Nonrenewable Basics
In the United States, nonrenewable energy is the primary source of the energy we use, which includes:
These energy sources are called nonrenewable because their supplies are limited to what we can mine or extract from the earth, and they take a very long time to form. Coal, crude oil, and natural gas took thousands of years to form from the buried remains of plants and animals that lived millions of years ago, which is why we call them fossil fuels. These renewable sources can be a liquid, solid, or gas.
Uranium ore, a common metal found in rocks all over the world, is mined and converted to the fuel used at nuclear power plants. Uranium is not a fossil fuel, but it is classified as a nonrenewable fuel.
