and other products. (See Table 2, in the Appendix) One gallon of oil contains 138,095 Btu of energy. Today, less than half of the oil consumed in the United States is actually produced in the United States. The rest is pumped from oil fields in other countries and sold to the United States. The United States spends billions of dollars a year to buy oil from other countries.
             The demand for natural gas is growing rapidly in the United States. Engler reports that unlike the oil that found in twenty-five nations, 99% of natural gas used in the United States is produced in North America. Domestic supplies meet 85% of United States' needs; the remaining 15% comes from Canada. Natural gas heats 70% of new homes in the United States. In Alaska, most of the space heating and electric power production in the Anchorage bowl and barrow are based on natural gas. The United States has much more plentiful coal reserves than oil or natural gas with an estimated 1.5 x 1012 tons, which is enough to last 1500 years at the present rate of consumption. Although there are different estimates as to how long the U.S. oil reserves will last, they typically are approximately a few decades and not many centuries as is the case with coal. The coal in Alaska has a range of quality with sub-bituminous at 7,500 Btu/lb in Healy, Jarvis Creek
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