Read and translate the text.

Energy conservation

Energy conservation continues to be a national imperative. These are significant generalizations that we can make about the modern era of energy conservation, thus far: the 1970’s were a time of great ferment and rapid learning. The 1980’s was a period in which many bad ideas from the 1970 are collapsed. The 1990’s was a time of stagnation and information loss. The new millennium restores interest in energy conservation, largely under the banner of environmental protection. During the first part of the modern era, energy conservation was independent of environmental protection. Then, they were seen as conflicting issues. Now, they are seen as complementary issues.

Energy conservation is an issue with many aspects that continue to evolve. There have been major areas of technical improvement. There are also important areas in which there has been virtually no improvement, and hence, most of the potential of energy conservation still remains to be tapped.

Energy conservation is the effort made to reduce the consumption of energy by using less of an energy service. This can be achieved either by using energy more efficiently or by reducing the amount of service used. Energy conservation is a part of the concept of eco-sufficiency. Energy conservation reduces the need for energy services and can result in increased environmental quality, national security, personal financial security and higher savings. It is at the top of the sustainable energy hierarchy. It also lowers energy costs by preventing future resource depletion.

Energy can be conserved by reducing wastage and losses, improving efficiency through technological upgrades and improved operation and maintenance. On a global level energy use can be reduced by the stabilization of population growth. Energy can only be transformed from one form to other, such as heat energy to motive power in cars, or kinetic energy of water flow to electricity in hydroelectric power plants. However machines are required to transform energy from one form to other.

Nuclear power has been championed as a source of cheap energy. But this was undermined at the end of the 20th century by high-profile reactor accidents, the problems of radioactive waste disposal, competition from more-efficient electricity sources and unavoidable links to nuclear weapons proliferation. Nonetheless, growing evidence for global warming had led some to argue that nuclear power is the only way to generate power without emitting greenhouse gases. The economics of new nuclear power plants is a controversial subject, and multi-billion dollar investments ride on the choice of an energy source. Nuclear power plants typically have high capital costs.

There is probably one thing that we can all agree on: the world’s energy reserves are not unlimited. Actually that's not strictly true, there is a near unlimited supply of energy coming from the sun but we are pretty bad at converting it into useful energy. Look around and ask yourself how much things will change in the near future. It is pretty certain that we will run out of gas in your lifetime. Quite when it will happen is up for debate but a guess of around twenty years would probably be pretty close. As a result, there were many government initiatives toward energy conservation, including massive spending on research, major new laws, and incentives for favored energy conservation activities.

Oil and gas industry equipment

Text A

New words and word combinations:

1) сonsolidation – сообщество; 2) natural gas liquids – газовый бензин; 3) gasoline – бензин; 4) crude oil – неочищенная нефть; 5) hydrocarbon – углеводород; 6) restoring the site – восстановление территории; 7) exploration – исследование; 8) development – развитие, освоение; 9) rock formation – горная порода; 10) abandonment – ликвидация; 11) drilling – бурение;       12) well – скважина.