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• Renewable can be replenished over a relatively short period of time
  • Examples: Solar, Wood, Geothermal
• Nonrenewable sources can take millions of years to form and accumulate
  • Examples: Fossil fuels (oil, coal, natural gas), Nuclear

• Subsurface Mining
  • Fire, collapse, explosion
  • Black lung disease
  • Land subsidence (like a sinkhole)
  • Acid mine drainage into surface and groundwater
• Surface Mining (open-pit or strip mining)
  • Destruction of ecosystem

• Releases CO2, NOx, SOx, and CO
• Oil spills
• Distruption of wildlife habitat
• (Oil provides the majority of US energy)

• Cleanest burning of fossil fuels
• Considerable amount in the US
• Produces CO2 (greenhouse gas)
• Can cause grounwater pollution from extraction (fracking)

• Tar Sands
  • Made of clay, water, sand, and bitumen

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