At citizenJoe's "Don't Be Crude" Policy on the Rocks party in NYC, we raffled off two seasons of the wire - to a guest who scored highest on a little energy quiz. The questions - and answers are below.

questions

1) The US consumes...

• a) 12%
• b) 22%
• c) 32%
• d) 42%

of the world's energy.

2) The cheapest energy today comes from...

• a) coal
• b) hydropower
• c) nuclear power
• d) petroleum
• e) wind

3) Of our top oil buddies (below), we import most from...

• a) Canada
• b) Mexico
• c) Nigeria
• d) Saudi Arabia
• e) Venezuela

4) The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge has about...

• a) 2.3 - 5.8
• b) 5.7 - 16
• c) 14 - 28.6
• d) 27.3 - 42

billion barrels of oil. (The US uses about 7 billion barrels a year by comparison.)

5) Most greenhouse gases come from...

• a) commercial uses
• b) industry
• c) residential uses
• d) transportation

answers

1) 22% (EIA)

2) hydropower. But give yourself half credit for coal. Although hydropower (basically which comes from dams) at 1 cent a kilowatt/hour is the cheapest energy around once you have built a dam, if you were to take into consideration the upfront costs of building a dam it gets a little more expensive. Nuclear power also has huge start up costs, but once a power plant is up and running, it only costs about 2 cents a kilowatt/hour. Coal is more expensive - 4 cents - but has the smallest start up costs. (NEED)

3) Canada accounts for 19% of our crude oil imports. (EIA)

4) 5.7 - 16 billion barrels (USGS)

5) industry (EIA - pdf)