Hydropower and Nuclear power Theresea Duplesis
SCI 207
Dependence of Man on the Environment
Gayle Leith
February 13, 2012

At a time when our country needs to focus on not only domestic energy production, and ways to improve it, it also needs to find ways to create jobs. We have found that hydropower can play a critical role in doing both, by providing us with clean renewable energy while also helping to expand the job opportunities in rural America. (Tipton, 2012) Hydropower has already been found too serve a number of purposes, one it can produce renewable and emission-free energy. This in turn can be used to pump water or sell electricity to the grid. It also tends to help hydropower developers to pay for aging infrastructures and the modernization of water/power facilities. It also helps with creating local jobs and generating revenue for the Federal government. (Tipton, 2012) Legislation has been trying to find ways to streamline the regulatory process and to reduce administration costs. (Tipton, 2012) Developers have found that hydropower is one of the cheapest and cleanest sources of electricity. Even though, “Hydropower has been found to be the highest source of non-carbon emitting energy in the world.” It still only accounts for 75% of the United States total renewable electricity generation. (Tipton, 2012) Nevertheless, because of many unnecessary regulations that stand in their way only a few of the western states and Colorado, are seeking to develop hydropower in water canals and in pipelines. These water canals and pipelines are on Bureau of Reclamation land. (Tipton, 2012) Even though we have seen that hydropower is said to better because it will not harm the environment since the generation units would be placed on already disturbed ground within existing facilities. There are some water