Development and Utilization of New Energy & Environment

【Abstract】：Human being’s excessive exploitation of fossil fuels have made great damages to our environment and caused resources shortage problem. Consequently， the new energy started gain popularity， which people pin their hopes on. Nevertheless， people tend to mistake new energy for a magic bullet to save environment， which is usually considered as a perfect combination of following two advantages： it is a reliable energy resource that will not be used up ， and help protect environment.

However， the fact is that new energy’s advantages are overemphasized and even deified， and people ignore its adverse impacts on the environment and natural resources. People should be aware of it that no resources on earth are inexhaustible and could be in endless supply. In addition， new energy products are not absolutely environmentally friendly.

As in real life， the aforementioned advantages cannot be realized at the same time， people need to balance and make a choice. Laws or regulations should be issued to legislate the utilization of new energy and make specific rules of environment and resources protection.

【Key words】： New Energy; environment and resources protection; legislation

Introduction

With the rapid development of the social economy， the environmental crisis caused by energy shortage and the excessive consumption of conventional source of energy has became great barrier in the way of China’s further sustainable development. In order to solve this problem， Chinese government finds a two-way solution： on the one hand， the energy utilization rate should be improved to foster the energy conservation. On the other hand， they actively promote the development and utilization of new energy. To ensure the better implementation of this strategy， many regulations and laws have been enacted， such as Energy Conservation Law and Renewable Energy Law， and the Energy Law which is supposed to be the fundamental law in energy field is being made now. Meanwhile， the energy system reform is actively being promoted. However， in this situation， people always over stress the benefits in ensuring better energy supply and addressing the energy crisis and ignore the side effects of the development and utilization of new energy to the environment and natural resources.

1. The relationship between New Energy development and Utilization and Natural Resources

The clear understanding about the relationship between new energy development and utilization and natural resources is the prerequisite for using new energy resources. Nevertheless， the truth is that people tend to have unilateral misconceptions towards it due to traditional stereotype. Looking back into the history we can find that the previous energy law and natural resources law in different countries are totally separated， which respectively have different focus： energy law is concentrating on how to guarantee of energy supply instead of on building a system that will greatly improve the energy utilization efficiency， respecting the ecosystem， and enable all users could have a equal chance to use the energy. Influenced by this， nearly all the current energy law has ignored the side effects to the environment， such as air pollution， waste pollution， and even social inequality. Accordingly， those laws about environmental protection seldom involve in the development and utilization of energy.

In order to break that stereotype， there are several things we need to know. First， all the energy is coming from the resources exist in nature， that is natural resources， such as land， solar resources， water， air， grass， forest， and various mineral resources. Both the conventional energy and new energy are components of the environment and not all the new energy is inexhaustible supply. Development and utilization of new energy is also restricted by the limitation of natural resources， for example biomass energy. Although the biomass energy itself is a relatively clean， renewable energy source which collected energy from Sun and converted it into chemical energy when it alive， the land used to grow plants are in a great shortage in China. Most plants have the basic function to feed people. So when its basic function has not been operated， it is blamed to use them to produce energy. For example， National Development and Reform Commission has halted a project named “Transform Plants into Oil” to address the problem in which man and vehicles are competing for the plants. Secondly， although that the solar energy， wind energy and tidal energy are conceived to be inexhaustible， the resources which are needed in the process of energy transformation is always limited， and non-renewable， such as land， water and mineral resources. All in all， the development and utilization of new energy is still a process of grabbing resources from nature.

2. Possible environmental problem may caused by new energy

There are two drives for developing new energy： the first is that the conventional energy is running out while the need for energy is rapidly increasing with the development of social economy. In this situation， new energy is a substitute. The second is that exploration and utilization of conventional energy have caused great damage to the environment. So the development of new energy is considered as an effective way for people to prevent environment from being harming. This can be seen from the People’s public of China Energy Law （exposure draft）， which said that “The state will actively to optimize the energy structure， encourage the development of new energy and renewable energy， and support the exploitation of low carbon and clean energy to face the climate change and promote a coordinate development of energy development and utilization and protection of environment”.

In terms of the pollutants emission， in the process of using his final products， such as carbon dioxide and sulfide， compared with conventional energy， such as coal and oil， the new energy is indeed a kind of clean energy or has little pollution to the environment. However， what need to be emphasized is that when discussing the damage of energy development and utilization to the environment， we should not just look at the using of final products; instead， every segment in the whole process should be paid attention to. Practice has proved that the final products of new energy is clean， while in the process of producing the final products many pollutants will be created， which poses great threats to ecosystem and environment. For example， biomass energy， as a final product， contributes a lot to reduction of air pollution， organic waste processing the environment protection. But the process of producing biomass energy is really a polluting and consuming one. The producing of ethyl alcohol not only will consuming a lot of water， but produce waste gas， fag-end and spent liquor. If they are directly emitted and dumped into nature， it will pollute the environment， meanwhile waste resources.

Besides， the environmental crisis people face is not only environmental pollution， but also the environmental destruction. There is also environmental destruction or ecological damage， which is caused by improperly taking or exploits certain things and consequently makes damage to the environment and people， such as deforestation. In terms of this， almost all developments of new energy need take some resources from the environment. If they have been fully developed， it will cause shortage of resources， and destruction for environment and ecosystem.

3. Coordinate the relationship between new energy development and environment and resources protection through legislation

Usually， people rely on the development and utilization of new energy to achieve a double purpose： to ensure the energy supply and to improve the environment. To be honest， compared with conventional energy， new energy is much better， but not as magic as many people think. In terms of the process of exploitation or utilization， those two purposes still are achieved at the same time. In deciding which side we should pay more attention to， the following aspects should be considered.

Firstly， in order to achieve sustainable development and protection of natural resources， the exploitation of new energy should also be control. We should not blindly encourage it regardless of the limited amount of resources.

Secondly， the current situation is that the energy supply is in a great shortage， and the basic needs for social production and life could not be satisfied. In this situation， even though it has bad influences to the environment， we need to choose new energy or renewable energy which has less bad impacts on environment to maintain people’s life.

In order to control the development and utilization of new energy， we need laws to regulate and restraint people’s behavior， and try to cut down the harmfulness as low as possible. A principle should be in the new energy law， which is that the new energy exploitation and utilization activities should follow the laws about environmental protection. On the one hand， the fact that new energy will bring about side effects for the environment will be highlighted to people， on the other hand， people involved in such activities could be regulated by those laws and regulations.

Thirdly， the current environmental protection law and new energy exploitation and utilization law should be improved to form a better system. Nowadays， those two laws are separated from each other without any connection， and the content are old-fashioned which could not fit into the needs in a new situation. There often many problems arouse execution process. "Consequently， what is critical is that how to make a connected and coordinated law system for environment and resources protection and new energy exploitation and development.

Conclusion

New energy is not that perfect which could guarantee energy supply and protect the environment at the same time. It faces the dilemma in which the two purposes could not be achieved simultaneously. By comparing， it is found that the new energy is indeed less polluting than conventional energy， only in condition that the activities can be controlled in certain degree. In order to realize this， we can retort on laws. The current laws should be improved to form a system which involves both environment and resources protection and exploitation and utilization of new energy.

Reference

[1]Information on： " "www.ehow.com/info_8224681_advantage-disadvantages-biomass-energy.html

[2]Information on： "www.madehow.com/Volume-1/Sollar-Cell.html