We all use energy on a daily basis, but we may not always understand its origins. Many of us take for granted that the lights will come on when we flick the light switch or that our car will move forward when we press the gas pedal.
The power to pull off the many modern miracles we experience every day comes from a variety of energy sources, and one of the most important groups of these are called fossil fuels.
Fossil fuels have come under increased scrutiny because of their relationship to climate change, but they remain an important energy source that are worth learning more about.
Let’s dig into fossil fuels and learn where they come from, why they’re important, what they do well, and how they cause global warming.
What Is a Fossil Fuel?
It’s a simple question, but while many of us may read and even talk about fossil fuels, we don’t often discuss what fossil fuels actually are.
So here we go: Fossil fuels are sources of energy formed from deposits of organic material lodged far underground in the earth’s crust millions of years ago. This is where the name comes from — these sources of energy are found in parts of the earth where fossils might also be found, and are just as old.
Today, fossil fuels can be extracted with modern drilling or mining methods and put to a variety of different uses.
What Are the 3 Main Types of Fossil Fuels?
If you want to get specific, there are dozens of different types of fossil fuels, but the vast majority of the time that people talk about fossil fuels, they’re referring to three different, distinct energy sources: oil, natural gas, and coal.
Oil and gas are typically drilled, while coal is mined. All three of these fossil fuels can be used to generate electricity in power plants, although most often oil is instead refined to create other products like diesel and gasoline.
Where Do Fossil Fuels Come From?
Fossil fuels originate as organic material from hundreds of millions of years ago that eventually are trapped in the earth’s crust. When we say organic material, we’re talking about some form of biological life from plants or animals.
As this biological material sits underground over a mind-bogglingly long period of time, it decomposes under heat and pressure until eventually becoming the recognizable fossil fuels — coal, crude oil, and gas — that we use today.
So the next time you’re filling up your gas tank, take a second to reflect about the fact that the energy source powering your car has a history millions of years old!
Where Are Fossil Fuels Found?
Oil and gas are often found near one another, trapped in deposits between layers of sedimentary rock deep underground. Typically these oil and gas deposits are reached by drilling down through rock.
The term “fracking” refers to hydraulic fracturing, a specialized form of oil and gas drilling used to great effect over the past 20 years here in the United States. Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, helped the oil production industry access previously unattainable deposits of oil and gas trapped in shale rock.
Coal is sourced not through drilling, but rather through coal mining. While oil and gas drilling can occur offshore as well as on land, coal mines are only found on land.
Coal mines and gas and oil production can be found all across the planet. Different regions have greater concentrations of these fossil fuel deposits, but fossil fuels can be found in a wide variety of landscapes and countries.
Why Are Fossil Fuels Important?
Fossil fuels are important sources of energy production. Fossil fuels are a special type of chemical compound called hydrocarbons that release energy when burned.
The burning of fossil fuels can be used to heat water and turn it into steam, which can be used to spin a turbine for electricity generation at a power plant. Gas- and coal-fired power plants both make use of this ability, and these power plants are important parts of the energy system.
One benefit of fossil fuels is their relative reliability. If you have a fossil fuel source and a way to burn it, you know that you can generate electricity. This is why fossil fuels are used as a source of what’s called baseload power in the energy system: They provide a foundation of dependable around-the-clock energy production.
The transportation sector also makes use of fossil fuels. Crude oil can be refined into diesel or gasoline, which is then used to power cars, trucks, buses, trains, and planes. This refined fuel is a product of fossil fuels, and it has become a necessary part of our interconnected 21st-century world.
The industrial sector also relies on fossil fuels, both as an energy source and as a source of other refined products. For example, crude oil is used to make plastics, which are critically important to both consumers and the industrial sector.
According to the Energy Information Administration, in 2021 a whopping 79% of the primary energy use in the United States came from fossil fuels. That fact, maybe more than any other, shows how fossil fuels are so important to our energy mix.
Are Fossil Fuels Renewable Energy?
If those were all of the benefits of fossil fuels, it’s time to start discussing the significant drawbacks to these energy sources. To start with: Fossil fuels are not renewable energy sources.
This means that there is a finite supply of each fossil fuel on earth: oil, gas, and coal. Because these energy sources come from processes that have taken millions of years to produce something that we can use for energy, there’s no way to replenish what we consume.
The unfortunate result of this is that, at some point, we will run out of fossil fuels. This is one of the reasons why renewable energy sources like hydro, solar, and wind energy are in demand.
Why Are Fossil Fuels Bad for the Environment?
There’s no way around it: Fossil fuels are bad for the environment. Fossil fuels harm the environment in multiple ways, too, so we need to break this down further. Let’s start on the production side of things.
Production
The production of fossil fuels — oil and gas drilling and coal mining — can hurt the surrounding environment and ecosystems. These extractive processes change landscapes and can affect water sources and local wildlife.
Some fossil fuel production can also release harmful pollutants into the air, causing air pollution that affects the local environment surrounding the fossil fuel extraction site.
In addition, accidents in pipelines or shipping can lead to oil spills, which further harm ecosystems.
Consumption
Some of the worst problems caused by fossil fuels happen after they’re consumed though. When hydrocarbons like oil, gas, or coal are burned, they release more than usable energy.
Air pollution is a big environmental problem associated with fossil fuels. The pollutants released into the air by burning oil, natural gas, or coal can harm our lungs and impact human health, and hurt local ecosystems as well. When it comes to air pollution, coal is an especially dirty fuel to burn.
But the biggest environmental issue facing the fossil fuel industry by far is greenhouse gas emissions. When hydrocarbons like oil, coal, or natural gas are burned, they release carbon dioxide.
Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas that traps more of the sun’s radiant heat in Earth’s atmosphere. This leads to climate change and global warming, the harmful results of which we’re already starting to see.
The fossil fuel industry’s carbon emissions have attracted widespread scrutiny, but there’s no easy way to eliminate this problem. Instead, policymakers, activists, the industrial sector, and scientists are working on a number of different solutions simultaneously.
Some companies are working on carbon capture technologies that can actually remove carbon dioxide emissions from the air. Energy-efficiency measures have also been introduced to try and make the electricity generated from fossil fuels go further.
In the end, the best way to solve fossil fuel’s carbon dioxide emissions problem is … to not burn fossil fuels. Clean energy sources like solar and wind energy are sources of electricity generation without those global warming-causing greenhouse gasses.
Understanding Fossil Fuels
Fossil fuel production helped drive the Industrial Revolution, and it continues to account for a majority of our total energy consumption. The world’s energy needs can’t currently be met without fossil fuels.
But as much as we rely on fossil fuels, we’re also endangering human health and our planet’s climate when we continue to mine, drill, and burn these energy sources.
Climate policies focus on reducing our reliance on fossil fuels by switching to clean energy alternatives, but technological and economic constraints mean this transition won’t happen overnight.
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One thing is certain: At some point, we will have to stop using fossil fuels. Whether that will happen because of climate policies or because we simply run out of them remains to be seen, but until then, oil, natural gas, and coal remain the foundation of our modern energy mix.
If you’re interested in diving further into any of these topics, head over to the Tara Energy blog. There are plenty of informative and engaging articles on a variety of energy-related subjects.
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