The Costs of Energy

Susan Phillips

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Susan Phillips tells stories about the consequences of political decisions on people's every day lives. She has worked as a reporter for WHYY since 2004. Susan's coverage of the 2008 Presidential election resulted in a story on the front page of the New York Times. In 2010 she traveled to Haiti to cover the earthquake. That same year she produced an award-winning series on Pennsylvania's natural gas rush called "The Shale Game." She received a 2013 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Journalism Award for her work covering natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania. She has also won several Edward R. Murrow awards for her work with StateImpact. In 2013/14 she spent a year at MIT as a Knight Science Journalism Fellow. She has also been a Metcalf Fellow, an MBL Logan Science Journalism Fellow and reported from Marrakech on the 2016 climate talks as an International Reporting Project Fellow. A graduate of Columbia School of Journalism, she earned her Bachelor's degree in International Relations from George Washington University.

November 7, 2012 | 8:45 AM

A caravan of trucks travel through the Loyalsock State Forest to a natural gas drilling site. Fossil fuel production itself utilizes a lot of energy.

On Tuesday, we published a story on the near impossible task of reaching energy independence. Our friends at PRI’s The World simultaneously aired a story that answers questions on why tapping new sources of fossil fuels won’t help the U.S., or any country, get off the treadmill. The answer? It’s a lot more energy intensive to produce a gallon of gas today, than it was 100 years ago. The World has more:

Getting a barrel of oil out of the ground takes energy. Years ago, you could get 100 barrels of oil out of the ground with just one barrel of oil spent. Now, it’s more like 20 to one, or even five to one. That compares favorably with renewable energy sources — but it all depends on how things are counted.

The World breaks down the meaning of the Energy Return on Investment, or EROI, and compares the costs of producing fossil fuels to renewables.