition to that, we measured the % error by adding the distance the car moved (.12 centimeters) to the velocity (.14 centimeters) and then divided the results (.26) by 2 which give us an estimated calculation of a 13% error. Also, we were able to calculate the velocity by multiplying the number of wheel turns by the circumference.

This lab is useful for students studying energy and sustainability because currently many scientists have been trying to find a way for us to be able to drive cars in a way that doesn’t use up so much energy. This has been very crucial to figure out because of how severe our natural disasters have been, especially since the last decade. By using these chemicals, gases, etc. we are clearly not helping prevent them from lingering in the atmosphere which contributes to global warming being such a harsh issue today.